6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Frederique Lesage, the new chief of police in a beautiful seaside community in Brittany, soon finds her job more eventful than expected when a ten-year-old girl is found raped and murdered. The last person to see her alive was a cynical and once-famous artist who now gives drawing lessons to earn a living.
Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacques Gamblin, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Bulle OgierForeign | 100% |
Drama | 65% |
Crime | 11% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: LPCM 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Claude Chabrol is almost unavoidably compared to Alfred Hitchcock, but it’s a perhaps wobbly comparison at best. Case in point: the standard whodunit. Can you name a Hitchcock film that exploits this traditional mystery trope? Hitchcock’s early opus Murder! is probably one of the few films in the iconic director’s career that fits at least relatively snugly into this format, but it’s a film that even many ardent Hitchcock fans probably haven’t seen. Hitchcock’s best known suspense films seem to deliberately shun traditional whodunit devices. Rear Window might be thought of as a “did he really do it”, while even Psycho, a film which apparently “reveals” the murderer during the murder scene ends up playing with that revelation in unexpected ways. In fact, when considering Hitchcock’s post-forties’ oeuvre, arguably his best known films, only The Trouble with Harry really has standard elements of the whodunit, and even there the film really isn’t all that concerned with who might be a potential murderer (in fact playing with the premise that several characters believe they're the murderer). And so putting aside what is probably the most oft-quoted comparison when it comes to Chabrol, The Color of Lies may in fact not have much resemblance to any given Hitchcock outing, but it certainly contains several of Chabrol’s own identifying characteristics, including an occasionally labyrinthine plot as well as a subtle but acerbic sense of humor, one which doesn’t shirk from skewering the morés of the middle class in a small Breton village where a young schoolgirl is found murdered (after having been raped). In what might seem like a passing homage to Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man, the girl’s art tutor is fingered as the likely suspect, though indications are he might—emphasis on might—have nothing to do with the horrible crime. Though “whodunit” is certainly an underlying point of interest in The Color of Lies, the film actually exists more as an almost sociological treatise on the ramifications of suspicion and assumed guilt in an isolated, almost hermetically sealed, village environment.
The Color of Lies is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. This is a major upgrade from the old, shoddy looking DVD, with much better saturated and more accurate looking color, stronger contrast and overall much greater clarity. Blues are especially vivid throughout the film. A natural grain field extends throughout the presentation. There are what appear to be some minor but noticeable signs of sharpening which give a somewhat processed look at times, but the film's nice Breton ambience pops quite well on this Blu-ray. A hefty bitrate and roomy BD-50 allow even the fog drenched night scene that occurs late in the film to resolve with no issues whatsoever.
The limited sound design of The Color of Lies is presented quite well on the LPCM 2.0 track on this Blu-ray (in the original French language, with optional English subtitles). The nice sounds of a windswept coast or even various noises in the village are all presented cleanly and clearly, as is dialogue. The rather anachronistic (and dare I say not especially evocative) music of Matthieu Chabrol (Chabrol's son) also comes through loud and clear, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view.
If you're new to Chabrol and come to his films based on the (too) often quoted comparison to Hitchcock, chances are you'll be disappointed with The Color of Lies, or indeed many other films by Chabrol. The mystery here is actually less important than what happens because of the mystery. The turgid private lives of villagers (albeit most middle class) fascinates Chabrol, and he loves to poke and prod underneath apparently "normal" people who often end up having rather dark elements in their psyches and (as is the case in this film) their behaviors. Approaching The Color of Lies as a piquant character study that just happens to have a couple of mysteries lurking in the background might better ensure a satisfying experience. This Blu-ray has generally excellent video and audio, and comes with a good commentary. Recommended.
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