7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A feared kingpin, Gaètan "Tany" Zampa, runs the largest underground heroin trade from Marseille into the U.S. A fearless and tenacious magistrate, Pierre Michel, conducts a relentless crusade to dismantle Zampa's organization, aided by a task force of elite cops. But Zampa's "La French" always seems one step ahead. Based on the true story behind "The French Connection".
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Céline Sallette, Mélanie Doutey, Benoît MagimelForeign | 100% |
Crime | 38% |
Period | 9% |
Action | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English, English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
William Friedkin's 1971 classic, The French Connection, told a fact-based story about an international heroin smuggling operation, but Friedkin focused on two maverick NYPD detectives trying to intercept the narcotics at the distribution point in New York City. In The Connection, director and co-writer Cédric Jimenez explores the same smuggling network from the opposite end, its supply base in Marseille. In Friedkin's film (and its fictional sequel directed by John Frankenheimer), the French supplier of heroin was a single individual, the aristocratic Alain Charnier (a/k/a "Frog One"), but Jimenez paints on a broader canvas. A native of Marseille, he shows an entire city gripped by a criminal organization known simply as "La French" (the film's original title), which has so thoroughly infiltrated every facet of urban life that heroin smuggling is only part of its operations. In Jimenez's portrayal, Marseille of the Seventies becomes a latter-day version of Al Capone's Chicago, where everyone knows who the criminals are but no one dares to cross them. One man did. An outsider like Eliot Ness, Magistrate Pierre Michel began his career in Juvenile Court, where his dealings with teenage addicts left him with an abiding hatred of the drug trade. Transferred to the organized crime division in Marseille, he began an increasingly violent crusade against "La French" and its leader, Gaètan Zampa, known by the nickname "Tany". Although Jimenez and his co-writer Audrey Diwan describe their story as "loosely based on real events", The Connection follows the broad factual outlines of Michel's war with Zampa's organization. It lets the viewer decide who won. The Connection premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2014 and was released in France the following December. It received a limited release in U.S. theaters last May and is now being issued by Drafthouse Films as No. 31 in the company's increasingly impressive catalog of distinctive cinema.
The Connection was shot on film by Laurent Tangy, who learned his craft on the camera crews of such films as The Transporter, Tell No One and Unleashed. Post-production was completed at the all-digital Eclair Group facility in Paris. Drafthouse's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced directly from digital files. The Blu-ray image is superb: sharp and detailed, with a generally modest palette that gives the streets and waterfront of Marseille a weather-beaten, everyday contrast with the sunny resorts and neon and mirrored luxury of the bars and night spots where Zampa is likely to be found (especially Krypton, the disco he buys for his wife). Police stations and other government offices are usually cool and threadbare by contrast. Most of the action plays out in daylight, but blacks are strong when they appear. As is common with projects originated on contemporary film stocks and finished digitally, the film grain is extremely fine. Drafthouse has mastered The Connection with an average bitrate of 29.99 Mbps, and the compression has been carefully done. The image quality remains stable throughout.
The Connection's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, takes a more nuanced approach than the layered cacophony that often characterizes American crime films such as Heat. Instead, Jimenez's sound team tends to narrow the sonic focus to a few key sounds that are critical to a scene: footsteps, breathing, a car's engine. Only occasionally is a sequence accompanied by a loud and enveloping soundscape, e.g., at the Krypton disco. Subtle environmental cues are placed to left and right and in the surrounds, but they register almost subliminally. Dialogue remains primary. The original French language track is the sole audio option, with optional English subtitles (and a separate option for English SDH).
The crime film is such a well-established genre that it can't escape familiarity, but The Connection reinvigorates the form with two memorable lead performances, with a vivid sense of place and time, with a firm anchor in real events and, most of all, with its coolly detached view of both the cop and the criminal. The former may be more admirable than the latter, but crusaders usually pay a price. Like Shane, Magistrate Michel can never return to what he was. Once you enter this fight, there is no going back. Highly recommended.
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