7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Workers on a car factory argue with revolutionary students.
Director: Jean-Luc GodardForeign | 100% |
Drama | 83% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
French: LPCM Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This film is available as part of the box set Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin: Five Films, 1968-1971.
If you were asked to name just one film by iconic director Jean-Luc Godard, which one would you choose? Chances are for many of you it would
probably be his legendary pioneering New Wave entry Breathless,
or perhaps one of his better remembered titles from a bit later in his career like Alphaville or Masculin Féminin
.
Even if your particular choice wouldn’t in fact be one of these three films, this very trio in and of itself proves quite admirably how widely variant
the
content in Godard’s films can be, even if his style is often instantly recognizable. As perhaps evidenced by the title of what is the last film Godard
has
come out with (he’s still alive and kicking at 87 as this review is being written), 2014’s Goodbye to Language, Godard is often interested in the visceral intensity of imagery, imagery that is often either
divorced or at least tangentially related to any perceived content. In our recent Faces Places Blu-ray review, a film which has both subliminal and overt references to Jean-Luc Godard, I jokingly
referred to the five films in this set as among the "vaguest" of the Nouvelle Vague. In fact what is repeatedly so fascinating about these
five
admittedly odd films is how their presentational aspects are almost deliberately opaque, while some of their actual content is virtually screed like,
as Godard, probably already prone toward anarchistic tendencies, tipped over into what some have called "radicalization" in the wake of
sociopolitical unrest in the France of the late sixties.
It's a sometimes discomfiting mix, one that Godard and Gorin no doubt concocted intentionally, but it makes each of this quintet a rather peculiar
viewing experience at times.
All of the features included in Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin: Five Films, 1968-1971 are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains only some very basic information on the transfers, stating:
The films in this collection were restored from the original film and audio elements by Gaumont. The presentations of these films are in keeping with their original 16mm original productions.Un film comme les autres boasts a nicely organic looking image, with readily apparent grain and decent if never overwhelming detail in the many static field shots. The film is intentionally framed so that the characters' faces are almost always masked, and as such whatever fine detail levels there are tend to be with regard to elements like fabrics or even some of the foliage surrounding the characters. The field scenes have occasional nice pops of color, including some blue shirts and yellow socks, along with some golden hued flowers. There is regular usage of black and white interstitial material here culled from (more or less) newsreel footage of the 1968 riots in France, and some of that footage shows noticeable damage at times. There are also some curious brightness variances starting at around 1:35:00 that may be something as simple as clouds affecting the sunshine in the field scenes, but which look a bit more like photochemical issues to me.
Un film comme les autres features an LPCM Mono track in the original French. As with many of the productions in this set, there's an intentionally jumbled feeling to the soundtrack at times, something that's apparent from the get go, with two people speaking simultaneously. The film regularly utilizes more than one person speaking simultaneously, or at least having portions of conversations overlap. Fidelity is fine if never really stunningly impressive, revealing the intentionally lo-fi ambience of both the sound design and even the recording techniques utilized for the film.
Both Un film comme les autres and British Sounds are contained on the same Blu-ray disc. That disc features the following supplement:
Of course the subtext to Un film comme les autres is that it is distinctly unlike any number of other films, even other films of Godard's, though it aligns quite well with its four "siblings" in this set. Deliberately disjunctive in how it combines image with sound, this is not always "easy" viewing, but it's consistently provocative. Technical merits are generally first rate considering the 16mm source elements and guerrilla filming style.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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1963
Banditi a Orgosolo | Limited Edition
1961
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1984
Riten / The Ritual
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Törst
1949
I pugni in tasca
1965
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1973
1966