Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Outsider Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 9, 2019

Jacques Deray's "The Outsider" a.k.a. "Le Marginal" (1983) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an exclusive new audio commentary by critic Samm Deigham and vintage trailer for the film. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The outsider

Jean-Paul Belmondo was fifty when he made The Outsider with Jacques Deray. Keep this in mind when you view the film, and remember that he did all of the heavy lifting. The dangerous boat chase, the wild car chase, it is Belmondo doing it all. There is no digital trickery here, and there were no stuntmen or doubles helping him.

Veteran detective Philippe Jordan (Belmondo) arrives in Marseille to help the local authorities bring down a large crime organization that controls the area’s drug business. Everyone knows that Sauveur Meccacci (Henry Silva who utters his lines in English but is dubbed in odd French) is the top man in the organization that pulls all the strings, but there isn’t solid evidence to put him behind bars. The outsider immediately goes to work, but when a day later he busts a couple of smugglers and then dumps two hundred kilos of drugs in the sea, he is sent right back to his precinct in Paris.

But Jordan does not give up on Meccacci and begins targeting his partners in Paris. While he does ‘research work' in the city’s notorious Red Light District, one of his targets mentions to him Freddy The Chemist (Michel Robin), an aging well-connected gay pusher, who has become a liability for Meccacci’s organization because he wants to retire and would be willing to spill the beans on his former partners if he is paid enough so that he can get out of the country. While looking for the old-timer Jordan then meets and begins a romantic relationship with the beautiful prostitute Livia (Carlos Sotto Mayor), who further complicates his mission after she angers the violent Tourian brothers.

Eventually, Meccacci becomes so annoyed by Jordan’s unorthodox working methods and persistence that he sends a few of his best assassins to take him out. But he severely underestimates his nemesis.

The Outsider has a little bit of everything that makes Belmondo and Deray’s work special, but the one quality that transforms it into a genre classic is its authenticity. Indeed, the film is packed with colorful characters and high-octane action, which when brought together for entertainment purposes usually hurt authenticity, and yet here exactly the opposite happens. The deeper Belmondo’s character goes into the underground world, the more convincing his read of the dangers that he faces become. As a result, everything becomes looser, more casual, and credibly dangerous. This is the beauty of the film -- it looks very unglamorous while it does everything that the big and flashy action thrillers that Hollywood produces do.

There are a couple of interesting cameos. A very young Tcheky Karyo (Dobermann) plays a small-time crook who quickly discovers that independence always comes with a price tag. Maurice Barrier (The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe) is the shady character that sends Jordan looking for The Chemist. And of course, Mayor, who at the time was Belmondo’s partner.

Deray made the film with Xaver Schwarzenberger, who lensed several Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films, including his final two projects as a director and actor, Querelle and Kamikaze '89.

The soundtrack is yet another stunner from the great maestro Ennio Morricone.

The Outsider Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jacques Deray's The Outsider arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

At the very end of her audio commentary Samm Deighan mentions that she is glad to see The Outsider restored and finally available on the U.S. home video market, but this is a slightly misleading statement. The film has not been restored. As it is the case with the recent release of The Professional, this new release of The Outsider is sourced from an older master that emerged from StudioCanal's vaults and was previously used for various European DVD releases of the film. Nevertheless, I like this master as well.

You should expect to see many of the same limitations that are visible on The Professional. For example, there are some minor fluctuations in terms of depth and delineation, with the most obvious ones emerging during the darker indoor footage. This is the area where the grain becomes a tad loose, even borderline noisy, and as a result delineation suffers (see screencaptures #14 and 17). Also, like most older masters this master is plagued by random light crushing, which a new and proper 2K/4K remaster will effectively eliminate (see screencapture #21). The rest, however, looks very nice. Density levels are pleasing, and if you can upscale to 4K a lot of the obvious limitations that I highlighted above will pretty much disappear. Also, there are no traces of digital tinkering, which is why the visuals retain a decent organic appearance. Some sporadic flatness and softness remains, but it is never distracting. The color grading is convincing as well. Yes, saturation can be better and more accurate, and nuances can be expanded, but everything here looks so much better than what for example the recent 'restoration of That Man from Rio conveys. Image stability is very good. Finally, there are no distracting debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report. (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 Outsider 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 encounter any technical issues to report in our review. The audio is stable and clean. Balance is also good. As far as dynamic intensity is concerned, I think that the lossless track reproduces the native qualities of the original soundtrack very well. The boat chase and later the car chase I thought have the right amount of oomph; the shootouts sound sharp and clear as well. My one and only minor criticism pertains to the size of the subtitles. Perhaps they should be slightly bigger.

The Outsider Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for The Outsider. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (3 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - critic Samm Deigham, obviously a fan of The Outsider, shares plenty of historical information about the film as well as the careers of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jacques Deray. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Kino Lorber's new Blu-ray release.

• Other Trailers - additional trailers for:
  
  1. The Professional
  2. Le Doulos
  3. The Sicilian Clan

The Outsider Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Outsider is not as well-known as The Professional on this side of the Atlantic, but I think that it is unquestionably the better film. It should be a mandatory acquisition for fans of Jean-Paul Belmondo and his work. Kino Lorber's new release of The Outsider is sourced from an older but good master, and I like it quite a lot. I really hope that now that the folks at Kino Lorber have access to StudioCanal's catalog we will also see Blu-ray releases of Happy Easter and The Night Caller. The former is one of my favorite Belmondo films. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.