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 S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Jacques Rivette
France 1984

 

Jane Birkin and Geraldine Chaplin star as theatre troupe members who are invited by a mysterious playwright/director to perform in a strange mansion. As the rehearsal progresses, secrets are revealed and the line between fiction and reality blurs.

***

A fashionable playwright-director offers roles to two young actresses. Shortly after accepting, the actresses notice strange clauses in their contract namely they must live at the directors large apartment during rehearsals. Soon thereafter, the mysteries, hallucinations and rivalries begin.

***

Chaplin and Birkin are actresses taken up by an enigmatic playwright (Kalfon) and installed in his fabulous suburban mansion in order to perform a play (whose last act is still unknown) for one of his house parties. With the agency of a magician and clairvoyant, melodrama gradually seeps into both life and the rehearsals of fiction; the affaires promoted between playwright, magician and actresses lead to premonitions, hallucination, jealousy and dark secrets, all of them threaded into a weird finale of reconciliation. As with Céline and Julie, the concern here is less with the contrast between fiction and reality, more with the invention of a magical realm from which reality is rigorously excluded: enchantment is discovered not from fairytale, but within life itself. Rivette creates a unique world and language, answerable finally only to himself.

Excerpt from Timeout Located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 6th, 1984 (New York Film Festival)

Reviews                                                                                                       More Reviews                                                                                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Cohen Media - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover

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Bonus Captures:
Distribution Cohen Media - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime 2:56:30.000
Video

1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,460,834,260 bytes

Feature: 45,732,059,136 bytes

Video Bitrate: 30.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio French 1580 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1580 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles English (burned-in)
Features Release Information:
Studio: Cohen Media

 

1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 47,460,834,260 bytes

Feature: 45,732,059,136 bytes

Video Bitrate: 30.99 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• Audio commentary track by Director Emeritus, New York Film Festival & Professor of Film and Media Studies, Columbia University Richard Peña
• Re-release Trailer (1:04)


 Blu-ray Release Date: February 14th, 2023
 Standard Blu-ray Case

Chapters 15

 

 

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Cohen Media Blu-ray (February 2023): Cohen Media have transferred Jacques Rivette's Love on the Ground (L'amour par terre) to Blu-ray. The, almost. 3-hour film is on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate. It looks quite good in 1080P with consistent contrast and colors. I wouldn't say the image is overly remarkable but a full notch above SD and I appreciated the HD presentation. 

NOTE: We have added 26 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Cohen Media use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original English language. Love on the Ground is dialogue-driven with no score or music at all that I recall. Audio is consistent in the lossless transfer. Cohen Media offer burned-in English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Cohen Media Blu-ray offers a commentary by Richard Peña, Director Emeritus, New York Film Festival & Professor of Film and Media Studies, Columbia University. He discusses how Love on the Ground blurs the line between life and theatre, the speculative propositions, meditations, the way that one language becomes another, the implications of love in both a theatrical and realistic sense reverencing other works of the director. He fills the film's time admirably with occasional gaps and makes appreciated observations and insights. There is also a re-release trailer.  

Jacques Rivette fans are usually a different breed of cinephile. The three-hour cut of the film of Love on the Ground will not be to all tastes. Like all of Rivette's films - it is challenging... and often perplexing. The voyeuristic play within the play and rehearsals for a one-off performance can be dry but are undeniably witty. There is a unique pleasing sophistication in this extended experience. The Cohen Media Blu-ray sports the excellent commentary and fine a/v. Rivette enthusiasts should strongly consider.

Gary Tooze

 

Menus / Extras

 

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Box Cover

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Bonus Captures:
Distribution Cohen Media - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

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