Les cousins – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: France, 1959
Director: Claude Chabrol
Writers: Claude Chabrol, Paul Gégauff
Cast: Gérard Blain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Juliette Mayniel, Guy Decomble, Geneviève Cluny, Michèle Méritz, Corrado Guarducci, Stéphane Audran, Paul Bisciglia, Jeanne Pérez, Françoise Vatel

Release Date: September 20th, 2011
Approximate Running Time: 109 Minutes 46 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: NR
Sound: LPCM Mono French
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $39.95

"In Les cousins, Claude Chabrol crafts a sly moral fable about a provincial boy who comes to live with his sophisticated bohemian cousin in Paris. Through these seeming opposites, Chabrol conjures a darkly comic character study that questions notions of good and evil, love and jealousy, and success in the modern world." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using Revival, Flame, and Smoke, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction"

Les cousins comes on a 50 GBdual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 32.1 GB

Feature: 30.1 GB

The source looks excellent; flesh tones look correct, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and grain remains intact.

Audio: 5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in French with removable English subtitles. The audio sounds excellent; dialog is clear, everything sounds balanced, and, range-wise, ambient sounds are well represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 54 seconds, Dolby Digital mono French with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary with film scholar Adrian Martin, and a 24-page booklet with cast & crew information, an essay titled The Nature of the Beast written by Terrence Rafferty, excerpts from actor Jean-Claude Brialy’s memoir about costar Gérard Blain, and information about the transfer.

Summary:

Though Les cousins aligns more closely with the thriller genre for which Claude Chabrol is renowned, it remains a film that primarily leans toward drama. In Les cousins, Claude Chabrol introduces a recurring theme that would feature prominently throughout his body of work: the bourgeoisie.

A woman causes a rift between two cousins when one of them seduces her to spite the other, who's in love with her.

Les cousins is a film about two characters who are polar opposites: Charles is quiet and reserved, while Paul lives a life of excess. Paul tries to drag Charles into his decadent world in which there are no limits; Charles often tries to distance himself. Also, Paul finds pleasure in others misery; he goes out of his way to prevent people from finding happiness.

Claude Chabrol casts several actors who worked with him on Le beau Serge, notably Gérard Blain (The Eye of the Needle) and Jean-Claude Brialy (A Woman Is a Woman), in the roles of Charles and Paul. What makes their casting so intriguing is how this time around he casts these two actors in roles that are opposite of what they portrayed in Le beau Serge. That said, both actors deliver extraordinary performances. Another performance of note is Juliette Mayniel (Eyes Without a Face) in the role of Florence, the woman caught in a romantic triangle with Charles and Paul. Another cast member of note is Stéphane Audran in her first collaboration with Claude Cabrol, whom she would marry in 1964, and throughout the 1960s and 70s she was his muse.

Though the performances are the driving force of Les cousins, the visuals also play a significant role; they do a superb job of heightening the mood. Even at this early stage of his career, Claude Chabrol shows a command for creating visually arresting moments. Notable moments are a scene where Charles is trying to study while behind him Paul and Florence are in the shower, a scene where Florence is sunbathing topless, and a jarring finale that provides an exclamation mark on the events that have unfolded.

The premise is flawlessly executed; a well-constructed narrative does a phenomenal job building tension, and a tragic finale where Paul’s reckless behavior kills someone provides a perfect coda. Another strength is an exemplary score, which features many classical music cues from composers like Mozart and Richard Wagner. Ultimately, Les cousins is a cautionary film about the dangers of excess and its consequences when left unchecked.

The Criterion Collection gives Les cousins an excellent release that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and insightful extras. Highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer