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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (September 2021): Kino have transferred Jean-Louis Trintignant's A Full Day's Work to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "4K Restoration from the Original Camera Negative". Despite that, it is quite green and has plenty of teal. It's fairly consistent, if certainly not scaling the heights of the format. It is flat with rough textures. I eventually got used to it and it wasn't a poor viewing just a less-remarkable one.   

NOTE: We have added 18 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original French language. A Full Day's Work has a few aggressive moments that come through with modest depth. There is a score by Bruno Nicolai (The Colors of the Dark, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, Sartana Will Pay, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Face to Face, The Perverse Countess, Torso, Ten Little Indians, Pasolini's Hawks and the Sparrows), Mahler's symphonies, Bach cantatas, plus carnival-esque music that runs throughout. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentary by film critic and author Simon Abrams. He defends Trintignant's directorial debut A Full Day's Work very well. There are parallels to Jacques Tati's work - with intentional pacing, sparse dialogue and how the director is pushing the limits of the undefined genre tropes that it is encompassing. He discusses tonal shifts, the music (Mahler's symphony), Buñuel-like surrealism, how it is conceptually-exhausting, and much more. He reads quotes by Trintignant - not necessarily about A Full Day's Work. There is an interesting anecdote with Klaus Kinski (they did not get along.) He's very thorough and finds deep references about this less-discussed film while taking occasional pauses. There are also trailers although none for A Full Day's Work.  

I read the plot of Jean-Louis Trintignant's A Full Day's Work and was very keen thinking it may be similar to Kind Hearst and Coronets. It's not although has very dry humor and a French leaning to the absurd. I guess it is still a very black-comedy. There is very limited dialogue - 'patience-testing pacing' (as Abrams describes) - and almost seems like an odd attempt at being a different brand of cinema. That could be appealing to some. I struggled - but watched till the end and began at accept the film's idiosyncratic nature eventually. The Kino Blu-ray is at their usual level - with, unfortunately, what appears top be a compromised source, but the Abrams' commentary will shed plenty of light. Open-minded cinephiles should be keen. 

Gary Tooze