The Angelique Collection (Lionsgate 4/29)...WOW! (4 Viewers)

[Paul_Scott]

I like to think of myself as a film buff, but up until a week ago I'd never even heard of the character, let alone knew that a lavish series of films had been made of her. Given that there were no threads about this release I guess I wasn't alone. If it wasn't for DVD Beaver listing the cryptic but intriguing title in it's upcoming release section, and a couple of rapturous customer reviews @ Amazon, I still wouldn't know about it and have missed what has turned out to be one of the most suprising and entertaining releases I've seen this year. I got the first film in from Netflix and watched it last night. Based on what I've seen so far, I can't wait to order the full set. The films, taken from a popular series of books, follow the picaresque adventures of a beautiful, strong willed lady in the age of Louis the XIV. The first movie was a meaty concoction of racey costume drama, high grade romance, political intrigue, tragic plot twists, and a little swashbuckling swordplay for good measure. The production values are suprisingly quite high and the level of writing not bad either. While not neccessarily explicit there is some brief nudity (which I don't recall seeing in Hollywood product of the same era) but the material is refreshingly aimed towards mature audiences , as opposed to merely 'adult'.


Most of the specs I've seen list full frame as the AR of the discs. I'm not sure about the rest of the movies in the set, but the first one at least is around 2.35:1 and anamorphic. Just as significant, the print quality and compression/encoding all get high marks (especially considering this is Lionsgate we're talking about). There is a Studio-Canal tag at the begining, but I saw no evidence of PAL/NTSC coversion. No ghosting . Save for some very brief compression artifacting in a couple shots, the visual presentation was splendid. The French soundtrack wasn't quite as strong as the image, displaying a little bit of sibilance when the score swells, but otherwise it seemed adequete.

 

[Richard--W]

Bernard Borderie directed these French / West German / Italian co-productions. He was France's most gifted director of costumed action and adventure films. I believe the Angelique series are the only examples of his work to receive a home video release in the USA. A shame more of his films aren't available. He virtually created the bodice ripper as a cinematic genre. The order of films in the set are:

1964 Angelique (Angélique, marquise des anges)
1964 Angelique: Road to Versailles (Merveilleuse Angélique)
1965 Angelique and the King (Angélique et le roi)
1967 Untamable Angelique (Indomptable Angélique)
1967 Angelique and the Sultan (Angélique et le sultan)

A revival of interest in the bodice ripper could do well in today's market. I mean on the theatrical screen.

 

[Jay E]

Thanks Paul...I had no idea this set was out. Lionsgate has really started to rev up their foreign film DVD output.

 

[Haggai]

Sounds interesting, guys, thanks for the heads up. I'll try to check some of these out as well.