Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Disc:

Video:

Audio:

• Premiere Footage from Paris (2:19)

• Original Trailer (2:03)
• 8-page leaflet with photos, chapter titles etc.

Bitrate:

 

 

 

The Film:

Mademoiselle C also offers some surprising pleasures, such as watching Karl Lagerfeld pushing a newborn baby in a stroller. "She's cute, but she doesn't talk much," he says. While Wintour's standoffish stance may disseminate cut-throat competitiveness and annihilate emotion from the office, Roitfeld's warmth and modesty (she confesses to, most of the time, not really having a specific idea) seem to turn even the coldest Germans into amicable creatures. And yet, she's no goody-goody, as she embraces the aesthetics of porn chic, nudity at cemeteries for the sake of art, casually pronounces words like "pussy," and has no problem with her own son calling her a MILF. The film also portrays the art of the fashion photo shoot more as a ludic affair than a business endeavor. Shooting fashion the Roitfeld way isn't the clinically produced soulless war of egos of Wintour's world, but a playful and improvised creative experience. 

Excerpt from Slant Magazine located HERE

 

All the artistry and absurdity, glamour and the grit of the fashion industry are on display in the documentary "Mademoiselle C."

The "C" stands for Carine, as in Carine Roitfeld, who was the editor-in-chief of French Vogue for a decade until she left in 2011 to create her own magazine. Before that, she was Tom Ford's muse at Gucci in the 1990s, helping define the label's distinctive brand of daring, sexually charged design—porno-chic, as it become known, although Roitfeld would prefer to think of it as erotic-chic. I suppose it depends on how you feel about implied spanking.

Roitfeld herself, however, oozes chic from every pore in her being without any sort of qualifier. Leggy and sleekly Parisian in her high heels, pencil skirts and plunging button-down blouses, she radiates a sense of culture and sophistication. Her own personal style has become hugely influential and made her a celebrity unto herself alongside such fashion-conscious stars as Sarah Jessica Parker, Sean Combs and Kanye West, whom she counts as friends.

Excerpt from Christy Lemire at Roger Ebert located HERE

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

Mademoiselle C was shot on HD and transferred to Blu-ray by Cohen Media. I didn't find it particularly impressive. This is only single-layered with a middling bitrate. It is pristinely clean and the 1080P provides a reasonable presentation although the HD can look blurry in motion and softness through poor rendering of light is also present. I never identified any instances of noise. There is not a preponderance of depth or ultra-crisp visuals that you usually find in HD-shot productions. It looks good - but not great. I doubt it's the flaw of the transfer.  This Blu-ray video is probably as good as this documentary will, or deserves to, look.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio is transferred via a DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 1997 kbps in predominantly French and some English. There is also a standard Dolby 5.1 track at 448 kbps. Aside from dialogue, music played at the fashion shows sounds a bit scattered as this is a documentary - so, nothing was produced to be dynamically crisp and the lossless is largely wasted except in a few sequences. There are optional English subtitles (sample above) and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'.

Extras :

Not much in the way of supplements. "Premiere Footage from Paris" is only 2+ minutes long. It looks quite random to me. There is also a trailer and the case has a linear leaflet.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
I think if the world of fashion interests you - then Mademoiselle C will appeal to you. Unfortunately, the only thing I get out of the fashion industry is when it is mocked ala, a movie like Zoolander.  I find nothing but absurdity in this insulated sphere that only seems to exist solely for itself - the people in it strange for the sake of being strange masking substance with 'porno-chic'. I did find it interesting in parts, if little else. The Cohen Blu-ray is nothing spectacular in terms of a/v or extras. This seems an odd choice for them and I would have to say 'pass' in terms of value.

Gary Tooze

March 4th, 2014