The Round Up Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Round Up Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 17, 2011

Rose Bosch's "La Rafle" a.k.a "The Round Up" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Revolver Entertainment. The only supplemental feature included on the disc is a standard making of featurette. In French and German, with imposed English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Velodrome d'Hiver

The events chronicled in French director Rose Bosch’s La Rafle a.k.a The Round Up are real. On July 17, 1942 more than 13,000 Jews living in Paris were taken out of their homes and gathered in the giant Velodrome d’Hiver. From there, they were shipped to temp camps in the French countryside, and eventually sent to Auschwitz. Only 25 of them returned home.

The French authorities were in charge with the massive operation, not the Nazis. Rene Bousquet, a powerful member of the Vichy government, coordinated everything with Gestapo in Berlin, and directed the operation from his office in Paris. His initial plan was to exterminate only Jews from foreign nationality, but he changed his mind, and ordered the National Police to detain anyone with a file in the notorious Fichier Tulard.

La Rafle opens up in Montmartre, where most of the main characters in the film reside. Initially, Schmuel Weismann (Gad Elmaleh, The Valet) and his family, who have immigrated to France from Poland, are not concerned with the fact that they are asked to wear large yellow stars. They cannot even begin to imagine that the French authorities would mistreat them. Then, one day, they suddenly realize what is underway.

Bella Zygler (Sylvie Testud, Fear and Trembling) and her family are among the first to conclude that Paris is no longer safe. Dina Traube (Anne Brochet, Cyrano de Bergerac) and her husband have a good feeling what Vichy’s people are up to, but decide to stay. Both are too old to run away.

A young protestant nurse, Annette Monod (Melanie Laurent, Don't Worry, I'm Fine), is sent to Velodrome d’Hiver to assist Dr. David Sheinbaum (Jean Reno, 22 Bullets), who can’t help all the people waiting in front of his tent. Thirsty, hungry, and sick children, women and men are literally everywhere. Eventually, firefighters arrive and give the prisoners water and supplies.

Everyone is transferred to a heavily guarded camp in the countryside. From there, people are regularly shipped to the gas chambers in Auschwitz - the men first, then the women, and finally the children.

Bosch, who wrote the script for Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise, has done a good job chronicling one of the greatest tragedy in modern French history - there is an abundance of factual information in La Rafle, and the emphasis on period detail is excellent.

The cast is impressive. Laurent delivers a powerful performance as the young nurse who desperately tries to make a difference. Both Reno and Elmaleh are very convincing, though the two also appear in a few overly sentimental scenes that partially disrupt the rhythm of the film. The child actors are simply fantastic.

David Ungaro’s (Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky) lensing is classy. The special effects, and particularly the ones used for the panoramic shots from inside Velodrome d’Hiver, are top notch.

Note: Earlier this month, La Rafle was screened at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.

The Round Up Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Rose Bosch's The Round Up arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Revolver Entertainment.

Revolver Entertainment appear to have sourced their high-definition transfer from the same master French distributors Gaumont used for their Blu-ray release of The Round Up (Gaumont's logo is also on the coverwork). Obviously, this is very good news as Gaumont's Blu-ray release looks great.

A quick comparison between the two releases reveals that detail, clarity, and contrast levels are practically identical. I could not see any discrepancies in the color-scheme either - the various greens, yellows, blues, browns, grays, and blacks look as rich yet natural as they are on the Gaumont release. There are no traces of secondary corrections either - from denoising and sharpening to contrast boosting. Lastly, there are absolutely no stability issues whatsoever. Indeed, this is a great looking and competently produced Blu-ray release. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

The Round Up Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 2.0 (with portions of German). For the record Revolver Entertainment have provided imposed English subtitles for the main feature (they can not be turned off).

Bass and surround activity are rather limited, but the French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track still opens up the film quite well. Some of the footage from inside Velodrome d'Hiver, for instance, really creates the impression that one is right in the middle of the giant venue, with hundreds of people creating an enormous amount of noise. The evacuation is also very effective. The dialog is consistently crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. I also did not detect any pops, cracks, or hissings to report in this review. The English translation is very good.

The Round Up Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: The supplemental feature included on this Blu-ray disc is encoded in PAL. Therefore, you must have a Region-Free player capable of converting PAL to NTSC in order to view it in North America.

• Making of - a standard featurette containing footage from the shooting of La Rafle, as well as information about the events the film chronicles. Directed by Carole Nouchi. In French, with optional English subtitles. (27 min, PAL).

The Round Up Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

British distributors Revolver Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Rose Bosch's powerful The Round Up is a terrific alternative for those of you who could not take advantage of the French Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release Gaumont produced awhile ago. The film looks and sounds terrific. The UK Blu-ray release is also Region-Free. RECOMMENDED.