Chacun son cinéma (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Short Films	Main Menu Audio & Animation-16x9 enhanced Theatrical Trailer-Chacun son cinema (2007) Theatrical Trailer-Ta'm e guilass (1997) Theatrical Trailer-Umberto D. (1952) Theatrical Trailer-Sanma no aji (1962) Theatrical Trailer-Latcho Drom (1993)
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	109:48
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Theodoros Angelopoulos Olivier Assayas Bille August Jane Campion
Studio Distributor	Cannes Film Festival Madman Entertainment	Starring	Isabelle Adjani Pegah Ahangarani Anouk Aimée Leonid Alexeenko Taraneh Alidoosti Antonin Artaud Vishka Asayesh Fred Astaire George Babluani
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Marc Bradshaw Mychael Danna Eleni Karaindrou

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	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

Chacun son cinéma (To each his own cinema) is a diverse collection of vignettes, assembled to honour and celebrate the then 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

Gilles Jacob, the Cannes Film Festival’s president, invited an array of acclaimed international directors, to contribute a short film at a length of three minutes to the project, illustrating the respective director's “state of mind, of the moment, as inspired by the motion picture theatre”.

Accordingly the short films exhibit an assortment of concepts - from the nervous directors who present their blood, sweat and tears to the unpredictable Cannes audience for the first time, to the various make-shift theatres in rural towns in China and the Congo, to the common discussions between child and parent concerning what films to see, to the banal chatter between friends and families which instantly silences when the lights dim. From the audience being inspired, saddened, humoured or shocked by the flickering images on the screen, to the artistry (or lack of artistry) exhibited by the projectionist, to the assorted restless patrons and petty thieves who have other things on their mind in the darkness of theatre.

There are many gems to be found in the collective works – from the works which feature the directors as 'themselves' –David Cronenberg “shoots himself, shooting himself,” Lars Von Trier brutally illustrates what he would really like to do to a self-righteous film critic, Nanni Moretti passionately details his movie going experiences as a son and as a father, similarly Claude Lelouch recalls the first film he experienced in his mother’s womb, while Youssef Chahine’s explores his eventually triumph at the Cannes Film Festival and Elia Suleiman amusingly details his “awkward paranoia” when he finally has to reveal his films to an audience.

Other remarkable segments are provided by Takeshi Kitano, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Roman Polanski, Theo Angelopoulos, Atom Egoyan, Walter Salles, Ken Loach, Zhang Yimou and Raymond Depardon.

Unfortunately there are two short films which are notably absent from this release – the Joel and Ethan Coen contribution and the Michael Cimino contribution.

Video

The DVD transfer of Chacun son cinema is 16x9 enhanced, while aspects ratios of the various short films range from 1.78:1 to 2.35:1.

The transfer has been encoded at an average bit-rate of 6.53 Mbps over a Dual-Layer disc.

Most of the short films are set in the darkness of the theatre and the transfer illustrates shadow detail and black levels quite well.

All round this is a decent transfer which is represents the individual colour/black and white palette of each short film quite well. However on two occasions there was very mild MPEG compression artefacts which resulted in very minor aliasing, but this is a very minor issue.

As the collective film features Mandarin, Spanish, French, Danish, Finnish, Japanese, Russian, Yiddish and Portuguese dialogue, optional English subtitles can be selected from the Main Menu. The subtitle track appears in a clear yellow Arial font.

There are 33 chapter selections – allowing the user to access the short films and epilogue individually.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

While this DVD title in other regions features a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, the local release features only a 2.0 Dolby Digital soundtrack.

The single audio option is acceptable as the dialogue remains clear and detailed without any distortion. There are no obvious audio synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Animation & Audio

The Main Menu features an excerpt of Nina Roto’s familiar Theme from Toby Dammit ('Histoires Extraordinaires') and is introduced with brief animation of the Cannes Film Festival iconography. As mentioned there are 33 chapter selections and set –up options and access to various trailers.

Theatrical Trailer

Chacun son cinema (2007)

Directors Suite Trailers

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

• Ta'm e guilass (1997)
• Umberto D. (1952)
• Sanma no aji (1962)
• Latcho Drom (1993)

The R2 Studio Canal (France) 2 Disc release of this title includes a 5.1 audio soundtrack and English and French subtitles. On this release is various interviews with the directors and extended /alternate versions of three short films with appropriate subtitles and deleted scenes from the various short films. However the Coen brothers contribution is not included on this release.

There is an R3 Deltamac (Hong Kong) release which also features a 5.1 audio soundtrack, as well as a DTS option with English and Chinese subtitle options. The Coen brothers contribution is also not included on this release.

Chacun son cinéma is humorous, daring, challenging, absurdist and nostalgic. It is certainly an enjoyable feat for the cineaste.

On a sidenote it is interesting to note there are reoccurring thematic strands through the collective works – namely how the blind patron views a film in the theatre, images of tearful women in the audience are also repeated, demonstrating the cathartic power of cinema and the cinema as a communal gathering of different classes, ages and cultures, whether it is in a rural village, inside a town hall or at a film festival.

The local release is adequate but unfortunately imperfect as two short films are absent and there is a single stereo option (the back-cover states monaural).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall