124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
- Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
The Murderer Lives at 21
One of the most revered names in world cinema, Henri-Georges Clouzot, made a remarkably self-assured debut in 1942 with the deliciously droll thriller The Murderer Lives at 21 [L'Assassin habite au 21].
A thief and killer stalks the streets of Paris, leaving a calling card from "Monsieur Durand" at the scene of each crime. But after a cache of these macabre identifications is discovered by a burglar in the boarding house at 21 Avenue Junot, Inspector Wenceslas Vorobechik (Pierre Fresnay) takes lodging at the infamous address in an undercover bid to solve the crime, with help from his struggling-actress girlfriend Mila (Suzy Delair).
Featuring audacious directorial touches, brilliant performances, and a daring tone that runs the gamut from light comedy to sinister noir, as well as a subtle portrait of tensions under Nazi occupation, this overlooked gem from the golden age of French cinema is presented in a beautiful new high-definition restoration.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• A new and exclusive video interview with French film scholar Ginette Vincendeau about Clouzot and his debut
• An essay about the film by scholar Judith Mayne
• An extract about Occupation cinema from scholar Christopher Lloyd's book about Clouzot
• Newly translated interview extracts about the making of the film by Clouzot
• A short testimonial by Jean Cocteau
• Rare imagery
One of the most revered names in world cinema, Henri-Georges Clouzot, made a remarkably self-assured debut in 1942 with the deliciously droll thriller The Murderer Lives at 21 [L'Assassin habite au 21].
A thief and killer stalks the streets of Paris, leaving a calling card from "Monsieur Durand" at the scene of each crime. But after a cache of these macabre identifications is discovered by a burglar in the boarding house at 21 Avenue Junot, Inspector Wenceslas Vorobechik (Pierre Fresnay) takes lodging at the infamous address in an undercover bid to solve the crime, with help from his struggling-actress girlfriend Mila (Suzy Delair).
Featuring audacious directorial touches, brilliant performances, and a daring tone that runs the gamut from light comedy to sinister noir, as well as a subtle portrait of tensions under Nazi occupation, this overlooked gem from the golden age of French cinema is presented in a beautiful new high-definition restoration.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• A new and exclusive video interview with French film scholar Ginette Vincendeau about Clouzot and his debut
• An essay about the film by scholar Judith Mayne
• An extract about Occupation cinema from scholar Christopher Lloyd's book about Clouzot
• Newly translated interview extracts about the making of the film by Clouzot
• A short testimonial by Jean Cocteau
• Rare imagery
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
This appears to be the first time this has appeared in an English-friendly release, no? I'm struggling to find out too much about it. It looks quite the rarity.Finch wrote:Fernando Croce's review of The Murderer Lives at 21:Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Thin Man Goes to Vichy France, just about, though not without a lament for Paris under the Occupation ("How the faithful city has become a harlot," recites the bogus padre at dinner.) It opens with a creaking door then introduces the subjective slasher-cam for the murder of the moneyed barfly, "M. Durand" is the name on the killer’s calling card. Pierre Fresnay and Suzy Delair are the sleuthing duo at the center, he’s a darting dandy out of Doyle and she’s a chanteuse waiting to be discovered "like America before Columbus," a fizzy performance modeled after Stanwyck in The Mad Miss Manton. They know the killer’s location but not his identity, a joke diffused through the Hitchcock of Juno and the Paycock in the boarding house that Fresnay infiltrates under clerical guise. The toymaker with faceless dolls (Pierre Larquey), the limping abortionist (Noël Roquevert) and the fakir-gigolo-artiste (Jean Tissier) are the key suspects, though Clouzot’s ebullient viper’s nest is vast enough to encompass a failed novelist working on a policier ("set in a haunted castle"), a blind boxer with a nurse in black lingerie, and acerbic hints of colonial pasts: "If one returns from hell, one prefers to forget." "No one returns from hell. Cheers!" A curiously slaphappy whodunit that includes a dash of Lubitschian sleight-of-hand while name-checking the Vampire of Düsseldorf, fascinating for the screwball-comedy force with which it tries to keep at bay the malignant suspicions of an epoch of beasts. With René Génin, Jean Despeaux, Marc Natol, Hughette Vivier, Odette Talazac, and Louis Florencie. In black and white.
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- Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:31 am
- Location: Somerset, England
Re: BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
I was fortunate to record it back in 1986 during an amazing week of BBC matinees (!) of lesser-known 1930s & 40s French movies. I wouldn't put it among Clouzot's major works but it's a stylish comedy-thriller, with heaps of noir atmosphere.
- NABOB OF NOWHERE
- Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 12:30 pm
- Location: Brandywine River
Re: BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
As a thumbnail sketch it's a Gallic variant on an Ealing comedy who-dun-it.
Retour a la vie - or at least Clouzot's contribution - would make a great extra.
Retour a la vie - or at least Clouzot's contribution - would make a great extra.
- Gregor Samsa
- Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:41 am
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Has any more info come to light on possible extras, or (if its going to be a barebones disc) at least what specifically is going to be in the booklet? The current listing is fairly vague. In other news, a clip was also put up on YouTube last week.
- NABOB OF NOWHERE
- Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 12:30 pm
- Location: Brandywine River
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Whatever the extras will be they won't be the same as on the forthcoming Gaumont edition as they are still working on the supplements.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Based on my review copy, the disc contains a 13-minute video discussion by Ginette Vincendeau (shot in HD, presumably exclusively for this edition), and the booklet contains essays by Judith Mayne (on the film itself) and Christopher Lloyd (on the historical background, specifically the challenges faced by the film industry in operating under Nazi occupation). There's also a rather intriguing "oral history" of the film, assembled from various separate interviews given by Clouzot, star Suzy Delair and source novelist Stanislas-André Steeman, and a nice little coda in which Jean Cocteau discusses his and Pablo Picasso's reaction when they saw it together on its original release (they both liked it).
I daresay changes are possible at this stage, but I'm assuming all that is set in stone now.
I daresay changes are possible at this stage, but I'm assuming all that is set in stone now.
- Gregor Samsa
- Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:41 am
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Thanks! Those sound pretty fascinating.
- krnash
- Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:50 pm
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off.
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Hmmm. The transfer doesn't look stunning from the screencaps. Hope this is one of those that looks better in motion.
- vsski
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 3:47 pm
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Rats - this sure looks like another French DNR mess that this time MoC got stuck with. Let's hope it's not as bad as Children of Paradise and is better in motion.
- Drucker
- Your Future our Drucker
- Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Funny how Gary calls it a positive that the image is "consistent" and that "once he gave in and 'accepted'" the video, he enjoyed the presentation.
- RossyG
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Companies are going to have to start rejecting these kinds of 'restorations'. It doesn't do their reputations any good and the culprits might get the message.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
I'm playing the checkdisc now, and I'm not convinced that it's a DNR smear-job - I can certainly see what looks like authentic film grain, there's plenty of facial detail, and I'm very happy to confirm that it looks considerably better in motion than the Beev's screencaps suggest. The image is certainly a tad soft, but it's still obviously HD.
In fact, given this film's production circumstances, which are described in detail in the extras (film stock was so limited that Clouzot had to put up with a shooting ratio of something like 2:1, which must have been a challenge and a half for a perfectionist like him), I'm actually pleasantly surprised that it looks as good as it does.
In fact, given this film's production circumstances, which are described in detail in the extras (film stock was so limited that Clouzot had to put up with a shooting ratio of something like 2:1, which must have been a challenge and a half for a perfectionist like him), I'm actually pleasantly surprised that it looks as good as it does.
- Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Thanks for that, Michael. I was about to email Eureka and amend my preorder to the DVD.
- triodelover
- Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:11 pm
- Location: The hills of East Tennessee
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
People are going to have to stop jumping to unwarranted conclusions based on a few screen caps seen on a computer monitor, too.RossyG wrote:Companies are going to have to start rejecting these kinds of 'restorations'. It doesn't do their reputations any good and the culprits might get the message.
- RossyG
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:50 pm
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
I was actually basing it on the text of the review. It's not as if Gaumont don't have form.
Last edited by RossyG on Thu May 02, 2013 8:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Don't get me wrong - this is not going to be anyone's idea of a demonstration-quality transfer, and my comments are based on a quick spin rather than actually watching it from beginning to end, but the Beaver grabs look significantly softer than what I've got playing in front of me.Finch wrote:Thanks for that, Michael. I was about to email Eureka and amend my preorder to the DVD.
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Essay by Christopher Lloyd... as in Doc Brown or as in Modern Family?
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
It's such an unusual name that it has to be one of those.
- Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Wouldn't be the first time the Beev's caps nearly deterred people from buying MoC discs (La Vie de Jesus, anyone?), but then one ought to know better than merely going by Gary's grabs.MichaelB wrote:the Beaver grabs look significantly softer than what I've got playing in front of me.
- vsski
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 3:47 pm
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
I was reacting less to the screen grabs, which I feel from personal experience with other discs should be taken with a lot of caution - motion is what counts -, but to the description in Gary's article. Gary has of lately been far more forgiving than in the old days and if even he now states that it doesn't look good, it's clearly a reason for concern.
I'm pleased to hear Michael B's assessment and will not change my pre-order.
I'm pleased to hear Michael B's assessment and will not change my pre-order.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
It certainly doesn't look like a first-generation 35mm source.
My provisional guess (based on a quick spin) is that it's a perfectly decent HD transfer from less than optimum materials - but because the picture has undergone a thorough clean-up, this produces cognitive dissonance based on the assumption that an image that pristine should surely be sharper.
My provisional guess (based on a quick spin) is that it's a perfectly decent HD transfer from less than optimum materials - but because the picture has undergone a thorough clean-up, this produces cognitive dissonance based on the assumption that an image that pristine should surely be sharper.
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- Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:27 pm
Re: 124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21
Just writing up my review and checked out the aforementioned screen-caps, and I have to say they really do not do justice to what is actually a very impressive transfer, particularly considering the points that MichaelB has previously raised with regards to production limitations, etc. The image appears much finer and less DNR heavy in motion, and yes it may be slightly soft, but there is some impressive fine detail to be seen and a good amount of depth!!