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Sex Doll Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this overall recommended Blu-ray release
A high-priced call girl navigates the shadowy world of London’s sex trade underground in this provocative, erotic thriller. Virginie goes about her work as a prostitute with a cool detachment, trading sex with wealthy businessmen for money, but never getting emotionally involved. That all changes when she meets Rupert, an enigmatic stranger with unclear intentions. Risking everything, Virginie plunges into a dangerous affair that tears her between a ruthless madame who forbids romantic attachments and a dark, sexy man who could be her savior or her downfall.
For more about Sex Doll and the Sex Doll Blu-ray release, see Sex Doll Blu-ray Review published by Dr. Stephen Larson on October 22, 2017 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
In her fifth feature-length film Sex Doll, French director Sylvie Verheyde brings flair and restraint to her portrayal of the upper-class prostitution world in London. Verheyde depicts Virginie (Hafsia Herzi) as a high-class hooker who performs her job in a professional but unenthusiastic manner. Virginie is a luscious French beauty who has worked for Raphäelle (Karole Rocher), the madame of the escort service, for quite a long while. Raphäelle has attractive looks that are cross between Holly Hunter and Julianne Moore. She is tough but treats Virginie like an adopted daughter. She advises Virginie not to get too close or intimate with any of her clients after she completes her work. Verheyde's camera shows Virginie pleasure well-heeled English clients in tight and confined spaces. Cinematographer Nicolas Gaurin employs extreme close-ups of faces and flesh much like Warhol did but refrains from explicit sex or full-frontal shots. Verheyde handles the material in a non-exploitative fashion. Many of the Brits that Virginie services are older and unattractive. They do not appeal to Virginie in any personal way and this shows in her cold detachment. She performs and does what they want but her act is fleeting and quickly forgotten. As Abbey Bender notes in a pretty positive review of Sex Doll, Verheyde's work is "shrewdly aware of the countless clichés surrounding sex work."
Besides the madame, Cook (Paul Hamy), the escort's driver, also keeps a watchful eye on Virginie. One day Cook notices a car following fairly close behind. He gets out and takes a picture of the vehicle just as the driver reverses course and speeds away. Trailing Cook's entourage is mysterious Rupert (played by real-life British model Ash Stymest), a handsome and skinny fellow who follows Virginie around the streets and nightclubs. He offers to be Virginie's chauffeur and take her home. Virginie is somewhat reluctant but Rupert becomes acquainted with her friend, Electre (Lindsay Karamoh), who invites the young driver for a party. As Rupert gets closer, Virginie asks what he really wants and when he shows her a picture of a minor that he's looking for, she thinks he's an undercover police agent and orders him to leave. Cook drives Virginie and the younger call girl, Sofia (Ira Max), to a country manor where they're expected to entertain a wealthy father (Jeremy Bennett) and his son (Simon Killick). Clearly nervous, Sofia wails but Virginie doesn't seem to know how to fully confront her. The orgy quickly turns rough as things get out of hand and the girls flee the manor house. They are chased by one of the men but Rupert is waiting in the bushes.
Rupert chauffeurs Virginie around London.
Several critics have quickly dismissed Sex Doll for its slow-burn pace and terse dialogue. Verheyde instead conveys mood through the characters' body language and some ambient lighting. There's a moment on the couch where Virginie queries Rupert about his childhood memories but he says that he doesn't have any. The audience knows that he must have a hidden past but it's the plethora of tattoos on him as well as an easygoing disposition that reveals much behind his character. Most if not all the body decorations are permanent fixtures on actor Ash Stymest and not temporary tattoos. He has a teardrop just like Edgar Flores's Willy "El Casper" does in Sin Nombre and letters above each knuckle à la Bob Mitchum's preacher Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter. Stymest also dangles a cigarette in the same vein as Mitchum. Virginie and Rupert are two outlaws who seem to be made for each other. I infer that Rupert senses that while Virginie has been pocketing a lot of dough, she wants out of the sex trade industry and is seeking an outlier. Herzi and Stymest are two of the reasons why Sex Doll deserves to be seen by a much larger audience.
Sex Doll makes its initial appearance on Blu-ray as a bare-bones disc courtesy of IFC Midnight/Shout! Factory. The movie has been given an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded transfer that boasts a standard video bitrate of 24188 kbps. Verheyde's film is presented in the aspect ratio of about 2.40:1, mimicking its intended presentation in cinemas. Close-ups reveal very good detail on the faces. Daylight scenes in London have a peaked look to them and this is also reflected in car/office interiors where white light shines through windows. The club scenes are saturated with ambient colors, predominantly blue (see Screenshot #18). Faux grain apparently has been added in post (you can pick some out amid the golden hue on Rupert in #19.) Exteriors shown on the route to the country house exude lush green (see #20).
The BD comes with an English/French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (2949 kbps, 24-bit) and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 downsample (1509 kbps, 24-bit). Herzi and Stymest either mutter or mumble their lines so the default English subtitles are a necessity. They just cover the French dialogue, though. It's also hard to hear their English so I switched to the English SDH. Beware that the disc's technical author confuses the character of Cook with Rupert so ignore the name in brackets when Rupert speaks because it's wrong! During the opening credits a woman with a different dialect speaks but this is not translated on either track The screen simply displays: "speaking in a foreign language."
Rupert listens almost exclusively to melancholic piano tunes in his car which are also played non-diegetically (outside of the story). They are lovely and evoke a pastiche of Thomas Newman's scores. There is a clear separation of sound between the fronts and surrounds when cars pass the bustling London streets, inside the discos, and at Raphäelle's party.
There are also optional Spanish subtitles that can be activated.
Trailer (1:28, 1080p) - IFC Midnight's original theatrical trailer for Sex Doll framed in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen. In French DTS-HD MA 2.0 with English subtitles.
Previews - bonus trailers for Beyond the Gates (2:06) and The Devil's Candy (2:13) which load before the menu.
Ash Stymest is better known as a magazine cover model and the boyfriend of Lily-Rose Depp (Johnny's daughter) but he has such a magnetic screen presence that I hope he receives many more offers to act. Sex Doll develops into a tender love story that is done in a very tasteful way. Shout! Factory delivers a competent video transfer and a very good rendering of the movie's sound track. A VERY SOLID RECOMMENDATION for Sex Doll.
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IFC Films and Shout Factory will release on Blu-ray director Sylvie Verheyde's film Sex Doll (2016), starring Hafsia Herzi, Ash Stymest, Karole Rocher, Paul Hamy, and Ira Max. The release will be available for purchase on July 11.
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