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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (October 2025): Kino have transferred José Giovanni's Last Known Address to Blu-ray. It is from a 2020 4K restoration by StudioCanal in association with Coin de Mire Cinéma, scanned from the original negative with some missing sections supplemented by an interpositive. The color grading is somewhat mixed, occasionally veering into magenta shifts, rosy skin tones, and a reduced color palette that lacks the full nuance of the original photochemical look, with inconsistent saturation leading to desaturated foregrounds against overly vibrant backgrounds and minor visible wear on a few frames, though the high average bitrate ensures invisible encoding and preserves the film's gritty, naturalistic aesthetic. Étienne Becker's (One Deadly Summer, Police Python 357) cinematography captures Paris's beauty and lurking dangers, from daytime streets to nocturnal pharmacies, enhancing the neonoir atmosphere with evocative urban visuals that feel fresh despite dated editing and camerawork. Aside from minor color anomalies this looked quite good.

NOTE: We have added 54 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original French language. The mix offers a solid balance between dialogue, ambient sounds, and François de Roubaix's (Girl Slaves of Morgana le Fay, Farewell Friend, Daughters of Darkness, La Haine, Le Samurai,) propulsive score, with adequate dynamic range and modest low-end support ensuring voices remain intelligible and the overall soundscape immersive without any sibilance or saturation issues, making it a faithful and engaging auditory experience that complements the film's tense procedural narrative. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The extras on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray are headlined by a new audio commentary track featuring film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson, who provide insightful analysis on the film's production, José Giovanni's directorial style, the performances of Lino Ventura and Marlène Jobert, and its place within the French polar genre, drawing from Giovanni's real-life criminal background for added depth. Also included is the original theatrical trailer.

Last Known Address is a French-Italian crime thriller directed and co-written by José Giovanni, adapted from Joseph Harrington's 1965 novel The Last Known Address. The film stars Lino Ventura (Army of Shadows, Illustrious Corpses, Classe Tous Risques, Monsieur Gangster, Witness in the City, Le Deuxième souffle, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, The Sicilian Clan, Speaking of Murder) as the grizzled police inspector Marceau Léonetti and Marlène Jobert (Ten Days Wonder, We Won't Grow Old Together, Masculin féminin,) as his young partner Jeanne Dumas, with supporting roles by actors like Philippe March (Is Paris Burning?, Le Doulos) as the elusive witness Roger Martin and Michel Constantin (Le Trou, The Cop, Violent City) as the menacing gangster Greg. Clocking in at around 102 minutes, it blends elements of police procedural, noir suspense, and social commentary, set against the backdrop of late-1960s Paris. Giovanni, a former convict turned prolific novelist and filmmaker, infuses the story with his signature moral ambiguity and critique of institutional justice, drawing from his own turbulent past of collaborationism, extortion, and murder during and after World War II - crimes for which he was sentenced to death (later commuted) and served over a decade in prison before reinventing himself in cinema. Themes of disillusionment permeate, especially through Jeanne's arc, questioning if "nice job breaking it, hero" moments - where success inadvertently destroys lives - justify the pursuit of justice. Giovanni's own history of crime and redemption influences the film's moral ambiguity: characters grapple with inescapable pasts, institutional betrayal, and the blurred lines between law enforcers and criminals, echoing his post-prison reinvention and anti-death penalty advocacy seen in works like Deux hommes dans la ville. Overall, Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release of Last Known Address is a commendable presentation of this underrated 1970 French-Italian crime thriller, leveraging the 2020 4K restoration to offer a visually and aurally superior experience compared to prior home video versions, with the new expert commentary adding significant scholarly value that justifies the upgrade for fans of Lino Ventura or the polar genre, despite minor color grading quibbles and a light extras slate.

Gary Tooze