6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A father in pre-WWII France is torn between his sense of honor and his deep love for his saintly daughter when she gets in trouble with the wealthy son of a shopkeeper.
Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Kad Merad, Sabine Azéma, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Nicolas DuvauchelleForeign | 100% |
Romance | 14% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter. Sylvia Plath's poem "The Beekeeper's Daughter." Amy Tan's The
Bonesetter's Daughter. Noticing a pattern? This particular titling convention—definite article + possessive
noun/occupation + synonym for female offspring—has turned ubiquitous over the last decade, with quite literally
hundreds of novels following suit. Is it simply a trend? A me-too way for authors and publishers to cash in on a
familiar-sounding name? Or is there something deeper going on here—a collective commentary on young women, essentially
possessed by their fathers, lacking their own personal and cultural identities? Whatever the cause, when I see a novel
—or film, in this case—with the word "daughter" in the title, I almost instantly write it off, rightly or wrongly, as derivative,
pseudo-literary, or worse.
I'm glad the positive festival buzz about The Well-Digger's Daughter caught up to me before I dismissed the movie
out of hand. The film is derivative—in the sense that it's based on a Marcel Pagnol novel and a loose remake of Pagnol's own
1940 adaptation—but its old-fashioned tone and narrative style run refreshingly contrary to most modern romantic dramas.
Convert it to black and white, crop it down to the 1.33:1 "Academy" ratio, scuff up the picture a bit, and you'd be forgiven for
mistaking this moral tale as a genuine product of mid-20th century French filmmaking.
The Well-Digger's Daughter emerges on Blu-ray—courtesy of Kino-Lorber—with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's true to source and strikingly sharp. Shot on 35mm, the image retains its natural filmic appearance here, with a warm layer of grain and no signs of digital noise reduction, excess compression, or other concerns. You may suspect some slight edge enhancement was applied—I did, at first—but on closer inspection it looks like the picture really is that sharp, with surface, skin, and clothing textures that are extremely finely resolved. This actually leads to a two or three instances of moire shimmer—see the weft of Amoretti's sweater in certain scenes—where the lens is effectively out-resolving the ability of a 1080p picture to display the full degree of detail that's being captured. (Don't worry, though; this is always brief and far from distracting.) Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Jean-François Robin, the film has a rich color palette—tinged with a slightly nostalgic warm cast—that's perfectly reproduced here, with balanced contrast and no under- or over-saturation. A beautiful high definition image in all respects.
For a mostly quiet drama that focuses on the dialogue between characters, The Well-Digger's Daughter—sporting a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track—has surprisingly involving and dynamic sound design. The mix is strong with room-filling environmental ambience—insect and bird calls, blowing wind through tall grass, crowds murmuring and clapping at the air show, etc.—making full use of the rear speakers. Filling out the soundscape is an evocative score by Alexander Desplat (The Tree of Life, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and many more), which seems to borrow the first few bars from Krzysztof Komeda's theme for Rosemary's Baby. Voices are cleanly recorded and always balanced well. Do note, though, that The Well-Digger's Daughter has hard-coded English subtitles, meaning they can't be turned on or off at will. They're always there. This won't be a big deal for most audiences—who can't speak French and are going to leave the subtitles on anyway—but it may be a mild annoyance to some.
One of this year's best surprises from the festival circuit, The Well-Digger's Daughter is a return to old-form romantic melodrama, but with a satirical subtext that points out the irrationality and hypocrisy of turn-of-the-century sexual mores. The film is beautifully shot and acted, and I was happy to learn that actor/director Daniel Auteuil is already prepping two more Marcel Pagnol adaptations. Here's to hoping they're as good as this one. It comes out next week, but don't let The Well- Digger's Daughter get lost in the Christmastime shuffle—it's well worth seeing. Highly recommended!
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