Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Les soeurs Brontë Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 25, 2012

Nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or Award, Andre Techine's "Les soeurs Bronte" a.k.a "The Bronte Sisters" (1979) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer and a documentary film directed by Dominique Maillet. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Isabelle Adjani as Emily Bronte

They see the world around them differently and never talk about their dreams. Charlotte (Marie-France Pisier, Cousin cousine, Barocco), the most ambitious of the three sisters, dreams about studying French in Brussels and eventually opening a school. Emily (Isabelle Adjani, Subway, La reine Margot) loves to wander around dressed as a man, thinking about the future and the novels she would write. Anne (Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher, La Cérémonie), the youngest of the three sisters, wonders what it means to be truly in love. Their brother Branwell (Pascal Greggory, La fidelite, Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train) is a painter who often drinks more than he should.

One day, Charlotte and Emily are allowed to go to Brussels. Charlotte quickly falls in love with her teacher Monsieur Hager (Xavier Depraz, Le gang), while Emily begins teaching piano lessons. Back in England, Anne is employed as a governess in an incredibly snobbish family. For a while, the three sisters try to be good and let other people direct their lives. When their aunt dies, they return home.

But none of them are happy and soon they scatter again. Charlotte returns to Brussels and Anne helps Branwell find employment as a teacher in the same snobbish family. He promptly falls in love with the wife of the man who pays him, and then realizes that she will never love him the way he wants her to. Emily secretly begins to write.

The sisters reunite, and Charlotte discovers Emily’s writings. They are published in London, where the critics are not particularly impressed with her novel Wuthering Heights. Charlotte and Anne’s writings are also published, but they get much more favorable reviews.

Eventually, under their pen names, Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, the Bronte sisters become incredibly popular, and publishers as far away as New York begin asking questions about their identities. While they try to decide what to do, Branwell becomes severely depressed.

The film is surprisingly dark. Obviously, the focus of attention is on the complex relationships between the four siblings and the manner in which they might have affected their work. The harshness of the environment they shared is also carefully examined, particularly during the second half of the film where the Bronte sisters become seriously ill.

A good portion of the film is reserved for Branwell and his collapse. For a while he is the one who inspires the Bronte sisters to pursue their passions and dreams; all three secretly admire his spirit and passion for art. Then, when he gets his heart broken, it seems like they suffer as much as he does. During these difficult times, they begin to write down their thoughts and feelings.

Pisier, Huppert, and Adjani are terrific. There are selected sequences in which they don’t utter a single word, but their faces are like open books. Greggory is also excellent as the young artist who cannot have the woman he loves.

Cinematographer Bruno Nuytten’s preference for cold and subdued colors is most appropriate. When Emily is seen wandering around the lonely moors, it is easy to imagine what inspired her to write Wuthering Heights.

The film also boasts a terrific music score by the great Philippe Sarde (Claude Sautet’s A Simple Story, Roman Polanski’s Tess, Bertrand Blier’s Buffet Froid).

Note: In 1979, The Bronte Sisters was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Les soeurs Brontë Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Andre Technie's The Bronte Sisters arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont.

Generally speaking, detail is very good, while clarity is pleasing. Arguably the biggest upgrade in quality, however, is in the area of color reproduction. The cold and subdued colors no longer look washed out and fuzzy, and now one can easily understand what type of atmosphere Andre Techine and cinematographer Bruno Nuytten were trying to sustain throughout the entire film. Furthermore, there are no traces of problematic sharpening corrections. Some careful noise corrections have been performed, but light grain is retained and detail isn't compromised (I assume that like previous Gaumont restorations, for this one the elements the restorers had to work with had some limitations). There are no serious compression issues either. Lastly, there are no big damage marks, cuts, scratches, or splices. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Les soeurs Brontë Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Gaumont have provided optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature.

The lossless tracks opens up the film quite well. The classical score in particular benefits a great deal (there are short but prominent themes). The dialog is crisp, stable, and easy to follow. Also, there are no problematic pops, high-frequency distortions, or audio dropouts. The English translation is excellent.

Les soeurs Brontë Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bande-annonce - original trailer for The Bronte Sisters. In French, not subtitled. (4 min, 1080p).

• Les Fantomes de Haworth - a documentary film directed by Dominique Maillet, with contributions by director Andre Techine, screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer, costume designer Christian Gasc, actor Pascal Greggory, and others. In French, not subtitled. (58 min, 1080/50i).

Les soeurs Brontë Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have never owned a good DVD release of Andre Techine's The Bronte Sisters. The only one I was able to locate some time ago actually came from Russia, but it was essentially a VHS transfer placed on a DVD. Needless to say, the quality was horrendous. This new Blu-ray release by Gaumont is quite the revelation. It does not match the quality of their recent restorations of Jean Renoir's French Cancan and Elena and Her Men, but the presentation is still very good. RECOMMENDED.