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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Delicacy (La délicatesse) (2011)

Delicacy (La délicatesse) (2011)

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Released 5-Sep-2012

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio
Interviews-Cast
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2011
Running Time 104:54
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By David Foenkinos
Stéphane Foenkinos
Studio
Distributor

Transmission Films
Starring Audrey Tautou
François Damiens
Bruno Todeschini
Mélanie Bernier
Joséphine de Meaux
Pio Marmaï
Monique Chaumette
Marc Citti
Alexandre Pavloff
Vittoria Scognamiglio
Case Amaray-Opaque
RPI ? Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None French Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English (Burned In) Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Back in 2001, a beautiful young French actress, Audrey Tautou took the world by storm as the lead in a beautiful and whimsical French film, Amelie. In the ten years since, she has starred in a number of French films including A Very Long Engagement and Priceless plus co-starred with Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code. One of her more recent films is Delicacy or La Delicatesse, which is now being released on DVD by Transmission Films. This film is the debut feature by brothers, David & Stephane Foenkinos. The screenplay is based on a bestselling novel, both written by David, and the film was co-directed by David & Stephane. The film received French Cesar nominations for best debut feature and best adapted screenplay.

     This is a sweet and gentle film about love, loss and moving on. Nathalie (Tautou) is a program seller at a theatre who falls in love with Francois (Pio Marmai) who she meets in a cafe. He asks her to marry him and she gets a career job, working for a Swedish company in Paris. Just when she seems to have her life sorted, her husband is killed by a car whilst he is out running. She is obviously devastated but decides to focus on her job to get over her grief. Three years later she is successful and rising in the company, but still cut off emotionally. Her boss, Charles (Bruno Todeschini), makes advances to her which she resists. One day, one of her team, Markus (Francois Damiens), a dorky Swedish guy walks into her office to discuss one of the cases they are working on. She walks over a kisses him passionately, seemingly without thinking. He is immediately smitten with her, she thinks nothing of it. Will Markus be able to get inside Nathalie’s wall of grief and bring her back to life?

     This is a lovely film, entertaining, thoughtful, emotionally resonant and life affirming. It is well directed and written by the new filmmakers involved and well acted by the leading couple. The romance is well handled and believable. The story is sweet and romantic but also realistic. The lightness of touch in the way the grief and death are handled makes this a lesson to other filmmakers, especially those on the other side of the Atlantic to France. The original music by Emilie Simon is beautiful and light, portraying emotion but never over-playing it.

     A lovely, sweet and gentle romance which will be enjoyed by lovers of fine cinema.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The video quality is good.

     The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced. It is probably worth noting that the case incorrectly advertises a 2.40:1 aspect ratio.

     The picture is reasonably clear but a little on the soft side, even for DVD. Shadow detail is good.

     The colour is quite good but this is not a film which bursts with colour.

     There is a some mild grain at times and a little blocking here and there along with some fairly obvious motion blur.

     There are subtitles in English which are clear and easy to read. They are burned into the print.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is very good.

     This disc contains a French soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1. The sound is quite front focused.

     Dialogue seemed easy to understand and clear throughout.

     The music by Emilie Simon, both score and songs are lovely, significantly adding to the feel of this gentle film.

     The surround speakers were used for mild atmosphere at times such as a rain storm and the subwoofer supported the music mostly.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

   One very minor extra.

Menu

    The menu featured music but not scene selection capabilities. The chapters are mostly just 10 minute blocks.

Interview with Audrey Tautou (3:08)

    A short subtitled promotional interview with Tautou who talks about the story and her character. The subtitles seem to be a very direct translation so suffer from English grammar challenges at times.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This film is available on Region 1 DVD and includes a making of featurette in addition to the interview. According to Amazon, however, the video has been cropped to 1.78:1 but this is pretty minor. There is also Blu-ray versions available in the UK and US. In terms of DVD, lets just call it a draw.

Summary

    A sweet and gentle French romance.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    One small extra.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Friday, October 05, 2012
Review Equipment
DVDSONY BDP-S760 Blu-ray, using HDMI output
DisplaySharp LC52LE820X Quattron 52" Full HD LED-LCD TV . Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderBuilt into amplifier. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationMarantz SR5005
SpeakersMonitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer

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