Le mépris Blu-ray

Le mépris

 (1963)

Drama



A screenwriter finds his marriage falling apart as he attempts to get started a film version of the "The Odyssey."

For more details about Le mépris on Blu-ray, see the Le mépris Blu-ray Review

Le mépris Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


Paul Javal: I like CinemaScope very much.
Fritz Lang: Oh, it wasn’t meant for humans. Just for snakes…and funerals.

Le mépris arrives on Blu-ray in the U.S. with the same 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that Studio Canal prepared for the film’s high definition debut in France, Germany, and the U.K. While the film hasn’t received a full restorative overall—unlike Criterion’s spectacular recent release of Godard’s Pierrot le fou—Le mépris is still a thing of beauty on Blu-ray, marred only a by a few inconsistencies and some source elements that are less than pristine. Presented in its glorious 2.35:1 original CinemaScope aspect ratio—clearly, Godard didn’t feel confined to snakes and funerals—Le mépris looks beautiful in motion and proves to be a substantial upgrade from Criterion’s 2002 DVD release. The bump in overall clarity is definitely appreciable, with close-ups displaying cleaner textures and longer shots carrying a tighter, more detailed appearance. Before the opening credits, a disclaimer pops up that reads, “The original cut of this film contains scenes that are missing from the English version. We now present these scenes with their original soundtrack and English subtitles.” From the looks of it, these scenes were sourced from entirely different elements than the rest of the film, having a softer, flatter, almost- duped look that makes them stand out oddly. That said, there are only a few of these scenes—all quite short—and I appreciate having a more complete cut of the film.

Of course, color is of utmost importance in Le mépris, and this transfer handles the film’s plentiful primary tones with ease. Saturation is right on target, contrast is strong, and the color balance in general looks more natural than in the Criterion DVD. There are, however, some minor color fluctuations from time to time, along with the occasional pulse of contrast wavering. None of this is distracting, though, and there were very few instances when my eyes were pulled from the experience of watching the film to notice some technical anomaly. I did spot some minor telecine wobble—when the image appears to subtly shake from side to side—but edge enhancement is absent, the film’s grain structure is intact, and aside from a brief spurt of small brown stains at the 46:42 mark and a few scattered white specks, the print is in fairly good condition. Likewise, there are no compression-related issues to report. Could the film look better? Probably—with a more intensive image overhaul—but I’m more than pleased with the transfer Studio Canal has put together. Le mépris and Bardot have never looked better.

Le mépris Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


Studio Canal wisely decided against trying to expand the film’s original monaural soundtrack into a 5.1 mix, and have loaded up this disc with four DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks—in the original French, along with English, Spanish, and German dubs. Le mépris’ multi-lingual dialogue is essential to the feel of the film, so if possible I’d recommend sticking with the original French mix, which preserves the English, German, and Italian that’s also spoken by the characters. To put it simply, I have no real qualms about this track. Yes, to modern ears it can feel a bit brash at times— the weight is mostly on the mid-to-high end—but this is how the film has always sounded. Georges Delerue’s aching score is powerful and detailed, though, and the dialogue is clean and nicely balanced. For those of you who aren’t polyglots—myself included—the disc also includes English, German, Castellan, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish and Japanese subtitles, which, when turned on, appear inside the image in easy-to-read white lettering.

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