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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Infidelity > Murder > Sex > French > Gay > Prostitution > Gangs > Domestic Life > Character Study > Ge > The Blue Room (2014/MPI/Sundance Selects DVD)/Eastern Boys (2013/First Run DVD)/The Merchant Of Four Seasons (1971/Criterion Blu-ray)/The Story Of Adele H. (1975/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limit

The Blue Room (2014/MPI/Sundance Selects DVD)/Eastern Boys (2013/First Run DVD)/The Merchant Of Four Seasons (1971/Criterion Blu-ray)/The Story Of Adele H. (1975/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)


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



PLEASE NOTE: The Story Of Adele H. Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last from the link below.



Here's a new set of foreign film releases you should definitely know about...



Mathieu Amalric's The Blue Room (2014) has Amalric as a married man having an affair with another woman that is not romantic, not happy and even bitter ans definitely toxic... but he's involved. Even worse, his wife is suddenly dead. Did he killer her, or the mistress or both? This adaptation of the Georges Simenon novel only runs 75 minutes and is a very mixed affair no matter how hard Amalric and company try to make it work. Some questions remains unanswered, but I just did not buy this in total despite the acting on screen and the film viewer should not have to have read the book. See it only if curious.


A trailer is the only extra.



Robin Campillo's Eastern Boys (2013) tell a story of an older gay man (Olivier Rabourdin) who hires a rent boy (Kirill Emelyanov) for sex, only to get involved with him, but the young man is involved with a gang who (like others with them) have his passport and other private papers. The older man suffers a home invasion and sudden party against his will he tries to shrug off, but when he sees the young man he wants to be with as more than just a sexual partner, but a good person in serious trouble he needs to help.


Of course, there are some serious issues with a film that says the person who hires you for sex can be your savior (Gary Marshall's evil Pretty Woman (1990) the biggest example of this) but this film tries to still be realistic about its narrative, deals with the sex between the leads in a surprisingly mature manner, asks serious questions about gay discourse and honestly portrays the bullying and sadness of the 'lost boys' in the story. Despite some misgivings, this is well done and not just another 'gay' film only for that audience.


There are sadly no extras.



Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Merchant Of Four Seasons (1971) finally put the great German director on the map in a tale of a married man (Hans Hirschmuller) who sells fruit from a fruit stand and how that is the beginning of a series of traps that alters his life, personality and leads to his downfall. No simple narrative, the script jumps around in the timeline sense and we see him at different times being a little odd and how conformity in the supposedly free side of Germany (this was the Cold War era before reunification) is not as 'free' as it would seem. On some level, Fassbinder is concerned with the spectre of the Nazis and how they managed to wipe-away the progressive Germany of the 1920s and early 1930s to the extent the country is still ruined. The conformity that made the Nazis possible still lives.


With that said, this is also about his wife (Irm Hermann in a resounding performance), domesticity (so beautifully made up, a gilded cage indeed) and the sad side of a country that I and can be so much more and do so much better. With all that, I still found some of this a little more predictable (sadly) than I would have liked and is far from my favorite Fassbinder film before or after this one. Still, it is a key work and fans should be thrilled Criterion has delivered such an amazing Blu-ray of it.


Extras include an illustrated paper pullout on the film including informative text, tech info and an essay by Thomas Elsaesser, while the Blu-ray adds an older feature length audio commentary track on the film by Wim Wenders that I found repetitive and not that good, but we also get new interviews with actors Irm Hermann and Hans Hirschmuller, plus film scholar Eric Rentschler, all as separate segments.



Francois Truffaut's The Story Of Adele H. (1975) has a young Isabelle Adjani in the title role of the woman who turns out to be the daughter of no less than Victor Hugo, trying to find her way in the world, but she is not well. In the film, she displays crazy, dysfunctional behavior in using several fake names, going after men obsessively, being erratic and not seeming to know what she wants, is drifting all over. In real life, it turns out she was schizophrenic, but the film never explains this (did they know at the time of filming the specifics?) and this aspect is too abstract in the film.


Besides trivializing the mental illness somewhat, it makes it abstract to the point that when you add some of the experimentation in the film, itself (some of which is dated, others of which do not work), the film lands up having mixed results despite being so good looking and well made. The cast is good and locales nice, with Truffaut still at the top of his game and Adjani made a name for herself at a young age on the international cinema scene with this one. It is a fine film, but a flawed one, based on actual letter Adele wrote in code. It is definitely worth a look, but this special edition will only last so long, so get it if you want to see it at its best. Bruce Robinson also stars.


Extras include an illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and essay by Julie Kirgo, who is joined by Nick Redman for an exceptional feature length audio commentary track, plus we get the Original Theatrical Trailer and an Isolated Music Score track with music originally composed by the late Maurice Jaubert.



The 1.33 X 1 image on Blue and anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Eastern are good-looking productions, but their respective playback on DVD are just softer throughout than I would have liked and I strongly believe both would play better on Blu-ray. The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image on Merchant is amazing, restored from the original 35mm negative in an impressive new 4K transfer. Color and depth are particularly striking and it is the way to see the film, up there with the previous Criterion/Fassbinder Blu-rays.


The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Adele is also from a stunning new HD master that brings out the color and richness of the film as shot by Director of Photography Nestor Almendros which has many scenes of rich domesticity like Merchant. There are a few moments where both transfers might show their age, but this is not often and they hold up visually very well 40 - 45+ years later and counting. Impressive!


The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Blue is not bad for a dialogue-based drama, though the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Eastern is a bit weak and I wished it was richer and warmer. Merchant with its PCM 1.0 Mono from it's original 17.5mm magnetic soundmaster and Adele with a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mix from restored elements tie for the best sound here, warm, clear and clean without losing any of its character.



To order The Story Of Adele H. limited edition Blu-ray, buy it (along with other great exclusives) while supplies last at this link:


www.screenarchives.com



- Nicholas Sheffo


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