Mortelle Randonnee

Rating:
Summary: Excellent film, flawed DVD
Review: Mortelle randonnée is a better and more subtle film than some reviewers have suggested, and is certainly more worth watching than the Ewan McGregor version of Marc Behm's novel The Eye of the Beholder.

The problem with this DVD, however, is that it is a cut version of the original European theatrical and broadcast versions, with several sequences missing and other sequences trimmed: about 12 minutes are missing, I'd guess. (This is the first time I've come across a DVD that supplies less than the theatrical release, but I suppose it happens all the time.) The biggest cut is the murder of the man at Baden Baden: other cuts include references to that murder, including a very important tv news report on the murderess, with more information on her past. Also missing is a montage of crimes carried out with the hitchhiker she picks up, and -- crucially -- a shot at the end of the film showing the Eye's daughter's gravestone, with name and dates.

Don't let these caveats put you off: Mortelle Randonnée is superb, with Adjani and Serrault (actors I can't stand, incidentally) both excellent. Lively cameos from Jean-Claude Brialy and, especially, the first actress I ever thought of as beautiful, Stéphane Audran, here playing a 'remarkably ugly' woman. France's bleak industrial landscapes are also, thanks to Pierre Lhomme's cinematography, remarkably ugly in this film, especially set against the picturesque rendering of Brussels, Rome and the Midi.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent film, flawed DVD
Review: Mortelle randonnée is a better and more subtle film than some reviewers have suggested, and is certainly more worth watching than the Ewan McGregor version of Marc Behm's novel The Eye of the Beholder.

The problem with this DVD, however, is that it is a cut version of the original European theatrical and broadcast versions, with several sequences missing and other sequences trimmed: about 12 minutes are missing, I'd guess. (This is the first time I've come across a DVD that supplies less than the theatrical release, but I suppose it happens all the time.) The biggest cut is the murder of the man at Baden Baden: other cuts include references to that murder, including a very important tv news report on the murderess, with more information on her past. Also missing is a montage of crimes carried out with the hitchhiker she picks up, and -- crucially -- a shot at the end of the film showing the Eye's daughter's gravestone, with name and dates.

Don't let these caveats put you off: Mortelle Randonnée is superb, with Adjani and Serrault (actors I can't stand, incidentally) both excellent. Lively cameos from Jean-Claude Brialy and, especially, the first actress I ever thought of as beautiful, Stéphane Audran, here playing a 'remarkably ugly' woman. France's bleak industrial landscapes are also, thanks to Pierre Lhomme's cinematography, remarkably ugly in this film, especially set against the picturesque rendering of Brussels, Rome and the Midi.

Rating:
Summary: Wildly over-rated, incredibly disappointing
Review: There's a great film struggling to get out of 'Mortelle Randonnée' (aka 'Deadly Run'). Unfortunately, it's Emil Jannings' 'The Last Laugh,' the plot of which the anti-heroine steals as an imaginary childhood for one of her false identities when she catches a glimpse of it on TV (the film is silent and the lover she tells the story to is blind). The scene underlines the movie's big problem - some clever ideas that just don't pay off.

The rave review on the cover from Time Out's Geoff Andrew - never one to let the facts get in the way of a good quote - should have been the giveaway: 'Mortelle Randonnée' isn't half as good as it thinks it is. Sadly, it isn't even much of an improvement over many a straight-to-tape cable filler. The premise is good: Michel Serrault's emotionally damaged private investigator covers up the serial murders of an even more damaged young woman he convinces himself is his long-dead daughter. Unfortunately, the tone and execution are not. As the broad score makes abundantly clear, this is a clumsy black comedy which only thinks it is subtle. Serrault has his moments but seems hell-bent on undermining his performance with inappropriate and self-indulgent moments of playing to the gallery while an uninspired Adjani is just a vacuum: she may be meant to have no true identity, but surely she's not meant to be so overwhelmingly bland? Both have been much better before and since.

Things do improve in the last third with some intriguing moments that, once again, never really pay off - a shame because the final scene is genuinely impressive and could have been so much more had there been some emotional link to the characters. But sadly, the much-criticised remake, 'Eye of the Beholder,' is actually a much better bet despite a miscast Ewan McGregor (too young for the central conceit to work but good nonetheless), and if you're intrigued by the premise is the one to go for. If only this version had been as good as it thinks it is...

The transfer is okay, although blacks are a little soft. Extras are limited to filmographies and a very, very brief trailer.

Rating:
Summary: 20 ans que J'appelle au secours et persone n'est jamais venu
Review: There's a great film struggling to get out of 'Mortelle Randonnée' (aka 'Deadly Run'). Unfortunately, it's Emil Jannings' 'The Last Laugh,' the plot of which the anti-heroine steals as an imaginary childhood for one of her false identities when she catches a glimpse of it on TV (the film is silent and the lover she tells the story to is blind). The scene underlines the movie's big problem - some clever ideas that just don't pay off.

The rave review on the cover from Time Out's Geoff Andrew - never one to let the facts get in the way of a good quote - should have been the giveaway: 'Mortelle Randonnée' isn't half as good as it thinks it is. Sadly, it isn't even much of an improvement over many a straight-to-tape cable filler. The premise is good: Michel Serrault's emotionally damaged private investigator covers up the serial murders of an even more damaged young woman he convinces himself is his long-dead daughter. Unfortunately, the tone and execution are not. As the broad score makes abundantly clear, this is a clumsy black comedy which only thinks it is subtle. Serrault has his moments but seems hell-bent on undermining his performance with inappropriate and self-indulgent moments of playing to the gallery while an uninspired Adjani is just a vacuum: she may be meant to have no true identity, but surely she's not meant to be so overwhelmingly bland? Both have been much better before and since.

Things do improve in the last third with some intriguing moments that, once again, never really pay off - a shame because the final scene is genuinely impressive and could have been so much more had there been some emotional link to the characters. But sadly, the much-criticised remake, 'Eye of the Beholder,' is actually a much better bet despite a miscast Ewan McGregor (too young for the central conceit to work but good nonetheless), and if you're intrigued by the premise is the one to go for. If only this version had been as good as it thinks it is...

The transfer is okay, although blacks are a little soft. Extras are limited to filmographies and a very, very brief trailer.

Rating:
Summary: 24 Minutes are missing
Review: Too bad that 24 minutes from this outherwise phantastic movie are missing!
I was searching for a DVD version of it for years.
Michel Serrault and Isabelle Adjani are great and this is maybe their best movie!
Dont buy this DVD, as important scenes are missing making the movie and the characters difficult to understand, wait for the real complete version.