This movie was ok--and probably better if you speak French since it would be easier to watch and not strain to see the poor subtitles on the DVD.
The region 1 DVD isn't an especially great value. For one thing, the subtitles are part of the letterboxed movie image--not a separate subtitle track that you can turn on or off (as you can on most DVDs). The subtitles were also difficult to see since they were small and there were a number of times that they were white lettering on a white background and almost impossible to read.
The transfer to DVD didn't seem to be especially great since most scenes were very dark or with very dark portions and then extremely bright portions. It seemed very contrasty and I suspect the original film didn't have this much contrast. It's my guess that they made the DVD transfer off an English language reprint of the film with subtitles embedded in the image and not off the best available French masters. I also suspect they used the same transfer for both DVD and VHS versions of the film. I found it difficult to see what was going on since a lot was extremely dark and I could only see silhouettes of people's hair or heads while at the same time trying to read small, poor-quality English subtitles.
I find it hard to comment extensively on the content of the movie since I was so bothered by the poor quality of the DVD and I couldn't pay the best attention to the story.
I would guess that many non-French-speaking audiences wouldn't be especially interested in this film because there are many characters to keep track of and they all seem most interested in bickering with other characters about romantic or sexual escapades. It all began to make some sense by the end of the movie--when I finally could put together some context for the characters. But by the end of the movie I was already too tired of petty bickering to care very much what happened to these people (and straining at the poor subtitles and transfer didn't make the movie very enjoyable either).
The region 1 DVD isn't an especially great value. For one thing, the subtitles are part of the letterboxed movie image--not a separate subtitle track that you can turn on or off (as you can on most DVDs). The subtitles were also difficult to see since they were small and there were a number of times that they were white lettering on a white background and almost impossible to read.
The transfer to DVD didn't seem to be especially great since most scenes were very dark or with very dark portions and then extremely bright portions. It seemed very contrasty and I suspect the original film didn't have this much contrast. It's my guess that they made the DVD transfer off an English language reprint of the film with subtitles embedded in the image and not off the best available French masters. I also suspect they used the same transfer for both DVD and VHS versions of the film. I found it difficult to see what was going on since a lot was extremely dark and I could only see silhouettes of people's hair or heads while at the same time trying to read small, poor-quality English subtitles.
I find it hard to comment extensively on the content of the movie since I was so bothered by the poor quality of the DVD and I couldn't pay the best attention to the story.
I would guess that many non-French-speaking audiences wouldn't be especially interested in this film because there are many characters to keep track of and they all seem most interested in bickering with other characters about romantic or sexual escapades. It all began to make some sense by the end of the movie--when I finally could put together some context for the characters. But by the end of the movie I was already too tired of petty bickering to care very much what happened to these people (and straining at the poor subtitles and transfer didn't make the movie very enjoyable either).