Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf November 10, 2020

Unlike many documentaries about filmmakers, “Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk” offers extraordinarily little biographical information about the subject. Director Kuba Mikurda has limited interest in the life and times of the Polish director (who passed away in 2006), preferring to provide more of a grasp on his artistic interests, featuring interviews with collaborators and admirers. “Love Express” remains elusive, but that’s the idea, with Mikurda turning his movie into a Borowczyk production in many ways, delivering an idiosyncratic look at an avant-garde mind, supplying a general understanding of the man’s professional demands and his textured appreciation of screen eroticism, especially when offered an opportunity to take his vision wherever it needed to go.

There’s no childhood information for Borowczyk in “Love Express,” with most personal information about the director provided by cinematographer Noel Very, a frequent collaborator. The interviewee lays the foundation for future creative offerings, spotlighting Borowczyk as a man fascinated by the world of animation, creating artistic shorts that caught on with specialized audiences and critics. Helping his professional cause was a move from Poland to France, soaking in the juices of revolutionary times to inspire greater experimentation with his works. We also learn the man loved eating potatoes. All the time. And that’s it for personal insight, with “Love Express” supplying more of an overview of Borowczyk’s burgeoning career as a director of feature-length endeavors, managing to find financiers willing to gift him complete freedom to chase any idea he wanted to, with 1969’s “Coto, Island of Love” presented as his first notable achievement during this exciting time.

The making of “Coto” is tracked, with Borowczyk setting up shop inside Marie Curie’s research facility to create the picture, learning to make the transition for solitary time perfecting animation to working with a crew. It turns out, Borowczyk wasn’t really interested in the idea of including others in his vision, resulting in a highly personalized offering that charmed critics, clearing him for additional projects. “Love Express” jumps ahead in time to 1974, with “Immoral Tales” elevating the helmer’s brand with an offering of erotic cinema that’s commonly described as “transgressive.” It’s here where Mikurda really underlines Borowczyk’s growth as a filmmaker, taking advantage of waning censorship concerns to burst through with a provocative endeavor, or “libertine art.”

“Love Express” moves on to 1975’s “The Beast,” which is most interesting as Mikurda includes behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the movie, offering a glimpse of Borowczyk in motion fiddling with the precise placement of dress folds on star Lisbeth Hummel, who appears in an interview, gently suggesting the feature didn’t do her many favors. The documentary also visits the Swiss Film Archive, where the original “beast” costume has been stored for the last four decades (alongside, oddly, some “Simpsons” statues). Time on “The Beast” also represents the beginning of the end of critical support in Borowczyk’s screen appetites, a decline that fed into 1977’s “The Margin,” which emerged in the midst of the porno chic fad, diluting the taste of adventurous audiences and permissive financiers. Also of concern was star Sylvia Kristel, who claimed promotional focus for the picture, weakening Borowczyk’s reputation.

Perhaps the highlight of “Love Express” is the study of “Emmanuelle 5,” with Borowczyk abandoning the production days after filming commenced, reaching his limit when he received a slap across the face from lead actress Monique Gabrielle, who wasn’t interested in his limited attention to anything but his own world. Such a sudden situation left a young, inexperienced assistant director to take over the doomed project, which, strangely enough, remains credited to Borowczyk.

Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

An HD-shot documentary, "Love Express" does exceedingly well with detail during the AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation. Facial surfaces are exact, along with the fibrousness of clothing, providing compelling textures with interviewees, who favor sweaters and wiry facial hair. City and archive tours also retain dimension when permitted to do so. Shallow focus is favored by the production, which causes compression issues, keeping some backgrounds blocky and banding is periodic throughout the viewing experience. Colors are defined, favoring a colder palette and bright white backgrounds. Delineation is satisfactory.

Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix manages interviewee audio crisply, dealing with various languages and accents, with everything ideally defined. Scoring cues are clear, offering deep organ stings and lively percussion, with music cues supplying some surround activity. Low-end isn't challenged.

Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview Outtakes (HD) collect extra time with certain documentary participants. Terry Gilliam (6:07) shares his understanding of Borowczyk's attention/obsession with filmmaking details, discusses the process of animation, shares his pleasure with the helmer's fondness for surprise, and deconstructs cinematic surrealism. Peter Bradshaw (10:10) recalls his first contact with Borowczyk's work, tracks the history of pornography in the 1980s, and reads a negative Borowczyk review. Neil Jordan (6:23) talks about revisiting titles for the documentary interview, supplies film analysis, and expands on sexuality and eroticism. And Slavoj Zizek (5:11) explains elements of pornography and goes into outer space when talking about sexual urges in animals and humans.

• And a Theatrical Trailer (1:42, HD) is included.

Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Love Express" is a strange documentary trying its best to simulate the Borowczyk viewing experience, and it benefits greatly from a few informative interviewees (Very is most open here), while the rest try to define their appreciation for the work, including Terry Gilliam, Patrice Leconte, and Neil Jordan, who can't quite put their finger on the helmer's special ways, reveling in the resulting frustration when contemplating it. There's even time spent with Borowczyk himself through old interviews, highlighting a man feeling pigeonholed by his prominence in eroticism, watching his moviemaking freedoms evaporate. "Love Express" doesn't provide the grooves of Borowczyk's life, but it does identify the arc of his career and his influence on a generation of directors who adored exploring the possibilities of screen imagery almost as much as Borowczyk.