6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Chris, a sexy teenager who appears mostly bare-breasted on the French Riviera, has a crush on Romain, her mother's lover. In reaction to her inability to attract his attention, she experiments with other risque affairs.
Starring: Bernard Giraudeau, Valérie Kaprisky, Caroline Cellier, Jacques Perrin, Béatrice AgeninForeign | 100% |
Erotic | 93% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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."
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 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.
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.
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