{"id":27518,"date":"2023-12-01T00:21:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T08:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=27518"},"modified":"2023-12-01T00:21:18","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T08:21:18","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-le-combat-dans-lile-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=27518","title":{"rendered":"‘ILE (1962)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This “Limited Edition” Blu-ray from Radiance Films is currently available for purchase.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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French director Alain Cavalier is something of a legend in\nhis home country, having made dozens of movies. In 1987, he also won Cesar\nAwards (the French equivalent of the Academy Award) for Best Film and Best\nDirector of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, <\/em>a biopic of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux. Distributor\nRadiance Films certainly appreciates the man\u2019s work and are now putting out a\nBlu-ray of an early narrative Le Combat Dans L\u2019ile<\/em>. This film was only\nmoderately successful during its original run, but has gained prominence from\ncritics as a strong early work with excellent performances that deals with a\nsubject that hasn\u2019t gone out of date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cl\u00e9ment Lesser (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is the son of a\nParisian industrialist who seems to have it all, including not only wealth but\na lovely wife and actress named Anne (Romy Schneider). Still, the cold and\nconservative figure isn\u2019t happy with the changing world and has joined a\nfar-right terrorist group. Despite her adoration for the abusive Cl\u00e9ment, Anne\nis none too horrified to discover that Lesser has been asked to assassinate a\nvisiting politician. When the job goes wrong and he is set up, Cl\u00e9ment takes\nAnne to hide out on the countryside property of his old college pal, Paul\n(Henri Serre). Paul is an independent publisher and socialist who doesn\u2019t like\nthe extreme behavior in his friend, but decides not to turn him in. With\nauthorities closing in, Cl\u00e9ment leaves his wife to go on the lam in South\nAmerica and take revenge on his compatriots. Over the next several months, Paul\nencourages Anne to return to acting. She finds success and falls in love with\nher new friend. When word reaches Cl\u00e9ment, he becomes determined to return and\ntake his revenge on Paul, challenging him to a duel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the locations featured are unfamiliar, this\nblack-and-white picture includes lighting that reminds one of an American film\nnoir. It is also unique in that the performances are very naturalistic for the\nperiod. In particular, the mellow Paul feels like someone you could meet on the\nstreet. The revenge plot isn\u2019t anything new, but the character development and\nconversations between the leads feels very believable. By the time Cl\u00e9ment\nreturns from abroad and threatens violence against Paul, viewers can easily\nsympathize with the publisher. He does his best to reason with his old friend,\nall of his protests still lead to a violent and well-edited confrontation that\nis tense and effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s a very good film and one can see why it has developed a\nfollowing over the years. While the specific reasons for each character\u2019s\npolitical beliefs are different, it still resonates as something that could\neasily occur in this day and age. And as a French title, one is never quite\nsure exactly how things will play out and who will survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The disc includes a new 2K picture restoration from the\noriginal negative that looks great. Included are extras that involve clips of\nthe film as they might have appeared on VHS and there is an incredible\nimprovement. The moody lighting uses a lot of shadows and they are very\neffectively rendered. It probably has never looked this good before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disc also includes a television interview with Alain\nCavalier from 1962. He discusses his influences, what attracted him to the\nstory and how he tried to achieve his goals. His more notable admission is that\nhe initially wanted (Jean-Louis Trintignant for the socialist publisher role,\nbut the actor was more intrigued by the violent far-right figure and thought going\nagainst type be an interesting challenge. As it turns out, the role helped the\nactor become a major star in France. There is also an interview with\nTrintignant from 1982 in which he talks about the shoot and his experience\nworking with the director and other cast members. He remembers co-star Romy\nSchneider (who died at a relatively young age) as a talented but troubled\nactress who suffered from alcoholism and, as he believed, used some personal\nstrife in her own life to inform her performances. He believes these tactics\nand heavy drinking eventually led to her tragic death at the age of 43.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Director Cavalier also provides a short in which he goes\nthrough production photos from the film and talks about what was occurring on\nset and what he remembers about the shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, there\u2019s a strong analysis of the film and the\ndirector\u2019s work by a film historian that appears as a bonus feature. He\ndiscusses the inspirations and reasons, like the war in Algiers, for some\nFrench citizens becoming right-wing extremists during this period in history.\nThe Blu-ray also includes an early short by Cavalier, behind-the-scenes photos\nfrom the set (some of which were taken by filmmaker and friend of Cavalier,\nLouis Malle). Additionally, there is a short made by Cavalier in 2010 about the\nrelease of the film on DVD and how it has grown in popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radiance Films is also packaging the movie in a reversible\nsleeve with original art and a newly commissioned piece for the film. A\n\u201cLimited Edition\u201d booklet also features new writing on the movie from an\nauthority in French cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Le Combat Dans L\u2019ile <\/em>is a relatively small,\nlow-budget independent feature, but it packs a punch and still resonates more\nthan 50 years after its original release. This reviewer had never seen it\nbefore, but was immediately impressed with the imagery, performances and message\nbeing delivered. The movie comes highly recommended and the Blu-ray from\nRadiance Film is equally impressive. Foreign film fans and those looking for a\ndrama with political overtones should definitely give it a shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This “Limited Edition” Blu-ray from Radiance Films is currently available for purchase. French director Alain Cavalier is something of a legend in his home country, having made dozens of movies. In 1987, he also won Cesar Awards (the French equivalent of the Academy Award) for Best Film and Best Director of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, a biopic of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}