Bullhead Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
The young Limburg cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious West-Flemish beef trader. But the assassination of a federal policeman, and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from Jacky's past, set in motion a chain of events with farreaching consequences.
Film noir may have been born in the urban jungles of America, but it has mutated and cross-bred
its way along diverse paths around the globe. For his debut feature, Belgian writer-director
Michaël R. Roskam set a film noir in a place less likely than the Texas backwaters of Blood
Simple or the Australian suburbs of The Square. Roskam's film Bullhead plays out in the farms,
fields and small towns of Flemish cattle country. (Flanders is part of present-day Belgium, but
historically it had a separate identity with its own dialect and culture—and even that is an
oversimplification.) Roskam was inspired by an actual murder of a Flemish veterinarian in connection with
the illegal hormone trade, but as he has repeatedly stressed in interviews, he wasn't interested
in doing an exposé of Belgium's "hormone mafia". He wanted an interesting canvas on which to
explore elemental issues of fate, friendship and loyalty.
Still, as in every good film noir, there's illegal activity all around, much of it connected to
steroids for dosing beef cattle. Cops are in the mix as well, but they're a rough bunch of
characters, who don't seem much different from the crooks except for the formality of carrying
badges. Small-timers try to steer their way between these two warring factions without getting
crushed, and they don't always succeed.
As usual in film noir, the film's protagonist is a loser with a dark past and dim prospects for the
future, but Roskam does something simple and clever. Where the usual film noir anti-hero is
desperately trying to run away from his circumstances, Bullhead's Jacky Vanmarsenille
wants to stay right where he is and always has been. His flight is entirely inside himself, where he's
buried his anguish so deep beneath layers of steroid-created muscle that he's become a fearsome brute
of a man. With the inevitability of destiny that is the hallmark of film noir, Bullhead
chronicles the failure of Jacky's efforts, but Roskam has constructed the story in such an idiosyncratic
manner that you never know quite what's coming next, even as you can feel the inevitable
disaster drawing closer. For viewers willing to surrender themselves to Roskam's narrative style,
the payoff is worth it.
Bullhead was Belgium's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film to the 2012
Academy Awards, beating out the expected nominee, The Kid with a Bike by Jean-Pierre and Luc
Dardenne. It was selected as one of the five finalists, but lost to A Separation. Still, it's a wonder
that such a brutally downbeat film made it this far at all.
Roskam has constructed Bullhead in such a way that information is conveyed to the viewer in a
specific order at carefully chosen moments. The number one reason why Roskam can get away
with his offbeat narrative is the mesmerizing performance by lead actor Matthias
Schoenaerts as Jacky Vanmarsenille, the thuggishly muscled brute with the scarred face and
haunted eyes who is the "bullhead" of the title. From the opening scene in which Jacky
intimidates a farmer who no longer wants to deal with the Vanmarsenille farm, he holds your
attention whenever he's on screen. (In the extras, Schoenaerts discusses his preparation for the
role, which involved packing on as much muscle as he could by natural means, so that he could
play Jacky, whose bulk has been created artificially through steroid injections.)
Jacky runs the cattle farm with his brother, Stieve (Kristof Renson), and his Uncle Eddy (Jean-Marie
Lesuisse). Stieve has his own home with a wife and child, but Jacky still lives where they
grew up, with their now-elderly parents. At the moment, Jacky is annoyed at Stieve, because he's
acquired a set of new tires for his BMW at a price too good to be true from a pair of local
mechanics, the Filippini brothers, Christian and David (Erico Salamone and Philippe
Grand'Henry). "Go to a tire store", Jacky keeps telling Stieve.
Jacky's instincts are right on target. The tires are from a car that the Filippinis stole for an
underworld figure named Richter (Mike Reus), and now they're supposed to make it disappear.
A little late, the mechanics realize that the reason they've been ordered to destroy the car is
its connection to the murder of an undercover cop investigating the dealings of Richter's boss, a
crime kingpin named Marc DeKuyper (Sam Louwyck). Unfortunately for the Filippini brothers,
they were greedy enough to sell the stolen car's almost-new tires to Jacky's bargain-hunting
brother (replacing them with Stieve's old tires) before handing the car over to Richter and his
associates. Now they have to get back the original tires from Stieve, because they're traceable.
As it happens, Jacky is about to begin meetings with DeKuyper at the behest of a veterinarian
named Sam Raymond (Frank Lammers). Sam is the regular supplier of illegal hormones to the
Vanmarsenille farm, but now he's trying to move up in the world by brokering a deal with
DeKuyper for larger shipments of steroids and beef. Jacky is suspicious of DeKuyper, and his
suspicions increase when he arrives at their first meeting only to find the crime boss
accompanied by one Diederik Maes (Jeroen Perceval). Diederik (or "Rick") is one of those
characters with a complicated past and a lot of secrets—so much that even an extended flashback
can't cover everything.
At this point, though, it would be unfair to future viewers of Bullhead to peel back any
additional layers of the story. I'll just mention one more classic element of film noir: the femme
fatale. There is a woman whom Jacky admires. Her name is Lucia Schepers (Jeanne Dandoy), she
works in a perfume shop in town, and she's bad for Jacky in numerous ways. But like so many things
that Roskam adapted from film noir, this one too has been transformed in Bullhead until it's
something utterly new and unexpected.
Bullhead was shot on film by Belgian cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis (with whom
Roskam has made several shorts) and finished on a digital intermediate, where it was given a
stylized look in which the world is perpetually dim even in daylight, the country skies are always
cloudy, and even well-lit scenes usually have a dark tinge, usually brown or green. Call it
"agricultural noir", where sharp focus and earth tones have replaced the hard-edged blacks and
whites of classic film noir. Despite the desaturated palette, the image on the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray
remains clear and detailed, except in those scenes where blurring is intentional,
usually indicating Jacky's point of view. Shadow detail is excellent, and blacks, when they occur,
are deep enough to create a sense of depth and contrast.
Certain parts of the film do show much stronger color, notably flashbacks to Jacky's childhood
and scenes involving Lucia. These provide a visual contrast to the stunted emotional life that
Jacky leads now.
Only rarely did I observe minor bits of digital artifacting from the DI process, usually on a sharp
edge while the camera was in motion. (Such are the limitations of 2K DIs.) The Blu-ray itself
revealed no compression errors or artifacts, despite Image Entertainment's unfortunate habit of
pinching pennies so that three hours of HD material have to be compressed onto a BD-25. Issues
like high-frequency filtering and artificial sharpening did not appear, which is not surprising
since the disc was presumably sourced from digital files.
If you're looking for demo material, you won't find it on the Bullhead Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA
5.1 track. The sound mix is precise but subtle. It's designed to convey psychological states rather
than realistic environments. An apt example occurs right at the outset, when Jacky drives up to
the farm of the cattleman who is not cooperating with his family. We see Jacky's car approach
and park, but nothing is audible except a faint sound of wind, even when Jacky exits the vehicle
(off-screen). The soundtrack only comes alive when Jacky re-enters the frame and begins
threatening the recalcitrant farmer, and as soon as he's done, the track fades back to silence. This
is the world inside Jacky's head, and he shuts out as much as he can.
Director Roskam doesn't hesitate to provide a busy, pounding track when it's appropriate, e.g.,
when Jacky follows Lucia into a boisterous nightclub, but the primary approach remains
minimalist, mirroring Jacky's isolation and blocked emotions. Schoenaerts expresses these
aspects of Jacky visually through his physical performance, but their sonic expression is
primarily through the doleful score by Raf Keunen, which is a powerful but understated presence
at critical points throughout the film. The film's mix shifts the score slightly to the back of the
listening space so that it doesn't interfere either with the dialogue or with the sense of silent
isolation that Roskam works so hard to build around Jacky. While I can't vouch for the clarity of
the Dutch dialogue (or Flemish dialect), I could readily understand the lines in French whenever
the characters shifted into it.
As with several recent titles, Image has also included a track in DD 5.1 at the oddly low rate of
320 kbps. I still can't figure out why anyone would want this.
Commentary with Director Michaël R. Roskam: Recorded specifically for the
U.S. Blu-ray and DVD, Roskam chats in fluent English with an unidentified interviewer who
prompts him with questions about specific shots and moments of performance. Roskam's
comments range widely over such topics as the origins of the story, his work with the
actors, his influences (he and his crew routinely named shots after noted directors: "the
Michael Mann shot", "the Leone shot", etc.) and reactions to the film. Roskam often
seems at pains to steer away from anything that might be mistaken for a pronouncement
on the film's ultimate meaning, preferring to let the narrative and imagery speak for
themselves.
The Making of BULLHEAD (HD, 1080p; 1.78:1; 21:58): This informative
documentary explores numerous elements of the film, using both interviews with the principals
(primarily Schoenaerts, but also Roskam, Perceval and Dandoy) and footage on set and
on location. Included is material from an elaborate shootout sequence that Roskam
decided was inappropriate for the film. In Dutch and French, with English subtitles.
Interviews (HD, 1080p; 2.35:1)
Michaël R. Roskam (11:48)
Matthias Schoenaerts (6:33)
The One Thing to Do: Roskam's 2005 Short Film Starring Matthias
Schoenaerts (SD; 2.98:1, enhanced; 25:11 ): This was the project on which Roskam and
Schoenaerts first worked together and during which Roskam broached the idea that became
Bullhead to his future star. The short film is about two men sent to Corsica to locate one John
Carpentier. Only gradually is it revealed who Carpentier is and why someone wants him
found. In Dutch and French, with English subtitles.
Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1080p; 2.35:1; 1:46): Atmospheric and
unsettling.
Booklet: An illustrated insert containing stills, an essay on the film by Michael
Mann and characteristically eccentric comments from an interview with actor Udo Kier about
Bullhead at the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The booklet also contains
credits for the film and Blu-ray.
For all of its elements of criminal activity and law enforcement, Bullhead remains a character
drama. If you're one of those people who routinely complained during the later seasons of The
Sopranos that not enough was happening in each episode, then this probably isn't your kind of
film. Roskam is primarily interested in what happens inside people's heads and (dare I say it?)
souls. He doesn't stint on showing brutal violence, but what interests him is its
aftermath—measured in years. Highly recommended.
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