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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (February 2020): Kino have transferred René Clément's wildly unconventional heist thriller And Hope to Die (aka "La course du lièvre à travers les champs") to Blu-ray. I believe this is the complete version - with many heavily edited versions being more readily available (i.e. 99-minutes in USA). The 2 1/4+ hour film is transferred on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. It looks very strong - kudos to the inventive cinematography of Edmond Richard (Bunuels' The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Orson Welles' The Trial etc.) The 1080P image quality is very pleasing with depth, bright colors and impressive detail. There is some beautiful fine grain here too.

NOTE: We have added 64 more large resolution Blu-ray captures for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (16-bit) in the original French language. There are some more aggressive effects near the conclusions and the rendering handles them with ease. We get a score by Francis Lai (Rider on the Rain, Love Story, A Man and a Woman), sounding rich and supportive. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers new audio commentary by my favorite tri-fecta of commentarists; Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson who delve into this, often confusing, crime-drama admitting that And Hope to Die doesn't fully explain itself - which can be part of its appeal. They bring up facts like Aldo Ray learning how to speak French phonetically and post-DUB'ed his own voice, extolling the performances of the Lea Massari and underrated Tisa Farrow (Mia's sister - what about those eyes!), the many Alice in Wonderland links, the frequent child-like behavior of the main characters plus pointing out one of the children in the opening is, my favorite, Emmanuelle Béart. They fill the, almost, 2.5 hours of feature will salient points in understanding René Clément's subtle, or not-so-subtle, intentions. It's well-worth the indulgence. There is also a theatrical trailer in SD.

And Hope to Die can seem wildly off-the-rails but I suspect that inherent confusion was intentional and if you stop trying to figure out the film and just revel in René Clément's abundant style - you can be duly rewarded. The commentary helped substantially and the Alice in Wonderland references make the film kinda fun. Plus - what a cast! I'm loving these French crime films with American actors (Rider on the Rain). This is a film I am so glad to have seen in this long-version - especially via the high resolution of Blu-ray. Absolutely recommended! 

Gary Tooze