In The French Style

Released by: Twilight Time
Released on: April 12, 2016
Directed by: Robert Parrish
Cast: Jean Seberg, Stanley Baker, Philipe Forquet, Addison Powell, Jack Hedley, Maurice Teynac, James Leo Herlihey
Year: 1963
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The Movie:

Christina James (Jean Seberg) is a young and beautiful American student who has gone to Paris, France to study art. While there, she meets and falls in love with another young student, Guy (a miscast and much-too-old Philippe Forquet). Guy is both argumentative and jealous, and Christina's relationship with him is heated but passionate—until she discovers that he's only 16 years old. During one of their many arguments, Guy warns Christina that if she doesn't watch herself, she's going to become like every other American girl in Paris, a plaything of men who want nothing more from her than her innocence and sexuality. The two break it off, and Christina devolves into the very behavior Guy predicted, until she meets a British journalist, Walter Beddoes (Stanley Baker). The two begin an affair, but the deep feelings Christina feels are not returned, and Walter is frequently called away. Meanwhile, Christina's father (Addison Powell) pays her a visit and tells her much the same thing that Guy had told her. Finally, while Walter is away on one of his many trips, Christina begins to date and later agrees to marry an American doctor, John Haislip (James Leo Herlihey), though she still harbors feelings for Walter, as he does for her.

In the French Style is a problematic film. On the one hand, it deals frankly with the sexuality of an American girl living abroad at a time when cinema was just beginning to crack open the door on such previously taboo subjects. On the other, it's handled pretty poorly, despite some nice location shooting (from cinematographer Michel Kelber). The dialogue waxes between philosophical to the soap operatic and back again, and while some of the actors can pull off the required emotional resonance, others cannot. Adding to the issues is the fact that writer Irwin Shaw adapted his own short stories, two of them to be exact, but didn't quite understand how best to meld them into a single cohesive whole. Instead, the film comes across as disjointed, with Christina's relationship with Guy feeling like one story; her subsequent affairs and relationship with Walter another. Much of the dialogue comes across as stilted and unbelievable (check out the too-sexually-frank discussion between father and daughter that occurs late in the film), and the performances feature a wide range: Seberg is okay, Baker is excellent, and Forquet is terrible.

Unfortunately, Robert Parrish was not the director to bring these woefully disparate elements together. One would have thought that, having begun his career as an actor, Parrish would have been just the person to coax good performances from usually reliable performers, but he seems too taken with the sights of Paris; rather than making Paris an integral part of the narrative, a character rather than a backdrop, he instead prefers to treat parts of the movie like a travelogue. The location shots are gorgeous, no doubt about it, but they seem distinct from rather than a foundation for the narrative.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Twilight Time has released Sony/Columbia's In the French Style on a dual-layered BD50 disc in 1080p high definition with an MPEG-4 AVC encode. The anamorphic image is presented in the film's original 1.66:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The film's black and white photography benefits from the higher resolution, with detail often striking and beautiful. Black levels are generally quite nice, with only a few instances in which the grain becomes blown out; more often than not, it appears perfectly natural, providing a nice foundation for the images. The only exceptions to the air of visual perfection are the occasional optical effects, but the issues there are both understandable and easy to forgive. Twilight Time should be proud of this release, and fans of the film should be happy.

For the film's primary track, Twilight Time has opted for DTS-HD Master Audio Mono, which is free of hiss or blemishes and is otherwise clean. The film is driven by its dialogue, and its score is mostly of the accentuating type, but TT offers that score on a separate track nonetheless (with occasional sound effects, though these are minimal and do not generally interfere with the music) in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Dialogue is clear, and subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired are included as an option for those with hearing problems. A third track includes an audio commentary from film historians Julie Kirgo and Lem Dobbs, with Nick Redman acting as moderator (a role he performs well). The trio do not shy away from discussing the film's many issues, though they do so with a certain degree of affection. (One of the more interesting anecdotes they discuss is Forquet's engagement to talented but doomed actress Sharon Tate.)

Extras are sparse but do include the film's original theatrical trailer (running 2:11) and an 8-page booklet containing 4 pages of liner notes by Kirgo. To say that it's an interesting read is an understatement, as Kirgo is as much aware of the film's problems as she is its virtues. She says of Shaw's dislike of previous cinematic adaptations of his work: “The Young Lions—another Twilight Time release—and Two Weeks in Another Town strike this writer as adaptations both fine and faithful.” And she is, as usual, correct. In fact, in adapting his own work, Shaw does it a disservice, but that is discussed in greater detail above.

The Final Word:

In the French Style is a charmingly labored production, a beautifully photographed but ultimately cold affair, with dialogue more at home in an early 1950s melodrama than applied to the more sexually free nature of its story and setting. Twilight Time has done right by the film, offering a sterling transfer in hi-def. It's visually striking, with a nice aural presentation to boot. Extras are sparse, but the commentary is fun and informative, a combination that's hard to beat.

Christopher Workman is a freelance writer, film critic, and co-author (with Troy Howarth) of the Tome of Terror horror film review series. Volume 2 of that series (covering the 1930s), is currently available, with Volume 1 (covering the silent era) due out later this year.

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