Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 12, 2024

Kind of strangely, even folks who probably consider themselves relatively well schooled in the nooks and crannies of 20th century pop music may associate Serge Gainsbourg solely with Je t'aime... moi non plus, a somewhat notorious single that became a worldwide sensation either in spite of or because of being banned for perceived (well, let's face it, actual) sexual content. Two years after Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg, the album that spawned (no sexual pun intended) that legendary single came out, Gainsbourg and Birkin were back with a perhaps even more provocative take on intimacy, Histoire de Melody Nelson, a so-called concept album that tells a story, in both song and spoken word, of an older man and a much younger woman, in a formulation that may understandably raise eyebrows in the post #metoo era.

The track list for the album is shown on the screenshots of the disc menu I've uploaded to accompany this review. Rather interestingly, in all my years of reviewing these Universal Music Group "high fidelity pure audio" releases, Histoire de Melody Nelson actually has some quasi-bonus content, in the form of various session alternate takes offered on this disc. Those alternate versions can be seen in screenshot 2, which is of the so- called "following page" (i.e., page suivante) linked to on the main menu seen in the other screenshots. This unusual situation may be tied at least in part to the fact that for all intents and purposes, this seems to be a French release, with menus and an insert booklet entirely in that language.

Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Universal has authored this audio Blu-ray without the ability to easily toggle between audio codecs with the colored buttons on your remote, so you will probably want to have your monitor or display engaged. It's necessary to navigate down through the tracklist to get to the audio codecs. Toggling is then possible, with just a slight handshake pause but without the song starting over.

Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Histoire de Melody Nelson features 5.1 and 2.0 options in either LPCM or DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. I frankly didn't hear a ton of difference between the two stereo or two surround versions when stacked up against each other, and in fact some may feel like their surround systems are malfunctioning or the disc has some kind of error since Melody features no rear channel information at all. That changes suddenly with Ballade de Melody Nelson, however, albeit completely peculiarly, with some overdubbed string snippets that suddenly literally erupt sonically from the rear channels, almost in whatever the creamy cinematic score version of a startle effect could be. The rear channels are recurrently engaged by what might be called "gimmicks" like that, where suddenly discrete instruments (or sections, as in the strings) are present, instantly creating a new sense of immersion. Vocals, including narration, tends to be anchored front and center. Both of the surround tracks provide considerably more rambunctious low end than the stereo tracks.

Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

I'm counting the alternate versions as part of the bonus content. As can be seen in screenshot 2, only the two stereo codecs are available for those tracks, but they're all very interesting and provide some rather fascinating evolutions of some of the songs. The insert booklet is very nicely appointed and offers several very interesting essays (in French). An insert contains a download link for an MP3.

Serge Gainsbourg: Histoire de Melody Nelson Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kind of hilariously considering what a cause célèbre it became, Je t'aime... moi non plus, is, musically speaking, rather basic, comprised mostly of I, IV and V chords (with occasional visits to iii and vi). The music on this album is probably a good deal more challenging, but it may be the "story" rather than the tunes that some may find presents the biggest hurdle to overcome. One way or the other, this is a captivating if, yes, sometimes shocking album that has received a really nice hi-res audio treatment on this disc. Highly recommended.