The Swindle Blu-ray - Isabelle Huppert

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Swindle" )

France / Switzerland 1997

In this chilly thriller THE SWINDLE -- his 50th feature-- he teams contemporary star Isabelle Huppert and veteran star (of 80 films!) Michel Serrault as small time con artists. Serrault is charming in a goofy way; an irritable loner looking for laughs. Huppert now aging gracefully displays her usual cold nonchalant beauty.

They a have a respectful father/daughter type relationship and pull innocuous little swindles. Then, Huppert hatches a plan with another guy to dupe the old man. Only she doesn’t know that the guy she is planning to join is making his own double cross. Pretty soon everyone involved is planning some kind of con.

As in many of Chabrol’s movies there is a psychological ambiguity running throughout the story. Characters are never just good or bad but a combination of both. Yet despite this ambiguity each scene is cleanly shot with no dark shadows or eschewed angles as one gets used to in American crime drama. Usually, Chabrol uses this effect to shock the audience with disturbing violence, but perhaps age has tempered him a bit because there is nothing excruciatingly violent here. Instead all the crooked deals are lightweight and don’t seem too mean spirited.

Besides the solid performances the movie should be seen for its precise direction and light charm. It’s the kind of movie where no matter how mean the ‘real’ bad guy is you can’t help but laugh when he uses threatening lines like; “Shut up or I’ll pack your ass with dynamite.”

MATT LANGDON's comments located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: France 15 October 1997

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Second Sight - Region 2 - PAL vs. New Yorker - Region 1- NTSC vs. Cohen Media Group - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Per-Olof Strandberg for the Review!

(Second Sight - Region 2 - PAL LEFT vs. New Yorker - Region 1- NTSC RIGHT)

Box Covers

Distribution	Second Sight Region 2 - PAL	New Yorker Region 1 - NTSC	Cohen Media - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:41:12 (4% PAL speedup)	1:40:51	1:45:44.338
Video	1:1.66 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 4.47 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1:1.66 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.12 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 44,293,710,996 bytes Feature: 332,987,043,840 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Second Sight
Bitrate NY'er
Bitrate Cohen Media - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Audio	French (Dolby Digital 2.0)	French (Dolby Digital 2.0)	LPCM Audio French 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit Commentary: LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English (Forced)	English, none	English, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Second Sight Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1:1.66 Edition Details: • Selected scene commentary by Claude Chabrol (23:20) • DVD-5 (SS-SL) DVD Release Date: April 17, 2006 Keep Case Chapters 17	Release Information: Studio: Second Sight Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1:1.66 Edition Details: • L Farfale (1:40) • DVD-5 (SS-SL) DVD Release Date: August 29th, 2006 Keep Case Chapters 20	Release Information: Studio: Cohen Media Group Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 44,293,710,996 bytes Feature: 332,987,043,840 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Audio Commentary by Wade Major and Andy Klein • Interview with Francois Cluzet by Kent Jones (42:32) • Re-release Trailer (2:00) • 8-page liner notes with photos and credits Blu-ray Release Date: February 21st, 2017 Transparent Blu-ray Case Chapters: 13

Comments

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

ADDITION: Cohen Media Group - Region 'A' - Blu-ray (February 2017): This isn't Cohen's first foray into Chabrol - they have also released a Blu-ray of The Inspector Lavardin Collection, Merci pour le Chocolat as well as a Blu-ray of The Color of Lies. But fans of the director couldn't be more ecstatic about their new 3 Classic Films by Claude Chabrol Blu-ray set. It has individual Blu-ray discs of three films; The Swindle, L'Enfer, and Betty.

Cohen's new 1080P transfer is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. It's a giant leap beyond the DVDs but occasionally looks a shade orange - which may be original - and a bit waxy, but with the improved detail, much more information in the frame (on all 4 edges), brightness and layered contrast make any slight inconsistencies inconsequential to how poorly this has been treated on DVD to date. I thought it looked super in-motion.

Cohen use linear PCM for all three films. Effects are never overwhelming. All scores of the three films in this boxset have been composed by, the director's son, Matthieu Chabrol (Merci pour le Chocolat, The Color of Lies, The Swindle, La Cérémonie, L'Enfer, Betty, Madame Bovary, The Cry of the Owl, Inspector Lavardin.) It sounds solid and clean via the uncompressed with no distracting flaws. There are optional English subtitles on the Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray disc.

There is another excellent audio commentary by Wade Major and Andy Klein exporting rare details about the production. There is also a 43-minute interview with François Cluzet by Kent Jones in French with English subtitles) recalling how the actor and director met as well as his observations about his filmmaking style. There is a re-release trailer and, as well as the other two films, has an 8-page liner notes with photos and credits. With this, the new 3 Classic Films by Claude Chabrol Blu-ray set is absolutely recommended!

***

ADDITION: - New Yorker - Region 1- NTSC - August 06' : New Yorker have not converted the PAL master to NTSC before rendering to DVD and hence it has all the deficiencies associated with that slipshod practice - combing and related artefacts (see images below). The New Yorker is cleaner, but less sharp in spots and appears to have been slightly over-digitized - skin tones are a bit reddish. Even modestly dirty - I prefer the Second Sight image. I don't see any significant cropping issues - both have transferred in 1.66 anamorphic, progressive standard. Both are single layered.

As Per-Olaf mentioned below the Second Sights subtitles are forced but not ingrained where the NY'er's are totally removable. For extras the Second Sight offer the scene specific commentary by Chabrol (23 minutes worth) where NY'er only offer a 1907 color short based on the 'serpentine dance' shown near the end of the film. It is less than 2:00 long.

Overall the Second Sight is the way to go, but tube owners will probably find the New Yorker acceptable viewing (till they upgrade... and they will one day).

- Gary Tooze

***

The source for this DVD is from MK2, but I'm not sure if it's a direct port. It looks like the material has been run-thru a Digital restoring program, that gives you sharper image, but also a little blurriness during motion scenes and occasional contrast boosting. The grainy picture is also most probably from the program, it doesn't look like film grain. Some larger images of landscape also exhibit aliasing. The picture is brightened to fit home viewing, but there is still decent black levels. The DVD is acceptable screened with a projector, not good, but far from bad.

The DD 2.0 sound track is dynamic, and flawless.

On my computer the English subtitle's are removable, but not on my DVD player. The translation is a little lazy, and leave some dialog gaps.