The Officers' Ward Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		5.0

The Officers' Ward Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 22, 2015

Winner of Cesar Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor, François Dupeyron's "The Officers' Ward" a.k.a. "La Chambre des Officiers" (2001) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label ARP Sélection. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the new 4K restoration of the film; cast and crew interviews; and making of featurette. Also included with this release is a copy of Marc Dugain's acclaimed novel. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

At the front

1914. The young and handsome colonel Adrien Fournier (Eric Caravaca, Son frère) is on his way to join the French Army. On the train station in Paris, he meets a beautiful young woman (Géraldine Pailhas, Jeune & Jolie) who is bidding farewell to another soldier. When he misses his train, Adrien asks her to have a drink with -- a small pleasure a lonely man like him may never have again. The two spend the night in a small hotel and in the morning Adrien heads to the front.

A few days later, he is badly wounded. A doctor from his unit examines him and announces that it would have been better if he had died with the rest of his men. Adrien’s face is so badly disfigured that he can’t talk and swallow on his own. But he can still breathe.

Eventually, Adrien is transported to Val-de-Grâce Hospital in Paris, where an ambitious surgeon (André Dussollier, Life of Riley) is doing his best to help people like him -- many with missing body parts and disfigured faces. A kind nurse, Anais (Sabine Azéma, Wild Grass), whose son is on the Belgian front, is assigned to take care of him.

Adrien slowly begins to recover, but without any mirrors in the ward where he is placed he has no idea what has happened to his face. Communicating with Anais, the surgeon, and the rest of the men in the hospital also isn’t easy. He uses a small wood board to explain how he feels and what he needs.

Many of the men around Adrien die. Some die from their wounds, some commit suicide because they are unable to cope with the fact that they have forever lost their faces. Adrien befriends two other patients, Henri (Denis Podalydès, Skirt Day) and Pierre (Grégori Derangère, Bon Voyage) and they help him recover.

Meanwhile, the surgeon continues working on Adrien’s face, but it isn’t easy to reconstruct it. The flesh is badly damaged and the grafting rarely works as intended. The pain is also unbearable. Eventually, Adrien begins questioning whether a recovery is possible, and whether it is worth fighting for his life.

The Officers’ Ward is based on the best-selling novel by Marc Dugain, which is available in the United States via Soho Press. French filmmaker François Dupeyron adapted the novel and directed the film. In 2001, it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or Award.

The film is quite graphic at times, but it is very gentle and strikingly beautiful. Initially, the action is seen primarily through Adrien’s eyes, but his disfigured face isn’t shown; he is only heard breathing. When he regains his ability to walk and discovers what has happened to him, Dupeyron finally points the camera at him.

The majority of the film takes place inside the hospital. Men are constantly moved around and it is easy to tell that many are struggling to find a good reason to stay alive. Some of the most powerful sequences are the quiet ones in which the camera simply observes them from afar or discovers that they have ended their lives. The visuals are very casual yet deeply unsettling.

The film was lensed by Japanese director Tetsuo Nagata (La Vie en Rose, Splice). It has a very unique period look that favors a variety of wonderfully saturated yellows and browns that created the impression that one has entered a very bizarre dream.

A fantastic score by Jean-Michel Bernard and extracts from classic works by Richard Wagner, Arvo Part, and Krystof Pendercki further enhance the incredible atmosphere.

The Officers' Ward Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, François Dupeyron's The Officers' Ward arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label ARP Sélection.

Restored in 4K, The Officers' Ward looks absolutely magnificent on Blu-ray. The film has a very stylized period look and the visuals are frequently quite extraordinary. The outdoor footage, in particular, looks enormously rich and vibrant, boasting a tremendous range of nuanced yellows (yellow is indeed the prominent color). The indoor footage from the ward impresses with excellent depth and clarity that make it exceptionally easy to see even very small objects and details. Contrast levels fluctuate a bit, but these fluctuations are indeed part of the film's original cinematography. There are no traces of problematic digital adjustments. Image stability is terrific. Lastly, there are no encoding anomalies to report in this review. All in all, this is an enormously impressive upgrade of François Dupeyron's film that is guaranteed to please its fans. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

The Officers' Ward Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. ARP Sélection has provided optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The lossless track beautifully opens up the film in all the right places. The explosions are very intense and crisp while the classical music theme are incredibly nuanced. The dialog from the ward is exceptionally crisp, clean and very deep (because of the excellent acoustics in the building, the audio is indeed excellent). Frankly, this is one of the very best mixing jobs that I have heard in a very long time. The English translation is excellent.

The Officers' Ward Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of - making of featurette with raw footage from the shooting of the film. In French, not subtitled. (19 min).

• Entretien avec Eric Caravaca - archival video interview with actor Eric Caravaca (Adrien). In French, subtitled. (20 min).

• Entretien avec François Dupeyron - archival video interview with director François Dupeyron. In French, subtitled. (19 min).

• Entretien avec André Dussollier - archival video interview with actor André Dussollier (the surgeon). In French, subtitled. (14 min).

• Entretien avec Denis Podalydès - archival video interview with actor Denis Podalydès (Henri). In French, subtitled. (14 min).

• Bande-annonce - original trailer for the new 4K restoration of The Officers' Ward. In French, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Novel - a copy of Marc Dugain's novel The Officers' Ward. In French.

• Collector's Case - a special case for the limited edition Blu-ray release of The Officers' Ward. See the photos included with our review.

The Officers' Ward Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

François Dupeyron's The Officers' Ward has been recently restored in 4K and is now available on an English-friendly Blu-ray in France. It is one of the most powerful and one of the best looking anti-war films that I have seen. During the DVD era it never received an official U.S. home video release, which is why I have to speculate that the 4K restoration most likely isn't going to reach this side of the Atlantic. Currently, ARP Sélection has two different Blu-ray releases of the film. The Collector's Edition, which is reviewed here, comes with Marc Dugain's acclaimed novel. There is also a cheaper standard edition with the same supplemental features found on the Collector's Edition. (You can see our listing of this release here.). VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.