THE CRIMSON RIVERS
(Les Rivières Pourpres)

With Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel, Nadia Fares
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz

Man, this is like a totally different movie experience on DVD than video! For one, it isn't dubbed - even the best translated and read overdubbed soundtrack remains flawed - and this one's English version was far from superior. The actors' expression and tone in their mother tongue is far more convincing in the actual moment. Without their real voices, their performances can fall flat, and the actors in this piece, especially Cassel (Dobermann) and Reno (Big Blue) outdo themselves. If you're a slow reader and think you may have missed something - hey, it's DVD, rewind or watch it again! This special 2 disc edition contains the film - dealing with a serial killer investigator and tough cop whose seemingly separate investigations lead to a gruesome and awesome discovery in a snowy mountain village dominated by a university, its professors and students priding themselves in its tradition and excellence. The clues, grisly discoveries and leads all take you on an amazing investigative journey, puzzling together a crazy scenario. The documentary on the second disc with contributions from cast and crew, plus a host of featurettes ranging from special FX to storyboarding pulls you even deeper into the tale, exposing things you may have missed, enlightening and expanding the film's scope where you would've otherwise missed it. A multi-angle featurette places you in charge of the shot selection. The piece on the making of the opening absolutely realistic first corpse is absolutely jaw-dropping. Cast & crew filmographies, the marketing campaign and trailers can also be accessed. There is a director and cast commentary track (subtitled for us French illiterates) highlighting many interesting facts, while the soundtrack can also be isolated with commentary by the composer of the amazing score. Even the inlay contains a printed interview with director Kassovitz.
After you absorbed all of the DVD features you'll feel that there's a far better understanding of the entire process and passion behind the project with all of its hitches, pros, cons and various takes on the material by the individuals involved - something which would've been lost had you only experienced the dubbed video version which is anyway cropped to pan & scan instead of the originally intended sumptuous widescreen format always neglected on the video releases. If you have to, you can pick an English soundtrack, or Spanish if you so choose, while there are about two dozen different languages to pick from if you prefer the original soundtrack with subtitles.

4 / B
- PB