Friday, January 8, 2010

BD impressions: Ne le dis à personne

10:28 PM / BD Impressions / Comments5 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

Ne le dis à personne is an adaptation of Harlan Coben's novel Tell No One, which I haven't read. I'm not entirely clear as to why an American novel ended up being made in French first of all, but I can imagine the US version that is slated for release in 2011 through Miramax being considerably altered to simplify the rather tortuous, multi-stranded narrative and make things a bit clearer.

Is that a complaint about the film? Are you kidding? I thought it was a top notch thriller, populated by an array of plausible and intriguing characters, and with sufficient twists and turns to keep me guessing right until the end. Focusing on a paediatrician whose wife was seemingly murdered, only for CCTV footage of her, seemingly very much alive, to materialise eight years ago, it toys with classic Hitchcockian "wrong man" tropes but in fact seems to be more interested in the psychology of the bereaved protagonist. François Cluzet is excellent in that role, evoking a fortysomething Dustin Hoffman and providing just the right combination of vulnerability and dogged determination, while the supporting cast, which includes Kristin Scott Thomas as his sister's wife and the director himself as a decidedly less than savoury individual, is uniformly excellent. Certain elements of the plot do require a considerable suspension of disbelief (particularly those regarding a substituted body), but go with the flow and I suspect Ne le dis à personne will go down a treat.

(Incidentally, how refreshing to see a same sex couple being portrayed as just that - a couple - without a massive issue being made of it. That's not to say that I have anything against such "issue movies", but there's something rather gratifying about the fact that the filmmakers don't feel the need to constantly point and cry "Look! Look! Homosexuals!")

Image quality: A fine-looking disc from EuropaCorp, showcasing a pleasing amount of fine detail, natural-looking grain and few overt problems with the compression. I spotted a bit of artefacting in the shadows in a few of the darker scenes (see Example 20), but other than that I was most satisfied with what I saw. 9/10

Ne le dis à personne
studio: EuropaCorp; country: France; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 32.6 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 35.69 Mbit/sec

Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne Ne le dis à personne

PS. In case you're wondering, yes, this French release does indeed feature English subtitles. Given that the UK version from Revolver is sped up to 25 fps and features burned-in subtitles, while the American release by MPI is filtered (going by the captures here) and doesn't feature lossless audio, the French disc is clearly the one to go for.

 
5 Comments

1. Ronny said:

Great review. I loved the film as well. It has wonderful acting, excellent atmosphere, and beautiful cinematography. I was curious if you have seen Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist". I thought the movie was offbeat, intense, and visually striking, although I can see how some folks will find the whole experience too bizarre, too grotesque, or too pretentious. From what I have read, the French Blu Ray version was presented 1080i and 25 frames per second, but many people have told me that was the way it was shot. I am going to assume that the upcoming UK Blu Ray version will be similar.

(Posted on Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 1:04 PM)

2. colinr said:

It wouldn't be the first time a novel has been adapted first outside of their country of origin - for instance Bertrand Taverniers Coup de Torchon was based on a Jim Thompson novel, Pop. 1280.

And among the Shakespeare reinterpretations Akira Kurosawa also adapted Ed McBain in High and Low, long before the Mel Gibson Ransom film.

(Posted on Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 4:27 PM)

3. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Ronny:

No, I've not seen Antichrist yet, but my copy of the UK release was dispatched from Amazon this morning so I should have it before too long. I think my brother wants to see it too, though, so I may hold off on watching it until the end of next week.


Colin:

True enough, although it does strike me as slightly unusual for a high profile title in 2006. The impression I get is that Hollywood normally laps up the rights to virtually every book on the market from an established author of the likes of Coben.

(Posted on Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 6:45 PM)

4. Sound Designer Dan said:

Actually the rights already had been bought by a Hollywood studio with Michael Apted lined up to direct. While Harlan Coben already received a large sum for the rights to the adaptation, he was disappointed to see that the scripts largely strayed away from the novel's intricate plot. The scripts strayed away from being a largely intricate thriller to a straight up action film.

Enter 34-year-old actor and director Guillaume Canet. Canet was in LA and called Apted to tell him that he was lucky to adapt such a superb novel for the screen. Apted jokingly told Canet, "Maybe you should do the adaptation yourself." The next day Apted left the project and Canet immediately called his agent and producer to tell them that Tell No One was his next project.

Canet sent Coben his final draft of the script and it contained almost every plot twist the novel had. The only big difference was the ending. Coben called Canet and told him that he loved the script and absolutely loved the ending.

(Posted on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 7:58 AM)

5. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Thanks for the explanation, Dan. Ah, the mysterious inner workings of the movie business. I was aware Coben had praised Canet's ending, to the point of actually preferring it to his own, but I had no idea this had actually started out as a Hollywood adaptation.

(Posted on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 5:46 PM)

 
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