Synopsis
Isild Le Besco is a teenager completely bored with the scene at the slightly ratty campsite where she and her family are spending the summer. Enter Denis Lavant, a much older man weathered by life and prison. Though he knows better than to be the moth to her flame, he can’t help but circling closer and closer. A conflagration is inevitable.
The leads are very strong. Lavant very convincingly radiates disillusion and a certain confused weariness, while Le Besco is the very portrait …f self-absorbed, resentful sensuality. The film is nicely grungy, but could be a bit more subtle in some of its effects – was it really necessary, for instance, to have our protagonists first cross paths quite literally? Worth a look, at any rate.
Audio
The audio is 2.0, though it is, generally speaking, superior to the picture. The music is enveloping, though it is also a touch thin. The sense of environment is quite strong, with insect song, in particular, working to plunge the viewer into the superheated setting. Dialogue is clear and undistorted.
Video
Much rougher. Partly this is due to the deliberate look of the film itself (and it is to this, for instance, that we could put down the level of grain). Colours and contrasts are both quite strong, but the image is a bit soft, and there is a flicker that can be bad to the point of inducing seizures. So the grit of the film is certainly well preserved by the transfer, but said transfer goes perhaps a little too far in this direction.
Special Features
Nothing except the trailer.
Closing Thoughts
An interesting, if not overwhelming work. Ditto for the presentation.
Special Features List
- Theatrical Trailer
