NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (August 2024): Kino have transferred Gilles Mimouni's L'appartement to Blu-ray. We love the film and compared 5 DVDs of L'appartement HERE, in 2006. Kino's Blu-ray is a very welcome improvement on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. Sharpness dramatically advances as do color depth and balance as there is depth noticeable. The 1080P is consistent and clean.

NOTE: We have added 64 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original French language. Despite being occasionally labeled a 'thriller' L'appartement has no real aggression. The score was by Peter Chase (Happenstance) with his Same Kind of Woman, and many qill recognize Le Temps performed by Charles Aznavour. sounding clean with consistent dialogue in the lossless transfer. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentary by, one of our favorites, film historian Adrian Martin. He talks about the popularity of the film in the 90s, in many countries, and that some of its subtleties were lost on certain critics. He considers it well-conceived, scripted, constructed film. He goes into the various complexities and layers of the film's construction, the three women representing the past, present and future. He observes other Hitchcockian references beyond those that we mentioned above (ex. North By Northwest) and states that the film was actually made to be seen at least two times and that details in the first half are revealed in the second half. Adrian reads quotes from an interview with Gilles Mimouni wanting to make a hybrid of a fairy tale and thriller. He mentions flourishes of style, the mobile camera, strong sense of architecture; space, lines, vistas, vectors - cinematographer Thierry Arbogast (Léon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita, De Palmas' Femme Fatale etc.) the mirroring of characters, identifying flashbacks and so much more. Super work Adrian. There is also an original trailer for the film.       

Gilles Mimouni's L'appartement was such a brilliant surprise back in the day and I loved revisiting it on superior Blu-ray this many years later. There are themes of obsession, unrequited love, fate, ambiguity with emotional attachments and detachments. It is amazingly realized by the writer/director who was executive producer for L'appartement's U.S. remake; 2004's Wicker Park with Josh Hartnett, Rose Byrne, and Diane Kruger. It's incredible that this was Gilles Mimouni's debut and his only theatrical feature. It has Vincent Cassel (La Haine, Irreversible) as Max and the three girls from his 'past, present and future'; Romane Bohringer (named after director Roman Polanski) as Alice, Monica Bellucci (Malena, Bram Stoker's Dracula) as Lisa and Sandrine Kiberlain (Mademoiselle Chambon) as Muriel. It was beautifully designed with flashbacks and stylized scenes inspired by Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock. L'appartement is an exceptional film that we strongly recommend. The Kino Blu-ray is easily the best to own with the wonderful Adrian Martin commentary. Don't miss this one.

Gary Tooze