The Intouchables (2011/Weinstein/Sony Blu-ray)/La Grande Illusion (1937/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/The Late Mathias Pascal (1926/Flicker Alley Blu-ray)/Rust & Bone (2012/Sony Blu-ray)/That Obscure Object Of Desire (1977/Lionsgate Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B-/B/B-/B/B-     Sound: B/B-/C+/B-/B-     Extras: C/B-/C+/C+/B     Films: B-/A-/B-/C+/B-

 

 

Here is a recent set of French films on Blu-ray including a classic, an art house favorite, underseen silent gem and two recent releases that made an international splash.

 

 

One of the biggest hits in all of French cinema history, Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache co-directed The Intouchables (2011) about the relationship that develops between a rich wheelchair-bound man named Philippe (Francois Cluzet) and a streetwise man named Driss (Omar Sy) who becomes his latest caretaker outside of the big house he owns.  It is a drama, comedy and has some serious moments (and maybe too much Earth, Wind & Fire music) that made for a winning commercial mix that includes chemistry between the leads and a flow that is appealing.

 

It even is able to overcome its down times because of its energy and that is why it hit so big there.  The Weinsteins decided to pick it up for the U.S. market and though it got good critical response, it was not quiet the art house hit it turned out to be, I think it will gain new fans as it moves from Blu-ray and digital to other outlets over the next few years.  No, it is not the greatest film I have ever seen either, yet even I have to admit it plays like France today and the leads don’t miss a beat.  Also, that the co-directors did not get in each other’s way is rare and a real plus.  It is at least worth seeing once.

 

Extras include some Deleted Scenes, but maybe there should have been more.

 

 

Give or take Marcel Carne’s Children of Paradise, Jean Renoir’s The Grand Illusion aka La Grande Illusion (1937) is usually considered the greatest French film ever made.  That says something, but even more than the many great Renoir films including Rules Of The Game (see our coverage of the Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) as the film profoundly examines the human race, world politics, the failures of the Great War that was supposed to be the war to end all wars and just before WWII began, the film was able to take a deep look at WWI and everything about it that went wrong and even how it should have never happened.

 

Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay play French soldiers in a German POW Camp dealing with being trapped and with a German Captain played perfectly by the great Erich Von Stroheim in a visually brilliant film with a tremendous screenplay by Renoir and Charles Spaak.  It is pure cinema at its finest, makes the big statement against the futility of wars of all kinds and is boldly honest about all of it in the process.

 

I am forever impressed in how this film never really ages, is as relevant as it ever was and is even more influential now than when I first saw it so many years ago.  Yet, 76 years later, not enough people have seen and heard what it has to say and many who should know better have ignored its fine points.  It also marks the beginning of the maturity of the sound French Cinema with some other classics at the time as an enduring source of great filmmaking that it remains today long before and after the French New Wave.  If you have never seen Grande Illusion, to say it is must-see viewing is an understatement.

 

This fine new upgraded edition has extras that include a Restoration featurette, Trailers for the 1937 and 1958 theatrical releases, the John Truby film presentation and three featurettes: La Grande Illusion: Success, Controversy, The Original Negative by Natacha Laurent and cinema professor and critic Ginette Vincendreu’s look at the film.

 

 

Even less known and seen is a silent gem from Director Marcel L’Herbier called The Late Mathias Pascal (1926) that has two parts and lasts nearly three hours.  The first half is a sometimes deceptively simple melodrama about the life of the title character (Ivan Mosjoukine in a really great performance) as a man trying to have a good life, find live and a future.  Instead, he finds poverty, annoyance, dysfunctional toxic people and unhappy marriage with all of its trappings for the worst.  He still has dreams of a better life and some of them are big.

 

After this is well established and sometimes lavishly so, he finds his way to Monte Carlo and two things happen: he wins a fortune and being absent so long, is reported dead!  Thrilled with the former and shocked initially with the latter at first, he starts to see advantages to being dead and having so much disposable income, decides to stay “dead” and sees where this takes him.

 

The film suddenly becomes a comedy with clever overtones and twists and turns that will even surprise viewers 87 years later and counting.  The rest of the cast is fine including key actors of the era and Alberto Cavalcanti and Lazaro Meerson created the great sets.  Restored as nicely as can be for now, this deserves some serious rediscovery and to take it place among all the international silent classics because it is hard to do any kind of comedy at this length and be successful, but the makers pulled it off here.  Flicker Alley has done us all a favor by bringing it out on Blu-ray and you should definitely go out of your way for it.

 

The only extra is a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and an essay by Richard Abel, but it is a good booklet up there with Criterion’s best.

 

 

Jacques Audiard’s Rust & Bone (2012) is a drama about a man (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is a fighter, troubled man and father traveling about to go to a relatives to stay until he can get things going bringing his son with him.  He is a good man and father, but not always the best or most responsible dad.  He also has a healthy interest in women and is meeting new ones when he comes across a pretty, mysterious woman (Marion Cotillard) who turns out to be a lady with an interesting job and one that will change her life for the worst soon.

 

They start to get to know each other better as things get darker for the both of them and we watch wondering if things will get even worse.

 

Many bad things happen and the way the film is set up, some of them feel like self-fulfilling prophecy, robbing the film of some suspension of disbelief and adding how it wallows in decay, stops it from having more character development as well as leading to some predictability.  Fortunately, the leads are good together and acting is decent throughout, but I expected a bit more and did not get it.  Still, it is not a bad work overall and is worth at least one look to see for yourself.

 

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain, who co-wrote the screenplay together, Deleted Scenes with optional commentary, VFX Breakdown with Mikros, a Making Of featurette and On The Red Carpet: Toronto International Film Festival footage.

 

 

Finally, we have Luis Buñuel’s That Obscure Object Of Desire (1977) which is his unique take on aging and great twist on virgin/whore complex as he has two actresses (a then-unknown Carole Bouquet (Too Beautiful For You, For Your Eyes Only) and Angela Molina) in what is still a groundbreaking film and one that also deals with politics, his politics (including ideas of terrorist attacks) and his unique views of human sexuality.  Fernando Rey (The French Connection) is the man with the obsessions and issues as the film thoroughly explores its subject matter in a tight, energetic 103 minutes.

 

I always liked the film and think it is still one of his best.  Bouquet is highly underrated, Molina can act and the rest of the cast is spot on.  Only rivaled by Grande Illusion in complexity here, this is also a gem worth going out of your way for.

Extras include three interview featurettes: Arbitrary Desire (with Jean-Claude Carriére), Double Dames (with Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina) and Dominique Maillet’s A Portrait Of Luis Buñuel with Pierre Lary and Edmond Richard, all to be seen after watching the film.

 

 

The 1080p digital High Definition image transfers on all the Blu-rays are pretty good, with the prints used the best they could be.  The 1.33 X 1 image on Illusion is greatly upgraded, the best the film has ever looked, and is joined by the slightly stylized 2.35 X 1 image on Rust as the best performers on the list.  Right behind them are the 1.85 X 1 image on Intouchables (more stylized down than I would have liked), 1.33 X 1 on Pascal (the print still has its share of dirt and specks) and 1.66 X 1 on Desire (the color can be faded in some shots) till have their demo visual moments just the same.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Intouchables is the sonic champ here, even outdoing the same exact DTS-MA codec mix on Rust, which is more dialogue-based and can be more towards the front speakers than I would have liked.  Illusion and Desire both have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes that sound better than the films ever have before (both optical theatrical mono releases) leaving the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo scoring for Pascal in last place by being a little limited and only so engaging despite being well recorded otherwise.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo