7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A typical French department store: Les Grandes Galeries. All kind of things can be found in there, as well as all kinds of people. Mr Lepetit has just been appointed General Manager of the company.
Starring: Fabrice Luchini, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Elisabeth Macocco, Marc Berman, Olivier BrocheForeign | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
French: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
If the 1986 Ron Howard — Michael Keaton comedy Gung Ho were to be remade in a way with a bunch of French executives as seen in Little Nothings taking over an American department store instead of an automotive plant, the result might have been better titled Laissez Faire, at least as evidenced by some of the behaviors and attitudes on display in this film. There’s no actual international dynamic at play here, though, as Little Nothings is centered in Paris with French characters, though some of the issues the film deals with are certainly “universal”. This appealingly chaotic comedy from director Cédric Klapisch (who also co-wrote with Jackie Berroyer) offers Fabrice Luchini as the not very subtly named Lepetit, who, despite the “size” of his name, has big ideas about how to reinvigorate a once popular department store called Les Grandes Galeries. Stuffed (perhaps overstuffed) with a glut of eccentric supporting characters, Little Nothing may remind some of a French version of the venerable British sitcom Are You Being Served?, as it documents the interwoven stories of people either working or shopping at Les Grandes Galeries.
Little Nothings is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video's Arrow Academy imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following pretty generic verbiage on the transfer:
Little Nothings / Riens du tout is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Dolby Stereo audio. The high definition master was produced and supplied for this release by MK2.Most of the MK2 material that has been released by Arrow and others has frequently tended to look good in general, and that's the case again here. There are some clarity fluctuations, especially vis a vis some of the "on the fly" location photography caught out and about (notably some of the "commuter" material early in the film) and ostensibly more controlled environments within the department store. The palette looks nicely vibrant a lot of the time, with some especially prevalent blues that offer considerable pop. Fine detail is typically very good to excellent, and potentially tricky issues like peg board endcaps in the store resolve without any issues whatsoever. Grain can be just slightly variable looking at times, but generally resolves naturally.
Little Nothings features a nicely rendered LPCM 2.0 track in the original French. As Klapisch gets into in the (more or less) "making of" featurette listed below in the supplements section, the creative team spent a lot of time massaging the mix in what were then the early days of Dolby Audio. The result is a bit cacophonous at times, with an almost Howard Hawksian approach to overlapping elements in the crowd scenes both in outdoor urban environments and within the confines of the department store itself. More traditional dialogue sequences offer arguably a bit more clarity, in that individual lines can be discerned, but there's really nothing to warrant any major concern here in any case. Optional English subtitles are available.
Little Nothings' title is, as the insert booklet discusses, an obvious double entendre, referring not just to the picayune ins and outs of everyday life, but also to the ostensible proletariat cogs in the capitalist consumer wheel. The film is often quite breezy, and it can be occasionally rather funny, but it's just a bit too chaotic at times, ping ponging from vignette to vignette without any clear direction. Technical merits are generally solid, and the two on disc supplements very enjoyable. With caveats noted, Recommended.
1987
お葬式 / Osôshiki
1984
Ma cousine de Varsovie
1931
Le nouveau testament
1936
Mon père avait raison
1936
Birds of a Feather
1978
1965
Meyer From Berlin | Die Austernprinzessin / Meyer aus Berlin
1919
タンポポ / Tanpopo
1985
My Uncle
1958
Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot
1953
Los amantes pasajeros
2013
The Big Day / Holiday
1949
Traffic
1971
För att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor
1964
Tant qu'on a la santé
1966
2000
L'innocent
2022
1967
2005