The Pact of Silence (Pacte du Silence, Le) (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-City Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Borderline, Darkness Falls
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	84:57 (Case: 88)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Graham Guit
Studio Distributor	Legende Entreprises Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Gérard Depardieu Élodie Bouchez Carmen Maura Isaac Sharry Tsilla Chelton Estelle Larrivaz Anne Le Ny Wojciech Pszoniak Isabelle Candelier Hervé Pierre Manuela Gourary Philippe Du Janerand Marie-Sohna Conde
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Alexandre Desplat

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Russian Slovenian Swedish Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Le Pacte du Silence is a minor mystery from France of interest because of the stars: Gérard Depardieu and Élodie Bouchez.

    In the beginning the story is somewhat confusing, though this appears to be intentional. Depardieu plays Father Joachim, a doctor-priest who treats Sister Sarah (Bouchez), a young nun suffering stomach cramps from an unknown cause. The Mother Superior, played by Carmen Maura, seems reluctant to allow Sister Sarah out of her clutches, and eventually removes her to the convent in Brazil. Meanwhile, another character played by Bouchez, whom we later learn is her sister Gaëlle, is in prison in France for a heinous crime.

    Father Joachim seeks to get to the bottom of the mystery about Sister Sarah, and back in France he meets Gaëlle who has just been released from prison. Events take several unusual turns, and Father Joachim smuggles Gaëlle into Brazil dressed as a nun...

    This is a very low key mystery story, with some obvious plot twists, and some quite unbelievable ones. Bouchez is good as the two sisters, while Depardieu is serious and a little bland as the priest. Carmen Maura is wasted as the Mother Superior, as is Wojciech Pszoniak as Father Joachim's superior. The screenplay seems to be a little underdeveloped, as I did not always grasp the motivations of the characters. The direction by Graham Guit (pronounced "git") is mostly adequate but not convincing. The audio commentary explains why, I think.

Video

    The video afforded to this film is satisfactory but not exceptional.

    The film is presented in a aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is not ideally sharp, probably due to overcompression to fit the film on a single layer. Shadow detail is good, and the transfer is bright, thanks to much of the film being shot outdoors or on well lit sets. Colour is good, with flesh tones being accurate, though some of the colours are drab.

    Disappointingly, edge enhancement was noticeable throughout much of the film, most obviously at 3:33, 30:50, 46:27 and 61:59. There was also a minor instance of aliasing at 71:06.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer was quite good.

    The default audio track was French Dolby Digital 5.1. There are also Italian, Spanish and Russian language soundtracks.

    Dialogue was clear, although as it was in French I had no idea what was being said. Audio on the French soundtrack was in sync throughout, though the alternative dubbed soundtracks were obviously not in sync. These seemed to offer different acoustics as well, which might be distracting if this is the listening preference.

    The music score by Alexandre Desplat was often less than subtle, but it was generally appropriate for the material.

    Surround channels were used sensibly, with the rear channels enhancing the ambience of the sound image without drawing attention to themselves. Similarly the subwoofer was only used to fill in low level sounds, and was used sparingly.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The main menu is animated with a short clip from the beginning of the film.

Audio Commentary

    The commentary is presented in French with optional English subtitles. The commentary is by Élodie Bouchez and Graham Guit. This commentary is quite dull to begin with, as they simply comment on the action appearing on screen, and there are a few quiet spots. As the commentary progresses, there are a few interesting things said about the location filming, the relationship of the other actors to Depardieu and the casting of the film. Guit mentions four times during the first 15 minutes that the script was written by someone else, and that he didn't always understand it, so he appears to be suggesting that his heart wasn't in the project. He also says that he had trouble with the producers, but unfortunately does not go into any detail. He also says that the released film was different to his original cut, and shorter, but we do not get any details on the director's cut. Perhaps that is being withheld for the two disc Collectors Edition...

    The commentary is interesting enough to listen to once, but is not sufficiently absorbing for repeated listening.

Trailers

    Three trailers are provided:

    Le Pacte du Silence (1:31)

    This is the US trailer to the film, presented in non-16x9 enhanced format with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. This has basically the same video quality as the main feature, and is worth watching to see the formulaic way the US distributors have represented the film in trailer form.

    Borderline (0:44)

    This trailer is presented in non-16x9 enhanced format with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    Darkness Falls (1:50)

    This trailer is presented in 16x9 enhanced format with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

    This film has also been released on DVD in Region 1. Looking at the specifications and reviews of that release indicate that apart from being in NTSC format, it is identical to the Region 4 release.

    A minor but diverting mystery from France, this film might be worth a rental.

    The video quality is average.

    The audio quality is good.

    The audio commentary is of minor interest and is the only substantial extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall