7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Tom Ripley travels to Italy to visit his playboy friend Philippe Greenleaf and Philippe's new fiancé, Marge Duval. What Philippe doesn't know is that his father has paid Tom to convince his son to abandon Europe and return to his family responsibilities in San Francisco. But when Philippe's family cuts off their funding of Tom's extravagant lifestyle during his covert mission, he discovers another way to maintain his newfound standard of living.
Starring: Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Romy Schneider, Marie Laforêt, Erno CrisaForeign | 100% |
Drama | 98% |
Psychological thriller | 12% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
French SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Rene Clement's "Plein soleil" a.k.a. "Purple Noon" (1960) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc a brand new interview with Alain Delon, Dominique Maillet's documentary film "Rene Clement au coeur de la Nouvelle Vague", and a restoration demonstration. The release also arrives with an elegant booklet with photographs from the film, as well as notes on the restoration and writings on the film by film scholar Denitza Bantcheva. In French, with optional French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The friends
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Rene Clement's Purple Noon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.
The presentation is disappointing. Unlike Criterion's recent Blu-ray release of Mr. Clement's classic film which uses a high-definition transfer that was created in 2K resolution from the original camera negative, StudioCanal's release uses as a foundation a new 4K restoration. Unfortunately, this new French release is vastly inferior to Criterion's release.
Traces of moderate to very heavy filtering corrections are easy to see throughout the entire film. Unsurprisingly, detail and especially image depth often suffer a lot. There are sequences where shadow definition and contrast are also very problematic (see screencapture #10). The filtering corrections have also destabilized the film's color-scheme. The blacks, in particular, are often replaced by large blocks of gray (see screencapture #12). The ultra-fine grain which high-quality 4K scans typically produce is also lost (compare screencapture #3 with screencapture #6 from our review of the Criterion release). The only good news is that the film looks remarkably healthy - there are absolutely no debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, or scratches. All in all, it is very unfortunate that a decision was made to filter the high-definition transfer because even with the applied corrections it is very easy to see that the 4K restoration was excellent. StudioCanal's Blu-ray release of Purple Noon could have been a special one. Instead, it is an enormously frustrating one. (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).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, StudioCanal have provided optional French SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is as impressive as the LPCM 1.0 track provided on Criterion's release of Purple Noon. Depth is very good and there is also a nice range of nuanced dynamics. Nino Rota's soundtrack, in particular, benefits a lot from the enhanced dynamics. The dialog is exceptionally crisp, clean, and easy to follow.
This new French Blu-ray release of Rene Clement's classic film Plein Soleil is a frustrating one. I feel very uncomfortable criticizing it because it is clear to me that it was meant to be a special one - included on it is a terrific new video interview with the great Alain Delon and a fantastic new documentary film by Dominique Maillet. If you want the best current presentation of Plein Soleil, you should try to obtain the Criterion release. However, if you reside in a Region-B territory, keep in mind that it is Region-A "locked". StudioCanal's release I can recommend only for the supplemental features.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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