Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Murmur of the Heart Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 31, 2017

Nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Louis Malle's "Murmur of the Heart" a.k.a. "Le souffle au coeur" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon/Artificial Eye. There are no supplemental features on this release. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

"What a dope. He does not understand you."

"Murmur of the Heart" appears in this ten-disc Blu-ray box set that was produced by Curzon/Artificial Eye.

Louis Malle’s once rather controversial film is set in Dijon during the early ‘50s, where 14-year old Laurent (Benoit Ferreux, I Hate Actors) feels like a fish out of water. He is part of a big and wealthy French family whose members have different ideas about what it means to enjoy life. In the past, Laurent has successfully managed to ignore them, but lately it has become almost impossible to coexist with them. Laurent’s two older brothers (Fabien Ferreux and Marc Winocourt) have been particularly annoying because they have managed to lose their virginity and are now routinely reminding him that he has some catching up to do. Bad news reports from Indochina have also exposed the worst side of his typically very diplomatic father (Daniel Gélin). Laurent has also discovered that his beautiful Italian mother (Lea Massari, L'Avventura) has a younger lover.

Things temporarily return back to normal when Laurent is diagnosed with heart murmur and is given more freedom to enjoy what matters the most to him -- reading books and listening to his Charlie Parker records. Eventually, he is sent to a popular sanatorium where he finally meets a girl (Jacqueline Chauvaud) that he likes. But while he enjoys her company, his mother, who is staying with him at the sanatorium, gets her heart broken and he shifts his attention to her, hoping that he could quickly help her recover.

Malle’s film does not look bold or risky now, but there was a time when it certainly felt like it had stepped into a dangerous territory. The film isn’t explicit, but its frankness and refusal to judge its characters made some viewers feel a bit uneasy.

The events in the film are observed from two completely different angles. The majority of them are seen through Laurent’s eyes as he struggles to remain independent and slowly begins to realize that life is a series of triumphs, failures, and compromises – some trivial and easily forgettable, some important and capable of transforming one’s entire life.

There is a balanced distance between Laurent and the rest of the characters that also allows the viewer to gain a better understanding of his family’s value system and see its major flaws. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that everyone is vulnerable and like Laurent undergoing some sort of a transformation. It is where the bulk of the humor comes from -- initially it looks like Laurent is the most naive and inexperienced member of the family, but later on the boy actually emerges as the most rational person.

The famous love sequence appears towards the end of the film and during that particular moment it actually makes perfect sense. (Taken out of context it does not). There is a connection that occurs before the sexual act that reveals the vulnerability mentioned earlier. It is what Malle focuses on and then quickly moves away from it. (There is a longer and riskier sequence earlier in which Laurent meets a suave priest played brilliantly by Michael Lonsdale).

The film has aged very well. Perhaps only some of the sarcasm now feels a bit weak, but the acting and the direction are unquestionably first-class.

Murmur of the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon/Artificial Eye.

The release is sourced from the same master that French label Gaumont prepared and used for its local release of Murmur of the Heart in 2015. It is not a flawless master, but I actually like it a lot, and below I will attempt to make it very clear why.

During the last couple of years I have managed to see quite a few of the restorations and remasters that Gaumont has completed and used for various releases and virtually all of the color films have had some issues -- sometimes they are small and fairly easy to tolerate, but there has been a very large number of recent masters with serious issues. The most problematic masters are typically graded without proper reference and exhibit massive color shifts that can literally collapse the dynamic range of the entire film. Quite often entire ranges of healthy nuances are lost as well. (For reference, Gaumont's recent 'restoration' of Louis Malle's Atlantic City is a perfect example of a very poorly managed project -- the color grading is so bad that the film is practically unwatchable now). Murmur of the Heart is largely free of such serious issues, and I find the overall color balance to be very pleasing. I do believe that ideally the color palette could be more convincing, boasting finer nuances and at the same time supporting even better saturated primaries, but it is free of the type of wild color shifts that some recent restorations have had and this makes quite a difference. Also, there are a few areas where light black crush emerges that could have been avoided, but it never becomes distracting and even on a fairly large screen it does not appear to destabilize depth (you can see an example in screencapture #18). There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening corrections. The grain could be slightly better exposed, but it is retained and visible throughout the entire film. Image stability is excellent. Lastly, there are no large distracting damage marks, cuts, stains, warped, or torn frames to report in our review. All in all, even though there is some room for improvement, this is a very fine organic presentation that makes it extremely easy to enjoy the film. My score if 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked:" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Murmur of the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The quality of the lossless track is very good. The film's original sound design does not offer any notable dynamic movement, or at least when compared to the type of active mixes that contemporary films have, but the dialog is exceptionally clean, stable, and always easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts, pops, clicks, or digital distortions to report.

Murmur of the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no bonus features on this release.

Murmur of the Heart Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart is one of the best coming-of-age films ever made. This isn't an exaggeration. Indeed, I don't know if there is anyone that has seen the film that hasn't been touched by its honesty. Countless directors have also copied what Malle did in it. Curzon/Artificial Eye's new release of Murmur of the Heart is sourced from the same master that French label prepared and used for its local release in 2015, but I actually think that the technical presentation is slightly better here. (Please note that the release is included in this big ten-disc box set). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.