9.8 C
New York
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Advertisement

The Artist and The Model Blu-ray Review

artist-and-the-model-bluray-coverU.S. Release

– –

The Film

[Rating:4.5/5]

title

The Artist and the Model opens in southern France during the summer of 1943. While this region is far from the war front, France is still under German occupation. Aging sculptor Marc Gros (Jean Rochefort) approaches the end of his long life and successful artistic career. His wife, Lèa (Claudia Cardinale), once the model and inspiration for his art, picks up a young Spanish girl, Mercè, a Spanish Civil War refugee. The Gros family takes Mercè into their household and Marc decides that she will become the model who will inspire his last work. Mercè, with no experienced as an artist’s model, develops a relationship with Marc. Marc, in turn, shares with her his lifelong knowledge of life and passion for art.

read

Shortly into this film, a parachute drop punctuated by machine gun fire, reminds us that World War II is still being waged. One evening, Mercè happens upon an injured French Resistance fighter, Pierre, (Martin Gamet), helps him bury a dead American soldier, and then gives him shelter in the Gros household. Marc shields Pierre when a German army officer Werner (Götz Otto) makes a social call. Werner, a musicologist, is writing Gros’s biography but he is about to be transferred to the Eastern Front, and Gros, bidding him auf wiedersehn, knows that they will never meet again.  Eventually, we see the denouement of an unlikely yet intensifying liaison between model and artist, underscored by the differences between youth and age, innocence and experience.

claudia

Spanish writer/director/producer Fernando Trueba, winner of the 1994 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (La Belle Epoque), turns his inquisitive cameras on this ménage à trois. Dialogue, often limited, interrupts the long silences of the numerous modeling sessions. The Artist and the Model is a film of small but meaningful gestures and, while there is plenty of nudity, it is tastefully done and serves to advance the story.

Video Quality

[Rating:4.5/5]

pose

One tends to forget that bland-and-white films, particularly those shot as well as this one, can be even more evocative than their color counterparts. Daniel Vilar’s cinematography draws us continually into this intimate tale of a very old man and a very young woman. Objects like the unfinished sculptures in Marc’s atelier speak to us without the need for dialogue or subtitles. Contrasts and details are as good as I have seen. The full-face close-ups, essential to the emotional impact of this film, are simply sensational.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

bodies

As for the soundtrack options, there is not much to choose between them. The DTS-HD Master Audio version may be a touch more spacious, but the lossy Dolby Digital alternative gives a very good account of itself. What music there is occurs mostly in the opening and closing credits, and consists of excerpts from Gustav Mahler’s elegiac Ninth Symphony.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2/5]

sculpt

Besides a brief program booklet, there are the following extras:

  • Interview with Director Fernando Trueba and Graham Fuller, film critic (4:30) (English Dolby Stereo 48 kHz/16-bit)
  • Original French Trailer  (2:02) (French Dolby Stereo 48 kHz/16-bit).
  • Photo Gallery.

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:4.5/5]

crosses

This is simply one gorgeous film, stirring up memories of  the final creative period of the great Pablo Picasso who, as an old man inspired by young women, proceeded to make some of his most memorable sculptures. Writer/director Trueba uses the screen to probe the essential qualities that define humanity and, by the same token, its vulnerability and awareness of mortality. With a superb cast, unerring direction, and top-drawer cinematography, The Artist and the Model received thirteen Goya Award nominations. This film will be one of the must-watch Blu-ray Discs of 2014.

 Additional Screen Captures

[amazon-product]B00GX7WTT4[/amazon-product]

cares

bathe

class

birds

merce1

jean1

tree

model

[amazon-product]B00GX7WTT4[/amazon-product]

Advertisement

Related Articles

Join the Discussion on TheaterByte!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Stay Connected

301FansLike
0FollowersFollow
184FollowersFollow
1,710FollowersFollow
- Advertisement -

Notice of Compliance with FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 16 CFR Part 255

In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR part 255 guidelines, this website hereby states that it receives free discs and other theatrical or home entertainment "screeners" and access to screening links from studios and/or PR firms, and is provided with consumer electronics devices on loan from hardware manufacturers and/or PR firms respectively for the purposes of evaluating the products and its content for editorial reviews. We receive no compensation from these companies for our opinions or for the writing of reviews or editorials.
Permission is sometimes granted to companies to quote our work and editorial reviews free of charge. Our website may contain affiliate marketing links, which means we may get paid commission on sales of those products or the services we write about. Our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Latest Articles