And Hope to Die Blu-ray - Jean-Louis Trintignant

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

(aka "And Hope to Die")

Directed by René Clément
France / Italy / Canada 1972

From René Clément, the iconic director of Forbidden Games, Purple Noon, Joy House, Rider on the Rain and The Deadly Trap, comes this action-packed crime film starring Jean-Louis Trintignant (Les Biches, The Conformist), Robert Ryan (Day of the Outlaw, The Wild Bunch) and Aldo Ray (God’s Little Acre, Nightfall). Antoine “Froggy” Cardot (Trintignant), a French criminal on the run, heads to Canada where he joins a gang of criminals, Charley (Ryan), Mattone (Ray) and Rizzio (Jean Gaven, The Story of O), who are plotting a complicated robbery. Their foolproof plan blows up in their faces when they end up kidnapping a crime lord’s daughter and accidently killing her. Sébastien Japrisot (A Very Long Engagement, Farewell, Friend) wrote the screenplay for this suspenseful thriller, based on a bestselling novel by David Goodis (Dark Passage, Shoot the Piano Player). Music by legendary composer Francis Lai (Love Story).

***

One of a handful of titles enjoying a re-release to celebrate the centenary of director René Clément's birth, And Hope To Die is a mind-bender of a film that loops its characters' past into their present or, if you choose to read it another way, loops their future into their present.

Although based on the novel by David Goodis, the film begins with a shot of a mirrored wardrobe being carried into a shop, an undoubted allusion to Alice's Looking Glass along with the Cheshire Cat grinning from ear to ear in the shop window and the intertitle quote from Lewis Carroll's Looking Glass prologue - "We are all but older children, dear, Who fret to find our bedtime near". Even the film's French title, which translates as The Hares Race Through The Fields, recalls the White Rabbit. Whether the film goes on to depict children imagining themselves as adults or adults recalling fragments of their childhood is largely immaterial, what is important is the way Clément and screenwriter Sébastien Japrisot suggest our youthful attitudes and appetites permeate our lives to come.

Excerpt from EyeForFilm located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: September 15th, 1972

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Review: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	2:21:31.858
Video	1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 45,502,627,630 bytes Feature: 30,857,963,520 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.94 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio French 1555 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1555 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Kino 1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 45,502,627,630 bytes Feature: 30,857,963,520 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.94 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson • Theatrical Trailer (3:21) Blu-ray Release Date: February 25th, 2020 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 9

Comments:

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