Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		5.0

Le Jour se Lève Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 18, 2014

Marcel Carne's "Le Jour se Leve" a.k.a. "Daybreak" (1939) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include new featurette focusing on the recent restoration of the film; Dominuque Maillet's new documentary film "Last Assault of the Popular Front"; and collection of scenes censored by the Vichy government. The release also arrives with a beautiful 22-page illustrated booklet featuring French critic and scholar N. T. Binh's essay "Le Jour se Leve: Ou l'invention du film culte", as well as stills from the film. In French, with optional English, German, and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

"Want me to stay? I'd leave early... No one would see me."

The great Jean Gabin is Francois, a handsome factory worker who is trying to deal with the fact that his life is coming to an end. He has killed another man, and now he is alone in his tiny garret. The building is surrounded by gendarmes, but they can’t enter it until daybreak. It is the law.

A series of flashbacks reveal how Francoise meets and falls in love with the beautiful flower girl Francoise (Jacqueline Laurent). She is an orphan, like him, and has been working her entire life to make ends meet.

Another flashback shows the beautiful girl visiting a cabaret to see the popular performer Valentin (Jules Berry, The Big Fight). Francois is right behind her, but she can’t see him. After the show, Valentin mistreats the girl. When she leaves, Francois confronts him at the bar, and then befriends his elegant but jaded assistant, Clara (Arletty, Les Visiteurs du Soir).

Francois and Clara begin seeing each other, but both realize that their relationship does not have a future -- Francois is in love with the flower girl, while Clara plans to get a new job and start a new life. They make love, but it is the other person’s willingness to listen and offer words of encouragement that they appreciate the most.

In another flashback, Francoise promises to marry Francois. But the jealous Valentin emerges again and tells Francois that he is Francoise’s father. After Francois questions his lover, the two men meet again, this time determined to hurt each other.

The film is very simple but enormously atmospheric and remarkably well shot. Light and shadow/darkness are captured by the camera in ways that give it that very special quality -- a mix of fatalism and melancholia -- found in many of the greatest film noirs. In France, during the 1930s, this particular style of shooting became known as “poetic realism”.

The dialog has a similar poetic quality. The romantic exchanges, in particular, are very beautiful and elegant. The more intense parts of the film are also completely free of melodrama. The film is based on an original scenario by Jacques Viot (Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus), while the dialog was scripted by the great poet and writer Jacques Prevert (Marcel Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes, Children of Paradise).

The cast is outstanding. Gabin is superb as the disillusioned young man who has realized that he has only a few hours left to live. He looks spectacular in this film as well. The long sequence at the end where he is seen wearing a black leather jacket and smoking in the dark room is legendary. Arletty is equally beautiful as Valentin’s jaded assistant. Laurent looks appropriately naive and brittle.

Director Marcel Carne shot Le Jour se Leve with cinematographer Curt Courant and production designer Alexandre Trauner in 1939. A few years later, Hollywood remade the film as The Long Night. Anatole Litvak’s film stars Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, and Moroni Olsen.

Le Jour se Lève Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Marcel Carne's Le Jour se Leve arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

Recently restored in 4K by StudioCanal in association with Eclair, with the sound restored by L.E. Diapason, Le Jour se Leve looks magnificent on Blu-ray. Indeed, depth is consistently very impressive -- even in areas of the film where light and shadow are captured in a very specific way by the camera and thus causing different focus and contrast fluctuations -- while fluidity is dramatically improved. Close-ups look very beautiful, and frequently one can see even exceptionally small details. The larger and darker panoramic shots boast a wide range of very beautifully balanced blacks, whites, and nuanced grays (see screencaptures #2 and 4). The high-quality scanning has ensured that grain is evenly distributed and wonderfully resolved. Also, there are no sharpening adjustments. Unsurprisingly, from start to finish, the film has an impressive organic appearance. Finally, various very important stabilization enhancements have been performed, and the film now really does look tight around the edges and smooth (there are no warps, splices, etc). To sum it all up, even though the original negative no longer exists, this truly is a very impressive restoration and presentation of Le Jour se Leve, which I am convinced will be greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm by fans of the film and Marcel Carne's work.

The disc's main menu can be set in one of the following languages: English, French, or German. Naturally, I assume that the upcoming British release as well as the German release of Le Jour se Leve are identical, as they are both distributed by StudioCanal.

(Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Le Jour se Lève Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

On the English menu of this disc there is only one standard audio track: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. In addition to the original audio on the German menu there is a German DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, while on the French menu there is a French DTS 2.0 Descriptive Audio track. For the record, StudioCanal have provided optional English (English menu), French SDH (French menu) and German subtitles (German menu) for the main feature.

The audio was restored by L.E. Diapason, the same party responsible for the fantastic restoration of the original audio on Pathe's very beautiful Blu-ray release of Patrice Chereau's La Reine Margot (another fantastic 4K restoration project completed by the Eclair Group and L.E. Diapason).

Generally speaking, depth and clarity are very good. Some extremely light background and camera noise remains, but it is actually part of the original audio. (For a detailed description of the different issues the restorers had to address, please see the restoration featurette included on this disc). The dialog is stable, well-balanced and very easy to follow. There are no pops, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in this review. The English translation is excellent).

Le Jour se Lève Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Restoration - presented here is a wonderful new featurette which focuses on the recent 4K restoration of Marcel Carne's film. Abdel Oussedrat, Beatrice Valbin-Constant, Ronald Boullet, and Charlotte Quemy from Laboratoire Eclair discuss the many technical challenges the restoration team faced before and during the restoration process (the original negative for the film no longer exists), while colorist Bruno Patin discusses the film's unique visual design and color balance (and specifically the management of light and darkness by the film's cinematographer). Nicolas Techner (L.E. Diapason) also discusses the sound restoration. Before-and-after visual comparisons are included with some of the interviews. In French, with optional English subtitles. (15 min).

• Last Assault of the Popular Front - this outstanding documentary film takes a closer look at the production history of Le Jour se Leve, the socio-political climate in France at the time when the film was shot, and Marcel Carne's legacy and career. Included in it are video interviews with French cinema historian Claude Gauteur, writer/director Jean-Charles Tacchella, journalist Olivier Barrot, director Andre Heinrich (Night and Fog), cinematographer Willy Kurant (Masculin Féminin), and production manager Jean Pieuchot (The Fire Within), amongst others. The documentary was produced by Dominuque Maillet. In French, with optional English subtitles. (96 min).

• Scenes Censored by the Vichy Government - presented here is a collection of scenes censored by the Vichy government before the film's premiere in France. In French, with optional English subtitles. (3 min).

• Booklet - beautiful 22-page illustrated booklet featuring French critic and scholar N. T. Binh's essay "Le Jour se Leve: Ou l'invention du film culte" and stills from the film.

Le Jour se Lève Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

StudioCanal, the Eclair Group and L.E. Diapason's new 4K restoration of director Marcel Carne's Le Jour se Leve is undoubtedly one of the year's most exciting and important projects. The film's original negative no longer exists and the restorers were presented with a number of difficult dilemmas, but the end result is enormously impressive. I am not aware of any plans for an upcoming North American release of Le Jour se Leve, but I have to assume that sooner or later the new restoration will enter Criterion's catalog. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.