Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

L' amour Braque Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 7, 2021

Andrzej Zulawski's "L'amour Braque" (1985) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include new audio commentary by critic Kat Ellinger; archival audio commentary by Andrzej Zulawski and writer Daniel Bird; archival interview with actress Sophie Marceau; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Two of the most unhinged films in my library are French, and Tcheky Karyo is in both. A coincidence? I don’t think so, but I will tell you why at the bottom of this article. Even though the first film has never had an official home video release in America, you have probably heard of it. It is Jan Kounen’s Dobermann, which came out it in the late ‘90s. In it, Karyo plays a deranged police detective and tries to nab a notorious robber who is hitting the biggest banks in Paris. Vincent Cassel plays the robber, Dobermann (Le Dob), while his former muse, Monica Bellucci, is his sexy girlfriend, Nathalie the Gypsy. The action and violence in Dobermann are so over the top that shortly after it opened up various moralistic watchdogs became very concerned and attempted to create plenty of serious legal troubles for its producers. Is this the reason why an American distributor did not bother to release it here? I don’t know. I am just letting you know that on the other side of the Atlantic Dobermann very quickly acquired a very bad reputation. Needless to say, the bad reputation is precisely what solidified its cult status.

The second film is Andrzej Zulawski’s L’amour Braque (Mad Love). This film was released about a decade before Dobermann, in the early '80s, and has a completely different personality. There are cops and robbers in it as well, some intense action too, but its story is, well, utterly incomprehensible. Zulawski apparently conceived it as a homage to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel The Idiot, but I have never been able to uncover the relationship between the two.

There are two reasons why I keep a copy of L’amour Braque in my library. The first has to do with Zulawski’s mind, which I thought was a mesmerizing enigma. He confronted some serious demons there, especially in the early stages of his career, and many of these battles spilled over into his films. He did not try to hide them either and instead openly used his films as a therapy of sorts, which I found fascinating to deconstruct. However, there were a lot of people, including some that Zulawski worked with, that found this unusual therapy quite problematic, so a couple of times he got into some serious trouble. (For more on the subject, you can research the production histories of Possession and Szamanka). I did not because after studying Zulawski’s body of work I could clearly see that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, at least not intentionally, and essentially struggled to preserve his sanity. Films that emerge from filmmakers that can direct in this particular state of mind are both very different and very rare. So, I had to have all of Zulawski’s films in my library, including L’amour Braque.

The other reason isn’t as compelling, but I am going to be honest and mention it anyway. In the ‘80s, I thought that Sophie Marceau was one of the biggest European stars. (She absolutely was one of the biggest stars in her native France, but I know for a fact that she broke a lot of male hearts all over Europe). I did not particularly like her in The Party, but after viewing Happy Easter in the theater my mind was made up. (By the way, Happy Easter happens to be one of Jean-Paul Belmondo’s funniest comedies as well). Then, while working on L’amour Braque, Marceau and Zulawski became a couple, and this essentially legitimized the film to me.

Now comes the difficult part where I need to ‘explain’ to you what type of film L’amour Braque really is. I will do my best, but if you sit down to view L’amour Braque and you suddenly realize that you are either pulled into or frustrated by a completely different film, well, don’t blame me. Why? Remember what I mentioned above about Zulawski’s films being part of a very unusual therapy?

The film is set in Paris where Mickey (Karyo) and his buddies rob a bank and then successfully get away with the loot. Soon after, the crew begins to party as hard as they can, and Mickey attempts to rekindle his romantic relationship with Mary (Marceau). Amid all the fun activities, however, Mary unexpectedly begins to fall in love with Leon (Francis Huster), an outsider who has found himself stuck in Mickey’s orbit. This is a loose summation of what seems to be the story that is at the core of L’amour Braque, but what happens in the film is an entirely different matter. Indeed, the story is essentially a ruse for the staging of a very elaborate and seriously unhinged play in which a motley crew of characters collectively lose their minds as soon as Zulawski’s camera begins rolling. It cannot be logically deconstructed, so you will either enjoy observing the madness or be bored to tears.

*Karyo is in L’amour Braque and Dobermann -- as well as a number of other French films that are now considered genre classics, like La Femme Nikita and Crying Freeman -- because he has a very special face and incredible personality. There are only a few other French actors from his generation -- the most notable one being Jean Reno -- that can undergo complete character transformations as he does. Indeed, no matter how complex or extreme these character transformations need to be, Karyo always does them flawlessly.

L' amour Braque Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Lamour Braque arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The Blu-ray release is sourced from a 4K master that was prepared on behalf of StudioCanal. I did some direct comparisons with my Limited Edition DVD release from Mondo Vision and can comfortably state that there are undeniable improvements in all major areas that we focus on in our reviews. Delineation and depth, clarity, density levels, and fluidity are not just better, but a lot better. (All of the screencaptures after the Blu-ray menu shots are from the DVD release, so if you examine them you should be able to tell what type of improvements to expect). However, I am not completely satisfied with the color-grading job. In certain areas it is very similar to that of the DVD master, but the whites are clearly shifted further toward green(ish)/cyan and as a result other primaries and supporting nuances are affected as well. I don't think that the film should look this way after it was restored. This is a common issue on restored masters that are completed overseas, but at least in this case the overall balance isn't as badly destabilized as it is on the recent restoration of Andrzej Żuławski's L'important c'est d'aimer. Unfortunately, in darker areas the dynamic range of the visuals still suffers quite a bit, so instead of better fine nuances there are prominent blocks of blacks. There are no traces of problematic digital adjustments. Image stability is excellent. So, the Blu-ray release offers the best technical presentation of L'amour Braque, but I find the color-grading job unconvincing. My score is 3.75/5.00. (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).

L' amour Braque Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I did not encounter any technical anomalies to report in our review. I did some direct comparisons with the lossy track from my DVD release and liked the upgrade in quality a lot. The audio definitely sounds fuller and has better dynamic potency. In a lot of areas it feels like clarity is improved as well.

L' amour Braque Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - vintage trailer for L'amour Braque. In French, with English subtitles. (3 min).

• Commentary One - new audio commentary recorded by critic critic Kat Ellinger.

• Commentary Two - this archival audio commentary was recorded by Andrzej Zulawski and writer Daniel Bird. It has appeared on previous home video releases of L'amour Braque. If you are fascinated by the film, it is the one bonus feature that you should find the time to go through because it offers the most precise information about the its conception and style.

• Becoming Marie: Interview with Sophie Marceau - in this archival interview, Sophie Marceau recalls how she was offered the part of Marie, her initial impressions of it, and work with Andrzej Zulawski. In English, not subtitled. (25 min).

• Interview with Director of Photography J.F. Robin - in this archival interview, cinematographer J.F. Robin recalls his involvement with L'amour Braque and interactions with Andrzej Zulawski. In French, with English subtitles. (25 min).

• Archival Behind-the-Scenes Footage and Interviews - an archival featurette with raw footage from the shooting of L'amour Braque as well as clips from interviews with Andrzej Zulawski and cast members. In French, with English subtitles. (17 min).

L' amour Braque Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

L'amour Braque might have been initiated as a cinematic homage to Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel The Idiot, but I don't see a clear connection between the two. Indeed, this film is one very odd experimental project that probably made perfect sense only in the head of its creator, Andrzej Żuławski. It is neither good nor bad, it is just very, very different. If you decide to see it, you should not approach it expecting it to be the film I or other writers have described. This will be the only way you won't be instantly disappointed by it. RECOMMENDED, but only to folks that like to experiment.