The Clockmaker - Tavernier

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Clockmaker" or "The Watchmaker of St. Paul" or "The Clockmaker of St. Paul")

directed by Bertrand Tavernier
France 1974

NOTE: Both DVD captures are compared to the Blu-ray HERE

Bertrand Tavernier is among the best French directors, and the film that I like most, is The Clockmaker based on a novel by Georges Simenon. Here's many similarities to the resent Turkish film Uzak by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, even tough the style of the film is different. Both film focus on a middle-aged man, who after several years of isolation have to confront himself. In The Clockmaker, true his son and in Uzak true his cousin. Both films view a very strong picture of the town the films is made, Clockmaker in Lyon, Uzak in Istanbul. They are like a puzzle, where every scene unmask the main character (clockmaker / photographer). When we have enough pieces, the film ends leaving the audience to build the rest. Both films are deeply human, with a feeling of solitude, and both films are the best cinema can give us.Pierre-William Glenn has beautifully captured the city of Lyon, and I have always liked the music of Philippe Sarde. Never has Philippe Noiret and Jean Rochefort been so compelling in their performances.

Per-Olof Strandberg

Poster

Theatrical Release: January 16th, 1974

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DVD Comparison:

Optimum Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL vs. Kino Video - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Per-Olof Strandberg for the Screen Caps!

(Optimum Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Kino Video - Region 0 - NTSC - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Optimum Home Entertainment Region 2 - PAL	Kino Video Region 0 - NTSC
On March 24th, in the UK, Optimum released 5 Bertrand Tavernier titles: Ça commence aujourd'hui (Bertrand Tavernier, 1999) R2 UK Optimum Coup de torchon (Bertrand Tavernier, 1981) R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment Horloger De Saint-Paul (The Clockmaker) (Bertrand Tavernier, 1974) R2 UK Optimum Le Juge et l'assassin (Bertrand Tavernier, 1976) R2 UK Optimum L.627 (Bertrand Tavernier, 1992) R2 UK Optimum
Runtime	1:40:45 (4% PAL speedup)	1:40:27
Video	1:1.66 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 6.61 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1:1.66 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.09 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Optimum Home Entertainment
Bitrate: Kino Video
Audio	French (Dolby Digital 2.0)	French (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, None	English (Forced)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Optimum Home Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1:1.66 Edition Details: • Director's Commentary (In English) • Interview with Tavernier (48:08/16:9/In English) • Trailer (3:15/16:9) • DVD-9 DVD Release Date: 24 Mar 2008 Keep Case Chapters 8	Release Information: Studio: Kino Video Aspect Ratio: Widescreen letterboxed - 1:1.66 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: 8 /1 2002 (re-release) Keep Case Chapters 14

Comments:

NOTE: Both DVD captures are compared to the Blu-ray HERE

ADDITION - Optimum - April 08': Here's very little to compare. The KINO edition is an environment problem compared to the new Optimum (UK) disc. The screen captures tells everything! The KINO edition is cropped on every side, the detail is poor and the image is muddy and soft. It has occupied only 3.03 GB of size of a single -layered disc, where the Optimum has 7.46 GB on a dual-layered disc. The Optimum reports a very clean, razor sharp image, that, I don't imagine, couldn't look much better on SD. The colors could be a shade faded over time. The Optimum DVD has a new, very informative commentary track in English language.

An excellent film in a worthy package. Don't miss it!

***

About the KINO edition (01-30-2005):
PICTURE
I think Kino released this DVD for the first time in 1998. The standard of the DVD is much like other DVD's from that time. The DVD is taken from a PAL source. Obvious there is some combing. The picture is a little soft and the colors are faded, but in motion it actually looks better than on the screen caps. The black color is never blocked. I've viewed it with a projector with no problems. The DVD is non anamorphic, but the English subtitles are inside the 1:1.66 framing, so it can be zoomed on wide-screen equipment.

SOUND
The sound is a solid mono track. It's clear and dynamic. There's some minor faults (like as the wind was blowing in to the microphone), but it can be in the original mixing.

OVERALL
I don't think we get an other DVD of this title, and even tough it's not of recent standards, this can be viewed without distraction.

- Per-Olof Strandberg

DVD Menus
(Optimum Home Entertainment - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT vs. Kino Video - Region 0 - NTSC - RIGHT)