The Crimson Rivers (Rivières Pourpres, Les) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Menu Animation & Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-City Audio Commentary-Director & Cast Isolated Musical Score-+ commentary Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer-2 Trailer-Vertical Limit; The Bone Collector; Godzilla Featurette-The Investigation Featurette-The Scalpel Scene Featurette-Making Of A Corpse Featurette-The Fight +/- commentary Featurette-Night Time Filming Storyboard Comparisons-The Chase (+/- commentary) Featurette-Filming In Altitude Featurette-White Rivers; Japanese Promotions Multiple Angles-The Avalanche Gallery-Poster; Photo Filmographies-Cast & Crew Storyboards Featurette-Archives From Thierry Flamand-Production Designer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	101:29
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (59:14) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mathieu Kassovitz
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Jean Reno Vincent Cassel Nadia Fares
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp-Dual v2
RPI	$36.95	Music	Bruno Coulais

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/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 Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish English Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Make no mistake, this is a French movie through and through. Based on the book of the same title by Jean-Christophe Grangé and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, the film is set in the French Alps, features French actors and was shot in the French language and therein lies the major problem. The complex plot, the unfamiliar place and people names and the subtleties of French simply haven't been (or can't be) translated adequately into English.

    A horribly mutilated corpse is found tucked away high up on a cliff face. The body belongs to the librarian of the local exclusive Université Guernon. The unfortunate victim has been tortured and suffered a slow and agonising death during which his hands were hacked off with an axe and then cauterised to prevent a premature demise. The corpse has been bound in the foetal position and to provide a clue to the next victim, the eyes have been surgically removed and filled with frozen rainwater. Understandably, the local Gendarmerie finds this a little out of its league and sends for Paris ace serial-killer sleuth Pierre Niémans, played by a suitably taciturn Jean Reno. Quite separately, bad-boy cop Lt. Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel) spends some time smoking a joint and beating up a few skin-heads whilst he investigates the grave desecration of an 8 year old girl who died in a road accident some 20 years previously. One of the very few female actors to feature in the movie, Nadia Fares plays the token love interest whilst aiding in some of the more mountaineering aspects of Reno's Alpine investigation.

    The whole of this text could be given over to explaining the plot which took this reviewer four viewings to get to grips with, though this wasn't exactly helped by my falling asleep several times and having to backtrack. The plot is convoluted and the original text of the book was re-written for the screenplay by author Grangé and then had to be modified on-the-fly by director Kassovitz to accommodate problems with weather changes on location.

    The best feature of the film is the marvellous Alpine scenery. The problem, however, with such picture-perfect high altitude scenery is that the weather is fickle and there are substantial seasonal variations during the months it took to shoot the film. Consequently, we have major continuity problems where one day the hills are dry and sunny and the next day we have an Alpine blizzard. Even during one scene (Chapter 19) we have the transition from heavy fallen snow, to rain and back to snow again within 100 metres and 30 seconds of chase. Unless one is a native French speaker it is also difficult to retain the names of the characters and victims and thus understand what the hell is going on!

    There are also major credibility gaps and inconsistencies in the story. How does the pathologist conclude it is rain water dripping from the eyeless sockets of the first victim? How does a Series 5 BMW get overtaken and forced off the road by a beat up old 4WD during the car-chase and why do the local Gendarmerie act like a couple of Keystone cops? The duo even stoop to making passes at the nuns at the local convent! One of the aforementioned nuns is also said to have taken a vow of darkness and won't be visible to the interviewing detective but, when filmed, is fortunately sat by a barred window sufficient to illuminate the whole room. The characters of the police are also hollow and unconvincing. Admittedly, much of the subtlety of the dialogue is lost in the translation, but the half-witted comic comments and tight-lipped machismo played by both lead roles simply doesn't cut the cake in a serious serial killer investigation. Unfavourable comparisons are inevitably made with Morgan Freeman's detective roles in Seven and more recently Along Came A Spider.

Video

    The transfer is presented in the original film format of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is clean and sharp doing justice to the mountain scenery. Every rivulet of moisture and every hair is seen on the corpse sequences which was quite a challenge as one of them was a dummy, (the other was a very cold stunt guy!). Extensive use is made of Steadicam which is put to good effect during the chase sequences. Novel overhead vertical panning effects were made using a crane and Corpse-Cam! Low level detail was good which is just as well considering the number of dark sequences although there was a little low level noise. Annoying horizontal blue diffraction lens effects were utilised during some of the dark scenes which rendered hand-held pocket torches into impressive laser-beamed light sabres and detracted from the realism.

    The colours were a little washed out, particularly flesh-tones, in the movie which is probably consistent with the high-altitude illumination of the Alpine scenery. Colours of blood, particularly on Kerkerian's tissues were an unconvincing orange but this probably related more to the fake blood effects rather than the transfer.

   Mild aliasing was evident throughout the movie, usually on policeman's caps, but was most noticeable in the library sequences on some of the balustrades, such as at 27:34. There was some edge enhancement evident around the skinheads facial features at 49:59. As would be expected from a recent film release, the transfer was very clean with only occasional white flecks evident.

   The English sub-titles were dreadful. Obviously translated directly from the French, they frequently bore little relationship to the dubbed spoken English and were minimalist in the information carried which also contributed to the difficulty in understanding what was happening.

    The RSDL transition occurs mid-scene at 59:14 and although quite evident isn't disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

   There are three audio tracks, all Dolby Digital 5.1, recorded in English, French and Spanish and as befits an R4 release the DVD defaults to the (dubbed) English. The problem with the English dubbing is that it simply does not convey the nuances of the original French and does not fit with the famous French mannerisms and facial expressions. The attempted comic one-liners fall badly flat and make the lead roles seem idiotic at times. It is evident that Reno and probably Cassel did their own voice-overs but some of the other actors' voices did not seem to fit their faces. I am reminded of Das Boot where the English dub is quite farcical and, like this film, is probably best listened to in the original recorded dialogue. This is where decent subtitles would have been really useful.

     The technical recording of the dialogue was clear but authentic pronunciation of people and place names made comprehension difficult at times.

    As the film was dubbed, in the English version, lip-synching was less than perfect and didn't fit convincingly at times. The French soundtrack and sound effects were spot on.

    The musical score by Bruno Coulais was excellent. Creepy scenes were suitably enhanced by cold percussive effects and the open vistas of the scenery were suitably augmented by appropriately expansive  musical accompaniment.

     The surround channels were extensively but appropriately utilised for effects during the tense action sequences to build the sound-stage and to augment the storm and helicopter sequences. What I found quite irritating were the Batman-like artificial sound effects to accompany action sequences. It was an aural equivalent to the old comic sequence balloon captions such as Bam, Whoosh and Crash. A particularly obvious example of this was the loud swoosh panning front to rear at 67:36 to accompany the throw of a pistol - it all detracted from credibility. A good conventional Foley artist would have been much more convincing.

    The subwoofer wasn't heavily utilised but rumbled appropriately during the action and storm sequences.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Featurette - The Investigator

Post Mortem

In Memoriam

    Two features on Marketing and Production, the former including Asian promotion tours and posters and filmographies of lead cast and production team. The Production feature features extensive storyboards and a fascinating archive of film clips from chief production designer Thierry Flamand showing how the imposing, yet  fictitious, University of Guernon was constructed from existing buildings by addition of bas-relief and set construction.

Director's Commentary

• Booklet

• Extensive subtitling

    The video quality was good.

    The audio was good but marred by a less than perfect English overdub. The sound effects were somewhat inappropriate for a movie of this nature.

    This movie would Ideally suit Francophiles with a suitably Gallic sense of humour. Worth a view for the scenery as a rental.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall