Review by Gary Tooze

 

Production:

Theatrical: Film 4

Video: Curzon Film World

 

Disc:

Region: 'B' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player)

Runtime: 1:33:05.041

Disc Size: 48,531,998,131 bytes

Feature Size: 24,854,962,176 bytes

Video Bitrate: 25.98 Mbps

Chapters: 12

Case: Standard Blu-ray case

Release date: February 10th, 2014

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Audio:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1877 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1877 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Commentary:

LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
 

Subtitles:

English (SDH), none

 

Extras:

• Audio commentary with director Roger Michell and producer Ken Loader
• Interview with Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan (7:46)
• Le Week-End black and white (1:33:03, 18.3 Gig, 23 Mbps)

• Interview with Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi (9:15)
• Behind the Scenes (7:44)

• Sketchbook (3:20)

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Description: LE WEEK-END is a beautifully observed and poignant story of a long-married British couple (Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan) who return to Paris for the first time since their honeymoon to revitalize their marriage. While there, they run into an old friend (Goldblum) who transforms their thoughts on life and their love for one another. Directed by Roger Michell (NOTTING HILL).

 

 

The Film:

Director Roger Michell's Le Week-end stars Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as Nick and Meg, a British couple celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary with a weekend getaway in Paris. As they travel around the city, they revisit the highs and lows of their relationship, fight about their faults, and continue to run out of restaurants without paying the bill. They meet up with an old colleague of Nick's and attend a dinner party at his house, leading to some painful truths being spoken aloud. Jeff Goldblum co-stars in this romantic drama that screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan play Nick and Meg Burrows, a philosophy lecturer and a biology teacher who return to Paris 30 years after their honeymoon to see what has changed. The answer, of course, is them. Their old hotel seems smaller and stuffier than it was, the staircases steeper, the cobbles more treacherous.

Meg loses patience and jumps into a passing taxi, and Nick follows, and soon, on an impulse you feel is rarely indulged back home, they are checking into somewhere significantly more upmarket. “We can offer you the suite where Tony Blair stayed,” purrs the concierge. “Well, as long as you’ve washed the sheets,” Nick grizzles.

Excerpt from The Telegraph located HERE

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

Le Week-End gets an impressive transfer to Blu-ray from Curzon Film World.  It is solidly into dual-layered territory also offering the 1.5 hour feature in black and white (1080P) as well as color. I sampled both - surprisingly, for me, leaning to the color - where hues are occasionally bold, tight and rich. The HD supports solid contrast exhibiting healthy, rich black levels and some minor depth in the 2.35:1 frame.  It's pristinely clean showcasing some hi-def detail and there are really no flaws with the rendering but I wouldn't say it was overly dynamic. This Blu-ray seems to give a reasonable HD presentation and the ability to, also, watch it in black and white is appealing.

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

(Color - Blu-ray - TOP vs. Black and White- Blu-ray - BOTTOM)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

Options of a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround at 1877 kbps or a less dynamic linear PCM 2.0 channel at 1536 kbps. Everything sounded clean with a few, non-descript, separations in the surround. Jeremy Sams' jazz-infused score adds greatly to the presentation - and it probably the biggest beneficiary to the uncompressed track. There are optional English subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'B'-locked.

 

Extras :

Curzon include a commentary from director Roger Michell and producer Kevin Loader who, generally, support each other's points regarding the production locations, cinematographic style and intricacies of the characters. It's quite good! We get the, aforementioned, black and white film experience - at a reasonable 18.3 Gig file size and 23 Mbps video bitrate, plus interviews with Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan running about 7.5 minutes and another with Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi running just over 9-minutes. There is, lastly, a cool Behind the Scenes and Sketchbook video piece.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
I struggled with Le Week-End - not so much because it was a poor film - but because it is not really my type of cinema. I watched about half and waited for my mood to improve before completing  (I even switched to black + white).  I just couldn't get into it but as one vital positive I was appreciating the performance of Lindsay Duncan and her character's metamorphosis. The Curzon Blu-ray solid a/v presentation with very appreciated supplements. I can see many enjoying Le Week-End and this Blu-ray is wonderful package in which to see it. 

Gary Tooze

March 7th, 2014

Music Box Films is releasing Le Week-End on Blu-ray in the US in July 2014: