Q (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Erotic Drama	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Accent releases x 4
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	102:55
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Laurent Bouhnik
Studio Distributor	Accent Film Entertainment	Starring	Deborah Revy Helene Zimmer Gowan Didi Johnny Amaro
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Ernest Saint Laurent

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080i
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

"pleasure has nothing to do with love"

     Economic times are tough in Cherbourg, France with businesses closing and young people out of work. Q (also known as Desire) follows a disparate group of people as their lives intersect and they drink, smoke and think about sex. At the centre of the stories is the promiscuous Cecile (Deborah Revy) who, when she is not having sex with her pseudo-boyfriend Chance (Johnny Amaro), is propositioning men she meets on the France / England ferry, arranging sexual trysts for others or teasing Matt (Gowan Didi), who is working as a mechanic. Matt’s girlfriend Alice (Helene Zimmer) loves Matt but is inexperienced and shy about her body and sex. When Alice runs across Cecile, Cecile shows that her inclinations are not only towards men.

     Q is an erotic drama with the emphasis firmly on the erotic, as the drama, and the social context, is perfunctory at best. When a film commences with a group of naked women, filmed with a blue colour palate from the waist down as they chat in the showers about men and sex, it is pretty clear what we are going to get. Indeed, these naked women act as a sort of Greek chorus and the film returns to them and their conversations on a number of occasions until, at the very end, their purpose is revealed.

     The film is also ostensibly about love in various guises. While Cecile is very much the focus, there is also Chance’s friend Manu who is devastated as his girlfriend has left him, an older married couple having difficulties in their marriage, and a pair of lesbians. It seems that the remedy to problems is frequently sex and pleasure, rather than love, although at the end the film cops out on that one too. But raunchy the film certainly is: as well as full frontal nudity, Q features some of the most explicit sex scenes and actual sexual activity in a general release film I have seen, which fully justifies its “R” rating in Australia. I should point out that all the sexual activity is consensual and violence towards woman is certainly not a factor; indeed most often it is Cecile who controls the situations.

     Yet, while Q is certainly a sexploitation film, it is well made and the acting far better than one might have expected. Deborah Revy looks spectacular, but she is more a catalyst and her character does not develop and the attempt to explain her promiscuity by means of the death of her father is never convincing. However, the standout is Helene Zimmer, who also looks beautiful and makes her journey towards sexual awakening interesting enough.

     Q tries for some social conscience, but is mostly an excuse for nudity and “R” rated sexual activity along with mixed messages about sex, desire, pleasure and love. Yet it is well put together, and the acting and dialogue is far better than one might expect, making Q quite watchable, even when they have their clothes on!

Video

     Q is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, in 1080i using the MPEG-4 AVC code. The IMDb gives the original ratio as 1.78:1, but it could equally have been the European ratio of 1.66:1.

     Other than the scenes which has a deliberate blue colour palate, the print of Q has good, natural colours and strong, clean detail. This is not a film with soft focus in the sex scenes! Blacks and shadow detail are very good, contrast and brightness consistent, skin tones natural.

     Other than some slight aliasing on vertical lines, such as the shed at 25:43, and some ghosting with motion, there were no marks or artefacts.

     Subtitles in American English are available in a clear yellow font. I did not notice any spelling of grammatical errors. There is no tab in the main menu for subtitles but they can be removed with the remote for French speakers.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     Audio is French Dolby Digital 2.0 at 448 Kbps, that is, no lossless audio.

     Q is not a film that requires too much of its audio. Dialogue seems clear and centred and the rears are mostly used for the score plus occasional effects, such as thunder. I did not notice anything directed to the sub-woofer.

     The score by Ernest Saint Laurent was effective.

     There are no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Trailers (7:24)

     The following trailers play on start-up and must be skipped: Day and Night, Meat, Vanishing Waves and Wake Up and Die. They can also be selected from the menu, plus a trailer for Q.

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

     The only other Blu-ray releases of Q listed are French and German Region B versions that are not English friendly. Buy local.

     Q is an erotic drama with the emphasis firmly on the erotic. It includes nudity and explicit “R” rated sexual activity along with mixed messages about sex, desire, pleasure and love. Yet the film is well put together and the acting and dialogue is far better than one might expect.

     The video and audio are fine, trailers are the only extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall