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

ADDITION: Pathé Blu-ray (August 2021): Pathé transferred Luis Buñuel's Fever Mounts at El Pao (La fièvre monte à El Pao) to Blu-ray. It is cited on the back of the cover as being from a 2013 "2K restoration by Pathé". Being a Buñuel fan, I have known about this English-friendly Region FREE disc's existence but never picked it up - a kind reader sent it to me. The image is immaculately clean but seems to have grain removed. The 1080P is somewhat glossy and contrast is adept if not stellar but the lack of grain may displease some viewers although there is no edge-enhancement or egregious artifacts. I was okay with the HD presentation that showcased a touch of depth and the source is without notable blemishes. Many scenes look solid. Perhaps this is the best we will get. I'm not complaining too vociferously as these 50's Mexican-period Buñuel films are always a treat.

Jon Paul tells us in email: "Re: the NSFW capture (below): It's a 1959 movie and by that time, directors and photographers expected films to be projected in a widescreen ratio; and in fact you can deduce that from the placement of the title block, and the fact that all the captures have a lot of extra space in the tops and bottoms of the shots.

If you take that capture in particular, and crop from the centre to a 1.66 ratio, the offending mammary disappears. My guess is that most viewers of the film in 1959 never saw it, in the same way that most viewers of Saving Private Ryan never saw mikes and booms in the top of shots – although I did at one showing where the projectionist apparently nodded off and didn't frame the image properly." (Thanks Jon Paul!)

NOTE: We have added 68 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Pathé use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (16-bit) in the original French language. Fever Mounts at El Pao has a scant few aggressive moments (gunfire, car-crash, fire) that come through with modest depth and score by Paul Misraki (Mr. Klein, Le Doulos, Atoll K, Attack of the Robots, Bunuel's Death in the Garden,  Godard's Alphaville, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Doulos, Orson Welles's Mr. Arkadin) that all sound acceptable in the lossless transfer. There is some DUB'ing but I never found it a distraction. Pathé offer optional French and English (SDH) subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Pathé Blu-ray offers pleasing extras although they are all in French with no English subtitles. These include Gerard Bonal, Alain Ferrari, Olivier Barrot, critic Charles Tesson and others providing input. The first is a good 1/2 hour piece on the actor Gerard Philipe, another for 20-minutes on Buñuel - both of these are in 1080i - and, lastly, a restored 1080P trailer. A second disc, Region 2, PAL DVD is included in the fold-out digipak package. 

Luis Buñuel's Fever Mounts at El Pao deals with the director's frequent themes of trust and power - both political and sexual. María Félix is exceptional as the self-serving femme-fatale using her allure for survival with men blinded by their desire. It's a film I am very happy to have revisited in 1080P regardless of the digital image inferiority. The Pathé Blu-ray should definitely appeal to Buñuel' fans.

Gary Tooze