6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A housewife takes over her husband's umbrella business after his illness.
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Judith GodrècheForeign | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
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
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Here’s some unsolicited advice to Hollywood (and indeed international) actresses of a certain age, those who find themselves visiting plastic surgeons or Botox emporiums repeatedly until they’re virtually unrecognizable as a member of the human species: take a look at one Catherine Deneuve. Yes, she’s probably preternaturally blessed with an incredible set of genes, but like several other European actresses, she’s let herself age. What a refreshing change of pace. So she’s put on a few pounds, and her blonde hair doesn’t quite glisten with its youthful élan. So what? She’s still incredibly gorgeous, and she still frankly looks like a million bucks despite currently creeping up on 70 years. This iconic actress who seemed to personify French chic in the 1960’s has managed to create one memorable character after another rather early in her career in such disparate fare as Repulsion, Belle du Jour and those two inimitable Jacques Demy musicals Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, and then just kept going with such memorable films as Indochine (for which she received an Academy Award nomination) and The Hunger. If Potiche isn’t exactly Deneuve’s most demanding role, it’s a sweet natured and gently funny little film that manages to poke and prod several sex role stereotypes, not to mention the French national obsession with sex generally, all the while not really running away from the fact that it’s dealing with people of a certain age who probably should all know better by now.
Potiche is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Ozon has purposefully filmed Potiche to look like the 1970's, and so an odd assortment of bright colors co-existing with more neutral tones makes the palette here very variegated and appealing. The overall image sports well above average fine detail, but it also has been intentionally pushed at times, giving a somewhat soft, contrasty look to a lot of the outdoor footage especially. Close-ups, though, don't shirk from revealing the nooks and crannies of both Deneuve's and Depardieu's aging faces, for better or worse. There are a couple of very brief moments of aliasing late in the film when a couple of characters are wearing houndstooth, and a couple of the dimly lit interior scenes suffer from moderate crush, but otherwise this is an artifact free presentation.
Potiche is offered with a lossless French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which does just fine for this basically small, dialogue driven film. Surrounds do come into play fairly regularly in some of the umbrella factory scenes, especially those with the raucous strikers. The film also features a wealth of source cues, and those also spill into the surrounds with appealing brightness and excellent fidelity. Dialogue is crisp and clean and very well mixed. There's really not much here that draws a lot of overt attention to itself, but the track is full bodied and sounds just fine, and certain suffices perfectly well for the sort of modified bedroom farce Potiche is at its core.
Potiche is a slight film, but it's so well intentioned and it features such luminous performances from Deneuve and Depardieu that it seems downright curmudgeonly to dwell on its faults. It's never laugh out loud hilarious, but Potiche is often gently, sweetly humorous and it manages to deal with a number of fairly serious issues in a non-threatening way. It's just so wonderful to see Deneuve at this stage of her career still out there doing such nice, nuanced work. If she is just the tiniest bit scary at the end of Potiche, singing a victory song a la John Ashcroft after she's won an election, at least everyone can agree with the sentiments of the lyric she's singing: "Life is beautiful." When life includes Catherine Deneuve, it most certainly is. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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