Released by: Severin Films
Released on: November 25th, 2022.
Director: Alain Jessua
Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Victor Lanoux, Nicole Calfan, Fanny Ardant
Year: 1979
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The Dogs – Movie Review:
Writer/director Alain Jessua, the same man who gave us 1973’s Shock Treatment, was behind this 1979 picture that takes place in an affluent suburb located just outside of Paris, France. Here, a beautiful young woman named Elisabeth (Nicole Calfan) is tragically raped and, to protect herself in the future, decides to get herself a guard dog.
Enter a man named Morel (Gérard Depardieu), a charming resident of the community who has been training guard dogs and providing them to local residents for some time now. In fact, Morel has provided guard dogs to pretty much every member of the suburb’s elite. As the story unfolds, however, we, meet the town's new doctor, Henry Ferret (Victor Lanoux), who can’t help but notice that he’s been treating an unusually high number of people who have been bitten by dogs. When Henry treats Elisabeth after her assault, he starts to fall for her but Elisabeth has fallen for Morel.
As the story unfolds, we, along with Henry, soon come to realize that the dogs Morel has been training seem to have a knack for attacking anyone who doesn’t quite fit in with the town’s established norms, be they immigrants, minorities or even troublemaking teens out for a good time. Soon, a few deaths have Henry starting to question what’s really going on here, as Morel seems to be becoming unusually powerful and influential for someone who claims to be just a dog breeder/trainer.
As interesting and thought provoking as it is intense, The Dogs takes a simple concept and morphs into a compelling movie that is part thriller, part social commentary. The movie isn’t always subtle in how it tackles issues like racism and class, but it makes its point in clever ways and never feels like it’s specifically preaching. As such, you get pulled into the story and wind up getting worked up as to how it’s all going to sort itself out. Jessua’s direction is strong here, keeping the pacing deliberate without it ever feeling slow and doing a nice job of exploring the central characters that populate the story.
The performances are also a really big deal here and a huge part of what makes the movie as effective as it is. Gérard Depardieu, in a role that is so far removed from a lot of the goofy comedies he’d go on to make that he almost seems like a different actor, is excellent here. His take on Morel is charismatic, almost like a cult leader at times, and he creates an intriguing and slyly sinister character in the film. The beautiful Nicole Calfan also delivers very strong work, her performance getting quite intense in the second half of the film as she gets closer to her dog and what it represents. Victor Lanoux doesn’t make quite the same impression as the other two but he’s a pretty solid lead and we have no problem buying him in his role. Fanny Ardant, of François Truffaut's Confidentially Yours, also has a small supporting role as a nurse.
As to the film’s production values, the use of sound, particularly the howling and barking of the dogs, can get to be pretty unnerving. The dog attack sequences are unsettling and, at times, genuinely frightening while the cinematography capturing the dimly lit streets at night and the cookie cutter buildings adds to the film’s overall vibe.
The Dogs – Blu-ray Review:
Taken from a brand new 2K scan of the interpositive, the AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer on a 50GB disc, framed at 1.66.1, looks good. Taken from a master supplied by Studio Canal, the picture quality here is really strong. Things look quite nice here. Colors are nicely defined, reproduced with lifelike accuracy, and skin tones look nice and realistic. Black levels are solid and detail is generally quite solid, especially during those scenes that place outside and in the daylight. Compression artifacts aren’t a problem here but it does looks like some noise reduction has been applied as the image is a bit too smooth looking at times.
The only audio option on this disc is e 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track optional subtitles provided in English only. It sounds quite good, nicely balanced and giving more depth to the seriously bizarre soundtrack than you'd probably expect. No problems with any hiss, distortion or sibilance to report and the subtitles are easy to read and free of any noticeable typos.
The disc isn’t stacked with extras but it does have two interesting featurettes, the first of which his Hounds And Music, which interviewers Composer René Koering. In this twenty-six minute feature, he explains how he got into writing for film, initially getting his start creating music for cartoons and commercials before then going on to do feature film work. From there, he talks about working on The Dogs specially, what Jessua was like and some of the quirks that were involved with working with him and how Jessua didn't really care what he thought and very much wanted things done his way. He then talks about what he tried to bring to the score for specific scenes, working with Michel Portal, instruments that were used and thoughts on the cast and the movie overall.
The second featurette is a thirty-four minute interview with Culturopoing Film Critic Emmanuel Le Gagne titled Jessua Lives. He gives an overview of Jessua's career, noting that here quantity is better than quality, discussing his status as a maverick director in his native France. He also goes over biographical details of Jessua's life, how he got his start in the film industry and worked his way up to directing features, some of the themes that his films deal with, when and why he got out of filmmaking and devoted his time to writing novels and more.
Finishing up the extras on the disc is a French language trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options.
The Dogs - The Final Word:
The Dogs is smart, tense and thought provoking, everything a good thriller should be, thanks to some strong direction and really solid performances. Severin’s Blu-ray release looks okay, sounds very good and includes some interesting featurettes that explore the film’s history and that of its director, making this quite a worthwhile pick up for fans.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized The Dogs Blu-ray screen caps!