7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.
Starring: Pierre Blanchar, Charles Vanel, Gabriel Gabrio, Raymond Aimos, Antonin ArtaudForeign | 100% |
Drama | 50% |
War | 11% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.19:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
French: LPCM 2.0 Mono
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Raymond Bernard's "Wooden Crosses" a.k.a. "Les Croix de Bois" (1932) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include an archival interview with the French director; video interviews with film historians Marc Ferro and Laurent Veray; archival interview with writer Roland Dorgelès; archival documentary footage from Pathe's vaults; and a lot more. The release also arrives with a 40-page illustrated booklet featuring: "Les Croix de Bois" by Emmanuel Burdeau; "Echoes of the Past" by Ramond Bernard (extracted from Échos de naguère, Raymond Bernard’s autobiography); Interview with Laurent Veray; "Wooden Crosses and its Adaptations"; "Restoring Wooden Crosses"; and technical credits. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
On the battlefield
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.19:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Raymond Bernard's Wooden Crosses arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.
Wooden Crosses was recently restored in 4K at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, with the support of Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC). Eureka Entertainment's releases uses as a foundation the new 4K restoration of the film, which was initially released by Pathe in France on November 12, 2014. (You can see our review of the French release here).
The film looks vibrant and healthy, but Eureka Entertainment's presentation is not identical to Pathe's presentation. In terms of detail and clarity there are no major discrepancies, but on this new release the film looks notably darker. The discrepancies are quite obvious during the entire film, but the nighttime footage, in particular, looks very different. Obviously, there are inherited fluctuations -- with grain exposure, in particular, fluctuating between different areas of the film where time has left its mark -- but in select areas there are actually details that are simply impossible to see (compare screencapture #15 with screencapture #4 from our review of the French release). Because different elements were used during the restoration, some minor adjustments were applied to rebalance the image as best as possible (some very delicate denoising adjustments have been applied, but the integrity of the image has been preserved). Also, it is very easy to see that various stability enhancements have been performed because the big transition and stability issues from the R1 DVD release have been eliminated. Lastly, large debris, cuts, damage marks, and stains have been removed as best as possible. All in all, I think that the new 4K restoration of Wooden Crosses offers substantial improvements that allow one to experience the film in an entirely new way. However, I personally prefer the sightly brighter look of the Pathe release as it offers a slightly better balanced presentation of the film. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 2.0 track. For the record, Eureka Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.
There are minor depth and sharpness fluctuations, but even though time has clearly left its mark one has to remember that Wooden Crosses was shot with a fairly basic equipment in the very early stages of the sound era. Naturally, the sound can be somewhat uneven at times, but the unevenness is essentially a source limitation. The dialog is clean and stable (it is very easy to tell that the audio was in fact rebalanced as best as possible and age-related imperfections carefully removed). There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in this review.
The recent 4K restoration of Raymond Bernard's Wooden Crosses is undoubtedly one of Pathe's very best jobs. I think that all of the hard work that has gone into it easily shows and the people that were involved with the project deserve a lot of credit. Eureka Entertainment's upcoming Blu-ray release also includes all of the big supplemental features from Pathe's release, which should make it a lot more attractive to English speakers. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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