7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A blissed-out summer holiday on the Côte d'Azur is interrupted by the arrival of an old acquaintance and his eighteen-year-old daughter—unleashing a gathering tidal wave of sexual tension, jealousy, and sudden violence.
Starring: Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet, Jane Birkin, Paul CrauchetForeign | 100% |
Drama | 72% |
Romance | 29% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Jacques Deray's "La piscine" a.k.a. "The Swimming Pool" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailers for the film; new video interview with scholar Nick Rees-Roberts; English-language version of the film; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, La Piscine arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This new 4K restoration was undertaken by the Societe Nouvelle de Cinematographie with the support of the CNC at Laboratoire Daems in Paris and Hiventy in Joinville-le-Pont, France, from the 35mm original camera negative and 35mm magnetic tracks.
Restoration supervision: FILMO Patrimony Department."
We have reviewed two other releases of La Piscine that were produced a decade ago. The first was from French label M6, while the second was produced by British label Park Circus. At the moment, I have only the second release in my library. This upcoming release is sourced from a recent 4K restoration that was finalized in France via Hiventy. I am not at all impressed with the makeover, but there are different reasons for my disappointment.
First, the good news. The entire film looks very healthy. Also, it is immediately obvious that now the visuals have a degree of freshness that ought to be very attractive. (It is not, and I will explain why below). The density levels are strong, but I think that the previous presentation is very nice as well. Plenty of primary colors look vibrant, as they should. Contrast is proper as well.
Now, the bad news. This is yet another French restoration project with pretty wild 'new' color values that create all sorts of different problems. One of them is the suppression of blues/blue nuances in favor of green(ish)/yellow(ish) values that make large portions of the film look seriously artificial. Another is the destabilization of the native dynamic range of the visuals, which is a very common anomaly on these types of 'restorations'. For example, in many darker areas nuances are either flattened or crushed, which is why depth can be very unconvincing. On top of this, virtually all of the nighttime footage breaks down because of massive macroblocking, which makes the awkward dynamic range of the visuals even more problematic. (You can see examples in screencaptures #17, 18, 20, 21, 23). On my system, the effect was so bad that I could not minimize it even after I tweaked various settings. Why is this happening? Judging by the way the grain moves around while it should be extremely tight and even, I think that part of the problem was introduced by the encoder. However, the awful blocks of gray that emerge and make the visuals appear digitized are definitely on the new master. In other words, the problematic color-grading creates new problems and exacerbates existing ones. (You can easily recognize the effect even in close-ups, because instead of plenty of healthy nuances and finer details there are flat blacks and grays. See screencaptures #15 and 23). All in all, I think that the restoration and its technical presentation are seriously underwhelming. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The lossless track is excellent. I did some comparisons with the lossless track from the Park Circus release and thought that clarity and roundness were clearly a tad better. Dynamic intensity is good as well, though I don't think that there is a significant upgrade. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or other similar anomalies to report.
All the evidence you would need to conclude that Alain Delon and Romy Schneider were a magnificent couple is in this lovely little film directed by Jacques Deray. It was a predictably huge hit in Europe and actually turned out to be quite influential. (For what it's worth, I much prefer the other very fashionable but more decadent film that Radley Metzger directed at the same time, Camille 2000, with Nino Castelnuovo and Danièle Gaubert). This upcoming release of La Piscine is sourced from a recent 4K restoration that was completed in France. I think that the restoration and its technical presentation are quite unconvincing. If you absolutely have to have the release in your collection, consider picking it up only when it goes on sale.
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