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Intruder (The) AKA L'Intrus
R0 - United Kingdom - Tartan Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Shahir Daud (20th March 2006). |
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The Film
 Claire Denis‘ The Intruder certainly has an ‘emperor’s new clothes’ feel to it. Unabashedly aloof, perplexingly mysterious, The Intruder shifts and even evades storylines while purging others into new barely liminal strands. It’s been hailed by critics as a gorgeous meditative piece of cinema, and while it certainly has more than its fair share of intriguing ideas, its evasiveness may eventually prove too frustrating. Louis (Michel Subor) is facing heart problems, and abandons his idyllic countryside life, where his only companions are his dogs and a loveless affair with his pharmacist (Bambou). Using his seemingly endless wealth he acquires a new heart on the black market, and gains a new lease on life. He travels to Korea to have a boat made to give to a son he fathered and abandoned years earlier in Tahiti, before finally returning to the Polynesian Island to re-unite with him. Writing a synopsis for The Intruder makes the narrative seem far more accessible than it actually is. Shifting between memory, flashback, flash forward and perhaps even fantasy, Claire Denis imbues Louis search with an impending sense of despair, detachment and most poignantly, a disarming solipsistic outlook. Louis is a father who loves without consequence, abandons without remorse and fails to even acknowledge his own pain (both physical and psychological). His creasy eyes, now reddened at the pupils and tainted with yellow spots squint uneasily over his son, Sidney (Gregoire Colin), who himself is now a father. He casually dismisses Sidney with money, after insisting he is skint, before taking a croissant, and barely acknowledging his two grandchildren. Yet, after purchasing his new heart, he goes out in search of a long lost son, fathered somewhere in Tahiti, a remnant perhaps of his younger carefree days as a sailor. Denis never allows him the redemption of reconciliation and Louis instead finds himself finally suffering, while his mind wanders at the possibility of where his heart came from. The link between donor and receiver is subject matter often tackled, from the comedic; Denzel Washington teams up with Bob Hoskins in Heart Condition (1990) to the more sombre quest of Sean Penn‘s Paul Rivers in 21 Grams (2003). The prospect is of course, rife with existential questions; what really happens when the heart of one man is transplanted into the body of another? For Louis, the questions are less about identity than they are about connection. The intruder of the title is more than Louis’ new heart, but also his callous belief of his own inconsequentiality. He literally kills an intruder at his house then wipes the blade off before returning to his lovers arms without a second thought. When he returns to Tahiti, his memories of his sojourn seem to recall not only Marlon Brando‘s retreat to the islands, but also painter Paul Gauguin‘s impressionistic paintings of island women, exotic and nurturing; a temporary home for the traveller. Agnes Godard‘s gorgeous cinematography keeps The Intruder from slipping into pretentious rambling. Her roving camera, frantically shifting interests recalls Christopher Doyle‘s earlier work with Wong Kar-Wai, and even her most frenetic moments have an inspired beauty to them. Comparatively The Intruder follows the style of the final third of Oliver Assayas‘ Demonlover (2002) which again, despite its pretensions, and incomprehensibility, was haunting enough to return to again and again. The Intruder is perhaps simpler than Assayas’ film, but is pieced together compellingly enough to make it linger in the mind far long after the credits have rolled.
Video
The film is presented in the film’s original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this anamorphic transfer is quite good considering some few issues that stop from getting top marks. Although the image is generally sharp and color are vivid and well rendered especially skin tones, black levels and shadow detail is excellent however we have what a lot of Tartan titles seem to suffer from, edge enhancement is evident in several scenes, there are also compression artefacts that pop up throughout this transfer, why risk this for a DTS track? If Tartan had dropped the DTs track they would not have to worry about the compression issue. This is something that puzzles me quite often, Tartan has come so close yet they are so far away.
Audio
Three French audio tracks are included on this release, we have a DTS 5.1 surround track as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS 5.1 track, I found this track to be very good. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, however there isn’t a lot of dialogue in this film, the film has many quiet moments and also many moments where all you hear are natural atmospheric surrounds which are mixed well into this sound space, the music as well is a key point in the storytelling and that too is rendered quite beautifully. Now although this track is quite good, I’m disappointed that it makes its appearance on this disc at the determent of the image. Optional subtitles are included in English.
Extras
First up we have a director’s interview with Claire Denis, which runs for 36 minutes. In this interview conducted in English, the filmmaker discusses how she develops characters, her interest in the book and her translation of that book to the big screen. She also talks about her admiration for actor Michel Subor, she also covers story elements, filming in South Korea as well as the Pacific, an interesting note is her use of locations to evoke emotion. Denis looks at the complexity of the main character’s relationship with his estranged son and the excellent music used in the film. Overall it’s a very concise interview that covers a vast amount of information and provides for a well produced supplement that compliments the film. Next up is the film’s original theatrical trailer that runs for 1 minute 30 seconds, also included on the disc is a series of bonus trailers that are for: - Vital which runs for 58 seconds. - Sky Blue which runs for 1 minute 55 seconds. - Torremolinos 73 which runs for 1 minute 18 seconds. - The Heart id Deceitful Above all Things which runs for 2 minutes 12 seconds. Rounding out the disc’s extras is a booklet that features an essay.
Overall
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