GIORGINO [1994 / 2007] [DVD] [2-Disc Set] [French Release] One Fantastic Tale of Wolves and a Mysterious Catherine!
October 1918: After returning to the civil life, the young Doctor Giorgio Volli [Jeff Dahlgren] searches for a group of children, which he had been the care-taker of before the First World War began. However, soon the searching becomes a part of hide-and-seek with death. Doctor Giorgio Volli finds a village bordered with a treacherous marsh and rumours of wolves. There Giorgio Volli also meets the mysterious Catherine [Mylène Farmer]. A child’s nightmare in which love like Catherine, a fragile young girl, can be embraced only by embracing madness. Starring French pop megastar Mylène Farmer.
Cast: Jeff Dahlgren, Mylène Farmer, Joss Ackland, Louise Fletcher, Frances Barber, Jean-Pierre Aumont, John Abineri, Jana Andresíková, Lee Barrett, Sydnee Blake, Richard Claxton, Veronica Clifford, Albert Dupontel, Janine Duvitski, Su Elliot, Valérie Kaplanová, Jan Kuzelka, Anne Lambton, David Ryall, Christopher Thompson, Claudia Vaseková, Louise Vincent and Christian Gazio (uncredited)
Director: Laurent Boutonnat
Producers: Gérard Crosnier and Laurent Boutonnat
Screenplay: Gilles Laurent and Laurent Boutonnat
Composer: Laurent Boutonnat
Costume Design: Carine Sarfati
Cinematography: Jean-Pierre Sauvaire (Director of Photography)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision Anamorphic)
Image Resolution: 1080i
Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
French: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
French/English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: French
Running Time: 175 minutes
Region: PAL
Number of discs: 2
Studio: Pathé / Heathcliff S.A.
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘GIORGINO’ [1994] tells the tells the story of Giorgio Volli [Jeff Dahlgren], a young soldier returning from the First World War, having been struck down by mustard gas. Ailing, he seeks the orphans he used to care for. Discovering that they’d been displaced due to the shelling, his journey leads him to the quiet town of Chanteloup.
There Giorgio Volli discovers that all of the orphans have died under mysterious circumstances, with conflicting claims that they’d drowned or that roaming wolves had eaten them. There is even the allusion that their doctor may have poisoned them. Giorgio Volli intends to find out the truth, however elusive it may be.
The isolated villagers, all of whom are women, except for the town priest Glaise [Joss Ackland], are not helping to shed any light on the mystery; there’s a definite air of madness floating about. Meanwhile, Giorgio Volli becomes infatuated with Catherine [Mylène Farmer], a childlike young woman ensconced at the heart of this tragedy.
‘GIORGINO’ is a fairy-tale of sorts, but it’s a story is nearly three hours long and at times tends to drag a bit, but it is the type film that has to go into minute detail to find out what happened to the children that dies. Filmed on a moderate budget, but most important is that it gives you a very atmospheric film, to the point that the picture image looks good, is perfectly bleak as intended. The composed film score by Laurent Boutonnat really creates a sound that certainly enhances the images and the mood of the film.
The main cast is very good, especially with the brilliant British actors like Joss Ackland and Frances Barber and equally good are the American actors who are Jeff Dahlgren and Louise Fletcher providing terrific support, and also superb is the famous French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont who plays Sebastien the Doctor, but the parts played by other actors are slightly over shadowed by the main actors in the film. Also outstanding is the snowy planes images in the film that really makes you shiver when viewing these scenes in the film and the indoor settings are warm and inviting.
Sadly the film ‘GIORGINO’ wasn’t a success. That is was such a massive failure is probably more due to having been released in France, where expectations and standards were not in line with it. After its failure there, the picture simply had no chance elsewhere. Sadly we will never know whether if it was released in the United Kingdom, whether it would have had a chance of success, but sadly the majority of British people have never heard of Mylène Farmer.
Also, director Laurent Boutonnat has a bit of an ego problem and has only in the past directed most of Mylène Farmer’s music videos, which of course have a very short running time, apart from two of Mylène Farmer’s earliest music videos, that were more like a mini film and is totally awesome. So for Laurent Boutonnat to direct this film, as he was slightly out of his depth, maybe someone at Pathé should have had a serious word in his ear to cut the film down to a manageable length. After its failure in France, the picture simply had no chance of success and it was a poor roll-out decision.
That is why eventually they decided it was more suitable for the home video market, especially for the massive fans of Mylène Farmer, who like me have bought their copy of the film. Despite this, I am still glad I bought this DVD.
By the way, French filmmaker Laurent Boutonnat got his start at the tender age of 17 with the release of ‘La Ballade de la féconductrice’ in 1980. Sadly, the fantasy film wasn’t especially well-received and Laurent Boutonnat refocused his energies on music, composing singles and trying to get them produced.
Fortunately, three years later, he met Mylène Farmer during a casting call for his song “Maman à tort.” With her on board, the single was a hit and an incredibly successful music partnership was born. Together, Laurent Boutonnat and Mylène Farmer blew the roof off of the French pop and club scene, ruling the charts and as they say, the rest is history.
Laurent Boutonnat was more than just a songwriter, however, he was the ultimate perfectionist, and he also produced Mylène Farmer’s CD albums and directed the most amazing music videos to all of her early singles. Shot on film, he frequently transformed these into mini-epics, action-adventure period pieces that sometimes exceeded the 10-minute mark.
It only seemed natural, then, that they would make a motion picture together. Thus, in 1992, they embarked on the making of the film ‘GIORGINO’ an eerie fantastical period drama, which Laurent Boutonnat not only directed, but co-wrote, produced and even composed the score to. Mylène Farmer would be one of its ultimate professional French star performer.
‘GIORGINO,’ which was made on a moderate budget, was shot in 1993 and was eventually released in 1994. Again, Laurent Boutonnat found success escaping his grasp and the picture not only drew very few people to the cinema, it was also lambasted by the French critics. Laurent Boutonnat bought the rights to it and buried it, until in 2007 Laurent Boutonnat, especially the massive fans of Mylène Farmer in France especially, bombarded Laurent Boutonnat to release the film on the DVD format.
For many years I have been an absolute obsessed fan of Mylène Farmer, because her music videos are out of this world and so different from any artists I know, on top of all that, her live concerts are out of this world and totally spectacular and to see then on a Blu-ray disc would blow you away. I have all her music videos on the DVD format and I have the majority of her Compact Discs that have been released, even the special editions. So despite the film was a total disaster in France, I am still glad I now own the ‘GIORGINO’ film on this spectacular 2-Disc Set luxurious special edition DVD.
GIORGINO MUSIC TRACK LIST
Symphonie No.1 3rd movement (Written by Bohuslav Martinu) [Heard at the Funeral of Sébastien Degrâce]
Uaxuctum (Written by Giacinto Scelsi) [Heard in the corridors of the Degrâce House]
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DVD Image Quality – Pathé and Heathcliff S.A. presents the film ‘GIORGINO’ with a totally stunning 1080i image and greatly enhanced with a 2.35:1 (Panavision Anamorphic) aspect ratio and for a DVD it is really excellent. The first images of the film are in a hospital and gives an overall colour of orange, especially the walls, but other parts of the hospital the colours are all washed out, to give the impression of a very sterile place. When you get to view any open air scenes with the white snow, there is hardly any other colour. But scenes inside buildings have an overall warm brown colour and is very natural looking, with hints of other colours to give a balance look. But of course the majority of the film is set in the cold winter months, and you definitely get the impression of a very cold landscape, and you can tell the actors were feeling the very cold weather, especially with good make-up. The cinematographer Jean-Pierre Sauvaire pulls out the stops and makes the image presentation really standout with total perfection. There is not a dust spot to be seen and the image again is superb for a DVD. So all in all, this definitely gets a much deserved five star rating for a Pathé and Heathcliff S.A. film released in 1994. Please Note: Playback PAL: 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. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
DVD Audio Quality – Pathé and Heathcliff S.A. brings us the film ‘GIORGINO’ with two alternative audio experiences and they are 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, but out of the two audio soundtracks, the 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio was the best one out of the two, as the other one gave very harsh sound. On top of all that, the 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio is nicely rounded and also gives us a good dynamic range and is also very clear, and a well-modulated sound with no distortion or age-related surface noise, pops, or crackles and the dialogue from the actors is very clear and precise and especially you can hear all the actors speaking without any hindrances and definitely no distortion. Other sounds like horse’s hooves and thunder sound very realistic. Also outstanding is Laurent Boutonnat’s composed film score and really adds ambience to the film and really helps you to enjoy this audio experience and Laurent Boutonnat should definitely have got some kind of award for his wonderful composed film score music. So all in all, this soundtrack definitely gets a five star rating from me.
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DVD Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Making of ‘GIORGINO’ [1994] [1080i] [1.37:1] [29:57] Here we get an audio commentary in French talking about the making of the film ‘GIORGINO’ and at the same time we get to view rare behind-the-scene filming, especially on location and in the studio setting in Prague. We also get to view some really nice promotional still images from the film. But most outstanding are images the amazing striking black-and-white storyboard illustration images. We also get to see the crew making snow, because they filmed at the height of the summer. Also get to see the make-up department in getting the actors and extras ready for filming and we get to see building being built for the village scenes. We get to view a wonderful scene where a massive amount of trained wolves are let loose in the snow on location. Contributors include: Jean-Pierre Sauvaire [Cinematographer], Laurent Boutonnat [Director/Screenwriter/Producer/Composer], Didier Lavergne [Key Make-up Artist], Pierre Guffroy [Production Designer], Jeff Dahlgren [Giorgio Volli], Louise Fletcher [The innkeeper], Frances Barber [Marie], Joss Ackland [The priest Glaise] and Jean-Pierre Aumont [Sebastien the Doctor]. This was a Heathcliff S.A. Production. Please Note: French language but no English subtitles, but there are some English language but you do get French subtitles.
Theatrical Trailers: Here we get to view three separate trailers for the film ‘GIORGINO’ and they are as follows:
Teaser Trailer [1994] [480i] [1.37:1] [1:03]
Theatrical Trailer [1994] [1080i] [1.37:1] [2:10]
Promotional Theatrical Trailer [1994] [1080i] [1.37:1] [1:44]
Special Feature: Galleries: Here we get to view two separate gallery images from the film ‘GIORGINO’ and they are as follows:
Galleries Photos [1994] [1080i] [1.78:1] [8:24] Here you get to view some amazing images for the film, also behind-the-scene images and close-ups of the cast and crew. It is shown as a running slide show and in the background you get to hear the very atmospheric composed film score by Laurent Boutonnat. Photo images were by Étienne George, Jean-Marie Leroy and Jerry Hanzl.
Premiere Designs of Production [1994] [1080i] [1.78:1] [3:52] Here we get to view some really stunning black-and-white storyboard illustrations relating to the film ‘GIORGINO.’ Once again you get to view the images that are shown as a running slide show and in the background you get to hear the very atmospheric composed film score by Laurent Boutonnat. This was produced by Martina Skala.
PLUS: FIRST PRESSING ONLY: A beautiful luxurious collector’s 50 page booklet featuring new writing on the film. We also get lots of individual articles and they are: Jeff Dahlgren as Doctor Giorgio Volli. Mylène Farmer as Catherine. Laurent Boutonnat as Director/Screenwriter/Producer/Composer. Pierre Guffroy as Production Design. Louise Fletcher as The innkeeper. Jean-Pierre Aumont as Sebastien the Doctor. Joss Ackland as The priest Glaise. Frances Barber as Marie. We also get the PRODUCTION NOTES and PRODUCTION CREDITS. A great selection of stunning rare colour archival imagery from the film. Unfortunately, all the text is in French.
BONUS: You get a special luxurious colourful DVD case that holds the two DVD disc, wonderful colourful booklet and colourful images from the film.
Finally, with this very unusual film ‘GIORGINO,’ how does one summarize this film, as it is simply impossible? That is why you should see it, maybe for the story, very probably for the actors, and above all for the universe and the poetry. This is a sad tale, can be sometimes very dark, but a tale to be told. I personally LOVE this film, especially as it stars the amazing Mylène Farmer, as well a plethora of great British and American actors. By the way, for those of you who are not familiar with French pop culture, this is still worthwhile to see, but just so you know, Mylène Farmer is known as the Madonna of France, which I hate and detest and Laurent Boutonnat made the video clips that spiralled her to fame – very French mini-movies which feature erotic fantasies in a historical setting. Thank you mister Laurent Boutonnat. Although one curiosity about this film, I have never found out is why was it made in English, I could never fathom this out, despite this, I am glad they did, but for the French market, they can if the wanted be able to hear all the actors speak in French. The main reason for purchasing this DVD of ‘GIORGINO,’ is because it starred Mylène Farmer, but even more important, is the fact that this amazing artist actually speaks English, which is such a rare treat. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
