The Bride Wore Black (1967/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The Zero Theorem (2013/Well Go USA Blu-ray)

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

PLEASE NOTE: The Bride Wore Black limited edition Blu-ray/CD set is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, can be ordered from the link below while supplies last and is limited to only 3,000 copies.

Now for two key films from two of the most important filmmakers of all time!

Francois Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black (1967, released 1968) is the famed director's best attempt to do a film in the Alfred Hitchcock mode, though instead of imitation, he does all the style and themes, yet uses them as a starting point. Influenced by several of the Master Of Suspense's films (including Vertigo), Jean Moreau plays Julie, whose husband was shot dead as soon as soon as they were married and left the church. Turns out five men were playing with a bolt-action rifle and one of them was playing around when he should not have been and accidentally killed the man. They couple were childhood sweethearts and somehow, Julie has found out who they are and decides to go after them, one by one.

Instead of being a tired, predictable, dumb, dull, obvious revenge thriller, Truffaut (from the novel by William Irish aka Cornell Woolrich, famed for his Noir works) makes it a dreamlike character study of all the people involved, the world they live in, has the characters be full human beings and also manages to make it a very suspenseful thriller where when the other aspects and dynamics are added, raises the stakes higher than just about any thriller ever made. One of his greatest works and to me, one of the greatest french films ever made, Truffaut takes advantage of the moment (the French New Wave, counterculture, resurgence in respect and love of Hitchcock as an artist he helped make possible, getting Herrmann to score the film since Hitch had a falling out with Herrmann (they never worked together again) and that going to color pushed Truffaut to work in new ways, bringing out his talent in rare form.

Also, the actors are all amazing here from Moreau in one of her greatest-ever performances, Michel Bouquet, Charles Denner, Claude Rich, Jean Claude Brialy, Daniel Boulanger, Alexandra Stewart and Michel Lonsdale before his later successes and broadly commercial recognition in films like Frankenheimer's Ronin and the James Bond film Moonraker. The actors are in top form, sound & picture editing superior and so many great moments that happen and come out of nowhere are here (including how the film deals with human sexuality) that it just gets better and better with age. This is a must-see classic!

Extras in this great set is one of the best from Twilight Time yet including a CD with an extended Bernard Herrmann interview, then we get yet another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and one of Julie Kirgo's best of so many great essays to date really getting what Truffaut was trying to do with the film. The Blu-ray adds a fresh, great new feature length audio commentary track with Kirgo, film scholar Nick Redmond & Kevin C. Smith, the English Dub version of the film, an Isolated Music and Sound Effects track for the film and the hilarious original U.S. Original Theatrical Trailer from Lopert Releasing, who first issued the film in the States. Glad to see this great film get such deluxe treatment.

Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem (2013) completes a trilogy of science fiction films that show the absurdity of dystopian futures where there is so much technology that there is no more room for human being, nature or life following Brazil and 12 Monkeys (both reviewed elsewhere on this site) and this time, a worker named Qohen Leth (Christoph Waltz) who is employed by a computer company and overseen by an annoying boss (David Thewlis) who wants him to take on a new project while Qohen just wants his big phone call that means he'll be able to take sick leave.

Qohen is lucky to live alone in a big house he inherited, but soon, that private world and priceless private space will slowly be challenged and moved into but odd people and strange events. With the approval of the owner of his company (Matt Damon), Qohen has to crete a complex mathematical formula that says everything equals nothing. Often represented by a black hole, the absurd assignment matches endlessly generic advertising, endless dumb laws and a future world without hope of a better future or inner peace of mind. He knows this, yet is given a cyber psychiatrist (a great turn by the ever-underrated Tilda Swinton) and all this while he might be starting a relationship with a gal (Melanie Thierry) he likes!

Though the film covers some of the ground Gilliam already broke, making it less surprising in its differentness than Brazil, he is making a big statement about cyberspace that would not have been possible or necessary in his previous films. At its best, which is often, the film impresses throughout in its cleverness, dark humor, wit and is easily his best film since 12 Monkeys. Look for the great musician Ray Cooper (an Elton John alumni) in a street commercial, plus Sanjeev Bhaskar, Peter Stormare and Ben Wishlaw as doctors who seem more like total quacks and Lucas Hedges nailing it as Damon's computer-proficient son trying to help Qohen. Nice to see some real filmmaking that works!

Extras include Behind The Scenes and Visual Effects featurettes, plus the Original Theatrical Trailer.

Both films were shot on 35mm film in color and show advances uses of color, definition, detail and create their own worlds as only as only the best filmmakers can. The 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image in Bride is the best I have seen the film since I saw it years ago in a 35mm print and outdoes its then-impressive 12-inch analog Laserdisc and DVD versions with detail and depth that are impressive for a a film its age and that was not from a fully restored/4K master. Director of Photography Raoul Coultard, a Truffaut veteran who also shot many of Godard's films pushes the color in all kinds of ways, going for a Hitchcockian look as well as a modern, New Wave one with remarkable shots throughout. Truffaut was unhappy with the color, something I would like to address briefly.

When he made his remarkable film of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1966), he wanted to use the underrated TruColor format, but Universal Pictures was locked into a Technicolor contract and he pushed the color as much as he could. This time, he had Deluxe color, which can be rich and great but not even as wide-ranging as Technicolor, so I believe part of his longing for TruColor (and not so much his disappointment with Coutard) is the reason he was a bit unhappy with the look. With that said, it looks great. To see the greatest TruColor film ever made, a Blu-ray of Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954) is now out on Blu-ray.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Zero is far from nil, shot on 35mm film by the underrated Director of Photography Nicola Pecorini, who joins Gilliam in doping something very interesting visually here we've never seen before. They are playing with three elements here that break up dichotomies and generic monotony that has ruined filmmaking since most features have switched to digital shooting. We get advanced uses of color (from wide-ranging to dulled to almost monochromatic, in and out of the cyber world), definition also varies throughout in constantly unexpected ways and especially in context to the narrative, what is real and artificial is multi-layered (digital effects are used in unique ways, for instance) and the digital visuals of the various technology is even purposely inconsistent as if to comment on its quickness to date and genericness. I expect this to eventually be an influential work worth restudying and on Blu-ray, you see no mistakes in intent.

As for sound, both films are impressive for their time in how their sound and music is used. In Bride, Truffaut actually took liberties with Hermann's music to the point they stopped talking, but Truffaut ultimately made the best decisions. There is also more character in the original French language track than in the dubbed english version also available here as an extra. Note also the use of sound effects and sound editing. Though it can be slightly harsh on the edges at times, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) French 1.0 Mono lossless mix sounds really good and full throughout (the English dub is on the weak side in volume, fullness and richness), including with Hermann's score offered here as an isolated music track. Sadly, the original recordings of his score for this film are lost for now, so any hope of even a simple stereo upgrade to the film is not happening.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Zero has one of the best sound mixes of any new film in the last few years, which says something considering it is not a loud, big-budgeted blockbuster film with a ton of overproduced digital visual effects. It is a clever, complex, multi-layered mix that ads to the density and overtechologization of the world presented as the soundtracks on Brazil and 12 Monkeys had before. Smart with sonic surprises and well-recorded to boot, it embarrasses most big budget messes we have suffered through in recent decades and will impress on the best home theater systems.

To order The Bride Wore Black limited edition Blu-ray/CD set, buy it while supplies last (along with many other great limited edition releases) at this link:

www.screenarchives.com

- Nicholas Sheffo