THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC [2010 / 2011] [Limited Collector's Edition SteelBook] [Blu-ray + DVD] [UK Release] From Visionary Director Luc Besson! Amelie meets Indian Jones in a Charming Funny and Exciting French Escapade!
Legendary director Luc Besson of ‘The Fifth Element’ and ‘Leon,’ transports us to the wild days of early 20th-century Paris, where feisty young writer Adèle Blanc-Sec embarks on thrilling missions to find exciting material for her book and a cure for her sick sister. She sails to Egypt to raid a tomb that supposedly hides the cure, but what will she do when an army of resurrected mummies get in the way? Back in Paris she finds the city in chaos after a 136 million-year old pterodactyl egg mysteriously hatches. Adèle Blanc-Sec realises she is the only one game enough to take control of the prehistoric bird. Narrated by Bernard Lanneau.
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 2011 César Awards, France: Win: Best Production Design (Meilleurs décors) for Hugues Tissandier. Nominated: Best Costume Design (Meilleurs costumes) for Olivier Bériot. 2011 Fantasporto: Win: Audience Jury Award for Feature Film for Luc Besson.
FILM FACT No.2: ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ is The primarily live-action film, shot in Super 35, incorporates much use of computer animation to portray its fanciful elements and contemporary action film special and visual effects within the form of the older-style adventure films they have largely superseded.
Cast: Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric, Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve, Jacky Nercessian, Philippe Nahon, Nicolas Giraud, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Gérard Chaillou, Serge Bagdassarian, Claire Pérot, François Chattot, Stanislas de la Tousche, Youssef Hajdi, Mohamed Aroussi, Moussa Maaskri, Mostefa Zerguine, Sayed Mohamed, Grégory Ragot, Tonio Descanvelle, Pierre Khorsand, Guillaume Briat, Swann Arlaud, Jean-Louis Barcelona, Max Delor, Cyrille Dobbels, Patrick Chupin, Éric Naggar, Manu Layotte, Jean-Lou de Tapia, Monique Mauclair, Mick Gondouin, Jean-Pierre Prevotat, Dominique Macaire, Luc Martin, Christophe Bouisse, Fabien Béhar, Michel Aymard, Yves Espargilière, Jérôme Courtois, Michel Sailly, Elise Marie, Galles Morin, Christophe Carotenuto, Jean-Michel Molé, Cédric Tuffier, Pascal Loison, Jérôme Bruno, Roland Marchisio, Armand Eloi, Frédérique Bel, Christophe Seureau, Jacques Sablier, Régis Royer, Isabelle Caro, Dominique Gras, Matila Malliarakis, Christophe Dimitri Réveille, Christian Erickson, Allain Naron, Michel Herse, Jean-Michel Marnet, Vincent Debost, Isabel Pestana, Ashani Serra, Lou Savri, Justine Chesneau, Bernard Lanneau (Le narrateur), Caroline Blot, Francis Coffinet, Julie Galopin, Amandine Marteau, Gaelle Pauly, Vanina Rouvier, Aurélie Rusterholtz, Léonore Zurfluh, Benjamin Broux (uncredited), Clément Sageste (uncredited) and Jacques Tardi (uncredited)
Director: Luc Besson
Producer: Virginie Besson-Silla
Screenplay: Luc Besson (screenplay) and Jacques Tardi (comic books)
Composer: Éric Serra
Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: French: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
French: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
French: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 107 minutes and 103 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 2
Studio: EuropaCorp [France] / Optimum Home Entertainment
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ [2010] is a charming and beautiful French tale whisks you away to the fantastical world of early twentieth-century Paris, where loveable heroine Adèle Blanc-Sec [Louise Bourgoin] saves the day without breaking a sweat, which combines the thrills of Tomb Raider with the fashions of La Boheme, then look no further. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec has it all: dinosaurs, Egyptian mummies and a female adventurer with a spectacular collection of hats. Based on the comic strip by Jacques Tardi, the film traces the journey of madcap novelist Adèle Blanc-Sec “dry white, like the wine” who spends her days travelling to perilous and far-flung corners of the world in search of material for her next book.
We meet Adèle Blanc-Sec in Egypt, 1911, where she has trekked into the desert to the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses II. The intrepid explorer enlists the help of oddball Professor Espérandieu [Jacky Nercessian], who claims he can raise the pharaoh’s doctor from the dead to cure Adèle Blanc-Sec’s dying sister, who was impaled on a hat pin in a freak tennis accident. Meanwhile, in Paris, the nutty professor has proven his powers by hatching a baby pterodactyl from a 136 million-year-old egg in the natural history museum. Tasked with ridding the city of the winged beast, Clouseau-like Inspector Caponi [Gilles Lellouche], turns to Adèle Blanc-Sec, who has returned to Paris with a shrivelled mummy in tow. Cue much hilarity, glamorous costume changes and a series of close scrapes as she fends off arch-nemesis Dieuleveult [Mathieu Amalric] and the advances of a besotted botanical scientist.
Director Luc Besson [‘Leon’ and ‘La Femme Nikita’] has tried previously to bring Tardi’s sketches life, but admits this was one of the strangest films he has ever made. Despite the genre shift, Luc Besson’s production retains the aesthetics of a comic book through authentic costumes and attention to detail that is a fitting homage to Tardi’s dream-like world.
Louise Bourgoin is played with a breezy, almost klutzy charm by Bourgoin, and Adèle Blanc-Sec is a feisty, unflappable and brilliantly caustic heroine. The lunatic plot finds her in Egypt, turned tomb raider to find the mummy of a famed ancient Egyptian doctor. If Adèle Blanc-Sec’s scientist friend can bring him back to life, this mummy may just be able to cure her sister – languishing in a coma after a freak accident. As well as outrunning balls of fire, Adèle Blanc-Sec must evade her arch nemesis [Mathieu Amalric, virtually unrecognisable in shrivelled, syphilitic prosthetics].
Back in fin-de-siècle Paris is recreated in ravishing detail. Adèle Blanc-Sec’s scientist tests his technique on a dinosaur egg, wreaking mayhem on the city by bringing to life a pterodactyl. There is a lot to enjoy in this frantic farce, not just the sumptuous locations, but some pleasingly grisly touches. like the gothic spectacle of Adèle Blanc-Sec’s sister lying in a coma, a nail protruding from her head and some wonderfully groovy mummies, who wake up speaking fluent French, incidentally. But it all plays on one note of droll humour, which while pleasingly mordant and all styled really brilliantly.
Louise Bourgoin had little acting experience prior to playing Adèle Blanc-Sec, having previously been a TV weather girl, but her on-screen charisma and instinctive comic timing means she’s unfazed by the bigger stars and eccentric plot, and is undoubtedly one to keep an eye on. It’s just a shame Amalric didn’t share more screen time with her, as Luc Besson’s strategic tight shots of his unsightly, twitching face up close to Louise Bourgoin’s radiant complexion are simultaneously so wrong and yet so right. Luc Besson likes to focus on the face in his films, to get right up close to share the subtlest of expressions and the wildest reactions. I particularly enjoyed watching Jacky Nercessian as Esperandieu’s close-up whilst he appears to share the mind of the pterodactyl (watch out for that, as it is totally amazing).
The whole concept, humour and executed plot are, admittedly, sometimes silly and might not be cherished by all, but to me it was absolutely fantastic, but overall the film is so brilliant good-natured that whether the audience are smiling delightedly or groaning inwardly, all will be enjoying it’s visual beauty and plucky spirit, which is essentially wrapped up in the character of Adèle Blanc-Sec herself. My eyes are peeled for hopefully a sequel on the horizon, but I will not hold my breath.
THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC MUSIC TRACK LIST
CAN CAN No.3 (Written by Jacques Offenbach) [Performed by The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and Conducted by Erich Kunzel]
NINI LA GIGOLETTE (Written by Henri Peuson and Victor Thiels) [Performed by Yohane Gilbert]
LA VALSE DES FAUBOURGS (Music by Désiré Berniaux) (Lyrics by Ferdinand-Louis Bénech) [Performed by Marcelly]
Peer Gynt – In the Hall of the Mountain King (Written by Edvard Grieg) (Arranged by Ron Mendelsohn and J.C. Dwyer)
The Merry Wives of Windsor – Overture (Written by Carl Otto Nicolai)
J’AI DEUX AMOURS (Music by Vincent Scotto) (Lyrics by Georges Koger and Henri Varna) [Performed by Josephine Baker]
ADÈLE BLANC SEC (Written by Françoise Kohn, Thomas Dutronc, Thomas Dutronc, Frédéric Jaillard and Xavier Bussy) [Performed by Thomas Dutronc and Louise Bourgoin]
L’ ADÈLE (Music by Catherine Ringer and Éric Serra) (Lyrics by Catherine Ringer) [Performed by Catherine Ringer]
MON TRUC EN PLUMES (uncredited) (Music by Jean Constantin) (Lyrics by Bernard Dimey) [Performed by Louise Bourgoin]
Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ is presented in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, with an awesome 1080p stunning encoded images, that looks absolutely stunning and was clearly shot with top of the range digital cameras, as there aren't any of the problems you generally assertion with digital films such as less than convincing contrast levels, digital breakup and poor definition in dark scenes with bright lights. Throughout the film and in every location, the contrast levels are superb, with inky blacks and no loss of detail when the light levels drop. Colours are reassuringly strong, vibrant and well defined, without any bleeding. Oddly, the English subtitles are burnt in, rather than optional, something which will disappoint and frustrate Francophones who would like to watch this in French without subtitles. However, they are well written and quite faithfully translated, although it is quite funny to see some peculiarities in the translation, so when Andrzej tells Adèle Blanc-Sec his name and says it's “Andrei, with a J as in Jardin,” the subtitles change that to “Andre, with a J as in Jaguar,” an alteration which makes perfect sense. Thankfully, the subtitles are also easy to read as they are white with a black outline so they stand out even against a light background. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – With film ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ you have the choice of two French tracks on the Blu-ray disc, which is either 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio or the 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio and as you'd expect, both are excellent with crystal clear dialogue and present the dialogue, score and atmospherics extremely well. There are numerous action oriented scenes where the 5.1 track is clearly the one to choose as the front and rear surrounds and subwoofer really emphasises the action on screen with excellent directional sound and separation surround sounds. As you'd expect from a Luc Besson film, the score is provided by Eric Serra who has scored other action films including ‘Léon: The Professional,’ ‘Nikita’ and ‘GoldenEye’ and his experience pays off here with an extremely accomplished composition. It does a fine job with upping the tempo during the action sequences, playing up the more humorous scenes and underscoring the quieter, and especially the more tender moments between Adèle Blanc-Sec and her sister Agathe Blanc-Sec [Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre].
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Four Exclusive Beautiful Limited Edition Art Cards
Special Feature: Making of ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [26:04] This is a fairly in-depth look at the making of the film and is unsurprisingly, like the other extra features on the Blu-ray and DVD discs, is a piece made for a French audience and is entirely in French with English subtitles. It begins with “The Genesis of the Story,” featuring interviews with Luc Besson, the original director and comic book creator Jacques Tardi and producer Virginie Besson. It then goes on to the central character, with Luc Besson describing why he cast Louise Bourgoin, and with an interview with her and shots from the set and posing for publicity stills. It then progresses to “The World of Adèle Blanc-Sec” and other elements of the comic strip and film in the featurette which is well worth watching with some very revealing interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and how they used CGI for the Pterodactyl, Mummies and to make the Paris in 2009 look like Paris in 1911/1912 and the extraordinary use of SFX make-up and prosthetics to age people, to make them look a great deal fatter or otherwise completely change their appearance so they resemble the character in the comic strips.
Special Feature: Exclusive Interviews: Here we get to view six interviews with people that were involved in the film ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ and they are as follows:
Luc Besson [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [14:51]
Louise Bourgoin [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [15:50]
Mathieu Amalric [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [19:49]
Jean-Paul Rouve [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [16:02]
Jacky Nercessian [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [14:44]
Gilles Lellouche [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [17:18]
Each Interview does not play as one lot, but are quite lengthy and have to be selected individually.
Special Feature: In the Studio [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [4:59] This follows on from part of the interview with the previous special feature with the very shy Louise Bourgoin, in which she said she cannot sing, and her mother said "Whatever you do, don't sing,' and shows her in the recording studio adding her vocal talents to the song which plays over the end credits.
Special Feature: Cinemoi interview with Luc Besson [2010] [480i] [1.37:1] [25:43] This is an English-language interview conducted by Jason Solomons, probably for a programme called Mise en Scène, and this is a more general interview about director Luc Besson's career, and focusing especially on ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ film.
Special Feature: Music Video [2010] [1080p] [1.78:1] [1.51] Here we have a very French quirky and eccentric video presentation, which showcases Luc Bessons quirky style of film presentation, plus you also get now and again selected scenes from the film ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC.’ Unfortunately, they do not give any details of who the young women is performing and singing in the music video.
Theatrical Trailer [2010] [1080p] [2.35:1] [1:33] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC.’ This is very well put together theatrical trailer and should prove interesting enough to make most viewers want to check out the actual Luc Bessons quirky film.
Sneak Peaks: Source Code [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:06]; Mars Advert [480i] [1.37:1] [0:34]; Attack The Block [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:05] and Wrigley’s Extra Advert [480i] [1.37:1] [0:30].
Finally, ‘THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC’ is a return to form for director Luc Besson, certainly the best film he's directed for a decade and one which is extremely well paced, has the right amount of drama, action, adventure and fantasy and an excellent ensemble cast led by a remarkable film debut by Louise Bourgoin. I would largely ignore the BBFC's advice about the “sexualised nudity,” as it's patently not the case and the film is suitable for all the family, as long as they don't mind subtitles! With superlatives picture quality, two extremely good soundtracks, plus over an hour of extra features, this is well worth buying. I see little point in purchasing just the DVD release as for a few £ Sterling more, you can buy the dual format edition which contains both the Blu-ray and DVD discs. Depending on how much you value packaging will determine whether you buy the standard release in a keep case or the awesome and totally brilliant Limited Collector's Edition SteelBook. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
