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Released by: Dekanalog
Released on: December 28th, 2021.
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Benoí®t Poelvoorde, Grégoire Ludig, Marc Fraize, Anaí¯s Demoustier
Year: 2018
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Keep An Eye Out - Movie Review:
Written and directed by French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux, 2018's Keep An Eye Out (or Au Poste! in its homeland) stars Benoit Poelvoorde as Commissaire Buran, the cop in charge of finding out what Fugain (Grégoire Ludig) knows about the body that he discovered lying dead outside of his apartment. Buran smokes constantly, and he even has a chimney of sorts in the hole that is in his stomach. He exhales through this hole, it's very strange. Because Fugain, who was having a typically lousy day that involved a whole lot more trips to the elevator than he probably wanted, did not call the police immediately upon finding the corpse, Buran figures there is very likely more to his story than simply having the bad luck of stumbling across a corpse.
While Buran is bound and determined to get a confession out of Fugain, the man who has found himself a suspect in a murder case has no clue what exactly it is that he's being accused of, or why he's being accused of it for that matter. When Buran becomes too distracted by his own personal issues to give the case the attention it merits, he puts his one-eyed associated, Philippe (Marc Fraize), in his place to continue to put the screws to and increasingly frustrated Fugain, who wants nothing more than to be done with this so that he can simply go back home. Philippe, still a bit of a rookie having been on the force only a few months, really likes his badge.
Not in the least bit concerned with logic, the film opens with a scene of a man in his bright red briefs conducting a full orchestra only to run for it when the cops show up and put a stop to his nonsense. It's a funny scene, one that you can't help but snicker at, and its sets the tone for the bizarre comedy to come. And while comedy, more than almost any other genre, is super subjective, most of what Dupieux puts up on the screen here is pretty funny, at least if you have a taste for the absurd and don't need your comedy to come spoon fed in a traditional manner, and maybe not in the way you expect it to be. This isn't a movie full of gut-busting laughs, it's the sort of funny that sticks in your head. Things are a little slow in the first twenty minutes or so of the picture but once that setup is out of the way, Keep An Eye Out keeps things both amusing and interesting right up until the end credits.
The performances in the brisk picture are pretty solid. Benoit Poelvoorde, from Man Bites Dog, is great as the top cop in charge of the investigation and Marc Fraize just as good as his younger counterpart. Grégoire Ludig is also effectively quirky in his role as the suspect. All three performances suit the mood of the movie really well.
Keep An Eye Out - Blu-ray Review:
Dekanalog brings Keep An Eye Out to region A Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer taking up 20.7GBS of space on the 25GB disc and framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. No qualms with the picture quality here, the digitally lensed feature looks very strong. The movie has a very seventies-inspired color scheme, heavy on earth tones, beiges and browns, but it's reproduced nicely and detail is pretty solid throughout the picture. Black levels are strong and there are no noticeable issues with compression to note.
The 24-bit DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track, in the film's native French, sounds really solid. Most of the film is pretty dialogue heavy, there isn't a lot of action here, but the score and sometimes some discrete effects work are spread out very effectively. The track is balanced and clean and the option English subtitles are easy to read and free of any obvious typos.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary with director Quentin Dupieux, in French with English subtitles. He gives credit to all of the people that he worked with on the film, notes the influence of Monty Python on the film's absurd opening scene, he goes over the shooting schedule, which scenes he likes better than others, trying to find the 'right' humor for the movie, how the more trivial scenes can be harder to shoot than the important ones, the complexity of the dialogue in some of the scenes and lots more.
Finishing up the extras is twelve minutes of rehearsal footage, a very quick twent-three second y make-up FX test, a theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection options.
As far as the packaging goes, this release comes with a color insert booklet that contains interviews with Quentin Dupieux, Benoit Poelvoorde and Grégoire Ludig as well as a reproduction of a letter that ties into the movie. The reverse side of the cover art features some nice artwork as well as credits for the release.
Keep An Eye Out - The Final Word:
A deliberately, and effectively, weird movie, Keep An Eye Out takes a little bit of time to hit its stride but it proves to be as funny as it is absurd once it does. The Blu-ray release from Dekanalog gives the film a very nice presentation and throws in a few nice extra features to sweeten the pot. All in all, a fine release for an enjoyably bizarre film.
Click on the images below for full sized The Keep An Eye Out Blu-ray screen caps!
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