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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (August 2023): Kino have transferred René Clément's Is Paris Burning? to Blu-ray. It is cited as being "Digitally Restored from a 4K scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative by Paramount Pictures in Association with American Zoetrope and Francis Ford Coppola". It is a, almost, 3-hour film and the dual-layered transfer supports it well. It is in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and contrast is nicely layered. There is grain visible and the overall image is pleasing. 

NOTE: We have added 58 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino offer the options of a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel of 5.1 surround bump tracks (both 24-bit) or a French 2.0 stereo DTS-HD at 16-bits (French and English-language dubs were produced.) There are French, German and English languages in the film but sequences featuring French and German actors were filmed in their native languages and later dubbed in English. Is Paris Burning? has stock WW2 footage as well as effects of 'live' fire, tanks etc. that come through with healthy depth and some audible separations in the surround. It is clean. The effective score was by Maurice Jarre (Gambit, Crossed Swords, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds The Tin Drum, The Man Who Would Be King, The Black Marble, The Damned etc.) and adds to the film's moods with appropriate restraint or explosive percussion. It won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Jarre's Paris en Colère (lyrics by Maurice Vidalin) aka "The Paris Waltz" became a patriotic anthem sung by Mireille Mathieu. The transfer also has 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 Film Historians Daniel Kremer and Howard S. Berger. They discuss Jarre's wistful score, how Is Paris Burning? is a "roadshow", the large budget, Gert Fröbe being part of Hitler Youth (the detail that Mario Blumenau, a Jewish survivor, revealed that his life and his mother's were probably saved when Fröbe hid them from the Nazis), why the film is in black and white (French authorities would allow Nazi swastika flags to be displayed on public buildings for key shots, but they would not permit the flags to bear in their original red color; as a result, green swastika flags were used, which photographed adequately in black and white), Orson Welles conflicting with Clément, refusing to speak directly to him despite being fluent in French, Francis Ford Coppola and the script, Andrew Sarris negative review and so much more from the many actors involved, René Clément and specific details and observations about the production throughout the almost 3-hours of film. I found it incredibly informative. There are also a handful of trailers although none for Is Paris Burning?

René Clément's Is Paris Burning? is based on the best-selling 1965 book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre and is an 'epic' French-American co-production film, with an international cast, about the liberation of Paris in August 1944 by the French Resistance and the Free French Forces during World War II. It has Americans Orson Welles as a Swedish consul to France, Kirk Douglas as General George S. Patton, Glenn Ford as General Omar Bradley, Anthony Perkins as Sgt. Warren, infantryman, French actors Jean-Paul Belmondo as Yvon "Pierrelot" Morandat, Free French adjunct, Alain Delon as Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Gaullist general of brigade, Charles Boyer as Dr. Robert Monod, Leslie Caron as Françoise Labe, Yves Montand as Marcel Bizien, Free French forces, Michel Piccoli as Edgard Pisani, Gert Fröbe as the military governor of Paris, Jean-Louis Trintignant as a Vichy anti-partisan operative, Billy Frick as Adolf Hitler and many more if, often, only seen briefly. Is Paris Burning? is a film I have always wanted to see in the Blu-ray format because of its epic qualities and the large, famous, cast. What an ending as the crowd cheers and sings "La Marseillaise" and we go back to color shots of Paris in the closing credits. Close to being 'an essential' - certainly highly recommended!

Gary Tooze