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Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: June 8th, 2021.
Director: Philippe de Broca
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacqueline Bisset, Vittorio Caprioli, Hans Meyer, Monique Tarbí¨s
Year: 1973
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Le Magnifique - Movie Review:
Philippe de Broca's 1973 film, Le Magnifique (also known as The Man From Acapulco), opens with a scene where a man makes a phone call from a phone booth. A crane grabs the booth from the top, it's attached to a helicopter and the booth, with the man still inside, is whisked off the coast and dropped into the ocean. Here a team of scuba divers attach the opening of a cage, containing a shark, to the opening of the phone booth and the man is quickly devoured. It's a ridiculous way to open a ridiculous movie, and it does a perfect job of setting the stage for what's to come.
From there we meet Bob Saint-Clar (Jean-Paul Belmondo), one of the world's toughest - and most dashing - secret agents. He's a man of action and a hit with the ladies, particularly the beautiful Tatiana (Jaqueline Bisset). He saves her from the horrible Karpof (Vittorio Caprioli) and together they slaughter countless bad guys… until a woman struts across the beach with a vacuum cleaner. This transitions us into the real world where we meet Franí§ois Merlin (Belmondo again), a pulp fiction writer how occasionally gets lost in his own imagination.
Franí§ois's apartment is a mess, his marriage ended in divorce and when his son comes over for lunch he doesn't have much food to make. He asks for an advance from his publisher (Caprioli again) and can't help but fall for his beautiful new neighbor, a college student named Christine (Bisset again). When Franí§ois decides it's time to get rid of Bob Saint-Clar for good, things start to change as the personalities of the writer and his creation start to meld.
This movie is a blast. Belmondo is perfectly cast in both roles, clearly having a blast playing Saint-Clar and really throwing himself into the over the top nature of these scenes, and handling the more subtle humor and moments of genuine drama in the 'real world' scenes just as well. He and Jaqueline Bisset, who looks gorgeous here, have a really solid chemistry together. They look great together and she's also really good in both the fantasy sequences, where her character is constantly throwing herself at Saint-Clar or needing to be rescued by him, and in the 'real world' sequences where she's much more in control.
Philippe de Broca keeps the pace of the movie going at a good clip and isn't afraid to really go for it, creating some wonderfully ridiculous set pieces but also managing to infuse the film with some tenderness and very believable, human characters. Production values are solid as well, as we get some really strong cinematography as well as a nice score to help keep things moving along nicely. The end result is a ridiculously charming movie that is pretty much non-stop entertaining from start to finish.
Le Magnifique - Blu-ray Review:
Le Magnifique arrives on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.66.1 widescreen taking up 31GBs of space on a 50GB disc. Taken from a master supplied by Studio Canal, it looks quite good despite some light digitization that's noticeable in spots, such as some minor edge enhancement and some minor, but occasionally obvious, noise reduction. Overall though, detail is okay and the image is free of any noticeable print damage, it's remarkably clean. Some of the film grain you'd expect to see has been lightly scrubbed, but colors are reproduced nicely and we get good black levels as well.
The 16-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono tracks are provided in English and French with optional subtitles translating the French dialogue. Both tracks sound very good. You can really make out the different instruments used in the music which helps with both the comedic scenes and action set pieces. Dialogue stays clean and clear throughout and the track is nicely balanced. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion to note, nor is there any audible sibilance.
Extras start off with a new audio commentary by Film Historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson that is quite good. They cover how a lot of the films that Philippe de Broca and Jean-Paul Belmondo tend to subvert genre conventions, the use of very broad comedy in this picture, how well so many of the gags work, comparisons to Belmondo's work here to some of Jerry Lewis' work, the way that the story evolves by gradually letting us spend more and more time in the 'real world,' some of the stunt work featured in the picture, the importance of Jacqueline Bisset's work in the picture and how so many viewers who saw her in Bullet and Casino Royale fell in love with her, the way that both leads do a great job of playing the fantasy characters as well as the real characters, the over the top violence and body count of the beach massacre scene, comparisons to the work of Blake Edwards, some of the themes that the movie plays with, the way that Belmondo's pulp writer character is played compared to how a lot of real pulp and comic book writers lived, the film's score and lots more. It's well-researched and enjoyably conversational in nature, these guys are having a lot of fun watching the movie together but also do a nice job of dissecting the film and getting to the heart of what makes it as enjoyable a film as it is.
Aside from that, we get a trailer for the feature, bonus trailers for Cartouche, Leon Morin Priest, Le Doulos, Le Professionnel, The Outsider, The Mephisto Waltz, The Greek Tycoon and Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills as well as menus and chapter selection options.
Le Magnifique - The Final Word:
Le Magnifique is a legitimately great film, just so much fun to watch. The fantasy sequences are hilarious and the 'real world' moments also very funny, but in a different way. Belmondo and Bisset are both great in their lead roles and the supporting cast are really strong too. Kino's Blu-ray looks decent if not reference quality and the commentary is very good. Highly recommended!
Click on the images below for full sized Le Magnifique Blu-ray screen caps!
