Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Body of My Enemy Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 19, 2022

Henri Verneuil's "The Body of My Enemy" (1976) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary recorded by critics Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson, as well as vintage trailer for the film. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The Body of My Enemy is without a shadow of a doubt the strangest collaboration between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Henri Verneuil. But it is not because it did not turn out to be another fast-paced action film. Indeed, during the course of their careers, Belmondo and Verneuil actually made plenty of films that took their time to explore complex relationship away from screeching tires and flying bullets, and a few of them are amongst their best. What makes The Body of My Enemy a strange film is its inability to pick a proper tone for its story and message, which is a very puzzling flaw for a number of different reasons. I will mention them below.

Belmondo is Francois Leclercq, a middle-aged failed businessman who has just regained his freedom. As he arrives at the train station of a large city, his mind unleashes an avalanche of memories that gradually assemble the story of his life.

In one of these flashbacks Leclercq is a young boy who has an experience in a small bookstore that prematurely makes him realize that the world he lives in is an unjust place. At the end of the experience, Leclercq vows to seduce Gilberte Liegard (Marie-France Pisier), who is his age but happens to be the privileged daughter of a very wealthy industrialist. In another flashback, Leclercq is seen visiting a construction site where he once managed the extremely popular night club Number One, which went belly up after he discovered that his employees were dealing drugs and tried to stop them. Leclercq attempted to expose the mastermind behind the illegal business, but higher powers intervened, had him framed as a murderer, and he ended up behind bars. Shortly after, Number One seized to exist. In a third flashback, Leclercq is seen in court arguing that he had nothing to do with the troubles in Number One and isn’t a murderer, and repeatedly failing to convince a judge, a prosecutor, and jury members that were once regulars in his club.

A large segment of the film is dedicated on Leclercq’s crucial relationship with Mrs. Liegard in the present. Many years after their initial encounter in the bookstore, Leclercq visits the lavish mansion where she resides pretending to a be a potential property buyer and earns himself a date with her. Then, after he accomplishes his goal of seducing her, the two begin a romantic relationship that gives him access to her powerful father, Jean-Baptiste (Bernard Blier), whose connections he plans to use to identify the party that framed him. But shortly after Leclercq begins reconstructing his downfall, his relationship with Mrs. Liegard crumbles.

Michel Audiard, quite possibly the greatest post-WWII French screenwriter, and Felicien Marceau adapted the latter’s novel and then handed a screenplay to Verneuil which he apparently tweaked before he began working on The Body of My Enemy. What did the tweaking change exactly? It is difficult to tell, but it is very easy to speculate what went wrong because the insertion of the flashbacks produces plenty of problems for the character arcs and ultimately the film’s message. For example, these flashbacks are supposed to illustrate the clear differences between Leclercq and his kind and Mrs. Liegard and her kind, as well as the particular barriers that contemporary France has in place to keep them apart. However, once Leclercq’s objectives are made clear and he engages his target, the content from the flashbacks actually begins to erode the integrity of the character arcs and the film’s message. Indeed, Leclercq quickly evolves into a cynical chameleon whose tactics and actions make him far more repulsive than the elitists he is going after. Was this intentional? It could not have been, because the film does not use Leclercq’s cynicism to arrive at the conclusion that a rapid move from the bottom to the top of the social ladder irreversibly changes one’s personality and views and promptly transforms one into a corrupt elitist as well. Instead, Leclercq is often seen alone and heard pondering his supposedly just mission without noticing the effects of his transformation.

The murder mystery, which is an element of Leclercq’s transformation, is pretty weak, too. It puts the spotlight on his anger, which makes the supposedly vital message even less effective.

The Body of My Enemy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Body of My Enemy arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

At first glance, the master that was used to produce this release looks quite good. It is because it is free of problematic digital adjustments and the surface of the visuals is very, very healthy. Unfortunately, this master is pretty awkwardly graded, though I must make it clear that it is not in the same league with the one that was prepared for Cartouche. In fact, some of the footage from the the striptease club, Number One, looks pretty decent, even good, though it could have looked simply superb. So, what is the problem? It is pretty easy to tell that select primaries and nuances are not properly set. Whites and blues are the most badly mismanaged ones, but it is not difficult to see that greens and browns are off by quite a bit as well. As a result, the daylight footage usually has an unnaturally greenish and quite flat appearance. (Screencaptures #7, 8, and 9 are supposed to be from a very sunny day, but as you can see leave a very different impression). Such anomalies usually destabilize the dynamic range of the visuals as well, so it is not surprising that during daylight and darker areas this is exactly the type of anomaly that becomes obvious as well. (You can see clear examples in screencaptures #22 and 25). In fact, the anomaly is even noticeable during the opening credits with the title of the film (see screencapture #29). Needless to say, all of this is very unfortunate because the master has very strong organic qualities, which means that with a proper grading job it could have offered a pretty spectacular presentation of the film. Image stability is excellent. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Body of My Enemy 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 subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I did not detect any traces of age-related imperfections. The audio was very clear, sharp, and stable. Francis Lai's score frequently produced gentle but very effective contrasts as well. Rather predictably, dynamic intensity is limited. The English translation is good.

The Body of My Enemy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a remastered vintage trailer for The Body of My Enemy. In French, not subtitled. (5 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new commentary was recorded by critics Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson.

• Cover - reversible cover with vintage poster art for The Body of My Enemy.

The Body of My Enemy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Henri Verneuil and Jean-Paul Belmondo made a few spectacular films together, so it is not unrealistic to approach The Body of My Enemy expecting that it would match their quality. Sadly, it does not, and it is not because it has a drastically different personality. My suspicion is that The Body of My Enemy did not turn out as it should because there was a disconnect between the original screenplay that was handed to Verneuil and the type of film he wanted to shoot. Belmondo does some good things in it, which is hardly surprising, but its tone isn't right and the message misses the mark. Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release of The Body of My Enemy is sourced from a very healthy but unconvincingly graded master.