Mr. X Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Mr. X Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 31, 2015

Screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Tessa Louise-Salomé's documentary "Mr. X, a Vision of Leos Carax" (2014) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye. The only bonus feature on the disc is an original trailer for the film. In French, English, and Japanese, with imposed English subtitles where necessary. Region-B "locked".

Tessa Louise-Salomé's documentary film Mister X (2014) offers an in-depth look at Leos Carax's fascinating career and filmography. Included in it are new and archival interviews with the French director, Jean-Luc Godard, composer Neil Hannon, Serge Toubiana (director of Cinémathèque française), Gilles Jacob (president of the Cannes Film Festival), Kylie Minogue, critic Kent Jones, and Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, amongst others. Also included are short film clips and raw footage from the shooting of Boy Meets Girl, The Night Is Young, The Lovers on the Bridge, Pola X, Carax's Merde segment from Tokyo!, and Holy Motors.

Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tessa Louise-Salomé's documentary film Mister X arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye.

The high-definition transfer is encoded in 1080/50i, but it actually contains progressive frames. This means that there is absolutely no motion-judder whatsoever. To be clear, this is essentially a solid progressive transfer "locked" inside a 1080/50i encode. The clips from the interviews look terrific, but clarity and detail can fluctuate quite a lot during the documentary footage. This is hardly surprising, however, as the content comes from a variety of unedited and aged sources. For the record, there are no encoding anomalies to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French LPCM 2.0 (with portions of English and Japanese). For the record, the English subtitles during the French and Japanese dialog are imposed. (They cannot be turned off via the remote control or the disc's main menu).

Despite the lengthy interviews, the film actually has a surprisingly active and effective soundtrack. The music is soft but lush and enhances the ambient atmosphere very well. The dialog is crisp and clear. Only during a few of the archival clips there are some minor balance and depth fluctuations. The English translation is excellent.

Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for the film. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (2 min).

Mr. X Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tessa Louise-Salomé's Mister X (2014) is included as a bonus in Artificial Eye's The Leos Carax Collection four-disc Blu-ray box set. Using clips from old and new interviews with collaborators and admirers as well as plenty of rare archival footage, the film offers a fascinating glimpse into the creative world of one of European Cinema's greatest living directors and examines the evolution of his work during the years. A must-see for Carax fans! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.