Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

La Marseillaise Blu-ray Movie Review

The French Revolution (as dramatized by the great Jean Renoir)

Exploring the historical significance behind the epic French revolution (which began to take fruition in 1789), La Marseillaise is director Jean Renoir's ambitious attempt to tell the story of changing times in France circa the ever-turbulent time-period. The history-embellished production is executive produced by André Seigneur and André Zwoboda (Pirate Submarine, Black Girl) and attempts to tell the story through the eyes of the ordinary men and women.

Instead of a small uprising, the history book at play in the film adaptation explores the grand scale scope of a full-bodied revolution with Renoir placing an emphasis on the ordinary citizens living out their struggles (unraveling events of common-folk in pathos-infused filmmaking while simultaneously unfolding upon the royalty of King Louis XVI and his “group” battalion). Events slowly unfold in the dramatized feature-film while building to the grand-scale battles of the revolution.

La Marseillaise is dialogue-heavy and somewhat stiff in its approach to the historical material. This ultimately makes the experience one that is less engaging in dramatizing the revolution than a film focused primary on the epic battles which make up the turbulent events. When it comes to focusing on exploration of the common-folk affected by the historical events, La Marseillaise exceeds.

In building suspense or creating thrills from the action scenes, La Marseillaise disappoints. The finale has several action scenes which all seem rather stilted in comparison to other films. These sequences are ineffective and miss the mark with cartoony fight scenes with swords raised (but without ever creating a sense of real danger).

The battle of a lifetime.

The production does feature an effective score composed by Joseph Kosma (Dawn on the Third Day, Elena and Her Men) and Henry Sauveplane which feels appropriate to the material. The black and white cinematography crafted by Jean-Paul Alphen (The Rules of the Game), Jean Bourgoin (The Longest Day), Alain Douarinou (The Time of the Cherries), Jean Louis, and Jean-Marie Maillols (Gunshot) leaves an impression with a stirring representation of the revolution.

In equal measure to the vivid cinematography, the production design efforts undertaken by Léon Barsacq (I Was an Adventuress, The World Will Shake) and Georges Wakhévitch (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Diary of a Chambermaid) seem impressive and actually does reflect the time-period with ease. The costumes by Louis Granier (Lucrezia Borgia, La tour de Besle) are less impressive and feel too staged (when the film would have been better suited with more realistic, documentary-style attire).

The screenplay written by La Marseillaise director Jean Renoir (La Grande Illusion, The Rules of the Game) with co-screenwriters Carl Koch (The Story of Tosca, Girl of the Golden West) and N. Martel-Dreyfus is a bit uneven. On a more positive note, the film has some interesting characters. From a historical-perspective, the script does an adequate job of giving viewers an account regarding events from the French Revolution. However, the film often feels like a cliff-notes account without ever delving into events as efficiently as a mini-series would have perhaps provided.

Likewise, the filmmaking misses the mark at crafting compelling action scenes and the events feel ill staged (even with a great director like Renoir at the helm). La Marseillaise is far from a masterpiece and it doesn't stand as one of the great works of its director. Yet it offers an ambitious and compelling-enough experience to make it worth a visit (with expectations kept in check).

La Marseillaise Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from distributor Kino Lorber, La Marseillaise features a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition presentation in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The presentation is decidedly inconsistent and is a bit disappointing. The film would have greatly benefited from a more extensive restoration effort. Unfortunately, the scan utilized has a number of thin scratches throughout the entire presentation.

The picture-quality on this release looks less detailed and robust than it could have ideally. The black and white cinematography does exhibit some positives (such as fine film grain being present on the image), but the average quality of the mastering leaves a lot to be desired. An imperfect transfer that doesn't fully satisfy.

La Marseillaise Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a French DTS-HD Master Audio mono audio soundtrack. Just as the video presentation seemed to need more restorative work, the audio track is decidedly thin sounding throughout the entire presentation. Dynamics are not that impressive and vocals can sound a bit harsh.

The track doesn't exhibit distracting hiss or pops. However, the track simply sounds far less clear and pristine in its remastering as one would expect. An average audio presentation at best. The release includes English subtitles. The subtitles are superb and are free from any glaring spelling or grammatical errors.

La Marseillaise Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release includes a printed booklet featuring an essay written by author Dudley Andrew.

Audio Commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton

Archival Interview with director Jean Renoir by Pierre Tchernia (SD, 6:04) is a rather interesting discussion with the filmmaker in which he explains his approach to the material and why he was interested in making a film about the French Revolution.

The release also includes a selection of theatrical trailers for other releases available from distributor Kino Lorber: Last Year at Marienbad (HD, 3:34), Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (SD, 1:39), and Un Coeur en Hiver (SD, 1:08).

La Marseillaise Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

La Marseillaise offers viewers an interesting account of the French Revolution. The filmmaking is inconsistent and less effective than many historical-pictures but the film does have some charm to ultimately make it worth a visit. The Blu-ray sports an average quality presentation which is a bit uneven and less polished than is ideal. The release does contain some worthy extras. Consider the release a light recommendation.