7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Bertrand Tavernier's personal journey through French cinema, from films he enjoyed as a boy to his own early career, told through portraits of key creative figures.
Starring: Bertrand TavernierForeign | 100% |
Documentary | 26% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
My Journey Through French Cinema isn’t just a fascinating and heartfelt general and (perhaps more importantly) personal history lesson from Bertrand Tavernier, it’s also an interesting intellectual exercise in the very notion of what a “national” cinema means. It might be an interesting experiment to ask various cineastes what they think of when questioned about what various nationalities bring to mind when considering the history of film. For example, my hunch is that when asked about Italian film history, at least some of these imaginary poll takers would probably mention Neorealism, or perhaps giallo, or even individually iconic filmmakers like Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, and/or Mario Bava. And as for the French? Well of course there are legendary French filmmakers like Jean Cocteau, Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, the last two names also stirring recognition of one of the biggest “movements” in the entire history of film, the so-called Nouvelle Vague. In that regard, it’s kind of ironic then that one of the first things I personally think about when I consider French cinema is not any of the legendary films that came out of the country, or indeed any of the many iconic directors whose works helped form my own knowledge of international film, but instead of so-called “auteur theory”. While the very attribution “auteur theory” is at least sometimes credited to American critic Andrew Sarris, it of course stemmed from some of the iconic writing found in French journals like Cahiers du Cinéma. Tavernier worked with Godard, one of the titans of Nouvelle Vague, though kind of interestingly (and saliently with regard to this documentary) as a publicist instead of as someone actually helping to make the film. Tavernier has a long history as a writer, and he has in fact both written and directed (as well as produced) quite a few of the films he’s made over the years. Tavernier brings that same “essayist” quality to My Journey Through French Cinema, dealing both with general outlines of his country’s filmmaking past as well as his own personal history.
My Journey Through French Cinema is presented on Blu-ray courtresy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in a variety of aspect ratios (as befits the many clips included in this "tour"), but all of which play out in a 1.85:1 frame (i.e., look at some of screenshots of scenes in or near Academy Ratio, like numbers 3, 5, and 9, and you'll see the small "1.85:1 black bars" running horizontally across the top and bottom). The contemporary interview footage with Tavernier fares best, but I have to say not even these sequences look stunning, though sharpness and clarity are well above average and detail levels are generally appealing. I'm not quite sure what to make of the many film clips, though, since at least some of them are in extremely poor shape, and despite this being a supposed progressive presentation, all sorts of combing artifacts show up (see screenshots 18 and 19). Things like sharpness, clarity, contrast and brightness are all extremely variable throughout the many clips featured in the documentary. (I'm wondering if some of these clips at least were actually sourced from video.) The historical importance of so many of these clips certainly outweighs some of the technical limitations of their presentation, but some videophiles might be wishing the documentarians had been able to find better looking source elements for at least some of the clips.
While My Journey Through French Cinema features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, there's really very little surround activity at play, since so many of the older film clips feature mono soundtracks and since so much of the interstitial material is simply Tavernier talking about the films or his life. Fidelity is fine throughout, with an understanding that some of the oldest film clips have typically boxy or even at times slightly damaged sounding moments.
Even if you're unfamiliar with Bertrand Tavernier or in fact have no abiding history in French cinema as a whole, you may want to consider checking out this wonderfully intimate "tour". Tavernier is an extremely astute analyst of style, and some of his comments on "little" things like Renoir's use of tracking shots will delight those who pay attention to items like framings and camera movements. Tavernier's personal asides are also often quite touching and even informative. Video is a little spotty on this one, and some may wonder why a lossless surround track was included (not that I'm complaining, mind you). Highly recommended.
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