7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Two old friends meet for dinner; as one tells anecdotes detailing his experiences, the other notices their differing worldviews.
Starring: Wallace Shawn, André Gregory, Jean Lenauer, Roy Butler (II)Drama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.64:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Louis Malle's "My Dinner with Andre" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include archival interviews with Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory conducted by filmmaker Noah Baumbach; and "My Dinner with Louis", an archival episode of the BBC program Arena featuring Wallace Shawn and Louis Malle. The release also arrives with a 28-page illustrated booklet featuring Amy Taubin's essay "Long, Strange Trips", Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn's "On the Origins of My Dinner with Andre", and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Wally
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.64:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 16mm A/B negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using DaVinci's Revival, MTI's DRS, and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's DVNR was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original 16mm magnetic tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX 4.
Transfer supervisors: Christian Hermann, Nikolaus Summerer/ARRI Film & TV Services, Munich.
Colorist: Bianca Stumpf/ARRI Film & TV Services, Munich.
Additional technical coordination: Arne Hastedt, Maike Jahn/ARRI Film & TV Services, Munich."
The film looks vibrant and very healthy. Depth and clarity are excellent and as it is always the case with 16mm material grain is prominent. Because of the high-quality scanning, the grain is also evenly distributed and resolved. Contrast levels are stable and shadow definition very convincing. Unsurprisingly, the footage from the restaurant looks terrifically balanced. Colors are rich, stable, and natural (perhaps only during the outdoor footage there is a slight push towards a more prominent range of blues). There are absolutely no traces of degraining or sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is outstanding. Finally, the film is immaculately clean -- there are absolutely no debris, damage marks, cuts, splices, scratches, or stains to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The film does not have a prominent music score. Predictably, the range of nuanced dynamics is very limited. However, clarity, depth, and separation are outstanding. Indeed, during the entire dinner the exchanges between Wally and Andre are very crisp, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. The random sounds and noises around them are also very easy to identify. There are no pops, cracks, background hiss, or digital distortions to report in our review.
I am not as enthusiastic about Louis Malle's film My Dinner with Andre as many people appear to be. It is different and bold, but a bit too abstract for my taste. Frankly, I much prefer My Dinner with Louis, a wonderful and truly illuminating archival episode of the BBC series Arena, which Criterion have included on this upcoming Blu-ray release. My Dinner with Andre has been recently restored and looks wonderful in high-definition. RECOMMENDED.
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