The Last Metro
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Synopsis
Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve star as members of a French theater company living under the German occupation during World War II in François Truffaut’s gripping, humanist character study. Against all odds—a Jewish theater manager in hiding; a leading man who’s in the Resistance; increasingly restrictive Nazi oversight—the troupe believes the show must go on. Equal parts romance, historical tragedy, and even comedy, The Last Metro (Le dernier metro) is Truffaut’s ultimate tribute to art overcoming adversity.
Picture 9/10
Criterion’s Blu-ray edition of François Truffaut’s The Last Metro is presented in its original aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this dual-layer disc. The image is presented in 1080p.
The DVD and Blu-ray look to come from the same hi-def transfer as they share many similarities. Print damage is minimal, almost non-existent. Colours are exactly the same, with heavy use of reds, all coming off bright and bold. Again, like the DVD, skin tones look to have a yellow tone to them (heavy at times) but I suspect this was the intended warm look to the film.
The Blu-ray improves on the DVD where one would expect, in that detail has been improved. The DVD presented a fair amount of detail and overall is sharp, but the Blu-ray’s image trumps it, no question (though this shouldn’t be a surprise.) Film grain was present on the DVD it could come off as compression artifacts at times while the Blu-ray has far more distinct film grain and it looks far more natural. I didn’t notice anything in the way of artifacts, the opening credits looking much better, and some of the strong reds, which presented some problems on the DVD (looking blocky around the edges) are much smoother and cleaner here.
Certain releases from Criterion look similar to one another on both DVD and Blu-ray and in most regards the same can be said here, but the Blu-ray shows some more obvious improvements over the DVD release.
(Currently we are unable to provide screen captures for Blu-ray releases, though plan to in the near future. Once we have the ability to add captures for Blu-ray releases this review will be updated.)
Audio 7/10
As usual with Criterion’s Blu-ray releases they offer a lossless French mono track. The opening still sounds a little rough but the rest of the film’s soundtrack is much better. Voices and music are quite strong and a bit of range is present. Volume levels are great and it’s free of any noise or distortion. I’m not sure if I could really detect a real difference between this track and the Dolby Digital track found on the DVD, but both are of excellent quality.
Extras 7/10
Criterion carries all of the supplements from the 2-disc DVD and places them on this single-disc Blu-ray release, presenting them in 1080p. For the most part I’ve copied the section for supplements from my DVD review.
First up are two audio commentaries. The first commentary presents film scholar Annette Insdorf, who has written about Truffaut and (as she constantly reminds us) acted as translator for Truffaut, even translating for him after a screening of this film in New York. I know I’ve listened to solo tracks by her before but can’t recall if I enjoyed them but the one presented here is simply okay. I realize that with scholarly tracks I usually only enjoy them if I’ve felt I’ve actually learned something rather intriguing, found something in the film I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed, gained a new appreciation for it, or it convinced me that a film I used to loathe was actually something special. I actually enjoyed the film so the last two don’t really count, but I can’t say the track exposed anything new. She places the film in its historical context, explaining some details about France during the German occupation and the meaning of the title. Since she worked with Truffaut personally during the period of this film she does have a lot of details about his intentions and influences (other than Lubitsch and Hitchcock being influential directors, some of their techniques even appearing in the film, it turns out the film The Sorrow and the Pity was what pushed Truffaut to make The Last Metro) and she also points out some of the more personal elements Truffaut injected into the film or just helped him make the film. I guess I’m a little mixed on the track as a whole. It’s not bad and is thankfully not dull, but I don’t feel I took all that much from it.
The second audio commentary presents actor Gerard Depardieu and historian Jean-Pierre Azema (and Truffaut biographer Serge Toubiana.) The track is presented in French with English subtitles. This one I was actually looking forward to and in the end I have mixed feelings about it. First the grouping is rather odd. While Toubiana makes sense as a moderator, the pairing of Depardieu and Azema doesn’t make sense. I’m not sure if Azema and Depardieu were recorded together but it doesn’t matter much. Azema and Toubiana actually take up most of the track, and Depardieu only rings in once in a while, mainly during the last half of the track. Depardieu only chimes in about certain sequences in the film, working with Truffaut, and some of the other performers. Azema seems to only be there to confirm that the film is fairly accurate in its representation of its subject matter. He does expand on a lot of things, though, getting into more detail about the laws for theaters, film, and media in general, talks about the newspapers mentioned in the film, the resistance, and also gets into the fashions of the period, even hair styles. I’m a history buff so I did enjoy some of the content, but it is weak, filled with dead spots, and should have had more Depardieu (his opening, where he talks about Truffaut’s films being too “bourgeois” and that The 400 Blows was overblown, made me hope for more from him.)
Moving on from the commentaries to the supplements section of this release we first come across a lone deleted scene running about 5-minutes. The notes state that Truffaut removed the scene just before the film was released since he felt the film was too long. It was apparently re-inserted in a 1982 home video release. Criterion has kept it separate from the film. The DVD unfortunately had an issue where the subtitles wouldn’t load for the scene (I tried to turn them on but kept getting an error.) I had wondered if this was intentional but I see on this Blu-ray release there are subtitles. The scene is an added bit between Deneuve’s Marion and the screenwriter, Valentin, who pops up.
Interviews take up a majority of the supplements section. First up is an 11-minute excerpt from a 1980 interview with Truffaut, Depardieu, and Catherine Deneuve on a French television program called Les nouveaux rendez-vous. It appears to be a promotional bit for the film. There’s discussion about research done on the film, Truffaut’s childhood, but a majority of the interview focuses on the two stars.
The next interview, again from 1980, runs 6-and-a-half minutes from a program called Passez donc me voir and features Truffaut and actor Jean Poiret, talking about the film and their memories of the occupation. The interview was done just before the film’s opening (and has an odd café setting) and might be a promotional bit but I found their reminisces, though short, worth viewing.
Performing The Last Metro presents interviews with some of the actors that play smaller roles in the film, including Andrea Ferreol, Sabine Haudepin, Paulette Dubost, and Alain Tasma (who was actually an assistant director but was cast in the film for “economic reasons”.) There’s nothing really illuminating here but the four fondly recall actually being cast for the film and the working with Truffaut. Tasma has the most humourous comments as he recalls his performance, which he says was so bad that not only did Truffaut cut out some of his scenes, he also cut out some of his scenes before they were actually filmed.
Visualizing The Last Metro presents the two assistants to director of photography Nestor Almendros, Florent Bazin and Tessa Racine. During this 9-and-a-half minute interview the two discuss his intended look for the film. It sounds as though Truffaut had something closer to a black-and-white film in mind, but Almendros went with a red monochrome look, having a majority of the sets painted warm yellows and reds. They also talk about the lighting, some of which was done by candle light. They mention they were unsure about how it was going to look while filming, but the dailies always looked amazing. They also share some funny anecdotes about Almendros’ absent-minded nature. I liked this feature, and it was a nice intro to the next feature.
Working with Truffaut: Nestor Almendros is a 28-minute interview with the director of photography taken in 1986 for a documentary. Apparently only excerpts were used for the documentary but Criterion has put the remaining source materials together for this release. It presents Almendros quickly going over his career in France (having moved there from Cuba after seeing The 400 Blows) having worked with Eric Rohmer and then François Truffaut. He talks about filming The Wild Child in black and white (something Almendros wasn’t fond of) and then moving on to colour films such as Two English Girls and The Green Room. He talks about his techniques, working with Truffaut, and tricks of the trade. I rather liked this interview and I was quite pleased that Criterion went to the trouble to put this together.
A 12-minute short film by Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard called Une histoire d’eau is surprisingly also included. While it doesn’t really have much to do with The Last Metro it’s a nice addition, showing off the two directors’ early style. The film, which is of course rather playful, follows a couple trying to escape a flooded France.
The supplements then close with a theatrical trailer. Oddly the colours look a little more natural in the trailer.
Exclusive to the Blu-ray release (and all Blu-ray titles from Criterion) is the Timeline. You can open it from the pop-up menu, or by pressing the RED button on your remote. This is a timeline that shows your current position in the film. It lists the index chapters for the film and the two commentary tracks, and you can also switch to the commentary tracks from here. You also have the ability to “bookmark” scenes by pressing the GREEN button and return to them by selecting them on the timeline. You can also delete bookmarks by pressing the BLUE button. This is pretty common on Blu-ray (also common on HD DVD) so it’s nothing new, but a nice presentation still.
A slim booklet is also included containing an essay on the film by Armond White, which isn’t that bad a read.
It’s loaded with material but it’s all pretty middling in quality. The commentaries do have some good material but as a whole could have been more and the deleted scene is missing subtitles. The interview thankfully offer some excellent information about the making of the film.
Closing
Like with the DVD (which has all of the same features) I wasn’t too blown away by the supplements found on here, with the Almendros interview and the short film being the best of the bunch. But the transfer is rather stunning. The DVD’s transfer was still a stunner, but the Blu-ray improves on a few of the DVD’s shortcomings, presenting the film almost perfectly.
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