7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The story of the Champs-Élysées – from 1617 to 1938 – one of the greatest avenues of the world, as told by a schoolteacher to his pupils.
Starring: Sacha Guitry, Lucien Baroux, Robert Pizani, Jean Coquelin, Émile DrainForeign | 100% |
Drama | 70% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
French: LPCM Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This release is available as part of Sacha Guitry: Four Films 1936-1938.
The back cover of the slipbox of this new Arrow Academy release makes the case that Sacha Guitry was the Gallic Noël Coward, but I’d like to offer
another, perhaps decidedly more outré, comparison. While it may sound a little cheeky, something I won’t argue too much with, in a way Sacha
Guitry might be thought of as the Tyler Perry of his time, despite their obvious differences in nationality and ethnicity. Much as with Perry’s
ubiquitous output, Guitry seemed almost preternaturally able to write both plays at the drop of a veritable hat, many of which he filmed, as well as
original screenplays written expressly for the big screen. Additionally, Guitry frequently starred in these productions, though I have yet to be able
to
discover any cross dressing (a la Madea). Perhaps most
saliently, at least for some curmudgeons (ahem) who have found at least occasional deficits in Perry’s writing and execution, even some experts
quizzed as talking heads in supplements included on this new set unashamedly mention, some of Guitry’s
offerings were decidedly on the pedestrian side. This may be especially ironic, given Guitry’s association with so-called (and I’m about to pun
horribly) “Boulevard Theater”. Within this kind of wide ranging style that was often aimed at the popular masses (as opposed to the intelligentsia),
Guitry was well known for playing “boulevardier” roles, “slackers” of a sort who nonetheless often had peculiarly observant qualities that
frequently allowed them to act as almost individual Greek Choruses in plays and films, offering trenchant commentary on the foibles of whomever
they
were watching, supposedly from the sidelines. (The fact that “Boulevard Theater” was in fact aimed at the supposedly common everyday working
stiff sort is one reason that I might quibble a bit with the Coward comparison, since Coward’s work was typically fairly highbrow.) The four films in
this set are in fact filmed versions of plays, and as such are almost unavoidably theatrical, though it’s interesting to see Guitry experimenting with
then still fairly new techniques like long tracking shots within confined areas. Three of the four films have at least some things in common with
Coward outings (and in fact Perry outings), positing fractured family relationships that often revolved around things like marital infidelity.
The fourth film in the set, Let’s Go Up the Champs-Élysees might be thought of as a “limited French edition” of Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part I, with the focal
element being the famous titular boulevard.
All four films in the Sacha Guitry box set are presented courtesy of Arrow Academy with AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Arrow's insert booklet only offers fairly generic verbiage about the transfers, stating they were culled from "original film and audio elements" that Gaumont delivered in high definition to Arrow for this release. All four transfers are rather similar in terms of strengths and weaknesses, so I'll address them as a whole, with some specific comments about individual aspects. Grain is quite heavy in all of these presentations, which, along with some variant contrast and fairly noticeable softness, may indicate that solid primary elements were no longer available for these films. All four transfers have their fair share of damage, including things like scratches (some quite recurrent and long lasting) and warped frames. For example, while there are some short passing scratches in The New Testament early on, especially toward the right side of the frame, at around 33:36 a large vertical scratch toward the middle of the frame shows up and is present, with a few brief exceptions, for quite a bit of the rest of the film. My Father Was Right has what looks like photochemical damage that creates almost spore like splotches that are also recurrent for much of the early part of the film, and which pop up again later, and which are especially noticeable when backgrounds are lighter. Some opticals, as in the dissolves that are used in Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées, can occasionally look a little rough as well. All of this said, with an understanding of the age and historical importance of these works, Arrow is providing a decent viewing experience that presents these works in an organic way that may be a little rough on occasion, but which show no annoying signs of overly aggressive digital manipulation.
As with the video presentation, the four French LPCM Mono tracks on the films in this set all have a fairly similar sound. There's noticeable hiss on all four of them, something that can tend to slightly mask higher frequencies in the rather appealing music scores that accompany the films. Dialogue is also pretty boxy sounding, and occasionally has slight amplitude variances. With the optional English subtitles, though, nothing is really overly problematic.
Let's Make a Dream. . . and Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées share a disc, on which the following supplements can be found:
- Let's Make a Dream (1080p; 8:56)
- Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées (1080p; 3:50)
Perhaps because Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées is so manifestly different from the other three films in the Guitry box set, it was my overall favorite. The "history" here is questionable (to say the least), but the film has a nice sweep to it that makes it the most traditionally "cinematic" of the four outings Arrow has assembled. Video and audio show their age, but as usual Arrow has provided some enjoyable supplements.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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