That Man from Rio Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

That Man from Rio Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 8, 2015

Note: This film is available as part of the double feature That Man from Rio / Up to His Ears.

The James Bond craze was just reaching mass hysteria proportions when an unlikely upstart managed to steal a bit of the international cinematic spotlight from good old 007. Director Philippe de Broca had been toiling in the somewhat rickety post World War II French film industry since the early fifties, cranking out a regular supply of fairly successful and critically acclaimed films like 1960’s Les Jeux de l'amour, which captured the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize at that year’s Berlin Film Festival, and the interesting 1962 portmanteau Les Sept péchés capitaux, where de Broca directed a segment alongside other contributors like Claude Chabrol, Jacques Demy, Roger Vadim and Jean-Luc Godard (I’ve sometimes wondered if this film was at least partially the inspiration for Vittorio De Sica’s study of just one mortal sin—adultery—in the similarly heptagon titled Woman Times Seven). For whatever reason, though, de Broca never seemed to penetrate into the top echelon of French directors like Godard or Demy, at least that is until That Man from Rio (L’homme de Rio) became an international sensation in 1964. The success of that film was so outsized (and probably unexpected) that of course de Broca was almost immediately approached about shooting a sequel, which turned out to be (more or less, anyway) Up to His Ears, a decidedly more hyperbolic and (therefore?) less successful follow-up featuring that man from Rio himself, Jean-Paul Belmondo. Cohen has collected these two linked films together, reportedly sourced from new 2K restorations, along with a generous supplemental package which should appeal to Francophiles and cineastes in general.

If there were some kind of special cinematic dictionary of sorts that included links to films next to appropriate adjectives, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example of “ebullient” than That Man from Rio. Relentlessly silly to an almost absurd degree at times, the film is still buoyed by such an effortlessly breezy and charming presentation that its charms are well nigh impossible to resist. Jean-Paul Belmondo portrays soldier Adrien Dufourquet, a guy who’s just getting into Paris on a week long leave where he’s planning to spend some time with his “not quite” fiancée Agnès (Françoise Dorléac). Unbeknownst to Adrien, he’s about to get swept up in an international conspiracy involving valuable religious icons from a South American tribe, and indeed de Broca steps away from Adrien’s entry into the City of Lights to detail the alternately funny and disturbing theft of one of these little trinkets from a not very well guarded museum.

Of course it turns out that Agnès, or at least her late father, was involved in an expedition which brought back the little statuettes, and after one of her father’s cohorts on that trek, Professor Catalan (Jean Servais), is abducted, ostensibly by the tribesmen who feel the icons are theirs, Agnès is next on the chopping block. When she’s kidnapped basically right under the nose of a bumbling policeman as well as Adrien himself, Adrien hightails it out of Paris in a crazy attempt to rescue her from a threat he is basically ignorant about. It’s notable how much completely nonsensical editing adds to the chaotically exuberant feeling of the film throughout the entire setup to what becomes a prolonged chase. Notice how over and over again de Broca and editor Françoise Javet defy the laws of physics. Agnès, for example, will be talking to someone and then suddenly without warning she’s in her bright red roadster speeding away, with absolutely no interstitial material whatsoever. This gambit becomes more and more important to the film’s stretching of credulity (not to mention time and space) when Adrien is forced to take off after Agnès on foot, despite the fact that she’s being whisked away in a speedy car. A few jump cuts and Adrien is right there with the hapless woman as she’s being shanghaied aboard a plane to Rio.

Once in Rio Adrien is helped by an adorable little shoeshine boy named Sir Winston (Ubiracy de Oliveira), though Agnès frustratingly repeatedly falls in and out of his grasp. It turns out the second of the three statues was buried by Agnès’ father on their Brazilian estate, and while Agnès, in one of her brief moments with Adrien, manages to get her hands on the prize, those nefarious (and armed) tribesmen are there just as quickly to take it away. Adrien and Agnès finally stumble upon Professor Catalan, and the three of them then take off to find the third adventurer of the original expedition, a wealthy entrepreneur named De Castro (Adolfo Celi) in order to warn him that he and his statue are in danger. The film takes a not exactly earth shattering twist at this point, moving into an endgame with the three statues that obviously deeply influenced Steven Spielberg and George Lucas with the later Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures.

Whimsical to the “n”th degree while also offering an incredible travelogue of Brazil (including the then nascent capital city of Brasilia) circa mid-sixties, That Man from Rio offers Belmondo at his most charming and Dorléac at her most graceful and affecting. The film is filled with some great set pieces, including a couple of adrenaline pumping stunt sequences where it sure looks like Belmondo did at least some of his own work. Not really a “spy spoof” as much as an affably loopy take on adventure films (and, yes, those old Saturday morning serials), That Man from Rio is a delightful and engaging film that wafts over the viewer like an evocative Ipanema breeze.

That Man from Rio Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

That Man from Rio is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. The press materials tout this as having been sourced from a new 2K restoration, and the results are by and large extremely commendable. The presentation is nicely organic looking, with excellent densities and a generally appealing color space that certainly exploits the wonders of Brazil. Grain is very organic looking and resolves naturally. Elements have been restored to a virtually pristine condition. The film isn't sharp in a contemporary sense (nor should it be), but there's a really appealing depth and texture, with consistent contrast, throughout the presentation, and detail is very pleasing throughout. There are some very minor fluctuations in color temperature that the most sensitive videophiles may notice, and a couple of passing issues with crush in the darkest moments (something that actually afflicts Up to His Ears more noticeably). There are no issues with image instability and no signs of over aggressive digital tweaking of the image harvest.

That Man from Rio Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

That Man from Rio features an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mono mix in the original French (with some passing Portuguese) that capably supports the film's dialogue and the hugely enjoyable score that includes original cues by Georges Delerue as well as some on the fly jamming by various escolas de samba. Musically adept audiophiles may notice a not exactly coincidental similarity between one of the main themes Delerue employs and the haunting Mahna de Carnival from that "other" Rio film, Marcel Camus' legendary Black Orpheus. Things are just slightly thin sounding with regard to a few of the cues, but otherwise this is a problem free track that gets the job done without any major problems whatsoever.

Note: Curmudgeons may take passing issue with some of the overly contemporary sounding subtitle translations which include bon mots like "you need to chill."

That Man from Rio Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Adventures of Adrien: The Catalan Affair (1080p; 1:05:46) is a really interesting background piece on the film, bringing up interesting and perhaps unexpected connections like those to the iconic character of Tintin. For the record, the disc's main menu has "Catalan" slightly misspelled.


• Silly and Serious: The Collaboration between Georges Delerue and Philippe de Broca (1080p; 13:48) looks at the great French film composer. Again, someone in charge of crafting the main menu needs to check their spelling more carefully - "Georges" and "Philippe" are both mangled this time.


• Brothers of Cinema: The Collaboration of Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Philippe de Broca (1080p; 9:52) is an enjoyable interview with the screenwriter. Three guesses as to misspelled words on the main menu, and the first two don't count.


• Original Release Trailer (1080p; 2:57) features a very charming Belmondo shilling for the film.


• 2014 Re-release Trailer (1080p; 2:01)

That Man from Rio Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you've never seen That Man from Rio, prepare yourself for one of the most flat out enjoyable viewing experiences of your filmgoing life (yes, that's hyperbole—but earned hyperbole). Sweet and goofy in about equal measure, with some fun action elements thrown in just to keep the adrenaline pumping, the film offers three of the most spectacular sights imaginable—Jean-Claude Belmondo, Françoise Dorléac and Brazil. This new Blu-ray offers the film looking and sounding sumptuous, and the supplemental package is extremely enjoyable. Highly recommended.