THE BROKEN MIRROR (1975) & UNQUIET DEATH (1970)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 103 Minutes 58 Seconds (The Broken Mirror), 76 Minutes 39 Seconds (Unquiet Death)
Duration: 103 Minutes 58 Seconds (The Broken Mirror), 76 Minutes 39 Seconds (Unquiet Death)
Audio: French and English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Claude d’Anna
Cast: Max von Sydow, Laure Dechasnel, Micheline Presle, François Arnal, Monique Fluzin, Claire Wauthion
In The Broken Mirror (Trompe l’oeli) (1975) Anne
Director: Claude d’Anna
Cast: Max von Sydow, Laure Dechasnel, Micheline Presle, François Arnal, Monique Fluzin, Claire Wauthion
In The Broken Mirror (Trompe l’oeli) (1975) Anne
Lawrence (Laura Dechasnel) lives in Brussels where she works as a restorer of rare paintings. Anne is newly pregnant and when her mother comes to visit it her it brings back memories from Anne’s past, particularly a time when she went missing for several hours in the city and was later found clutching an enigmatic painting with no memory of where it came from. The painting has a strange hold over Anne, and as she attempts to solve the mystery of the painting's origins a series of bizarre events unfold that make her question her own sanity. She starts to think a new neighbor is keeping watch on her through the windows of her home, she receives a ransom letter in the mail, followed on the streets by an ominous car, mirrors make her uneasy, and her husband (Max von Sydow, The Exorcist) begins to not unrightfully worry about her health and fragile state of mind.
The Broken Mirror is a dense slice of Gothic fantasy steeped in odd melancholic atmosphere and paranoia, lines of reality are deliberately blurred, and it makes for quite an engrossing if at times befuddling bit of arthouse that moves at a snail's pace, though it certainly picks up in the final stretch. If you have a fondness for austere cracked-reality enigmas like Symptoms (1974) I think you will find this to your liking, especially if you're a fan of Roman Polanski stuff like The Tenant, Rosemary's Baby and Repulsion, all of which loom heavily as influences.
The second half of this Claude d’Anna double-feature is Unquiet Death (La mort trouble) (1970), which was co-written and co-directed by and Férid Boughedir. This is a much more experimental and surreal film, it starts off with three sisters visiting their uncle on his island home when he unexpectedly dies. They now find themselves alone with their late uncle’s manservant as they attempt to make arrangement for transport off the island for a proper burial on consecrated ground, but some sort of undefined, perhaps cataclysmic event, prevents them from leaving. Now trapped on the island the women find themselves at the mercy of the increasingly cruel manservant who puts them through a series of degrading and humiliating interactions. If you told me to imagine an French arthouse apocalypse film about three women and a man trapped on an island this is sort of what I would have imagined it would be sight unseen, an art-damaged oddity that attempts to explore the lines of gender, racial, and class tensions with an absurdist edge to it that in all honesty didn't do much for me. While I didn't for Unquiet Death I think that The Broken Mirror is quite a cracked-psyche gem and well worth owning.
The second half of this Claude d’Anna double-feature is Unquiet Death (La mort trouble) (1970), which was co-written and co-directed by and Férid Boughedir. This is a much more experimental and surreal film, it starts off with three sisters visiting their uncle on his island home when he unexpectedly dies. They now find themselves alone with their late uncle’s manservant as they attempt to make arrangement for transport off the island for a proper burial on consecrated ground, but some sort of undefined, perhaps cataclysmic event, prevents them from leaving. Now trapped on the island the women find themselves at the mercy of the increasingly cruel manservant who puts them through a series of degrading and humiliating interactions. If you told me to imagine an French arthouse apocalypse film about three women and a man trapped on an island this is sort of what I would have imagined it would be sight unseen, an art-damaged oddity that attempts to explore the lines of gender, racial, and class tensions with an absurdist edge to it that in all honesty didn't do much for me. While I didn't for Unquiet Death I think that The Broken Mirror is quite a cracked-psyche gem and well worth owning.
Audio/Video: Both films arrive on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro in 1080p HD widescreen (1.66:1) and looks terrific; the sources are in great shape with organic looking grain structures, pleasing colors an black levels, and good depth and contrast. Audio on The Broken Mirror comes by way of original French or English-dub DTS-HD MA mono while Unquiet Death only has French DTS-HD MA mono. We also get optional English subtitles for both films. The tracks are i great shape and are free of hiss or distortion, dialogue is rendered clean, the mixes are well-balanced.
Special Features:
- The Secret of the Illusion - Interview with co-writer/director Claude d’Anna (31:32)
- Interview with actress/co-writer Laure Dechasnel (14:22)
- Produced By profile of editor and producer Gust Verren (5:15)
- Rappels (Curtain Call) Short Film by Claude d’Anna (7:21)
- Possessed by Cinema: Claude d’Anna on Unquiet Death Interview (30:33)
- Unquiet Dead -Conversation with Férid Boughedir & Luca Balbo (33:47)
