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Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers By Alain Corneau [3 X Blu-ray]
Police
Python 357 (1976) Serie Noire
(1979)
Choice of Arms (1981)
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Three pulp thrillers in the spirit of Dirty Harry and Jean-Pierre Melville from director Alain Corneau starring acting royalty from France.
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Posters
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Theatrical Release: March 31st, 1976 - August 19th, 1981
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Review:
Radiance - Region FREE - Blu-rayBox Cover |
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Bonus Captures: |
Distribution | Radiance - Region FREE - Blu-ray | |
Runtime |
Police Python 357 (1976): 2:06:24.868 Serie Noire (1979): 1:55:53.905 Choice of Arms (1981): 2:15:46.471 |
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Video |
Police Python 357 (1976): 1.66 :1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 41,456,926,998 bytesFeature: 37,201,333,248 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.92 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
Serie Noire (1979): 1.66 :1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 48,229,678,206 bytesFeature: 36,214,170,624 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.47 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
Choice of Arms (1981): 2.35 :1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 47,989,230,338 bytesFeature: 39,684,811,776 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.90 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
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NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
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Bitrate Police Python 357 (1976) Blu-ray: |
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Bitrate Serie Noire (1979) Blu-ray: |
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Bitrate: Choice of Arms Blu-ray: |
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Audio |
LPCM Audio French
2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -30dB |
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Subtitles | English, None | |
Features |
Release Information: Studio: Radiance
Edition Details:
Police Python 357 (1976) Blu-ray
• Audio commentary by Mike White on Police Python 357
Serie Noire (1979)
Blu-ray
Choice of Arms
Blu-ray
Black Blu-ray Cases inside slipcase Chapters 12 / 12 / 12 |
Radiance individual Blu-ray covers
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Comments: |
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
NOTE: We have added 158 more large
resolution Blu-ray captures
(in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE
On their
Blu-ray,
Radiance use linear PCM dual-mono tracks (24-bit) in the
original French language. All three films have plenty of gun violence and despite
the flat authenticity there is effective depth. The score for Police
Python 357 was by Georges Delerue (A
Man in Love,
One
Deadly Summer,
Mister
Johnson, Jules
et Jim, The Woman Next Door,
Cartouche,
The Last Metro,
Day For
Night
The Radiance
Blu-ray
On the Série noire Blu-ray disc is the 2013 54-minute archival documentary featuring cast and crew on the making of the film entitled The Darkness of the Soul. In includes interviewees including producer Maurice Bernat, DoP Pierre, William-Glenn, actress Miriam Boyer, and Nadine Trintignant. There is a 1/2 hour archival interview with Alain Corneau and Marie Trintignant about Série noire from 2002. There are also 11-minutes of Série noire set interviews with Alain Corneau, Patrick Dewaere and Miriam Boyer from 1981 Belgian Television. Radiance include a new 1/2 hour visual essay about Jim Thompson adaptations for the screen by writer and programmer Paul Martinovic who explores the complicated history of Thompson's screen adaptations, and how filmmakers have attempted to adapt his distinctive prose to the screen. Jim Thompson (Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, Walter Hill's The Getaway, Stephen Frears' The Grifters) the hardboiled crime fiction maestro often dubbed the "Dimestore Dostoevsky," left an indelible mark on literature with his raw, psychologically twisted novels. His works, steeped in noir sensibilities and populated by unreliable narrators and morally unmoored characters, have proven both irresistible and challenging for filmmakers. Lastly on that Blu-ray is a trailer for Série noire. For the Choice of Arms Blu-ray there is a short introduction by Jérôme Wybon. Wybon is a French filmmaker, documentarian, and "cinema archaeologist" known for his deep dives into film history, particularly through creating bonus features for DVD and Blu-ray releases. He’s collaborated extensively with StudioCanal, directing documentaries and curating extras for their catalog. Shooting Choice of Arms is from 1981 and has 22-minutes of interviews with the cast and crew including behind-the-scenes footage. There are also 18-minutes of 1981 interviews with Corneau, Deneuve, Montand and Depardieu from the set. Radiance add a new interview with writer and critic Manuela Lazic exploring the life and career of Yves Montand in the 1970s - running 24-minutes. She is an actress based in London, known for her incisive writing on cinema. Born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, in the mid-1990s, she graduated with a Film Studies degree from King’s College London in 2016 and has since built a reputation through contributions to outlets like Little White Lies, The Ringer, Film Comment, etc. Her work often explores emotional depth, visual style, and thematic complexity, with a particular affinity for genre films and auteurs like Kathryn Bigelow or Yorgos Lanthimos. Lastly on the third Blu-ray is a trailer for Choice of Arms.
The package has a reversible sleeve featuring designs
based on original posters and a limited edition 80-page booklet
featuring new writing by Charlie Brigden (a South Wales-based freelance
writer and film music specialist known for his deep dives into movie
soundtracks and genre films,) British journalist, critic, and editor
Andrew Male, Nick Pinkerton (Goodbye,
Dragon Inn: 1 - Decadent Editions,) cult and noir champion
Travis Woods, and newly translated archival interviews with Alain
Corneau.
Firstly, these are all great
neo-noir
films. Police Python 357 fits snugly into the 1970s French crime
wave, alongside films like
Le Cercle Rouge or
Un Flic, but its pedantic style and psychological focus set it
apart. It’s less about action than introspection, a bridge between
Melville’s cool detachment and the rawer, more chaotic Série Noire.
Thematically, it shares DNA with Jim Thompson’s work - moral rot,
obsession, identity - but trades his pulpy excess for a colder, European
restraint. Themes include isolation / loneliness, love / betrayal,
dehumanization, identity / disguise, and obsession / moral ambiguity. There
is a recurring motif of photographs - Sylvia’s (Stefania Sandrelli -
The Key,
Seduced and Abandoned,
I Knew Her Well,
The Conformist) image as both evidence and obsession -
underscores this. Great to see icons Montand (The
Confession,
Wages of Fear,
State of Siege) and Signoret (Les
Diaboliques,
Casque d'or,
Death in the Garden,
Army of Shadows) working together - if only in a few brief
scenes. Overall, Série Noire looks like a
neo-noir
fever dream filtered through the lens of French New Wave realism - less
about seductive mystique and more about a brutal, unpolished portrait of
desperation. It’s a film that feels damp, cold, and relentlessly bleak,
with a visual style that drags you into its moral and emotional muck
without apology. This French
neo-noir
starring favorite Patrick Dewaere (Get
Out Your Handkerchiefs,
Hôtel des Amériques,
Beau Pere - we lost him at 35 to suicide) as Franck Poupart is a
raw, chaotic descent into madness, distinct from the restrained
precision of Police Python 357 yet sharing Corneau’s fascination
with psychological and existential turmoil. Franck is a man drowning in
futility - a low-rent debt collector trapped in a dead-end life, chasing
scraps in a world that doesn’t care. Key themes, rooted in its
narrative, visuals, and subtext include 'desperation / existential
despair', 'obsession / destructive love', 'moral decay / psychopathy',
'identity / delusion' with fatalism at its core. Fate doesn’t just stalk
Franck - it steamrolls him. His every attempt to seize control (stealing
cash, killing obstacles) only tightens the noose, a chaotic tumble
toward doom. Its adaptation of Thompson’s
A Hell of A Woman
keeps the novel’s feverish spirit while rooting it in a distinctly 1970s
European malaise. It's my favorite film in the set. Corneau's Choice
of Arms completes the thematic trilogy alongside Police Python
357 and Série Noire. It stars Yves Montand as retired
gangster Noël Durieux as a weathered protagonist,
Gérard Depardieu as raw, chaotic Mickey, and Catherine Deneuve as Nicole who embodies
a blend of elegance, resilience, and quiet despair, serving as both an
emotional anchor and a mirror to the film’s central conflict. This
French
neo-noir
blends elegiac reflection with brutal confrontation, examining the clash
between past and present through a richly layered narrative. Themes
include 'past vs. present', 'violence and its consequences', 'loyalty
and betrayal' - flawed men undone by their worlds. Compared to Jim
Thompson’s anarchic fatalism, it’s more structured - closer to
The Grifters’ tragic elegance than Série Noire’s madness
- but retains a distinctly French melancholy. This is, to date, my
favorite set of the year and should make noise in our year-end poll.
These are brilliant
neo-noirs
with impressive performances.
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Menus / Extras
Police Python 357 (1976)
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Serie Noire (1979)
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Choice of Arms (1981):
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CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Police Python 357 (1976)
More full resolution (1920 X 1080) Blu-ray Captures for DVDBeaver Patreon Supporters HERE
Police Python 357 (1976)
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Serie Noire (1979)
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Choice of Arms (1981)
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Box Cover |
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Bonus Captures: |
Distribution | Radiance - Region FREE - Blu-ray |
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