Weak Spot Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Weak Spot Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 23, 2025

The commentary by Travis Woods included on this disc as a supplement mentions how eerily prescient Weak Spot may seem for some, especially those reeling from a certain recent election outcome, but certain aspects of the plot of this film are more than redolent of times past, as indicated by "historical" efforts like Franz Kafka's The Trial, among many other potential examples that could be cited. Weak Spot begins with a bang, or perhaps more appropriately a splat, as director Peter Fleischmann's framings show a police action resulting in a suicidal jump from a building. Fascinatingly, the mise-en-scène soon seems to be "withdrawing" from this scene as the camera pulls back, but that's a sleight of hand that instead allusively introduces the film's focal character, a travel agent identified in the cast listing as Georgis (Ugo Tognazzi), but who for all intents and purposes is "nameless" (a key subtextual plot point), and who works across the street from the maelstrom. Why introduce a character this way, with an apparently unrelated and chaotic situation unfolding outside of his workplace? That's just one of several puzzles a labyrinthine and probably intentionally opaque screenplay offers, but this opening gambit does two things almost instantly: it seems to indicate an out of control police state (something the rest of the film certainly emphasizes), and it also unavoidably sets things off in an emotionally roiling, skewed manner, that probably presages the emotional turmoil that Georgis is about to experience.

Much as in the Kafka tale mentioned above, Georgis suddenly finds himself arrested for no clear reason, though in this case he isn't remanded to some fortress like prison facility, but instead forced to participate in a "road trip" with two (also unnamed) policemen, The Investigator (Michel Piccoli) and The Manager (Mario Adorf). Is Georgis a suspect in what happened outside of his workplace? Or is something more nefarious going on, and could that actually have something to do with one of the ostensible investigators? It's all deliberately discursive, but that is part and parcel of what gives Weak Spot its really unsettling ambience.

Weak Spot Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Weak Spot is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Radiance's insert booklet has the following basic information on the transfer:

Weak Spot was scanned in 4K resolution from the original negative, and supplied to Radiance Films by Studio Canal as a high definition digital file.

I've gone on record as not always being especially fond of some of the "pre-delivered masters" provided to boutique labels like Radiance Films by the likes of Toei, to cite one example, but in this case Studio Canal has either restored this element beautifully or it was curated extremely well. There's virtually no discernable age related wear and tear to report, and the palette is very healthy looking for the most part, and pops especially well in some of the gorgeous outdoor material. There is a very slight skewing toward blue tones in some of the outdoor material. Fine detail on things like fabrics and even some of the stonework on historical buildings is typically excellent. There are a few relatively rough looking patches along the way, many resulting from less fulsomely lit sequences, where grain can spike and overall clarity can ebb just a bit.

Weak Spot Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Weak Spot features an LPCM 2.0 Mono track that is in great condition, though lovers of Ennio Morricone may have wished for an isolated score supplement presented in stereo (if that had been possible). Morricone's score is a highlight of the film, and any lovers of film music in general and Morricone in particular will no doubt really enjoy the analysis by Lovely Jon included as a supplement on this disc. While there is activity offered vis a vis ambient environmental effects throughout the audio presentation, this is by and large a "talk fest", and dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Weak Spot Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Travis Woods


• Michel Piccoli (HD; 4:52) is offered here in a snippet from a 1975 television interview. Subtitled in English.


• Lovely Jon (HD; 26:20) is a really fantastic look at Ennio Morricone's score for the film. For anyone who, like I did, used to pore over album credits to see who was playing on various tracks, Jon does an outstanding job of highlighting many of the session players who performed for Morricone.

Additionally Radiance provides another nicely appointed insert booklet. Somewhat hilariously given an emphasis on "masculine energy" that has suffused newsfeeds over the past couple of weeks as this review is being written, an essay by Kat Ellinger is entitled "We Don't Need Another Hero: Weak Spot, Masculinity, and Heroism". The booklet also has a few stills and the typical cast and crew and technical information. Radiance's trademark Obi strip is offered, and the keepcase insert features a reversible sleeve.

Weak Spot Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's of course salient that really none of the characters in this film are named, as Weak Spot offers a world where "individuals" are simply cogs in some menacing machine where there's really no meaningful differentiation between the "good guys" and the "bad guys". Similarly, it really doesn't matter if any one person is "guilty" or "innocent", since it's almost the process of arrest and interrogation that is the point here, rather than what that arrest and interrogation may really be about. This is troubling film that should certainly resonate with those concerned about governmental and/or police overreach. Technical merits are solid and both the commentary and Lovely Jon analysis in particular are highly enjoyable. Recommended.