The New World (aka Le nouveau monde/2008/French TV Movie/MVD/Casque D’Or DVD)

 

Picture: C-     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Telefilm: C-

 

 

Not to be confused with Terrence Malick’s underrated epic, Etienne Dhaene’s The New World (2008) is a predictable, formulaic comedy about a happy lesbian couple trying to have a baby.  Though not stereotypical, the 92-minutes-long telefilm is obvious and never convincing, any more than any bad TV movie about straight couples trying to do the same.  Too self-impressed, it is lite at best and always boring.

 

The acting is giddy and directing not too good.  I would only see this if you have a diehard interest in the material.

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is pretty bad with color bleeding, awful detail that will remind you of older VHS and Beta, plus some color shifting.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is barely stereo, noisy, harsh and loud in the wrong ways, making this an odd transfer for a recent production indeed.  The only extras are previews (a bunch of them) for other DVDs from Casque D’Or.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo