Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Quiet Girl Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson September 22, 2022

Colm Bairéad's debut feature THE QUIET GIRL (2022) has arrived courtesy of UK label Curzon Film. The BD-50 only comes with the film's theatrical trailer. Region "B" locked.

The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin) is set in 1981 in rural Ireland where it opens at an overcrowded house in the countryside. Nine-year-old Cáit (Catherine Clinch), the movie's main protagonist, lives with her two older sisters and a baby brother. Her father Athair Cháit (Michael Patric) is an inveterate gambler, womanizer, and heavy drinker who ignores his children most of the time. Cáit likes to roam and lay in the fields which earns her the nickname of "wanderer" by her Dadaí. Cáit's mother Mathair Cháit (Kate Nic Chonaonaigh) is so overwhelmed nursing and tending to the household that she has scant time to spend with her youngest daughter. The parents decide it's an ideal time to send or "farm out" Cáit to a Waterford dairy farm for the summer. The country home is a definite upgrade for Cáit over her regular abode. The foster parents for Cáit's summer sojourn are cousins of the Cháit's. Eibhlín Cinnsealach (Carrie Crowley) is a quiet and kind homemaker. Her husband Séan (Andrew Bennett) is a farmer who's initially aloof and indifferent around Cáit. For example, he continues to watch television in the living room instead of looking at Cáit and saying goodnight to her. However, Séan and Cáit gradually form a bond, performing outdoor tasks and activities in the picture's second half. The Cinnsealachs assure Cáit that there are no family secrets. After Cáit arrives, however, there are shirts and trousers in the guest bedroom. Was there a prior occupant? During a long stroll, neighbor Úna (Joan Sheehy) discloses some secrets about the Cinnsealachs' earlier life together.

Cáit explores a new home.

The Quiet Girl is based on Claire Keegan's 2010 extended short story/novella, Foster. (Keegan's work was selected and reprinted by publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which named it one of the best short stories the following year.) Writer/director Colm Bairéad has said in interviews that he faithfully adapted the novella. But since it's only ninety-six pages long, he felt he needed to open up his filmic narrative some more. Keegan wrote some of Cáit's fragmented memories growing up and Bairéad has expanded those into the movie's first act. The novella is told from the first-person perspective (Cáit's) and the film has retained that device with Cáit appearing in practically every scene. Cáit's literal growth and development is amplified during her stay with the Cinnsealachs. Whereas she was underfed and neglected at home, she's well-fed and doted on by her foster parents. She's also delighted to wear untattered clothes, including a new dress. Their sharing of food (e.g., chocolate biscuits) with Cáit is a symbol of togetherness and harmony. Sitting and eating even helps mollify mild arguments. Cinematographer Kate McCullough's beautifully rapturous lensing of the Irish forest helps make The Quiet Girl an utterly enchanting experience.

The Quiet Girl Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Curzon Home Cinema's recent release of The Quiet Girl arrives in a thick, translucent keep case that comes with a MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 30.16 GB). Bairéad's maiden feature appears in its originally composed and projected aspect ratio of 1.37:1. Bairéad spoke remotely in a video interview with Sebastian Markt, the Berlinale Generation Head of Programming for Berlin's film festival, about why he and McCullough chose to film in a squarish ratio: "We made the decision to shoot in the Academy ratio...we shot full frame on the Sony VENICE Camera so what you're actually seeing is you're actually seeing more than you would traditionally see in a 2.35 image, so because the top and bottom of the frame are suddenly exposed. So suddenly, ceilings and floors are visible in much more part of the world...we still have considerable vertical range in what we see in our day-to-day lives and that was closer to that and that it also suited the character [Cáit], you know, who's very kind of observant and wide-eyed but doesn't necessarily understand everything that she encounters in the adult world." McCullough elaborated to Gerry Maguire on an episode of the Irish Film London Podcast where she describes the simplicity and portrait quality of the full frame. She called 1.37:1 "the only way to shoot." She explained why to Maguire: "...[Cáit] still hasn't quite figured out the world. There's still stuff to be uncovered...the aspect ratio really kind of lends itself to where you can kind of see the characters within the space but you're not allowing it to take over on the sides." I concur with their technical decisions for these reasons and also because viewers are witnessing a past period.

Sony touts that its VENICE camera has "phenomenal color science" with an excellent image sensor. The verdant hues literally leap off the screen (see Screenshot #s 5, 10, 16, 18, and 22). Bairéad and McCullough made a creative choice to make the interiors of the Cháit home darker (see frame grab #s 7 and 15.) There is no pixellation or compression artifacts. Curzon has encoded the video at a mean bitrate of 35000 kbps.

Curzon gives viewers a dozen chapters for the 94-minute film.

The Quiet Girl Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Curzon has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (2023 kbps, 16-bit) and an LPCM 2.0 Stereo mix (1536 kbps, 16-bit). Dialogue is spoken in both English and the Irish Gaelic language. (Bairéad said in an interview with MOVIES.IE that the actors spoke in the regional dialect "Munster Irish.") Bairéad grew up in a bilingual household so filming it in two languages was partly an autobiographical choice. The Quiet Girl sometimes relies on silence and the audio tracks accent wind and other nature-based sounds. Furthermore, there's the diegetic sources of TV and radio noise. I found the delivery the most problematic. While Curzon provides English subtitles for the Gaelic dialect, there aren't any subs for spoken English. Words are often hard to make out, which necessitate turning the volume way up. Curzon should have included auto-generated subs and an additional subtitle track that transcribes all dialogue.

The Quiet Girl Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Theatrical Trailer (1:41, 1080p) -Curzon's cinema and home video trailer for The Quiet Girl presented in 1.37:1. The video carries a standard bitrate of 34970 kbps. There's a Gaelic/English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (1800 kbps, 16-bit) along with a Gaelic/English LPCM 2.0 Stereo mix (1536 kbps, 16-bit). Some English subs are displayed for the Gaelic dialogue. The trailer's opening shows some compression and noise.

The Quiet Girl Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Quiet Girl is a timeless children's story that follows in the pantheon of Oscar-nominated films about youngsters by François Truffaut, Louis Malle, and Caroline Link. The important plot point of familial secrets shares a particular connection to Montxo Armendáriz's terrific Spanish film, Secretos del corazón (Secrets of the Heart, 1997). Bairéad's directorial debut has been lapping it up on the festival circuit. It garnered the Best Feature Film prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. At home, it won in seven categories at the 2022 Irish Film and Television Awards, including Best Film. Neon's subidary label Super acquired American distribution rights to the picture. Here's your chance to see it early! Curzon Home Cinema has delivered a spotless transfer with solid lossless audio that I only wish had more subtitling options. A STRONG RECOMMENDATION.