A couple of true classics and some super entertaining French gems are out on 4K-UHD and Blu-Ray this month.
The Wages of Fear – 4K-UHD/Blu-ray – Criterion
In the ‘cinematic masterworks I somehow missed until now’ column, I can now happily remove iconoclastic helmer Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear. To say it’s an extraordinary sit is not doing justice to this the nail-biting, anxiety-inducing, nihilistic look at the world.
Clouzot spends a great deal of time on atmosphere and setting. We’re in some grimy, miserable South American town where evil Americans run roughshod over the locals and control the wealth of oil nearby. It’s a melting pot potpourri of the downtrodden from all over—I counted at least five languages being spoken (French, Italian, Spanish, German and English).
The film is based on the novel by Georges Arnaud and adapted by Clouzot and his brother who was given the pseudonym Jérome Geronimi (because Clouzot had to be the only Clouzot). The closest to a protagonist is wry French lothario Mario (Yves Montand) who rooms with burly Italian Luigi (Folco Lulli) but soon befriends an older enigmatic stranger, Jo (Charles Vanel).
The ruthless head of the American oil company, Bill O’Brien (William Tubbs), is desperate for nitroglycerin so he offers the misfit toys in the town the opportunity to make $2000 per person (pay dirt in the 1950s). Of course, it’s a suicide mission since the cargo needs to be driven on mountainous bumpy roads where one wrong jolt could mean death. Four men are selected, the three above and the ruggedly handsome blonde German Bimba (Peter van Eyck).
The second half of the 153-minute film is a study in frantic terror. I was watching while my eyes popped back and forth hiding behind a pillow, which I don’t think I’ve done since I was a boy. This potent motion picture is brutal in its vision of society and the ending is in keeping with the provocative and damning tone. There are also elements of John Huston’s brilliant look at human greed, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) to be found.
Wages caused quite a sensation when it opened in Europe in 1953 where it was hailed as an instant classic. It took two more years to hit the U.S. and was cut to smithereens by the censors (by 50 minutes) who saw the film as anti-American and evil and didn’t appreciate what they viewed as a work that promoted homosexuality. I was fascinated to watch the terrific special features on this amazing Criterion 4K and hear about the gayness, in particular, because I was stunned at the rather overtness of the homoeroticism, but I thought it was just me reading into it—as a gay man. There’s even a titillating shot of Montand’s backside, in his undies, one cheek exposed—something you’d expect to see from Bridget Bardot.
The film was partially restored a few decades ago when it was released on DVD and laserdisc (remember those?) but now Criterion is presenting the most comprehensive 4K restoration, based on the original negative (done by TF1 Studio in 2017) that is absolutely stunning to behold.
The superb special features include interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff and Marc Godin, biographer of Clouzot as well as a brief but telling chat with Montand, who basically owes his acting career to Clouzot. Also included is a feature on the cuts made to the U.S. version and a program on the restoration. Best of all is a 2004 doc, Henri-Georges Clouzot: The Enlightened Tyrant on the director’s career, boasting interviews with many of his creatives who attest to just how difficult he was on set and how he devoted his life to movie making.
The Wages of Fear is currently available.
https://www.criterion.com/films/370-the-wages-of-fear?sell-sheet
Choose Me – 4K UHD/Blu-ray — Criterion
To fully appreciate an Alan Rudolph film, one has to accept the bizarre, atmospheric, off-putting yet intoxicating world he creates. The moody visual style and evocative score offset by an overly dramatic and darkly comic narrative. And dialogue reeking of irony and contradiction.
Rudolph was a Robert Altman protégé working as assistant director on The Long Goodbye and Nashville. He made a handful of interesting films before the one that would define the rest of his career, Choose Me (1984), a neon-infused cinematic fable that centers on a love triangle of sorts between two mature women and one intelligent, escaped mental patient.
Dr. Nancy Love (Oscar nominee Geneviève Bujold) is a revered radio talk show expert who has never been in love. She answers an ad to room with Eve (Oscar nominee Lesley Ann Warren), a former prostitute who now owns her own bar and is dating an older, gun-toting married man (Patrick Bauchau). One day the enigmatic Mickey (Oscar winner Keith Carradine) enters the bar, after his escape, and instantly becomes enamored with the elusive Eve. Later, Mickey seduces Nancy. And the conflicts arise. Oh, also at the bar is Pearl (Rae Dawn Chong), a flighty loon with her own agenda.
The film exists in it’s own time and place, none clearly defined. And Teddy Pendergrass songs pepper the soundtrack including the title track which inspired Rudolph to write the film.
Carradine commands the screen. He won his Oscar for writing the brilliant song, “I’m Easy,” for Nashville but has never really gotten the credit he deserves for his subtle and powerful acting work. This was his second of six collaboration with Rudolph. He also starred in Welcome to L.A. (1976), Trouble in Mind (1985), The Moderns (1988), Ray Meets Helen (2017) and had a cameo as Will Rogers in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994).
Both Bujold and Warren play complicated women trying to figure out their path in life. Bauchau is a delightful menace. Chong seems like she’s in another film entirely, camping it up and chewing scenery like a starving tiger.
The ending is right out of The Graduate, although in a new interview Rudolph insists the parallels weren’t intentional.
Criterion’s 4K UHD disc has been digitally restored to grainy perfection (supervised by director Alan Rudolph and producer David Blocker) and the film’s sound is terrific. Among the key special features is an illuminating new chat between Rudolph and Carradine, Alan Rudolph Directs, a new doc on the making of Choose Me as well as over an hour of footage of an interview with Rudolph at the 2012 Midnight Sun Film Festival in Finland.
And while we’re on the subject of Carradine, Rudolph and Robert Altman, this June marks the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest films of all time, Nashville. Wouldn’t it be nice to get a 4K-UHD from Paramount? Criterion, who put out an amazing Blu-ray in 2016, no longer has the rights.
Choose Me will be available March 25, 2025.
https://www.criterion.com/films/29146-choose-me?sell-sheet
The Black Tulip — Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
In 1964, prolific French filmmaker Christian-Jaque fashioned a dazzling showcase for rising star Alain Delon, hot on the heels of Jean-Paul Belmondo’s success with the swashbuckler, Cartouche (1962). Delon had made quite the impression in René Clément’s Purple Noon and Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard (all regarded as masterworks today) and was even considered for the lead in David Lean’s epic, Lawrence of Arabia, which ultimately went to Peter O’Toole.
The Black Tulip (La Tulipe noire), very loosely based on the Alexandre Dumas novel of the same name, gave audiences two Delons for the price of one, and was a huge box office success. Incidentally, that same year, Delon reteamed with Clément on Joy House, opposite a young Jane Fonda. You’ve never seen a more gorgeous couple grace the screen!
Set in 1789, right before the storming of the Bastille, The Black Tulip follows the titular masked avenger, aristocrat Guillaume de Saint Preux by day, played grittily by Delon, who is facially scarred by the Baron La Mouche (Adolfo Marsillach). In order to escape exposure, Guillaume summons his identical twin brother, Julien (a kinder, gentler Delon) to pretend to be him. And things get wacky from there.
The ridiculously handsome Delon is perfectly dashing in both roles. Julien is the naive idealist while Guillaume seemingly only cares about himself and loathes both the monarchy and the common people. Delon was a true cinematic force and watching him at the very beginning of a remarkable career is a treat.
Italian actress Virna Lisi is a stand-out and it’s nice to see that in French fight scenes of the time, women were actually allowed to help the men fight the foes, as opposed to American films where they were usually directed to simply stand there, helpless (see Arabesque with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren, also available from Kino Lorber, as an example.)
KL has done a wonderful job with this 4K Restoration (by TF1), with Henri Decaë sumptuous cinematography popping magnificently. The Blu-ray features new commentary by critic and author Simon Abrams.
The Black Tulip will be available March 18, 2025.
https://kinolorber.com/product/the-black-tulip-la-tulipe-noire
Half a Chance — Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
Two cinematic icons, Alain Delon and John-Paul Belmondo, team up for the final time in Patrice Leconte’s genre mashup, Half a Chance (Une chance sur deux), which often feels like two separate films forced together. That doesn’t take away from the enjoyment factor, which mostly comes from the less action-y portion of the work.
The film centers on Alice (Vanessa Paradis) who, in the opening scene, is released from prison for car theft, something she is very deft at. Her recently deceased mother has left her an audio cassette where she confesses that, 20 years ago, she was in love with two men. And either could have fathered her daughter. Alice immediately tracks them down and the trio are almost instantly bonded. Both Léo (Belmondo) and Julien (Delon) have their own past secrets that will come in handy when Alice inadvertently embroils them in an insane adventure involving nasty Russian mobsters.
Delon and Belmondo have great chemistry together and when you add Paradis into the mix, it’s pretty magical—although her Kewpie doll demeanor takes some getting used to.
When the film concentrates on the Mamma Mia-esque relationship between Alice and her prospective fathers, it soars and I wish Leconte and his co-screenwriters, Patrick Dewolf and Serge Frydman, would have focused more there –and developed it further– instead of the James Bond bordering on Austin Powers elements of the movie. But even with the silly action-adventure infusion, the film is incredibly entertaining.
The Kino Blu-ray, via a 2K restoration (by TF1) looks and sounds terrific. The disc boasts new audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.
Half a Chance will be available March 18, 2025.
https://kinolorber.com/product/half-a-chance-1-chance-sur-2
Ho! (Criminal Face) — Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
“I take risks. I’m famous!” Ho in Ho!
In the early 1960s Jean-Paul Belmondo burst onto the international cinema scene with impressive performances in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless opposite Jean Seberg, Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women, starring Sophia Loren in her Oscar-winning turn, Jean-Pierre Melville’s Léon Morin, Priest with Emmanuelle Riva, Godard’s Pierrot le Fou alongside Anna Karina and Philippe de Broca’s adventure romp, That Man from Rio.
By 1968, he was one of France’s most celebrated box office attractions (along with Delon, who has a blink-and-miss-him cameo here). Belmondo enjoyed making action films which explains why he decided to star in Robert Enrico’s convoluted head-scratcher, Ho!
Belmondo is François Holin, aka “Ho,” a former race car driver turned petty thief who gets caught, imprisoned and, upon his trick-the-system release, receives great media attention and becomes a rather notorious criminal—at least in his own mind. There are some fun moments in this neo-noir wannabe but the only reason to stay the course is Belmondo, who makes even the dullest sequences watchable. François de Roubaix’s stirring score helps move things along as well.
The Kino 4K restoration by TF1 is top notch although there are still a number of fuzzy images. The Blu-ray offers a new audio commentary by that trio of film historians, Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.
This one is for action junkies and/or Belmondo fans. And if you happen to be both, you won’t mind the meandering.
Ho! Will be available March 18, 2025.
