Le Pont du Nord Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Le Pont du Nord Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 27, 2015

Jacques Rivette's "Le Pont du Nord" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an image-essay by Roland-Francois Lack and visual essay by filmmaker Gina Telaroli. The release also arrives with a 14-page illustrated booklet featuring 14-page illustrated booklet featuring original press notes and Dennis Lim's essay "While the City Sleeps". In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

"Bring it on, Babylon!"

Somewhere on the busy streets of Paris, Marie (Bulle Ogier, The Valley, Maitresse), a claustrophobic ex-con, meets Baptiste (Pascale Ogier, Full Moon in Paris), a slightly insane young girl who loves to stare at statues but feels intimidated by large posters with eyes. The two talk and quickly conclude that fate must have brought them together for a reason.

Soon after, the two women meet Julien (Pierre Clementi, Belle de jour, The Year of the Cannibals), Marie’s former lover, who may or may not be involved with some secret organization. Julien promises Marie that he will be ready to join her in three days after he delivers a black case full of clippings from old newspapers and maps of Paris with notes on them to a mysterious man he met during a game of poker. While waiting for Julien, Marie and Baptiste begin wandering the streets of Paris. Eventually, one of the friends notices that a strange looking man (Jean-François Stevenin, Barocco, 36 fillette) is following them.

While watching Jacques Rivette’s Le Pont du Nord, I could not stop thinking about Leos Carax’s Les amants du Pont-Neuf. In Carax’s film, which was completed exactly ten years after Rivette’s film, two vagrants, played by Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant, meet on the oldest bridge in Paris and fall madly in love. Carax follows closely the vagrants while they perform all sorts of crazy gigs for money, but his film is just as determined to show a side of the city most people that live there are completely unaware of.

Rivette’s film has a similar goal. In it, Rivette also unites two strangers and then sends them on a journey through the back alleys of Paris. The romance from Carax’s film, however, is replaced with a vague conspiracy which essentially opens up the plot of the film for endless improvisations.

During the second half of the film, Baptiste also becomes something of a female version of Jean-Paul Belmondo’s character in Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le fou -- there is a lot that happens in her head that makes some sense only to Marie, who does not seem to mind her rapid mood swings. There are episodes where the long conversations between the two friends often seem meaningless, but while they take breaks to recharge their batteries Rivette manages to sneak in several very clever jokes just like Jean-Luc Godard does in his legendary film. (One of the best has something to do with a famous film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot).

It is possible that the narrative’s free form could frustrate viewers who feel the need to attach some logic to all of the events in the film, but I don’t think that Rivette intended them to be closely linked and analyzed. Capturing the atmosphere and rhythm of life in late '70s Paris is what this film is all about.

Prior to directing Le Pont du Nord Rivette completed the short film Paris s’en va (Paris is Fading Away). This short film uses outtakes and other unused footage with the characters of Le Pont du Nord.

Le Pont du Nord was lensed by cinematographers William Lubtchansky and Caroline Champetier (Carax’s Holy Motors). Lubtchansky also collaborated with Rivette on a number of his best films, including La belle noiseuse, Va savoir, and Histoire de Marie et Julien.

Le Pont du Nord is complimented by original music composed and performed by the great Argentine musician and bandoneon virtuoso Astor Piazzolla.

Le Pont du Nord 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, Jacques Rivette's Le Pont du Nord arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release uses as a foundation the same restoration of Le Pont du Nord which British distributors Eureka Entertainment accessed when they prepared their release in 2013 -- and this is certainly very good news. Excluding the unevenness mentioned in our review of the Region-B release, the film looks quite wonderful. Indeed, the close-ups boast excellent depth, while the panoramic shots impress with outstanding fluidity. Contrast levels remain stable. Colors are also stable and natural. There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening corrections. Finally, there are no encoding or compression anomalies to report in this review. To sum it all up, this is a very good organic presentation of Le Pont du Nord, which will more than likely remain the film's definitive presentation on the home video market. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Le Pont du Nord Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Kino Lorber have provided optional white English subtitles for the main feature.

The film does not have a prominent soundtrack -- there are only a couple of sequences where themes from two beautiful tracks composed and performed by the great Astor Piazzolla are used. Understandably, the overall range of nuanced dynamic is rather limited. As it is the case with many of Jean-Luc Godard's films, however, random sounds and noises are routinely left untouched and the dialog could get a bit cluttered. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in this review. The English translation is very good, but I would like to specifically mention that it is not identical to that of Eureka Entertainment's release. (There are entire phrases that are translated differently on the two releases).

Le Pont du Nord Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Composites - presented here is a visual essay by American filmmaker Gina Telaroli (Here's to the Future!). In English, not subtitled. (14 min, 1080p).

• Mapping Le Pont du Nord: Image-Essay by Roland-Francois Lack - presented here is a wonderful collection of stills from the film with text descriptions in English. (12 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - 14-page illustrated booklet featuring: "Director's Comment" by Jacques Rivette; "Six Questions for Jacques Rivette" by Jean Narboni; and "While the City Sleeps" by Dennis Lim.

Le Pont du Nord Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is great that this previously extremely difficult to see in North America film is getting a local release. It is rather unfortunate and even puzzling, however, that at this point it is the only Jacques Rivette film available on Blu-ray. Paris Belongs to Us, Celine And Julie Go Boating, La Belle Noiseuse, and even Va savoir should have been upgraded a long time ago. Rivette is one of the few remaining true giants of French cinema, so let's hope that this is the year that his films finally pique the interest of our distributors and begin transitioning to the high-definition format. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.