Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Quiet Days in Clichy 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 4, 2022

Jens Jorgen Thorsen's "Quiet Days in Clichy" (1970) arrives on 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray courtesy of Blue Underground. The supplemental features on the release include archival interviews with Barney Rosset; archival program with Joe McDonald; newly discovered and restored deleted scene; vintage promotional materials; and more. In English, with optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Struggling writer by day, amateur love hunter by night.

It was sometime during the 1970s when the City of Lights effectively lost its classic cinematic image, which for decades promoted it as the most vibrant, most culturally diverse, and ultimately most free city in the world. Before the 1970s, the City of Lights was the ultimate destination for anyone that wanted to experience life in its purest form.

But the irreversible transformation began much earlier and the city that routinely appeared in the films of the Nouvelle Vague directors for instance was already a myth. Even though the likes of Band of Outsiders, Breathless, and Paris in August did not even suggest the ongoing transformation, at the time of their release everyone knew what was underway and by the 1990s the new glamour-free and dangerous city that had been intentionally and unintentionally ignored became impossible to hide. Matthiew Kassovitz’s La Haine was the groundbreaking film that exposed it in 1995.

Danish director Jens Jorgen Thorsen’s Quiet Days in Clichy is known as an explicit cinematic adaptation of Henry Miller’s popular novel of the same name, but it is actually a fine time capsule that offers a rather authentic glimpse at the irreversible transformation. Interestingly, Thorsen’s intent was not to deliver a time capsule but to imitate as best as he could the style and personality of the big Nouvelle Vague films that emerged during the 1960s. As a result, Thorsen placed a much greater emphasis on the visual style and personality of Quiet Days in Clichy than its treatment of the original material from Miller’s novel.

Admittedly, this is the only way a cinematic adaptation of Miller’s novel can be done. Why? Because the long, often very explicit descriptions from Miller’s novel are not suitable for a conventional cinematic story. They detail intimate feelings, emotions, and sensations, not diverse developments and events. (This is the very reason Claude Chabrol’s take on the same material produced a vastly different film that resembles a giant wet dream).

Thorsen’s starting point is a tiny apartment where penniless writers Carl (Wayne Rodda) and Joey (Paul Valjean) make love to various women. The sexual fireworks are supposed to provide them with inspiration for their future bestsellers, but the writers become so addicted to the carnal pleasures that eventually they put their already disastrous careers on hold.

The most interesting material in Quiet Days in Clichy is the one in which Thorsen’s camera follows closely the writers as they wander the streets looking for potential girlfriends. The City of Lights is seen without its classic cinematic makeup, often appearing uncharacteristically dirty and busy, very much like a metropolis that has stopped carrying about its past reputation. A quick trip to neighboring Luxembourg reveals similar visuals as well.

A simple but very effective soundtrack provides the film with a wonderful period ambience. All music and songs were written and performed by Joe McDonald.

Quiet Days in Clichy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blue Underground's release of Quiet Days in Clichy is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. Both discs offer presentations of a brand new 4K restoration of the film. Both are Region-Free as well.

Please note that some of the screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and are downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-28 are from Quiet Days in Clichy Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #29-36 are from Quiet Days in Clichy 4K Blu-ray.

The release introduces an exclusive new 16-bit 4K restoration of the film which was completed after the original camera negative was discovered. The previous Blu-ray release was sourced from a master struck from a 35mm theatrical print.

I have the previous Blu-ray release in my library and think that it offers a very solid organic presentation of the film, but the other night after I loaded up the new 4K Blu-ray release I could not believe what I was seeing on my screen. Some years ago, I attended a theatrical screening of this film and as a result know exactly how rough it looked, so the visuals that emerged on my screen surprised me a lot. Why? Because this new 4K restoration makes Quiet Days in Clichy appear almost as impressive as Vivre sa vie. I have always thought that Jens Jørgen Thorsen shot his film by imitating the style and personality of Jean-Luc Godard's film as best as he could, and now that we have such a pristine presentation of the former, it is pretty obvious that this was the case. I viewed the entire film with Dolby Vision and was very impressed by the quality of the visuals. They are quite diverse, too. Some were shot in areas with restricted light. Some were shot with plenty of natural daylight. Some were shot with minimal light at night. While there are plenty of native density fluctuations, the overall quality of the visuals is tremendous. Also, the grayscale is terrific. On the 4K Blu-ray, the dynamic range of the visuals is a tad more impressive, but in 1080p the entire film looks magnificent as well. On the previous Blu-ray release, occasionally it was easy to see that some highlights and shadows are not handled as well as they should have been, but this is the quality the then-available elements were able to produce. Now, all visuals look very balanced and have very solid and consistent organic qualities. Image stability is outstanding. The entire film looks very healthy as well. Incredible 4K restoration and technical presentations on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray.

Quiet Days in Clichy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0. Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Even though there are some small but noticeable dynamic and clarity fluctuations, the audio is very healthy. Why do these fluctuations exist? Because this is how the audio was recorded, and this is what the lossless track reproduces. To be perfectly clear, you should not expect to hear distracting dynamic anomalies, but small fluctuations that are part of the film's identity.

Quiet Days in Clichy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Trailer - newly remastered vintage trailer for Quiet Days in Clichy. In English. (5 min).

• Deleted Scene - a newly discovered, fully restored deleted scene. In English. Presented with Dolby Vision/HDR. (6 min).

BLU-RAY DISC

• Trailer - newly remastered vintage trailer for Quiet Days in Clichy. In English. (5 min).

• Deleted Scene - a newly discovered, fully restored deleted scene. In English. Presented with Dolby Vision/HDR. (6 min).

• Featurettes -
  
  1. Songs of Clichy - in this archival program, Joe McDonald recalls how he became involved with Quiet Days in Clichy and discusses the title song and music he composed and recorded. Interestingly, at the time Mr. McDonald did not meet the director of the film, Jens Jørgen Thorsen. In English. (12 min).
  
  2. Dirty Books, Dirty Movies - in this archival program, Barney Rosset, Henry Miller's editor and publisher, recalls his initial encounter with the controversial writer, the critical reception of Miller's work, and his personal troubles with the authorities. Mr. Rosset also discusses the filming of Quiet Days in Clichy and Tropic of Cancer in Paris. In English, not subtitled. (18 min).
  
  3. Midnight Blue - in this archival program, Barney Rosset discusses his troubles with the FBI and history as a publisher as well as his relationship with Henry Miller and his controversial work. In English. (25 min).

• Poster and Still Gallery - a large collection of vintage promotional materials for Quiet Days in Clichy. The gallery was created by Gregory Chick.

• Book Cover Gallery - a collection of book covers from various editions of Henry Miller's Quiet Days in Clichy.. The gallery was created by Gregory Chick.

• Court Documents Gallery - a very interesting collection of documents highlighting Barney Rosset's troubles with the law (via his publishing company Grove Press). The gallery was created by Gregory Chick.

• Cover - reversible cover with original poster art for Quiet Days in Clichy.

Quiet Days in Clichy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer and Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie were released theatrically nearly a decade before Jens Jørgen Thorsen shot Quiet Days in Clichy. Even though Thorsen's film is a very loose cinematic adaptation of Henry Miller's popular sexually explicit novel, it appears to have been modeled after Chronicle of a Summer and Vivre sa vie, with the latter providing the majority of the inspiration. Unsurprisingly, it is a pretty good time capsule, not a bad pornographic film, as some film historians have argued in the past. Of course, it is very easy to make a case that Thorsen was not as good of a director as Morin, Rouch, and Godard and that the actors he worked with were not great performers, but these details do not change the identity of his film. (For what it's worth, the two famous controversial films Vilgot Sjöman directed at the same time, I Am Curious: Yellow and I Am Curious: Blue, share the same identity. Despite claims to the contrary, they are not pornographic films either). Blue Underground's 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray release of Quiet Days in Clichy is sourced from a fabulous new 4K master that was prepared after an original fine-grain negative, previously thought lost, was recently discovered and the film was fully restored in 4K. It is a tremendous release. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.