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

Firstly, the 6 films are divided on the 3 BFI Blu-ray discs as follows:

Disc 1) The Immortal One and Trans-Europ Express

Disc 2) The Man Who Lies and Successive Slidings of Pleasure

Disc 3) Eden and After and N. Took the Dice

We have already reviewed/compared 4 of the titles, put to Blu-ray by Redemption (Kino) in region 'A' - The Immortal One (L'Immortelle), Trans-Europ Express, The Man Who Lies and Eden and After (N. Took the Dice was an extra on the Kino Eden Blu-ray). I'm afraid I never got around to the U.S. package of Successive Slidings of Pleasure. I'll make some general comments.

Video: Mostly, less robust than the Redemptions (although 2 have a higher bitrate) these are from the same, excellent, restorations. The U.S. transfers usually max out the bitrate and even with the BFI's sharing each of the three dual-layered Blu-rays, they are well supported. The differences between the 1080P renderings may show up in a shade less texture (where smaller file size), but I don't see any artifacts or inconsistencies between the two. Only those with very high end systems will notice any differences between the US and UK transfers which both utilize a strong 1080P MPEG-4 AVC Video. Nothing is cropped and I see no damage. In the color films, the hues match up almost exactly. For more in-depth image reviews, please read the individual Kino review/comparisons where the improvements over the old SDs are very notable.

Audio: Again, very similar to the Kino's with a linear PCM in mono. Trans-Europ Express still sounds a little hollow to me. Georges Delerue (Jules et Jim, The Woman Next Door, The Last Metro, Day For Night) is credited with score on The Immortal One - with Michel Fano + Tahsin Kavalcioglu - which sounds quite nice beside the contemplative visuals. There are some minor effects with depth via the lossless. On Eden and After and The Man Who Lies, its Fano and it seems the biggest beneficiary of the uncompressed rendering. All HD transfers offer optional English subtitles (you can see the slight font difference examples below - the BFI is, marginally, smaller.) The BFI Blu-ray discs are region 'B'-locked.

We get 4 X 6-minute Video introductions (all extras are in 1080P) by Catherine Robbe-Grille (on all but The Immortal One and N. Took the Dice) and 5 excellent commentaries (all but N. Took the Dice) from the encyclopedic knowledge of Tim Lucas - who is starting to become my favorite commentarist! I still have two to finish but they all appear to offer his professional, in-depth level of discussion. Also included are 5 X 1/2 hour interviews with Alain Robb-Grillet by Frédéric Taddeï for all films except N. Took the Dice. These are in French with English subtitles and are a duplicate of the ones found on the specific Kino Blu-rays. There are HD trailers for Trans-Europ Express, The Man Who Lies and Eden and After plus the package has a linera notes illustrated booklet with extended essay by David Taylor, and full film credits.

Pretty sweet to have all 6, in 1080P, of these films in one collection. We get some unique, very artsy, and often very sexy cinema. The films seem to flow and the more I watch them, the more I see in them. Great package from BFI with the Lucas commentaries and interviews - plus the booklet. Fans should be thrilled with this Blu-ray set. Absolutely recommended!  

Gary W. Tooze