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

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (August 2026): Kino have transferred Jean Aurel's Manon 70 to Blu-ray. This was on DVD as part of Lionsgate's 2008 Catherine Deneuve Collection - that we reviewed HERE. This HD presentation is a wide step above the old SD transfer - crisper, better color balance and more information in the top and bottom of the frame. The 1080P transfer presents the film in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Colors are generally pleasing and stable, capturing the bright Eastmancolor palette that suits Edmond Richard’s (The Trial, Chimes at Midnight, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Don Quixote, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire) sleek, fashion-forward cinematography. Deneuve’s porcelain skin tones, the vivid hues of Emanuel Ungaro’s costumes (yellows, blues, and clean modern lines), and the sunlit exteriors of Paris and the Côte d’Azur come through with good saturation and clarity. Fine detail is respectable in close-ups of faces, fabrics, and hair, though the image retains a natural film-like texture rather than razor-sharp digital polish. Contrast is well-managed, with solid blacks and adequate shadow detail in interior scenes. Minor age-related softness or slight print wear appears occasionally, but there are no major defects, heavy digital noise reduction, or distracting artifacts. Overall it is a strong, filmic presentation that lets the movie’s surface glamour and mobile camera work shine without looking artificially cleaned up. In short, the look is bright, fashion-forward, and commercially glamorous Eastmancolor widescreen photography that turns Deneuve and Ungaro’s designs into the main spectacle.

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. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, with natural presence for Deneuve, Sami Frey, and Jean-Claude Brialy. Serge Gainsbourg’s score - tinkling guitars mixed with classical elements, plus the title song that plays on the homophony of “Manon” and “mais non” (“but no”) - adds ironic ambivalence: “Perverse Manon, perfide Manon… I hate what you are… I love you Manon.” It comes through with good fidelity and appropriate dynamics for a mono source of the period. Ambient sounds, location audio, and the film’s occasional denser sequences remain free of significant hiss, dropouts, or distortion. The track faithfully serves the material without attempting aggressive modernization. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray.

The extras on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray are headlined by a new audio commentary track featuring film historians Howard S. Berger and Travis Woods. The pair deliver an engaging, informative track that covers the film’s adaptation of Prévost’s Manon Lescaut, its place in Deneuve’s late-1960s career (post-Belle de jour), Aurel’s direction, the contributions of Gainsbourg, the fashion and production design, and the movie’s ambivalent take on sexual liberation and materialism. They strike a good balance between historical context, critical observation, and production details without overwhelming the listener. Also included are theatrical trailers for five other titles in the Kino catalog: Vice and Virtue, Le Choc, Un Flic, Hustle, and Diary of a Chambermaid.

Jean Aurel's Manon 70 is a glossy, era-defining update of Abbé Prévost’s 1731 novel Manon Lescaut, relocating the classic tale of passion, betrayal, and material desire from 18th-century France to the jet-set, sexually liberated world of late-1960s Europe. Starring Catherine Deneuve (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Repulsion, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Belle de jour, Mississippi Mermaid, Tristana, Donkey Skin, A Cop, Le sauvage, Hustle, The Last Metro, 8 Woman, Le choc, The Convent, Belle Toujours The Hunger, Pola X, A Christmas Tale, Marcel Proust's Time Regained, Dancer in the Dark) at the height of her icy, enigmatic allure, the film functions less as a faithful literary adaptation and more as a stylish lifestyle portrait of swinging-sixties morality, consumer culture, and the tensions between romantic idealism and pragmatic hedonism. At its core, the film examines the conflict between love and luxury in a newly permissive society. Manon is neither pure victim nor simple villain; she is an amoral free spirit who uses sex instrumentally while insisting that the number of men she has slept with is irrelevant compared to those she has loved. This stance both celebrates and undercuts the sexual revolution: liberation is real, but it coexists with transactional relationships, economic dependence, and residual patriarchal violence (François’s physical aggression is met with surprising equanimity). The brother-sister dynamic introduces sly suggestions of incestuous undercurrents and shared opportunism, with Jean-Paul functioning as both pimp and co-conspirator. Today Manon 70 plays as both a period curiosity and a revealing document: a film that captured the optimistic surface of 1960s liberation while revealing its unresolved tensions around money, power, desire, and consent. Its open ending - lovers on the road, still negotiating the same insoluble conflict - feels less like a failure of nerve than an honest acknowledgment that, in a world of abundance and choice, the classic Manon dilemma has no tidy resolution. Kino’s Blu-ray is a solid, no-frills presentation of a stylish and often overlooked Deneuve title. The video and audio transfers respect the film’s original look and sound, the Berger/Woods commentary offers genuine value, and the selection of trailers rounds out a modest but worthwhile supplemental package. Fans of Catherine Deneuve, 1960s French cinema, or Gainsbourg’s film work will find this a notable upgrade over previous home-video edition. Recommended.

Gary Tooze