Abdel Kechiche Games of Love and Chance DVD Esquive Abdel Kechiche Games of Love and Chance DVD Esquive

(aka 'Games of Love and Chance')

Directed by Abdel Kechiche
France 2003

A sensitive, daringly original and deeply human portrait of a group of teenagers living in the projects outside Paris and surviving in a world marginalized by society. Set during preparations for a school production, it captures their affections, quarrels and jealousies as well as the budding romance between shy Krimo and Lydia, the fiery blonde star. Krimo, a pre-thug with great, big dreams forms a tight crew with his friends that carries its weight around their dangerous ‘hood. Confident and sassy, Lydia is a romantic, stunning beauty driven by passion. Friends throughout their lives, as they move into adolescence, Krimo realizes he has fallen in love. Using the show as a way to get closer to Lydia, Krimo persuades his friend, Rachid, to give up the lead role. Krimo wants Lydia and he's far too smitten to be scared of looking ridiculous in front of his crew. Rejection, seduction, betrayal, and love are the heart of this universal coming-of-age story.

Posters

Theatrical Release: November 25th, 2003 (Belfort Entrevues Film Festival)

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DVD Review: New Yorker Video - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	New Yorker Video - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:59:12
Video	1.78:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.94 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:
Audio	French (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: New Yorker Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • 2 trailers for the film DVD Release Date: April 18th, 2006 Keep Case Chapters: 26

Comments:

Unfortunately this is from an unconverted PAL source and the image is rife with combing (see below) and associated artifacts. The haziness may have existed on the negative as a function of naturalistic shooting style but the image is still quite weak. Colors seem a shade saturated. Certainly this is tube-watchable but it will start to show its flaws on superior systems. There are no extras save two trailers - an English and Foreign one.

The film is a good one avoiding any untoward preachi-ness. I didn't find the inferiority of the image impinged upon my viewing. I definitely think this is worth a spin and I am now very curious about the directors other work.

NOTE: There is an Aventi Distribution Region 2- PAL DVD (where this transfer may have come) that exists HERE but does not have English (or any) subtitles.