Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Year of the Jellyfish Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 10, 2022

As someone who has been tasked with writing reviews of everything from innumerable opera "reimaginings" to lo-fi Italian cinema in particular that I'd personally utilize the upcoming term for, it's maybe just a little funny that the back cover of this release touts Year of the Jellyfish as "Eurotrash". In that regard it's kind of interesting that several online dictionaries and the like define "Eurotrash" as referring to people rather than a style, but with regard to Year of the Jellyfish, it might not be an appropriate term one way or the other. The evidently "accepted" definition of Eurotrash revolves around folks who might otherwise be termed nouveau riche, with a pretentious, often arrogant, air about them. As a style, Eurotrash is often defined by a lot of nudity, typically beyond gratuitous, as well as smarmier aspects like injecting things like sadomasochism into, oh, you know, Mozart's oeuvre. Year of the Jellyfish does in fact offer copious nudity, including in the film's very opening scene, which offers a veritable bevy of bouncing bosoms without any apparel covering them. But kind of interestingly, the nudity, while basically nonstop, really doesn't end up giving the film that much of a sleazy ambience, and there are undeniable attempts at actual characterization, which may at least slightly elevate this enterprise, as if the film itself were saying, "Hey, my eyes are up here."

Perhaps offering a rare moment of discretion, two of the focal characters of the film are actually introduced with their bathing suits intact, though don't go assuming that's going to be the case moving forward. Year of the Jellyfish opens on vacationing mother and daughter Claude (Caroline Cellier) and Chris (Valérie Kaprisky), who are sunning themselves on an absolutely picturesque beach. There may in fact be just the tiniest whiff of privilege and the perception of an indolent elite class as they absorb the rays on the beaches of Saint-Tropez surrounded by innumerable other actually naked women in a clear depiction that in this region of France, anyway, it's almost expected for toplessness to occur and that it's frankly not a big deal to anyone. That said, one can't help but feel that writer and director Christopher Frank (adapting his own novel) wasn't going to shirk from offering beautiful women with little if anything on, and in that regard the opening scene is just the tip of the iceberg (note how Frank frames one part of the credits sequence with a tracking shot kept resolutely at [naked] chest level).

Also on hand at the beach are a number of other supporting characters who later figure into a somewhat melodramatic plot that revolves around a kind of quasi-ménage à trois between Claude, Chris and a gigolo type named Romain (Bernard Giraudeau) who isn't above recruiting young willing females to "service" some of the men hanging around the place. This particular plot element may uncomfortably bring to mind real life perpetrators like Jeffrey Epstein, though as the film becomes almost deliriously overheated in its third act, and if I may be permitted what is hopefully an obvious (perhaps un-PC) joke, Romain's fate isn't left to "suicide".

It's also here late in the film where you can almost feel Frank aiming for some kind of Henri-Georges Clouzot territory, and if he doesn't succeed, there's still a rather bracing moral ambiguity about things that would arguably belie some of the baser elements of what I'd personally call "true" Eurotrash. That said, the fact that the plot mechanics also involve another "threesome" involving Chris and a couple named Vic (Jacques Perrin) and Marianne (Béatrice Agenin), as well as some "side action" (so to speak) involving a woman named Barbara (Barbara Nielsen) may in fact start to feel a bit Eurotrashy, if that term might be allowed into the lexicon.

Year of the Jellyfish has been roundly lambasted for years and there is no denying that is has a certain camp value at times, but I was actually kind of surprisingly struck by some of the relatively smart writing in the screenplay, as well as some of the interplay between Cellier and Kaprisky in particular. The scenery is extremely captivating from any number of angles.

Year of the Jellyfish Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Year of the Jellyfish is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, and Kino Lorber with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This seems to be the high definition debut of this title, but Cohen doesn't provide any information on the provenance of what can be a pretty badly damaged element at times. There are numerous examples of scratches, nicks, dirt and other blemishes that dot the otherwise gorgeous framings of the film (see screenshot 16 for just one example, though others can be spotted in some of the other screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review). There are also almost comically large reel change markers in the upper right corner of the frame. The palette is actually one of the stronger aspects of this transfer, though it does look just very slightly faded at times. Nonetheless, there's a real warmth to everything, and with the prevalence of bright sunny environments, fine detail levels are typically supported reasonably well. Some of the darker material doesn't fare as well in terms of either detail or grain resolution, as can be seen in screenshots 18 and 19 in particular. There's also one very strange moment at circa 1:38:49. You'll need to pause and then frame advance, but for some reason one frame of the previous scene which features a stark naked Kaprinsky on a yacht has been inserted into the following sequence. If you're playing the scene at normal speed, you'll get an almost subliminal hint of it flashing by your eyes. With the positives of the palette at front of mind, my score is 3.25.

Year of the Jellyfish Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Year of the Jellyfish features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in the original French. The film features a rather anachronistic song score by Nita Hagen, and that, along with more "traditional" underscore, sounds nicely full bodied if unavoidably narrow. Ambient environmental sounds in the many beach scenes in particular also resonate well. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. This is another foreign language release from Cohen which features forced English subtitles.

Year of the Jellyfish Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 1:10) is interesting for at least one reason: watch it and see how they changed (i.e., cleaned up) two lines of dialogue from a scene late in the film to make the trailer "G" rated.

Year of the Jellyfish Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The fact that the César Awards feted Caroline Cellier with a Best Supporting Actress honor the year of this film's release might suggest that the French at least took the film semi-seriously. There's actually some interest here aside from the "scenery", though the film doesn't totally capitalize on some of its more provocative elements. Video has some issues, as outlined above, but audio is fine, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.