Search DVDBeaver |
S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r |
(aka 'Forbidden Games' or 'The Secret Game')
Directed by
René Clément
France 1952
A girl of perhaps five or six is orphaned in an air raid while fleeing a French city with her parents early in World War II. She is befriended by a pre-adolescent peasant boy after she wandered away from the other refugees, and is taken in for a few weeks by his family. The children become fast friends, and the film follows their attempt to assimilate the deaths they both face, and the religious rituals surrounding those deaths, through the construction of a cemetery for all sorts of animals. Child-like and adult activity are frequently at cross-purposes, however.
A timeless evocation of the loss of innocence, René Clément’s heartbreaking Forbidden Games tells the story of a young orphan and her friend, who are forced to fend for themselves in World War II France. A breathtaking cinematic achievement, Clément’s film features brilliant performances from its child stars and won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. |
Poster
Theatrical Release: May 9th, 1952
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Comparison:
Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray
Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC LEFT vs. Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - RIGHT
Box Covers |
|
|
Distribution | Criterion Collection - Spine # 318 - Region 1 - NTSC | Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray |
(click titles for DVDBeaver reviews) Criterion (without the extras) also available in The Essential Art House - 50 Years of Janus Films - a 50-disc celebration of international films collected under the auspices of the groundbreaking theatrical distributor. It contains Alexander Nevsky (1938), Ashes And Diamonds (1958), L'avventura (1960), Ballad Of A Soldier (1959), Beauty And The Beast (1946), Black Orpheus (1959), Brief Encounter (1945), The Fallen Idol (1948), Fires On The Plain (1959), Fists In The Pocket (1965), Floating Weeds (1959), Forbidden Games (1952), The 400 Blows (1959), Grand Illusion (1937), Häxan (1922), Ikiru (1952), The Importance Of Being Earnest (1952), Ivan The Terrible, Part II (1958), Le Jour Se Lève (1939), Jules And Jim (1962), Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949), Knife In The Water (1962), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), Loves Of A Blonde (1965), M (1931), M. Hulot's Holiday (1953), Miss Julie (1951), Pandora's Box (1929), Pépé Le Moko (1937), Il Posto (1961), Pygmalion (1938), Rashomon (1950), Richard III (1955), The Rules Of The Game (1939), Seven Samurai (1954), The Seventh Seal (1957), The Spirit Of The Beehive (1973), La Strada (1954), Summertime (1955), The Third Man (1949), The 39 Steps (1935), Ugetsu (1953), Umberto D. (1952), The Virgin Spring (1960), Viridiana (1961), The Wages Of Fear (1953), The White Sheik (1952), Wild Strawberries (1957), Three Documentaries By Saul J. Turell plus the hardcover, full color 240-page book. |
||
Runtime | 1:26:00 | 1:26:15.000 |
Video | 1.31:1
Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 8.27 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s |
1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 23,621,904,057 bytes Feature: 16,997,394,432 bytesVideo Bitrate: 22.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
||
Bitrate: |
|
|
Bitrate: Blu-ray |
|
|
Audio | French (Dolby Digital 1.0), DUB: English (Dolby Digital 1.0) |
DTS-HD Master Audio French 852 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 852 kbps / 16-bit (DTS
Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit) DUB: DTS-HD Master Audio German 902 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 902 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit) |
Subtitles | English, None | English, French, German, None |
Features |
Release Information: Edition Details: • Collection
of new and archival interviews with director René Clément and actress
Brigitte Fossey |
Release Information: Aspect Ratio: 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 23,621,904,057 bytes Feature: 16,997,394,432 bytesVideo Bitrate: 22.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Edition Details:
• Innocent Love Stories Under Occupation (30:40) |
Comments: |
NOTE: These Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.
ADDITION: Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray (April 2013): The new European 1080P of Clément's Forbidden Games looks bright, clean and impressive. Comparing to the picture-boxed Criterion we can see that one is either vertically stretched or the other transfer is horizontally stretched... or a little of both. I lean to the Criterion being more at fault... and the Studio Canal being more true. The capture with Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) in front of the tree is the most telling. This always becomes more noticeable in a comparison. Contrast and detail on the HD are solid and produce a highly pleasing image - especially in-motion.
The audio is lossless in original French with an optional German DUB- both in DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel. I noted no flaws (hiss, pop, sync issues) and the lossless sounded quite clean. Infrequent film-music composer Narciso Yepes did the sitting score. There are optional English, French or German subtitles with different covers for those respective country releases - although all by Studio Canal and we presume them to be the same technical transfer - as the opening menu screen allows language choice.
Supplements include the 1/2 hour Innocent Love Stories Under Occupation featurette about the film with an interview with Brigitte Fossey. We also get the same alternate Opening and Ending as found on the Criterion.
This is such a powerful and impacting film - it's hard not to endorse in the higher resolution - especially considering the picture-boxing and vertical stretching of the Criterion SD release. Recommended! ***
ON THE DVD (November 2005) : I have a couple of questions about this release. Firstly, it looks marvelous, but I am scratching my head as to why it is window-boxed with a thick black border around the entire frame. Why in the world would they author a DVD in this fashion... totally limiting the full resolution? I can only remember Criterion doing this to Flaherty's 1922 Nanook of the North. Although perhaps not as much of a question but an observation - Criterion have uncharacteristically added an optional English DUB. They haven't done so in a foreign language release for some time. I suspect that it is to allow children to watch the film. The image looks very good with solid contrast and excellent shadow detail. Progressive, fairly bright - great subtitles and I enjoyed the three interview extra features. The alternate opening/ending may have some relevant interest to those very keen on the film, which doesn't need my rubber stamp of 'masterpiece'. As usual the liner notes are very professional and in my mind this is a must-have DVD for your collection. Fans have anticipated this film coming to a complete DVD presentation for a long while. NOTE: There are both French and Korean releases of this film on DVD (see two captures below).
Pepsi says: "If these Korean DVD is an
official release, they sure have make it to look like an "bootleg".
There's not even a distributor
name on the package.
There's not much to compare here: Even tough the Korean DVD claims that
it's based on Studio Canal's restoration, something is totally wrong
here. The picture is very soft, it's taken from a PAL source (visible
Combing and ghosting in motion), and someone has decided to stretch the
image to new proportions, making everything look wider. I have two DVD's
of this issue: the first one doesn't function after the layer change.
The extra material mentioned on the menu pages doesn't exist, except
from some text pages in Korean." |
Menus
Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC LEFT vs. Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray -
RIGHT
|
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Subtitle Sample
Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC
TOP vs. UNKNOWN
(Korea) - Region 0 - NTSC -
MIDDLE
vs. Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray
-
BOTTOM
|
Screen Captures
Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC TOP vs. UNKNOWN (Korea) - Region 0 - NTSC - MIDDLE vs. Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
|
Equally resized to see stretching/compression differences
More Blu-ray Captures
Box Covers |
|
|
Distribution | Criterion Collection - Spine # 318 - Region 1 - NTSC | Studio Canal - Region 'B' - Blu-ray |
(click titles for DVDBeaver reviews) Criterion (without the extras) also available in The Essential Art House - 50 Years of Janus Films - a 50-disc celebration of international films collected under the auspices of the groundbreaking theatrical distributor. It contains Alexander Nevsky (1938), Ashes And Diamonds (1958), L'avventura (1960), Ballad Of A Soldier (1959), Beauty And The Beast (1946), Black Orpheus (1959), Brief Encounter (1945), The Fallen Idol (1948), Fires On The Plain (1959), Fists In The Pocket (1965), Floating Weeds (1959), Forbidden Games (1952), The 400 Blows (1959), Grand Illusion (1937), Häxan (1922), Ikiru (1952), The Importance Of Being Earnest (1952), Ivan The Terrible, Part II (1958), Le Jour Se Lève (1939), Jules And Jim (1962), Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949), Knife In The Water (1962), The Lady Vanishes (1938), The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), Loves Of A Blonde (1965), M (1931), M. Hulot's Holiday (1953), Miss Julie (1951), Pandora's Box (1929), Pépé Le Moko (1937), Il Posto (1961), Pygmalion (1938), Rashomon (1950), Richard III (1955), The Rules Of The Game (1939), Seven Samurai (1954), The Seventh Seal (1957), The Spirit Of The Beehive (1973), La Strada (1954), Summertime (1955), The Third Man (1949), The 39 Steps (1935), Ugetsu (1953), Umberto D. (1952), The Virgin Spring (1960), Viridiana (1961), The Wages Of Fear (1953), The White Sheik (1952), Wild Strawberries (1957), Three Documentaries By Saul J. Turell plus the hardcover, full color 240-page book. |