Quai des Orfèvres Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

Quai des Orfèvres Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 28, 2020

Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Quai des Orfèvres" (1947) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film; exclusive new audio commentary by critic Nick Pinkerton; and archival episode of the French TV program Au cinem ce soir. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

They will be beautiful pictures

Any comprehensive list that attempts to rank French film noirs but omits Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Qaui des Orvefres should be immediately dismissed as incomplete. There is some truth in the old claim that it does not quite play by the rules that earlier classics like Le Quai des Brumes and Le Jour se Lève established, but there is no doubt that it sees reality as a genuine film noir should. It is different because it has a bit of an attitude, which it hides behind its wicked sense of humor.

Clouzot takes interest in a couple of different characters who feel that each day their lives are becoming more frustrating. Jenny Lamour (Suzy Delair) is a music hall dancer who has started realizing that she is getting older and running out of time to have the type of brilliant career that she once dreamed of. It is why now she frequently spends time with ‘gentlemen’ with connections that could potentially help her accomplish her goal. But despite her enthusiasm the game has bored her to tears while the endless lies of her most prominent ‘admirers’ have further exacerbated her frustration. Jenny’s flirtations have also made her husband, Maurice (Bernard Blier), feel miserable. A gifted pianist who long ago walked away from classical music and became an accompanist so that he can be with the love of his life, Maurice has reluctantly started to reevaluate his past and ask himself if he could have done even more to keep Jenny for himself. The random answers popping up in his mind have made him feel awful, and lately, from time to time even unusually angry. Jenny and Maurice’s neighbor, Dora Monier (Simone Renant), is a middle-aged and very elegant single blonde who has been incredibly supportive of Jenny’s decisions, but having seen in her photo studio how wealthy older men manipulate ambitious younger women she has urged her to be careful.

The lives of the three become very closely intertwined after a notorious womanizer (Charles Dullin) is found in a puddle of blood and the cranky Inspector Antoine (Louis Jouvet) discovers that not only he had a very close relationship with Jenny, but for the night of his death Maurice does not have a good alibi that rules him out as a suspect.

Stanislas-Andre Steeman’s novel Legitime defense is credited as an inspiration for Quai des Orfevres, but Clouzot took a lot of liberties with the original material and his film is essentially impossible to view as a legit take on the novel.

The strength of the film comes from two different places. The first is the bold nature of the dialogue which gives the narrative a rough edge that at the time was very common for American film noirs. To restore balance, Clouzot then adds a nice dose of subversive but harmless humor that casually chips away from the noirish cynicism and pushes the film closer to where conventional melodramas are. So there is a very interesting type of overlapping that occurs which makes the film quite unpredictable.

The second is Jouvet’s ability to use the murder investigation to crack various supposedly credible stereotypes about the two sexes and the ways in which they fail each other. As odd as it may sounds, a lot of his funny jabs are not at all dated.

*Clouzot’s directorial debut, The Murderer Lives at 21, is also based on a novel by Steeman. It is available on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

Quai des Orfèvres Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Quai des Orfèvres arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from the same recent 4K restoration that StudioCanal introduced on Blu-ray in 2018. (You can see our listing and review of the Region-B release here). I liked the restoration a lot when I first viewed it a few years ago, and I have not changed my opinion of it one bit.

The 4K restoration introduces substantial improvements in every single area we typically scrutinize in our reviews, and on a larger screen, where fluidity in particular is very important, it looks simply gorgeous. Naturally, direct comparisons with the old DVD release that Criterion produced back in 2003 are quite meaningless because the upgrades are everywhere. Even if you attempt to upscale the DVD release with a good 4K player you will not get close to the type of quality the Blu-ray release offers because the solid grading job on the new master reveals brand new ranges of nuances that are missing on the standard definition master. Needless to say, the type of organic depth that is present on the Blu-ray release is very different as well. Lastly, during the restoration process stability was also improved. Fantastic presentation. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Quai des Orfèvres Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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

The audio has been fully remastered and quite predictable the quality of the lossless track is excellent. Clarity and depth are outstanding. There are no balance issues to report either. The English translation is very good, but I did notice one minor grammatical error.

Quai des Orfèvres Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Quai des Orfèvres. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (4 min, 480/60i).

• Au cinema ce soir - presented here is an archival episode of the French TV program, Au cinem ce soir in which director Henri-Georges Clouzot, and actors Bernard Blier, Suzy Delair, and Simone Renant discuss the cinematic adaptation of Stanislas-André Steeman's novel and some of the unique qualities of its characters. The episode was broadcast in 1971. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (18 min, 480/60i).

• Commentary - an exclusive new audio commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton.

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following titles from Kino Lorber's catalog:
  
  1. Port of Shadows
  2. Touchez Pas au Grisbi
  3. Bob le Flambeur
  4. Le Doulos
  5. Woman in Chains

Quai des Orfèvres Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The murder of an aging playboy unleashes a sea of delicious intrigues in this classic though somewhat unusual film noir from Henri-Georges Clouzot. It was the director's first film following his forced exile after the release of the controversial Le Corbeau. It is probably not as well known, or perhaps not as admired, as The Wages of Fear or Diabolique, but I think that it is an absolute masterpiece of post-war French cinema. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from the same excellent 4K restoration of the film that StudioCanal introduced on Blu-ray in 2018. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.