8.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A captured French Resistance fighter during WWII engineers a daunting escape from a Nazi prison in France.
Starring: François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod, Jacques ErtaudForeign | 100% |
Drama | 99% |
War | 9% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
French SDH, English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Winner of Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Robert Bresson's "Un condamné à mort s'est échappé" a.k.a. "A Man Escaped" (1956) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer and a documentary film directed by Pierre-Henri Gilbert. In French, with optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
Feeling the door
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Robert Bresson's Un condamné à mort s'est échappé arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont.
I have mixed feelings about the presentation of this classic French film. Struck from a freshly restored master, Gaumont's high-definitio0n transfer clearly outperforms the standard definition transfer British distributors Artificial Eye used for their DVD release of director Bresson's film a couple of years ago -- detail, clarity, and contrast are indeed dramatically improved, and the mild to moderate macroblocking that plagues the DVD release is also gone. Furthermore, on the DVD the film looks enormously soft, occasionally even fuzzy, breaking down during the final twenty or so minutes; on the Blu-ray the film still looks soft but it has nice organic qualities; film grain, in particular, is very prominent. A large number of the stability issues present on the DVD release are also eliminated. Various scratches, cuts, warps, and debris have been addressed as well.
Unfortunately, a portion of the high-definition transfer is marred by the presence of various extremely light to moderate chroma noise effects (see screencapture #12), most of which appear very early into the film. Some have a tendency to pulsate for a couple of seconds, others simply pop up and quickly disappear. This is quite disappointing because otherwise Gaumont's high-definition transfer is indeed very impressive. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).
There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0. For the record, Gaumont have provided optional English and French SDH subtitles for the main feature.
Unlike the video treatment, the audio treatment is flawless. Clearly, various stabilizations have been performed and background noise and hiss removed. As a result, the dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. Predictably, the dynamic amplitude of the lossless track is quite limited, but the depth and clarity it allows for are indeed very pleasing. The English translation is excellent.
Note: All of the supplemental features on this Blu-ray disc are perfectly playable on North American PS3s and Blu-ray players.
I have to speculate that sooner rather than later Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped will appear in the Criterion Collection. I also feel confident in stating that when it does - obviously, as a Blu-ray release - it would be an all-around better package (see the video portion of this review) than the one French distributors Gaumont have put together. My advise to you is to wait for the Criterion release. In the meantime, if you could, RENT this release.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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