Review by Gary Tooze

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• Interview with Alain Robbe-Grillet by Frederic Taddei (34:00)

• Trailers (Trans-Europ-Express, Eden and After, and The Man Who Lies)

• 2014 Promo (2:09)

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Description: With his talent for intricate, experimental narratives, and his penchant for sado-masochism as a recurring theme in his work, Robbe-Grillet used film to explore his own sexual desires, resulting in a highly personal and sometimes disturbing body of work that is equally characteristic of European art cinema and the exploitation cinema of the 1960s.

For years, Robbe-Grillet's films have been unavailable in the United States in any form. It is with great pride that Kino Lorber and Redemption Films bring these films to American viewers, in exquisite HD editions, aiding in the rediscovery of one of European cinema's most eclectic and highly original filmmakers.

With its highly stylized camerawork and fragmented narrative structure, Alain Robbe-Grillet's L'IMMORTELLE is a cinematic arabesque that teases the eye with visual delights, yet sadistically confounds the viewer's expectations. Not dissimilar to Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad, which he had written two years earlier, L'IMMORTELLE involves a Frenchman, traveling in Istanbul, who is fascinated by the city's language, architecture, and exotic culture. He soon becomes entranced by a mysterious woman (Françoise Brion) who seems to encourage his attentions but remains, maddeningly, just beyond his reach. His erotic pursuit of her leads him into the criminal underworld...with deadly consequences.

 

 

Excerpt from MRQE located HERE

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

Much to the delight of Alain Robbe-Grillet fans, Kino's Redemption label have released L'Immortelle from a recently restored print - to Blu-ray. The 1080P image is very impressive with wonderful contrast. Detail is crisp and the image is remarkably clean looking. There is frequent depth exported. There is texture and the visuals are fairly consistent throughout the presentation. The vistas of Istanbul are beautifully shot. In short - I see no flaws and was quite taken with the pristine remastered video representation. This is house on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Thumbs up!

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The audio is in the form of a linear PCM 2.0 channel at 2304 kbps in original French (with some English). Dialogue can be sparse (long gaps). Georges Delerue (Jules et Jim, The Woman Next Door, The Last Metro, Day For Night) did the score - with Michel Fano + Tahsin Kavalcioglu - which sounds quite nice beside the contemplative visuals. There are some minor effects with depth via the lossless. The track handles the film's soundstage very effectively. There are no subtitles offered and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

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BOTTOM LINE:
This was very... intriguing. L'Immortelle is a stunning beautiful film and well worth multiples spins. Maurice Barry's cinematography is beautiful. Yes, very heavy 'art' (non-linear with extensive flashbacks) but has some balance with the intrigue angle. I really liked it a lot! The Redemption Blu-ray offers an impressive 1080P presentation of a pretty interesting film. Absolutely recommended! 

Gary Tooze

March 27th, 2014