124 / BD 57 The Murderer Lives at 21

[David M.]

Can we all stop obssessing about Gary's (or anybody else's) screens and their relative worth? We all know they are only one part of a review, and the whole thing is turning into a fucking broken record. It is always down to the experience of the disc , god knows how often I've made the mistake of taking screens or indeed lower rez DLs at face value.

The question is, what system are the observations being made on? If it's the same playback software which is producing resolution-compromised screen grabs, well... (And to what extent is the write-up influenced by these screen grabs?)

Regardless, the opinions, as with nearly all reviewers, are just those.

[Gregor Samsa]

The Arts Shelf

[manicsounds]

BlurayDefinition gives positive marks on the picture quality

[Gregor Samsa]

CineOutsider

[Finch]

I was pleased with how the film looked and grain is definitely discernable. The film itself was a nice choice by MoC, thank you to Craig & co.

[tenia]

I just watched the movie and while I still think there has been some tinkering with degraining/denoising tools, it is, in fact, very variable, with some shots looking smooth and/or soft, and others looking much more natural and grainy. Maybe different sources have been used for the restoration, à la Quai des brumes ?

However, on the contrary of BlurayDefinition, the French track is in a wonderful shape. Through the Gaumont, the Canal, and more recently the 2 De Broca + Belmondo @ TF1 releases, I've now watched quite a few French catalog movies on BD, and most of them have audio tracks with dialogs quite harsh, mumbled and difficult to understand (sometimes almost to the point where I think of turning on the subs). It is absolutely not the case here, with a track being really pleasing and nice sounding. It's especially probant during the sequences where Suzy Delair sings. No hiss, no distorsion, no saturation. I have to admit : it impressed me more than the picture quality.

[Nadsat]

Blu-ray.com

[kidc85]

It's a pity more people aren't discussing this film as it's a really delightful piece of filmmaking. Name checked already in this thread, MURDERER AT 21 shares a lot in common both with THE THIN MAN, in its detective couple whose acid-tongued competitiveness barely masks their sincere and obvious love for each other, and with Ealing's black comedies featuring criminals whose genteel civility barely masks their black, amoral hearts. Although MURDERER AT 21 is not as funny or iconic as either THE THIN MAN or THE LADYKILLERS (but this is splitting hairs really: MURDERER is laugh out loud funny all the way through) where Clouzot really makes his film remarkable is in sustaining throughout both a superficial tone that makes MURDERER as light and digestible as any classic Hollywood comedy, and also a subtext that is subtle but very, very angry.

If you spell it out, the film sounds completely obvious: it's a French film made during the Nazi occupation of France about a murderer hiding in plain sight as his fellow citizens all profit off of the murders. I wonder if you can guess what the film is really about! But in his feather light touch Clouzot's themes, like the murderer, hide in plain sight. It's so much fun watching this French Nick and Nora clumsily infiltrate the boarding house where the murderer lives, as the body count increases along with the alibis of all of the suspects, that Clouzot's gradual introduction of Nazi baiting can go almost unnoticed. It wasn't until after the film finished that the long speech about the breakdown of society actually clicked (I'm charitably taking this as a sign of Clouzot's genius, rather than a sign of my dull-mindedness). The film's final image is one of the biggest "fuck you"s of cinema and that it was aimed at the Nazi regime, all things considered, raises a light detective comedy into one of the ballsiest films I've ever seen.

[Ashirg]

It's getting a combo release on June 12.