How Much Do You Love Me? (Combien tu m'aimes?) (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Animation Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Photo Filmographies-Cast & Crew Trailer-Manual Of Love,Nathalie, Russian Dolls, Beat My heart Skippe
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	89:42
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Bertrand Blier
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Monica Bellucci Bernard Campan Gérard Depardieu Jean-Pierre Darroussin Edouard Baer Farida Rahouadj Sara Forestier Michel Vuillermoz François Rollin Jean Barney Baptiste Roussillon Jean Dell Michaël Abiteboul
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Vincenzo Bellini Giacomo Puccini Giuseppe Verdi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/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	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I am always willing to give interesting sounding French films a try and this one is no exception. In addition to sounding interesting, this one is also a high quality and very intriguing film. It was written & directed by Bertrand Blier, whose film My Man (Mon Homme) I reviewed when it was released locally. He is probably best known for Too Beautiful for You. That film stars Gerard Depardieu who plays a supporting role in this film. This film is a surreal black comedy like My Man, however unlike that film this one works but is certainly not for everyone.

    The basic plot is that a man, Francois (Bernard Campan), walks into a bar in Paris. This bar is actually more of a bordello where the girls are available for a price to go into another room and have sex. Part of the charge is for a bottle of champagne, which costs as much as the girl's time. In this bar, Francois meets Daniela (Monica Bellucci), a sultry Italian woman. He tells her that he has just won the lottery and has a proposal for her. The proposal which she readily accepts is to be paid 100,000 Euros a month to live with him. She moves in with him but as she does so it becomes obvious that he has a weak heart and may not survive her attentions. He is warned off by a friend of his who is a doctor, but decides to proceed regardless. Things become much more complicated when Francois finds out that Daniela is married to a gangster, Charly (Gerard Depardieu), and that he wants his cut of the arrangement. Although this description of the plot sounds quite straightforward, this film certainly isn't and towards the end this film gets quite surreal and frankly more than a little odd. Despite this though, it's certainly intriguing, amusing and quite unlike anything you might see from a US studio picture.

    The dialogue is very good, by turns funny, strange and revealing. The look of the film is slightly otherworldly with a great stillness to it, with little onscreen movement other than the main players. There are very few extras, even in street scenes. This effect is added to by only using music in bursts which directly relates to the on-screen action. The music used includes some excellent jazz saxophone by Archie Shepp and lots of excerpts from great operas such as Tosca, Il Trovatore and Gianni Schicchi. Both of these musical elements add warmth and passion to the film. The cinematography is very good, featuring some interesting lighting. There is an excellent small bit performance from Farida Rahouadj as Francois' neighbour. Blier makes a cameo himself as a customer in the bar.

    I would recommend this film to people who enjoy European cinema and don't mind their films being a little oblique and open-ended.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was also very good. There is some light grain in backgrounds, however this is not overly intrusive.

    The colour was very good with no issues to report.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English which although clear and quite large are unfortunately burnt in to the picture, meaning you can't turn them off.

    There is no layer change.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good but only stereo.

    This DVD contains an French Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music used is a combination of jazz and great operas which to my mind works very well for this film. They sound very good in this transfer.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer are not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are some extras, however, they are pretty ordinary.

Menu

    The menu was still and silent but allowed for chapter selection.

Theatrical Trailer (1:31)

    This is a pretty good trailer which includes subtitles although interestingly some of the translations are quite different to those in the film itself.

Photo Gallery

    13 stills directly from the film. Pointless.

Cast & Crew Filmographies

    One text page each for the three leads and the director listing a cut down set of their films.

Trailers

    Trailers are included for Manual of Love, Nathalie, Russian Dolls and The Beat My Heart Skipped all of which look like interesting films. On the basis of the trailer I have decided to review Manual of Love.

    This disc is coded for all regions and seems to be the first English language focused version available globally. It has been released in France with both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks along with lots of extras, however it seems to be missing English subtitles which means it won't be much good for most local audiences. If you speak French that is the one to go for.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good but only stereo unlike the release of this film in France.

    The set has a small collection of pretty ordinary extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall