Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Quiet Days in Clichy Blu-ray Movie Review

A picture with a three-letter identity: s-e-x.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 25, 2011

An offense against decency.

And so Quiet Days in Clichy begins with a bang not of the sort that's routinely depicted in the film but with a word of warning -- whether in jest or not seems anyone's guess, though the smart money lies on a joke -- meant to let audiences know ahead of time that anything considered to be in good taste by mainstream norms won't be making an appearance. Sure the characters are occasionally clothed, but Quiet Days in Clichy spends most of its time depicting sexual acts, neither in anything resembling erotica nor going quite so far to be out-and-out pornography with no artistic merit. The copious amounts of sex in Quiet Days in Clichy is pretty much just that. It's sex in the raw with people who aren't the world's most glamorous and without the soft lighting and in-relatively-"good"-taste of erotica and certainly not with musclebound men working on nubile and surgically-altered and botox-enhanced females with an unending parade of XXX-style shots, though, yes, those do make a fuzzy black-and-white appearance every now and then during the depictions of those quiet sex-filled days in Clichy.

Quiet toughts in Clichy.

Quiet Days in Clichy, a film adaptation of controversial Author Henry Miller's novel of the same name, stars Paul Valjean as Joey, a character molded from Miller himself. He's a balding, middle-aged struggling American writer who meanders around France (with a sojourn to Luxembourg thrown in for good measure) with his roommate Carl (Wayne Rodda) while having sex with a number of women. It's described as a period when "cu*t was in the air" and free love was all the rage. As the film opens, Joey steals 200 Francs from Carl, which he will give for sex and then steal the money from the girl and return it to an unaware Carl. Joey finds himself another girl whom he beds and pays her with every last bit of money in his pocket, leaving him hungry and with no money to buy food, forcing him to resort to digging through garbage to satisfy his basic needs. While Joey dreams of well-stocked grocers, Carl beds a young virgin named Colette (Elsebeth Reingaard) who claims to be 17 but Carl believes to be no older than 14, despite her well-developed breasts. Like the men with whom she now lives (and Carl hopes to one day wed her when she comes of age), Colette leads a relatively aimless life, thinking only with her body rather than with her brains. As the men enjoy the company of Colette and a variety of other women, they desperately try to avoid running into Colette's parents, fearing the repercussions of bedding an underage girl.

Quiet Days in Clichy is a movie with no real identifiable plot to speak of, but therein lies what seems to be its point. The film is meant to be nothing more than a depiction of the comings and goings of its characters, characters who lead aimless lives in search of pleasure without the fear of consequences or analyzing their actions against short- and long-term prospectives. One character is infected with "the clap" during one of his routine encounters, and another fails to see the implications of paying a girl for sex with all the money he has to his name. Much of whatever loosely-developed plot there is is told through song that overlaps the picture, or via random thought bubbles or brief text-based identifiers that help the audience put various scenes into their proper perspectives. Ultimately, Quiet Days in Clichy is a film about sex not at its most glamorous and not at its most animalistic; it's simply about "sex" and the lives its characters lead during and in between sexual encounters, their lives defined by nothing and concerned only with pleasure until the high of the encounter vanishes and the realization of life out of bed and back in clothes comes into focus.

As a film with little plot and no real point, is there reason to watch Quiet Days in Clichy? That's up to the individual viewer, but there's is an artistic value to be found behind the parade of sexual encounters littered through the film. Sex is part of life, but the offensive part comes in the promiscuity depicted in the film and the lack of privacy or adherence to societal norms and more structured and traditional political and religious viewpoints. Quiet Days in Clichy is definitely an anti-establishment film, and potential viewers should know up front to expect a film that's unforgivingly blunt in its language and uncompromising in its depiction of sexual acts. That said, Director Jens Jørgen Thorsen's film works as an art-house-style playground for showcasing sexual liberty and doing so in what is oftentimes a playful way but not without delving into some of the consequences of such a free lifestyle, though they're reduced to secondary and tertiary status to be sure and, sometimes, not even quite clear in meaning or focus. For these characters, sex seems like a drug, but the repercussions of the addiction are not explored to the extent as might be found in other films that depict the dangers of addiction, notably something like Requiem For a Dream. Clichy does have a "trippy" sort of vibe in several places, but the film's primary objective is to simply showcase lives that are built around the need for constant sex, and that sex is depicted in some of the most raw scenes ever captured on film. Ultimately, the film's message may be that money may buy sex, but it doesn't buy happiness in the long term. The lead characters are never satisfied once their clothes are on and are forced to live in the real world, whether that satisfaction would come from a full stomach or a well-rounded soul. If anything, Clichy can be seen as an admonishment of what it depicts; the only question is whether or not it goes too far in making that point, if indeed that is the point to begin with.

Quiet Days in Clichy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Quiet Days in Clichy sports an inferior black and white transfer that's littered with problems but certainly benefits from the upgrades afforded by the increased resolution of Blu-ray. Wobbly opening credits, bouts of noise, sloppy color gradations, chunky blocking, and a few stray hairs and pops on the print are readily evident throughout, but the picture generally yields suitable detailing across the board, whether in clothing textures or various and often slightly unkempt odds and ends around the frame. Blacks are a bit too harsh and disruptive of fine details in darker scenes. The image does retain a fair bit of grain and occasionally sports a decent enough film-like texture. It's certainly not a clean source and not one of Blue Underground's better efforts, but fans should be satisfied with the resolution afforded to the film by the 1080p presentation. Besides, considering the obscurity and limited audience, that the film is even on Blu-ray speaks volumes; it's not always pretty, but that it's there at all might be the best part.

Quiet Days in Clichy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Quiet Days in Clichy features a DTS-HD MA 1.0 mono soundtrack. Obviously, there's little going on here. Whatever ambience there may be in the film's many city exteriors is delivered with a crunchy, indistinct flair that gets the job done at the most basic level but doesn't really do much more. The film's occasionally repetitive soundtrack, dominated by Country Joe McDonald's signature "Clichy" song, is played with all the clarity the track can muster, which isn't much. Muffled vocals and sloppy instrumentals are routine, but the grittiness of the presentation is more a fault of a source than it is the Blu-ray encode. Dialogue plays decently enough through the center channel; there are no problems with clarity, but none of it passes for perceptibly real. This is a most basic soundtrack that's handled about as well as can be expected; the mono track does nothing but convey the basics, and that's all anyone should realistically expect of it.

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

Quiet Days in Clichy sports a trio of interview-based supplements.

• Dirty Books, Dirty Movies: Barney Rosset on Henry Miller -- Interview with Henry Miller's Editor and Publisher Barney Rosset (480p, 17:16): Rosset discusses pornography, erotica, Henry Miller, the author's works, and the notorious films and controversies that followed.
• Songs of Clichy -- Interview with Country Joe McDonald (480p, 11:10): The musician recalls his experiences in writing the music for Clichy.
• "Midnight Blue" Interview with Barney Rosset (480p, 25:01): Al Goldstein interviews Rosset in this vintage television piece; discussions revolve primarily around obscenity laws but occasionally delves into other, but related, topics.

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

Quiet Days in Clichy is not for most audiences. Anyone offended by blatant depictions of sexual intercourse and with multiple partners, no strings, blunt language, and few consequences will want to stay away. The film doesn't hide what it is, at least on the surface; as a depiction of lives ruled by sex, the film works, but ultimately the absence of any kind of tangible meaning hurts the picture and gives it the feel that it's more of an excuse for sex than a picture with a purpose. Even the idea that Quiet Days in Clichy is actually a subtle admonishment of its characters and their lifestyle isn't very clear, but it's maybe the best hypothesis that could be squeezed out of the movie. There may not be a Blu-ray release with as much potential for controversy as this; not erotica, not all-out pornography, but something in between that's just sort of "real life" for its characters (and, at the end of the day, maybe that's the point), Quiet Days in Clichy is the sort of film that can't be outright recommended and definitely needs to be avoided by audiences with traditional views and sentiments on language and sex. For those who want to give it a try, anyway, Blue Underground's Blu-ray release yields an adequate technical presentation and a trio of decent extras.