Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Quai des Orfèvres Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 17, 2018

Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Quai des Orfèvres" (1947) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The only bonus feature on the disc is the documentary "Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Criminal Height" which was produced by the film's rights holders. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Jenny Lamour

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 StudioCanal.

The release is sourced from an immaculate newly restored 4K master. I liked everything about it. The entire film looks strikingly healthy and boasts the type of consistent solid density that any film should have after it is restored and brought to Blu-ray. Depth and clarity are also hugely impressive, and the larger your screen is, the more obvious it will become to you just how beautiful StudioCanal's master is. The grading is very competent as well, and as a result the entire film overflows with wonderful organic nuances that are just right for this type of a period production. There are no traces of compromising degraining or sharpening adjustments. Image stability is excellent. I would like to specifically mention that there are no encoding anomalies to report either. Fantastic presentation. (Note: This is a Region-B "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 and French SDH 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 

• Henri-Georges Clouzot's Criminal Height - this documentary feature examines the history of Quai des Orfèvres and the specific time period in which it emerged, as well as the career of its creator, Henri-Georges Clouzot. Included in it are interviews with author and film historian Noel Herpe, author Chloe Folens, and film historian Marc Godi, amongst others. The documentary was produced for StudioCanal. In French, with optional English subtitles. (31 min).

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. StudioCanal's recent Blu-ray release is sourced from an immaculate new restored master that should thrill fans of the film. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.