The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990/Severin DVD)
Picture:
C- Sound: C- Extras: B
Film: B
The Hairdresser’s Husband is an interesting film from 1990
directed by Patrice Leconte and stars Jean Rocheforte as an older man with a
fetish for getting his hair cut, which stems from his early childhood obsession
that he had for a hairdresser. Rochefort
plays Antoine who is infatuated with the young and beautiful Mathilde (Anna
Galiena) and within time the two fall in love and are married. For awhile they are happy and things go quiet
well as Mathilde enjoys her job while her husband eyes her up all day long as
she takes on customers, but in time Mathilde realizes that she can’t do this
job forever and her clients are even getting older, which makes her wonder if
her husband will still love her even when she is not cutting hair.
It’s an
interesting affair that will suit some people’s needs, especially as it
qualifies as a unique love story with great acting and a screenplay that has
enough charm to allow the story to unfold in a respectful way. The DVD presentation is in an anamorphic
widescreen 2.35 X 1 scope transfer that is incredibly soft and dull, colors are
highly muted and the entire transfer looks like a small notch above a VHS
tape. Unfortunately the film suffers
greatly from a poor transfer that has little depth or fidelity and dark scenes
are incredibly problematic. Likewise the
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is weak and never seems full enough, but
English-speaking viewers will be reading subtitles anyway on this French
film.
Extras
include an interview with the director along with Anna Galiena and the films
trailer. Overall it’s a nice little tag
of extras, but we are disappointed with the picture and sound to the point
where this gem of a film should be skipped for now.
- Nate Goss
