Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe Blu-ray Movie Review

Spy vs. Spy

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 8, 2015

America may have invented silent film comedy, but it was the French who first perfected farce as a dramatic art, where absurd situations, physical comedy and split-second timing conspire to leave audiences gasping with laughter. A number of French filmed comedies have united the two art forms, but none more effectively than Yves Robert's 1972 classic, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (or "Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire"). With a razor-sharp script by Francis Veber, who would go on to co-write La Cage aux Folles and write and direct Le dîner de cons (remade here as Dinner for Schmucks), The Tall Blond Man was a huge success in Europe and did remarkably well in America at a time when foreign films barely made a ripple in the U.S. market. The Tall Blond Man's inventive clowning required no translation. Like the films of Chaplin and Keaton, such works are easily transportable.

Gaumont, the original studio behind The Tall Blond Man, released the film on a region-free French Blu-ray in 2014 that we reviewed here. Specialty publisher Film Movement has now released a Region A edition in the U.S. as part of its new line of "film classics".

The device that drives Veber's script is diabolically simple. An internal battle is raging between France's top spy, Louis Toulouse (Jean Rochefort), and Bernard Milan (Bernard Blier), the number two man who would like to take Toulouse's place. Toulouse feeds Milan false information about a fictitious superspy who is supposed to be arriving by plane at a specific time, then sends his assistant, Perrache (Paul Le Person), to Orly Airport to pick out a random stooge from the crowd. Toulouse knows that the paranoid Milan will have the place thoroughly staked out and will throw every resource at the hapless innocent selected by Perrache. Faithfully implementing his boss's command, Perrache chooses a violinist named François Perrin (the brilliant Pierre Richard), who is tall and blond but whose chief appeal is the peculiarity of wearing one brown shoe and one black one. The reason for this mismatch will eventually be explained, but Perrache knows that Milan will spend hours trying to finds its "secret" meaning.

Milan's entire department proceeds to tail, stake out, bug and surveil the unfortunate François, who is oblivious to what is happening around him. He lives alone, collects antique instruments and is such a mild-mannered eccentric that he can be bullied both by his best friend, Maurice (Jean Carmet), who plays kettle drums in the same orchestra with François, and by Maurice's wife, Paulette (Colette Castel), who insists on cheating with François whenever her husband's back is turned, even though François feels terribly guilty about it.

Milan, who is duplicity personified, reads deep significance into every detail of François' life. The very absence of any sign of espionage activity only serves to confirm Milan's belief that François is a master of spycraft. Even Milan's most reliable weapon, the seductress Christine (Mireille Darc), fails to shake any useful information out of François (though she does note that he is quite good in bed). As Milan throws ever more elaborate resources at the nonplussed musician, Toulouse watches from afar, waiting for the appropriate moment to spring his trap. He has just enough decency to provide two security men (Jean Saudret and Maurice Barrier) to protect the poor civilian, but only up to a point. As far as Toulouse is concerned, one dead Frenchman more or less is an acceptable loss, as long as he eliminates Milan. The film's epilogue, which quotes the French penal code on every citizen's right to a "private life", is often deemed a comment on the invasive surveillance deployed against François, but the emphasis is just as much on being allowed to live as on living in private.

The Tall Blond Man has many famous scenes and memorable moments, including Christine's backless dress, which made such an impression that it had to be brought back in the 1974 sequel, The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe. My personal favorite is the concert in which François, Maurice and Paulette must all perform with the orchestra, and nothing goes right. François misses his cues, because he is thinking about his upcoming tryst with Christine; Maurice misses his cues, because he has just discovered that his wife is having an affair, though Maurice believes she's cheating with a florist rather than with François (it's hard to explain; see the film); and Paulette must fill dead air with her harp while François searches for his dropped bow. Meanwhile, the conductor is furious; Milan sits in the audience reading secret meanings into every false move; and Toulouse stands in the shadows like a puppetmaster. It's easily the funniest performance of Mozart that Mozart never intended.

Like all good comedies, The Tall Blond Man has a happy ending. Because it's a French film, love prevails. It may not conquer all, but it certainly makes a clean getaway.

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe was shot by René Mathelin, a frequent collaborator with director Yves Robert and also with Philippe de Broca, for whom Francis Veber wrote several scripts. According to Film Movement, their 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is based on a new 2k digital restoration, which appears to be the same one used for Gaumont's Blu-ray released last year (and reviewed here). The restoration has brought this 33-year-old film vividly to life, with remarkable clarity, detail and densities and a wonderfully varied palette that captures France of the early Seventies in both its formal style (among the spies in their offices) and its wilder look that so many young Americans made pilgrimages to find: colorful, sophisticated and carefree. The blacks are very good (look at the musicians' formal attire during the orchestral performance), and reds pop from the frame.

The source material appears to be in excellent shape, and the restoration has repaired any age-related damage or deterioration without imposing a video look on the film. Occasional shots are so clean as to suggest some judicious digital processing, but not to the extent of introducing artifacts or removing detail. Film Movement has mastered The Tall Blond Man with an average bitrate of 25.00 Mbps, and the compression has been carefully done.

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original mono soundtrack has been encoded in lossless PCM 2.0 with identical left and right channels. (The listing on the reverse of the jacket for "Dolby Digital" is a misprint.) For its vintage, the track has good dynamic range, allowing the many jokes that depend on sound effects to work properly. The French dialogue is clear, and the English subtitles appear to be newly translated. The jaunty score by Vladimir Cosma (The Closet), with its distinctive pan flute, sounds as good as ever.

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Film Movement's version does not include the documentary from the region-free Gaumont Blu-ray, no doubt in part because it has no English subtitles.

• Trailers: The trailers marked with asterisks also play when the disc first loads.
• The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe
• *Full Moon in Paris
• *The Marquise of O
• *The Pillow Book
• Amour Fou
• If You Don't, I Will
• 2 Autumns, 3 Winters



• Insert: The printed booklet inside the disc case includes stills, a chapter listing, film credits and an insightful essay by Nick Pinkerton, a freelance journalist and film programmer.

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Comedy as an art form has often been undervalued, but the precision balancing act of a work like The Tall Blond Man is every bit as demanding as the grand logistics of the largest screen epic. Even apparently casual elements that register subliminally in the background, like Toulouse's apartment that Milan has bugged, with its living room entirely furnished with massive Greek statues of nude men and its balcony next to the up-thrusting Eiffel Tower, have to be carefully chosen, positioned and photographed for maximum impact. The airport sequence where Perrache chooses François is a Hitchcockian tour de force of exchanged glances and stares, with each shot carefully planned. Watched for laughter, for craftsmanship or for both, The Tall Blond Man is a classic and highly recommended.