Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Winter's Child Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 11, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of The Early Films of Olivier Assayas.

Irma Vep is probably at least arguably the best known film by Olivier Assayas, but as Assayas’ IMDb listing page makes clear, he has bounteous writing and directing credits going back to the late seventies. In what might be thought of as the “halfway point” between Assayas’ first credits and 1996’s Irma Vep, Arrow Video has aggregated two of Assayas’ efforts from the 1980s in The Early Films of Olivier Assayas. Both Disorder, which came out in 1986 and was Assayas' first credit as a feature film writer and director, and Winter’s Child, his second similar dual feature film writing and directing credit from 1989, offer intimate stories of psychological intrigue and at times just the hint of danger. They’re still probably formative works, and if they’re at least intermittently viscerally compelling, they may be more of a hit or miss property for some. That said, they may be of interest to anyone who, after having seen Irma Vep, felt their appetites whetted for more from this (then?) nascent auteur.

Winter's Child revisits some of the same kinds of interrelationship dysfunctions that helped to define large swaths of Disorder, but it arguably does so on an even broader canvas, even if some elements of Assayas' depictions in this film are downright discursive. That's probably nowhere more evident than in one of the many intersecting subplots, that of a pregnant woman named Natalia (Marie Matheron) who is abandoned by Stéphane (Michel Feller), the father of her unborn child, leading to all sorts of trauma, recriminations and eventual quasi-reconciliation. But what's so interesting about this (as an essay by Glenn Kenny in the accompanying insert booklet also points out) is that the baby's birth is almost a tangent, and in fact the baby is barely even seen in the film, even after Stéphane re-enters Natalia's life and wants to be part of "his" child's life.

The film spends quite a bit of time detailing various interconnections between characters, with various vignettes involving some people involved in theater, including Sabine (Clotilde de Bayser) and Bruno (Jean-Philippe Écoffey), intersecting with the already developing story between Stéphane and Natalia. Another subplot involves the fractured relationship between Stéphane and his father (Gérard Blain) and sister (Anouk Grinberg). Even Kenny in his essay seems forced to admit that Winter’s Child comes off as “austere”, but I’d add to that assessment that it’s almost relentlessly depressive, even if the film’s coda seems to suggest that some kind of bittersweet happiness might be wrested from even the bleakest situations.

Winter's Child Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: I'm beginning the reviews of both films in this set with some general information before moving on to comments about each individual film.

Both titles in The Early Films of Olivier Assayas are presented on Blu-ray by Arrow Academy, an imprint of Arrow Video, with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.85:1. Both films begin with brief text cards stating they've been digitally restored, without offering much of any further information, and the insert booklet is similarly circumspect, offering only the following verbiage (which includes a couple of errors, as noted):

Disorder and Winter's Child has [sic] been digitally restored in 2K resolution from original film materials. Olivier Assayas supervised and approved the restorations. The films are presented in their original aspect ratios of 1.66:1 [sic], with original stereo sound [sic].

This is one time when I wish Arrow's typically informative blurbs about the provenance of the transfers had been a little more concrete, as "original film materials" can mean just about anything, and while I'm not suggesting this actually is the case and am only mentioning it to provide a general idea of how both of these look, I'm kind of wondering if "original film materials" might include a CRI, as both of these films exhibit some of the strange toning and palette skewing that are often seen in transfers culled from a color reversal intermediate. I therefore recommend those interested to carefully parse the screenshots included with each review to get an idea of how these look.

Winter's Child exhibits some of the kind of strange looking palette that I mentioned in the Disorder Blu-ray review, though in this case there's not really a prevalence of the kind of blue undertone I mentioned in that review, and instead at least some of this presentation seems tilted toward peach like hues. This presentation is bolstered by a dramatically brighter overall ambience than the one that informs Disorder, and that helps to elevate both the general warmth of the palette (even when it doesn't look particularly "natural") as well as detail levels. There are still pretty noticeable variances in densities, and several shots look considerably softer and grainier than the bulk of the presentation. Some of the outdoor location work is rather evocative looking. My score is 3.75.

Winter's Child Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Winter's Child features an LPCM Mono track in the original French. This film, like Disorder, features a string drenched score, though in this case it's by Jorge Arriagada rather than by Gabriel Yared. The score, which also includes a few quasi-source cues as in some piano tinkling at a party late in the film, sounds full bodied and rather warm. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation, and some of the outdoor material has realistic sounding ambient environmental effects.

Winter's Child Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both films are presented on one disc by Arrow. The supplements on the disc are as follows:

• Disorder Interviews:

  Olivier Assayas (1080p; 41:48). In French with English subtitles.

  
  

  Ann-Gisel Glass, Lucas Belvaux, Wadeck Stanczak, and Remi Martin (1080p; 18:02). In French with English subtitles.

• Disorder Trailer (1080i; 2:02)


• Winter's Child Trailer (1080i; 1:15)

Additionally, Arrow has provided another nicely appointed insert booklet.

Winter's Child Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This film almost reminded of a Gallic version of an old Douglas Sirk melodrama from the fifties, but it has little of Sirk's subtexts or even much of his visual flair. This is kind of an appropriately wintry and drab film about some emotionally roiled characters, and as such it may be a bit of a slog for some viewers. Technical merits are generally fine, though video is a little inconsistent at times, for those considering a purchase.