'French Connection' on Blu-ray: Original Intentions vs. Consumer Expectation
When is enough... enough?
When you start screwing around with classic films you are bound to piss folks off and Blu-ray has opened up the opportunity far more than anyone would have originally imagined. By presenting high-definition transfers of older films you are bound to get more film grain which opens up the question of whether or not the studio should do a little bit of DNR to reduce the noise. This was a big beef a few had with Fox's Blu-ray for Patton as many thought it turned the film into an all-too-perfect plastic picture. I never saw that Blu-ray, but it is what I have heard. Strangely enough you will often hear complaints from the same corners complaining about too much grain. Go figure.
Next you have the Lucas-effect. When George Lucas went in and re-imagined the original Star Wars trilogy he left fans in the cold and a suitable version of the original trilogy has not been made available since. Now William Friedkin's color tweaking on this new Blu-ray release of The French Connection goes nowhere near what Lucas did to the Star Wars trilogy, but many cinephiles are already chiming in on the new color-timing Friedkin applied to the project giving it an all new look.
Friedkin, in an introduction on the first disc in this set, says this is the best he believes The French Connection has ever looked and as he explains on the second disc in a feature explaining the process we learn they first oversaturated the picture, de-focused the color, reverted the picture to black-and-white and then mixed the two resulting images. Comments on the result range from extremely hateful, mildly upset and level-headed yet wishing for more.
While Friedkin does not claim this is the way he originally intended the film to look (as Lucas did) he does believe it has never looked better. Yet some believe the best option would have to never messed with the color in the first place or at the very least turn this two-disc set into a three disc set with the original 1971 Best Picture winning version available as well. It's a reasonable request, especially when we are talking about changing a film's appearance even though I personally believe this transfer looks great. The larger question is whether or not a filmmaker actually has the right to change their film, especially 38 years later.
I recently commented on Criterion's latest release of The Last Emperor and how the aspect ratio was presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio on that release as opposed to the 2.35:1 and 2.2:1 aspect ratios the film was originally screened in. This didn't bother me because Vittorio Storaro said the film was shot for a 2.1 and was subsequently shown differently. Take for example the difference between this and what Lucas did with the Star Wars films; there aren't any story changes to The Last Emperor it is only framed differently and supposedly as "originally intended." Lucas went in and changed plot elements added scenes as well as converted scenes from practical to CGI. It was a gross misuse of power and modern technology and in my mind made the films damn near unwatchable. So we are certainly looking at different degrees here.
Friedkin's work on The French Connection is certainly not as bad as what Lucas did, but we are still talking about some major changes when dealing with such a gritty feature with noir elements. Then again, he is employing a method that even he references was used in the 1930s on John Huston's Moby Dick. Does it make it any different that Friedkin could have actually done this back when the film was originally released, or does the fact he didn't do it back then mean something? Beyond that, who does a film belong to after it has been released? Does the film remain in the hands of the filmmaker or does it now belong to the public that embraced and supported it?
Watching The French Connection you won't see any CG work or plot elements changed, but you will see an impressive picture, although it is not what was originally released. I am sure I would feel different about all of this had I grown up with The French Connection, but it hit theaters six years before I was even born and watching it this time on Blu-ray was only my second time seeing it and therefore I have no real investment in the original version. Of course, this is not the same for everyone as the links I reference above prove.
I guess it comes down to when do original intentions go out the window?
Photo: Fox Home Entertainment
Based on the couple of examples I mention in this editorial I guess the best option is to release both versions together. Had The French Connection been released on Blu-ray with the 1971 version and the re-mastered 2009 version I think the reception this new release has seen by some would have been much different. However, I expect the grain problem would have been much larger in that case as Blu-ray quite obviously increases the amount of noticeable grain so when we are talking about films that were grainy to begin with you are fighting another battle as the "To DNR or not to DNR?" question comes into play
However, had both been released side-by-side I would imagine welcome comparisons would have been made with most still leaning toward the original, but I would be willing to bet the re-master would have been referred to as an interesting alternate version and a study in film processing. As opposed to Jeffrey Wells calling it "awful, a rip-off, a desecration and a five-alarm burn" in his piece urging people not to buy it. I wouldn't take things that far as this release has plenty to offer including several new making-of features in high-definition on the second disc as well as a new commentary by Friedkin, but I would say the sound mix struggles quite a bit as the levels never seem to be quite right. Ten minutes into the film you have your volume set just right until you hit the club scene and the singer's voice blares out of your speakers and overwhelms you.
Speaking of sound there is also an isolated score track that was created specifically for this Blu-ray with an interesting explanation offered up to DVDBeaver by track co-supervisor Neil Bulk who said the following:
Mike Matessino and I worked on this track for the Blu-ray and we had access to the original paperwork for the film. What the isolated track does is present the score as composer Don Ellis intended. In the film much of his music was edited, used in different places or just not used at all. Instead of replicating all of the edits and leaving music off of the track (to match the film), it was decided that presenting all of the music composed by Don Ellis would make for a more pleasurable listening experience and would add another dimension into the making of this film. The isolated score track helps the viewer understand the scoring process and in this case we can compare what the composer planned for the film and how it was ultimately used in the movie.
I hope I was able to clear up any questions you and your readers had about this track. We're very proud with how it turned out, since I can remember sitting with two remote controls and the CD in one player and the DVD in another player, trying to get the Ellis score to sync to the picture. Thanks to Fox Home Video and producer Nick Redman, now everyone can experience this!
If you hadn't guessed by now, there's a lot going on with this release and perhaps it is something you need to experience for yourself. I would certainly be interested to hear more from any of you that have an opinion one way or the other. Plenty more opinions have been collected here.
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I'm as big a FRENCH CONNECTION-ophile as there is (I was a 12 year old NYC street urchin in 1971 when the film came out). I saw most of the Best Picture nominees that year – A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, THE HOSPITAL and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (superb pictures all), but there was something about CONNECTION that was different – the shaky, shallow depth-of-field camerawork, the kinectic editing and above all, Gene Hackman's bare-knuckle performance, that made me pay to watch the film about 10 times in 5 years.
I saw the film again in a theater revival in New York about a year ago and came to realize there's no substitute for seeing a great film on a big screen. Like THE GODFATHER, a film this large can't be contained in your home no matter how big your HDTV. It's also hard to capture all that energy without a live audience pushing back at it.
Now to today's Blu-ray release. Based on the comparison frames in the above article by Brad Brevet, I'm skeptical. Tampering with the colors is definitely not something I approve of. John Huston's MOBY DICK (1956) was filmed with a specific technique in mind – a period Technicolor film with grey peeking through. The production design, costuming and set decoration were constructed to serve Ossie Morris' iconic camerawork (later copied by, among others, Freddie Francis in GLORY). THE FRENCH CONNECTION is different. There is no production design. Grey as the winter of 1970-71 was, the film is flush with color: Doyle's bright red Santa suit (with a drug dealer's blood stain on the white sleeve); the orange of the Chez nightclub; the bursting early morning sun on the Brooklyn Bridge; red neon lights and the sick green mood of the subway. Compressing these colors cannot possiibly serve to heighten the film's realism; and while Friedkin seems to take pride in this endeavor, does it have the imprimatur of cinematographer Owen Roizman? 80's and 90's crime movies and TV mis-used the technique of blanching colors and printing their street scenes an artificial blue which created only a phony produced effect. So why does a trail-blazing film like CONNECTION insist on copying that style? The late great DeLuxe lab on West 55th St. gave Friedkin and co. a great color print. Friedkin's responsibility is to get as close to those color timing numbers as possible, nothing less will do.
No, it seems the only reason to invest in this DVD version is for the extras, chiefly Friedkin's walking tour of the chase scene route. But I'll have see it to pass judgment … or is it too late for that?