The Crimson Rivers (Les Rivières pourpres) - Collectors Edition

There’s something about French thrillers that makes them inexplicably compelling, above and beyond whatever plot might be on offer. It’s hard to say exactly what that is, but it’s probably got something to do with the way French genre movies (as opposed to “serious� French films) shamelessly borrow ideas from their American counterparts and filter them through a pair of rose-coloured Gallic glasses along the way. This is almost always done with an impossibly high level of visual style and gusto - all one needs to do is compare Luc Besson’s Nikita with the dreadful US remake of it (Point Of No Return) to see how the French easily have the edge in visual flamboyance. And character flamboyance, for that matter - French genre films have a curious habit of completely changing tone for a spot of zany comedy and then dropping right back into serious mode again (as opposed to the US method, which is to add levity to the violence via the use of spiffy catch-phrases).

Les Rivières pourpres - or The Crimson Rivers, its literally-translated English-language title - is a fairly big-budget action thriller directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, who is better known to Australian audiences as an actor (he played Nino in the recent French hit Amelie). Set in the undeniably Cinemascope-friendly surrounds of the French Alps, it tells the story of two police detectives whose paths are destined to cross in the investigation of a devious plot.

When a mutilated body is found dangling from the side of a mountain, legendary police investigator Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno) is called in. He finds himself in a bizarre environment - a remote mountain university where everyone achieves near-perfect academic results, and almost everyone is determinedly weird and suspicious. He soon runs into the amusingly-named Fanny Ferreira (Nadia Farès), a ski instructor who can guide him into the mountains and glaciers in his investigation of the murder; she also seems to be hiding some secrets about the university. Meanwhile, another police detective, Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel) is in the process of investigating the desecration of a grave site by apparent Nazi skinheads; his trail soon leads him, too, to the university, where he and Niemans team up to get to the bottom of it all.

Shamelessly slotting right into the American way of thinking (it’s like a buddy-movie version of Se7en at times), Crimson Rivers is extremely stylishly made and looks undeniably lovely for much of its running time. But it falls down in one crucial area - the plot. Because as the increasingly silly story unfolds (it’s based on a novel by Jean-Christophe Grangé, who also co-wrote the screenplay) and the web becomes ever more tangled, the whole thing becomes more and more incomprehensible. It’s a great plot idea, but it’s never taken to its full potential - the need for action sequences takes over at the expense of the story. The dénouement, when it comes, is over-the-top and makes absolutely no sense - and despite going back and re-watching bits of the film trying to figure out what the hell was going on, the only suitable word to describe it all was “huh?�

There are positives - first and foremost the cinematography (by Thierry Arbogast, who shot Luc Besson’s Nikita, Fifth Element and Joan Of Arc), which is absolutely stunning at times, making the most of the locations and the widescreen frame. Jean Reno is as gruffly entertaining as always, even though he does seem to be playing a character we’ve seen a few times before. The computer effects work is generally excellent (we’ll forgive them the avalanche sequence). And director Kassovitz does have a good handle on how to pace it all - it’s just that a fast-paced ball of confusion is still ultimately frustrating to watch, though for most of its running time it does promise a great deal.

This anamorphically enhanced transfer of The Crimson Rivers is presented at its correct Panavision aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it looks very good indeed - though it doesn’t quite have the “wow factor� that we so often see on transfers done by Sony’s HD Center (this transfer was, we presume, done in France). The colour palette throughout the film is slightly muted, which appears deliberate; overall detail is excellent and shadow detail mostly fine - and in scenes where the latter is lacking, it’s intentional (such as during the conversation between Kerkerian and a reclusive nun). The movie has been encoded on DVD at a seriously high bitrate, and as a result there are no encoding problems throughout.

The English-language subtitles will be essential for those opting (wisely) for the default French-language audio track, and these are generally well handled (even popping some subtitles up at the top of the screen to avoid overwriting in-shot details for those viewing in 16:9 mode). But we’d like to see Columbia’s PAL discs adopt the yellow-coloured subtitles their US discs use - the glaring white subtitles during some of the darker scenes here tend to be a little obnoxious.

Also obnoxious is the subtitles’ penchant for stating the bleeding obvious; at one point, Niemans walks into a building and the camera zooms in on the plaque next to the doorway. “Docteur CHERNEZE - Ophtalmologiste,� the plaque says. And incredibly, this warrants a translation. “Doctor CHERNEZE - Ophthalmologist,� offers the subtitle. Who would have guessed?

This is a dual-layered disc; the layer change, near the one-hour mark, is somewhat jarring in its placement but quickly navigated.

Commendably, the default audio here is the original French-language Dolby Digital 5.1 track (though if your player is configured to find an English-language track, that’s what you’ll get), and the English subtitle stream is also turned on by default.

There’s something about French movie audio that is quite unique - the French way of movie sound mixing seems to involve a lot more top-end frequency response, the extravagant use of surround channels and, most notably, over-the-top employment of sound effects. This is most certainly not a subtle - or realistic - soundtrack, but it is a lot of fun, and makes for good show-off material for when visitors come over to marvel at your home theatre setup. Bruno Coulais’s suitably thrilleresque music score, recorded in full discrete 5.1 surround, slots in with the dialogue and myriad effects perfectly; there’s no shortage of atmosphere here.

An English-language dubbed audio track is also provided (and is essentially the same 5.1 mix with the centre channel replaced) but we don’t recommend this option; while Jean Reno and the other leads obviously did their own dubs (commendably), the usual rewriting of the script to match mouth movements leads to the usual seriously dumb and clichéd dialogue - and the last thing you want in an already incomprehensible film is to have to deal with b-grade TV-cop-show scripting. The fact that everyone aside from the lead characters is inexplicably American doesn’t help, either. Nevertheless, for those who don’t like subtitles, it’s good that another option is here.

While other video companies put out some classic and current titles without the vaguest hint of extra material, Columbia Tristar in Australia has done something remarkable for The Crimson Rivers - regardless of the fact that the movie’s relatively unknown here and most of its extra material is in French, they’ve given us the proverbial full monty here in the form of an extras-packed double DVD set. All of the extras are subtitled in English, though with disc 2 you’ll have to turn on the English subtitles manually when you first reach that disc’s main menu. The only things missing from this local version of the French product are the DTS soundtrack (understandable given the need to include English as well) and a rather neato custom-made Les Rivières pourpres THX trailer (the French disc was THX-certified) along with production notes screens and some DVD-ROM material. But if you’re at all interested in how the film was made - or, for that matter, filmmaking in general - you’ll be fascinated by the extensive material here. The dual-layered disc 2 holds 155 minutes of video material on the making of the film - a 50% longer running time than the movie itself! All extras are 4:3 full-frame and/or letterboxed unless otherwise noted. The main menu and menu transitions are fully animated with audio. Oh, and curiously, the scene-selection “thumbnail� for chapter 1 shows the film’s title as The Crimson Rivers in English - but the print used here has the title Les Rivières pourpres (and all other credits) in the original French.

Audio Commentary: Director Kassovitz is joined by Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, and the three talk almost continuously through the film - in French. Fortunately the commentary is subtitled in English and, like Dancer In The Dark and Final Fantasy before it, you get to read the commentary and occasionally giggle at things that don’t translate all that well. This is a generally excellent commentary track that’s plenty informative.

Isolated Music Score: Bruno Coulais’s terrific music score presented by itself in full Dolby Digital 5.1 (and this score is as discrete as they come, making full use of the full surround stage as well as the subwoofer). The music on this track is mastered somewhat louder than it is in the movie, which makes sense. Bruno pops in to commentate between pieces of music, and offers some occasional interesting insights into his thought process. He also speaks in French, and is subtitled. Note that despite the claim on the back cover, there is no “jump-to highlights menu� for this isolated score track.

Trailers: Three for Les Rivières pourpres: a full-length trailer in 16:9 format with 5.1 audio, and two non-anamorphic letterboxed teasers, teaser 1 in 2.0 surround and teaser 2 in Dolby Digital 5.1. There are also bonus trailers for Vertical Limit (connection: action on snowy mountains), The Bone Collector (connection: spooky and gory thriller) and Godzilla (connection: it’s got Jean Reno in it).

The Investigation: A 52-minute (not 62 as listed on the cover) documentary which has the filmmakers discussing the transition from book to film (and attempting to explain the plot!) as well as the production process. Extremely well put together for this kind of thing, and well worth the time.

Corpse: Two featurettes about the creation of the spookily realistic dead body from the start of the movie. Yes, it was a model! The Scalpel Scene goes into enormous detail about the sequence, spending a massive 27 minutes exploring how it was done, while the 9-minute Making Of A Corpse (in 16:9 format) offers more gruesome detail using still photographs.

Fight: An eight minute behind-the-scenes look at Vincent Cassel’s bizarre but amusing fight sequence, showing you how it’s all choreographed. Available with location audio or a commentary from Cassel and friend.

Chase: 9 minutes on the filming of the night-time car chase sequence, which is good viewing even though it extensively uses clips from the movie. There’s also a 3-minute split-screen comparison of storyboards to final film (16:9 enhanced).

Mountain: Firstly there’s 11 minutes on the filming of the mountain sequences, where all the climbing of sheer cliffs and suchlike was done for real. Then The White Rivers spends 16 quirky minutes with the special effects teams that put together the digital avalanche effects; finally, there’s the avalanche sequence “in multiple angles� - storyboards, rushes, special effects and outtakes reels are all given teensy windows on-screen and are “swappable� using the angle button (16:9 enhanced).

Marketing: A grab-bag of stuff - a handful of posters, a six-minute reel of the filmmakers and cast in Japan on a promo tour (with some serious sound and picture deficiencies at times), and the dreaded “selected filmographies� (even France isn’t immune!) of Kassovitz, Reno and Cassel (but not co-star Nadia Farès).

Production: The tantalising title of the first item here - The Complete Storyboards - is somewhat misleading, as storyboard sequences (in still-frame format of course) are provided only for four sequences - the morgue, the car chase, the avalanche and an unfilmed opening sequence. As far as each sequence is concerned, though, they’re very complete. Then there’s a 13-minute featurette from art director Thierry Flamand about the physical design of the movie’s sets, and finally a couple of dozen still photographs from on location. Everything in this section is 16:9 enhanced, with the actual content on the storyboard and set stills screens fitting neatly into a 4:3 frame.

An energetic and visually stunning mystery-thriller-action film, The Crimson Rivers (Les Rivières pourpres) looks like it’s going to be a cracker of a movie for much of its running time, and then it goes and lets itself down in the final act. Still, there’s a lot to admire here technically, Jean Reno is as watchable as always and is backed by a solid cast, and as a bonus the film boasts the silliest fight scene you’re ever likely to see. Ambitious but flawed, it’s still worth your time - as long as you don’t mind the impenetrable plot.

Columbia Tristar’s double-disc set shows by example just how easy it is for a video distributor to give Australian consumers the same DVD that other markets do - you don’t hear excuses about who owns the rights to the extras from this company, you just get the goods and then some, and the fact that the film wasn’t a blockbuster doesn’t change that. It’s admirable, and if you’re into this movie, the DVD set, with its wonderfully detailed extras package, is superb value.