Cartouche – Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[t1g3r5fan]

While the French New Wave was taking the world of cinema by storm in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, one French filmmaker stood completely apart from his contemporaries – Philippe de Broca. While his career straddled between lavish big scale productions like King of Hearts (1966) and the more punchy and modern comedies like That Man from Rio (1964), de Broca himself largely defied the dual definition as he often blurred the line between dreams and reality in his movies. One of his best known works – working alongside French New Wave legend Jean-Paul Belmondo – is the swashbuckling adventure Cartouche (AKA Swords of Blood). Previously released on Region B Blu-ray, Kino has the movie available here in the States for the first time with this Blu-ray release.



Cartouche (1962)



Released: 21 Jul 1964
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 114 min




Director: Philippe de Broca
Genre: Action...

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[Angelo Colombus]

Did a blind purchase on this since i like the director's work and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Good film but a few times where the staging of the fighting scenes were not that great but a good film and performances.

 

[lark144]

I saw this when it came out. The color cinematography was really beautiful. Not anymore. I got the Blu-Ray yesterday. This is possibly the most atrocious, most reprehensible, not to mention obnoxious, use of yellow by L'immagine Ritrovata I have ever seen. It completely destroys the depth of field and makes every actor look aged and icky. The skin tones are awful. Especially Jean-Paul Belmondo. It seems like he's in his 80's and suffering from jaundice, in spite of all that jumping around. I thought, how can he be enegetic when he appears to be dying? All the costumes and sets, which used to have dazzling primaries, especially a bounty of blue and red, now appear to be stuck in amber. I love this film, but I had difficulty watching it. Apparently someone at Bologna decided that since it's a period piece, the color should have the aspect of aged parchment. But that isn't how this film looked upon first release. It was crisp and clear and incredibly three dimensional. It appeared you could walk right into the screen and take part in what was going on. If any of you have seen "Lola Montes" which was photographed by the same cinematographer, Christian Matras, that's what this film looked like. Lovely primaries, and especially a limpid, almost transparent blue. The skies seem to stretch outward into infinity. Now those blue skies are deep yellow, and flat. And because of the extreme yellow bias, even though it's 4K and the image quality is healthy, everything looks fuzzy & electronic. Not film. After watching this unholy mess, the only appropriate statement I can think of is what Belmondo says to Jean Seberg at the end of "Breathless", "Vous êtes vraiment dégueulasse!" Another milestone of French Eastmancolor cinematography destroyed by the folks at L'immagine Ritrovata. I don't know why I bother to buy these things anymore. And I understand "La Piscine" looks the same. Rancid yellow.

 

[mark brown]

GEE, now I can't wait to watch my copy!

 

[david hare]

I saw this when it came out. The color cinematography was really beautiful. Not anymore. I got the Blu-Ray yesterday. This is possibly the most atrocious, most reprehensible, not to mention obnoxious, use of yellow by L'immagine Ritrovata I have ever seen. It completely destroys the depth of field and makes every actor look aged and icky. The skin tones are awful. Especially Jean-Paul Belmondo. It seems like he's in his 80's and suffering from jaundice, in spite of all that jumping around. I thought, how can he be enegetic when he appears to be dying? All the costumes and sets, which used to have dazzling primaries, especially a bounty of blue and red, now appear to be stuck in amber. I love this film, but I had difficulty watching it. Apparently someone at Bologna decided that since it's a period piece, the color should have the aspect of aged parchment. But that isn't how this film looked upon first release. It was crisp and clear and incredibly three dimensional. It appeared you could walk right into the screen and take part in what was going on. If any of you have seen "Lola Montes" which was photographed by the same cinematographer, Christian Matras, that's what this film looked like. Lovely primaries, and especially a limpid, almost transparent blue. The skies seem to stretch outward into infinity. Now those blue skies are deep yellow, and flat. And because of the extreme yellow bias, even though it's 4K and the image quality is healthy, everything looks fuzzy & electronic. Not film. After watching this unholy mess, the only appropriate statement I can think of is what Belmondo says to Jean Seberg at the end of "Breathless", "Vous êtes vraiment dégueulasse!" Another milestone of French Eastmancolor cinematography destroyed by the folks at L'immagine Ritrovata. I don't know why I bother to buy these things anymore. And I understand "La Piscine" looks the same. Rancid yellow.

I agree it’s another stinker run through Bologna’s “piss stain” LUT. But it almost looks good compred to other recent twork from Ritrovata like the other de Brocas in this series in which white itself no longer exists. As usual people associated with the production have been credited with “supervising” the grading but one has to ask was this BEFORE Ritrovata applied the fucking LUT or after. This bullshit color reinvention coming out of Bologna relly has to be called out, every time. God knows that won’t come from reviewers like Tooze, for whom this is nary worth consideration. His reviews are now less than useless.

 

[lark144]

I agree it’s another stinker run through Bologna’s “piss stain” LUT. But it almost looks good compred to other recent twork from Ritrovata like the other de Brocas in this series in which white itself no longer exists. As usual people associated with the production have been credited with “supervising” the grading but one has to ask was this BEFORE Ritrovata applied the fucking LUT or after. This bullshit color reinvention coming out of Bologna relly has to be called out, every time. God knows that won’t come from reviewers like Tooze, for whom this is nary worth consideration. His reviews are now less than useless.

It's possible that in order to really appreciate how awful these yellow tinged "restorations" are, one has to have seen the original. And, for me, the orignal prints of "Cartouche" were so beautiful. Also, I though this was much worse than "Juliet of the Spitits" which had a yellow tinge, but with other colors as well. What got to me in terms of "Cartouche" which I hadn't really noticed before, as mostly I've not been buying these things, is how that extreme yellow swept away all the other colors here so many shots are sepia-toned and also flatted and fuzzed out.

 

[Robin9]

I saw this when it came out. The color cinematography was really beautiful. Not anymore. I got the Blu-Ray yesterday. This is possibly the most atrocious, most reprehensible, not to mention obnoxious, use of yellow by L'immagine Ritrovata I have ever seen. It completely destroys the depth of field and makes every actor look aged and icky. The skin tones are awful. Especially Jean-Paul Belmondo. It seems like he's in his 80's and suffering from jaundice, in spite of all that jumping around. I thought, how can he be enegetic when he appears to be dying? All the costumes and sets, which used to have dazzling primaries, especially a bounty of blue and red, now appear to be stuck in amber. I love this film, but I had difficulty watching it. Apparently someone at Bologna decided that since it's a period piece, the color should have the aspect of aged parchment. But that isn't how this film looked upon first release. It was crisp and clear and incredibly three dimensional. It appeared you could walk right into the screen and take part in what was going on. If any of you have seen "Lola Montes" which was photographed by the same cinematographer, Christian Matras, that's what this film looked like. Lovely primaries, and especially a limpid, almost transparent blue. The skies seem to stretch outward into infinity. Now those blue skies are deep yellow, and flat. And because of the extreme yellow bias, even though it's 4K and the image quality is healthy, everything looks fuzzy & electronic. Not film. After watching this unholy mess, the only appropriate statement I can think of is what Belmondo says to Jean Seberg at the end of "Breathless", "Vous êtes vraiment dégueulasse!" Another milestone of French Eastmancolor cinematography destroyed by the folks at L'immagine Ritrovata. I don't know why I bother to buy these things anymore. And I understand "La Piscine" looks the same. Rancid yellow.

Hey, thanks for this. Although I have this film on DVD, I was thinking of upgrading as Belmondo and Cardinale are particular favorites of mine. I'll have another look at the DVD in the next few days.

I do have the Criterion disc of Lola Montes and was pleased. I also have a Blu-ray disc of La Piscine - Alain Delon is another favorite - but I don't recall that being too yellow. I watch that again too.

 

[lark144]

Hey, thanks for this. Although I have this film on DVD, I was thinking of upgrading as Belmondo and Cardinale are particular favorites of mine. I'll have another look at the DVD in the next few days.

I do have the Criterion disc of Lola Montes and was pleased. I also have a Blu-ray disc of La Piscine - Alain Delon is another favorite - but I don't recall that being too yellow. I watch that again too.

I did want people to know. A lot of it has to do with one's own experience of these films and also one's expectations, but I found the yellow in this master especially egregious, and difficult to watch. It also reallly irritates me that someone in the name of "cinematic retroval" is changing the color tonalities of these classic color films. Most of these films had the most exqusite blues and now, everything is yellow and latrine green. I don't have "La Piscine" but was basing this on Dr. Svet's review. If it looks good to you, maybe I'll get it, though again, what I found most attractive is the photography, all that glorious blue, and if that blue veers towards yellow and ochre, I don't know if I'd want to watch it. Another problem with all that yellow is it flatens things out, so even though the 4K has wonderful resolution, the color changes makes things less resolved. Basically, it's a mystery to me why anyone with any sense of admiration and love towards the cinematic treasures of the past would want to do this.

 

[Worth]

...I also have a Blu-ray disc of La Piscine - Alain Delon is another favorite - but I don't recall that being too yellow. I watch that again too.

The new, yellow master applies to the Criterion disc, which won't be released until July 20th. Any earlier discs would be based on an older master.

 

[bujaki]

I saw this when it came out. The color cinematography was really beautiful. Not anymore. I got the Blu-Ray yesterday. This is possibly the most atrocious, most reprehensible, not to mention obnoxious, use of yellow by L'immagine Ritrovata I have ever seen. It completely destroys the depth of field and makes every actor look aged and icky. The skin tones are awful. Especially Jean-Paul Belmondo. It seems like he's in his 80's and suffering from jaundice, in spite of all that jumping around. I thought, how can he be enegetic when he appears to be dying? All the costumes and sets, which used to have dazzling primaries, especially a bounty of blue and red, now appear to be stuck in amber. I love this film, but I had difficulty watching it. Apparently someone at Bologna decided that since it's a period piece, the color should have the aspect of aged parchment. But that isn't how this film looked upon first release. It was crisp and clear and incredibly three dimensional. It appeared you could walk right into the screen and take part in what was going on. If any of you have seen "Lola Montes" which was photographed by the same cinematographer, Christian Matras, that's what this film looked like. Lovely primaries, and especially a limpid, almost transparent blue. The skies seem to stretch outward into infinity. Now those blue skies are deep yellow, and flat. And because of the extreme yellow bias, even though it's 4K and the image quality is healthy, everything looks fuzzy & electronic. Not film. After watching this unholy mess, the only appropriate statement I can think of is what Belmondo says to Jean Seberg at the end of "Breathless", "Vous êtes vraiment dégueulasse!" Another milestone of French Eastmancolor cinematography destroyed by the folks at L'immagine Ritrovata. I don't know why I bother to buy these things anymore. And I understand "La Piscine" looks the same. Rancid yellow.

Merde! L'immagine Ritrovata emmerde tous--ou presque tous--leur projets.

 

[lark144]

Merde! L'immagine Ritrovata emmerde tous--ou presque tous--leur projets.

As Gene Kelly says in "An American in Paris", it sounds better in French.

 

[Trancas]

La Vie en Pissoir alla Ritrovatanese

After you've drained off some of the piss

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Less piss is better.

 

[usrunnr]

Duplicate post. Sorry.

 

[usrunnr]

I just purchased this on Amazon. It has no English Track. It's in French with subtitles. For some reason I thought it had both English and French options.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

I just purchased this on Amazon. It has no English Track. It's in French with subtitles. For some reason I thought it had both English and French options.

You're correct; I realized my mistake and amended it, however the system me and my fellow reviewers here at HTF doesn't have the selection for "French DTS-HD MA 2.0", which is what this disc has. So it's listed as "Other" for now, and I'll alert the mods about this.

 

[t1g3r5fan]

And now it's fixed to the correct specification!