The Dinner Guest (Invité, L') (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer Theatrical Trailer-Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002) Theatrical Trailer-Ha- Ushpizin (2004) Theatrical Trailer-Mon oncle (1958) Theatrical Trailer-Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005)
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	81:15 (Case: 86)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Laurent Bouhnik
Studio Distributor	Europa Corp. Madman Entertainment	Starring	Daniel Auteuil Valérie Lemercier Thierry Lhermitte Hippolyte Girardot Artus De Penguern Pascale Dinizani Mar Sodupe Marianne Viard Ludovic Berthillot Michel Gondoin
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
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

Guess who's coming to dinner - Gerard's potential employer.

Daniel Auteuil stars as nice guy Gérard, a man who's unfortunately been unemployed for three years. He's fifty years old and desperate to get a managerial role, and at his latest interview seems to impress his potential employers - but there's a catch - they will sign the contracts over dinner - at Gerard's home.

Gérard's not too worried though, he is sure he and his (dimwitted) wife Colette (Valerie Lemercier) will make a good impression - after all they have 24 hours to fix the leak in their living room. But the couple are soon panic-stricken when their pushy neighbour Alexandre (Thierry Lhermitte), questions why the potential boss - Pontignac - has invited himself to dinner - of course it's to scope out how the couple live and decide whether they really want to employ Gérard.

However the couple needn't worry - Alexandre is here to help, he proclaims he was a "consultant" to Nicholas Sarkozy before he became President of France. Alexandre will cook and serve the formal dinner, replace the Matisse prints with actual abstract artworks, throw away the Mike Brant and Claude François records, which are replaced with classical music and help Gérard with his conversational skills.

Naturally things go awry - Gérard starts to doubt himself, Colette doesn't know the difference between a Burgundy and Boeuf Bourguignon and Alexandre can't stop criticising Gérard and Colette. Based on a play/novel by David Pharao and directed by Laurent Bouhnik, L'invité is an enjoyable comedy of errors, particularly if you're a fan of Daniel Auteuil, Thierry Lhermitte and Valerie Lemercier.

Video

The PAL transfer is quite good, preserving the natural colour palette of the film.

Presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen, the transfer is clean with no incidents of film grain and is free of MPEG compression artefacts.

The consistent bit-rate of 5.46 Mbps over a Single Layer DVD achieves an overall smooth transfer.

Black levels and shadow detail are excellent.

The English subtitles are burnt onto the print of the film and are a good translation of the French dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

The audio presentation is also very good. There are two French soundtracks available - 2.0 Dolby Digital and 5.1 Dolby Digital. As expected the soundtrack does not make full use of the surround sound but dialogue remains clear and the audio track is faultless.

The dialogue is mostly emitted from the front of the soundstage with occasional atmospheric sound and score emitted from the rear speakers.

The film includes a number of iconic French pop songs including 'C'est ma prière' performed by the late Mike Brant, 'Y'a le printemps qui chan't and 'Si j'avais un marteau (If I had a hammer)' by the late Claude François.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

The main menu is a still image of the cover-art, accompanied with a section of the score. The menu is easy to navigate with access to eleven scene selections, set-up and access to the extras.

Theatrical Trailer

The French trailer with burnt-in English subtitles (1:57)

Theatrical Trailer

An anti-piracy warning focused on the Australian film industry, precedes the following trailers:

• Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre)
• Ha- Ushpizin (Ushpizin)
• Mon Oncle
• Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

The R2 (France) release also appears to be barebones. There are no English subtitles on the French release.

L'invité is an enjoyable comedy of errors, particularly if you're a fan of Daniel Auteuil, Thierry Lhermitte and Valerie Lemercier. This is a solid release from Madman, however there are no extra features.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall