The Apartment
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.31 You Save: $5.67 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.41 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Apartment
Movie Review: A masterpiece that was the basis for disaster...
Summary: 4 Stars
L'Appartment is truly a French movie worth watching and one of those films that should never have been remade made into an "English" equivalent.
The acting from the principle characters are superb (Bohringer, Cassel, and Bellucci). I will agree with the others of the Hitchcock-esque, it's one of those movies where you should pay attention so as not to miss the most minute detail.
I'm not able to comment on the DVD quality since I've got a bootleg. :o)
As for it's American counterpart, Wicker Park, treat it like the plague and watch the original version because Harnett is no Cassel, by any stretch of imagination.
Movie Review: it's the characters, not the story
Summary: 4 Stars
Most of the time it seems I will rent a movie for the actors. If I like the actor, I usually like the movie. And I need to care about the characters. If I don't care for the characters, I don't care for the movie. I rented this because Monica Bellucci was in it, but what made my day was Romaine Bohringer. She's not a household name over here, but, let's just say, I like her a lot.Movie Review: review of The Apartment
Summary: 4 Stars
I buy films for the local Alliance Francaise, and this is one of them. The U.S. film Wicker Park was based on this film. Neither is all that great, but I liked The Apartment better because it has more nudity, specifically more of Romane Bohringer. The very beautiful Monica Bellucci is also nude, but we don't get to see anything.Movie Review: Movie = 5 stars, DVD = 2 stars
Summary: 3 Stars
As always, people don't pay attention to what amazon wants - which is reviews of the PRODUCT - FOCUS YOUR COMMENTS ON THE PRODUCT. I guess people just can't read.
L'Appartement is a terrific film, one of the best French films in the last two decades. Sadly, American films these days can't touch it, although, naturally, they tried by remaking this marvelous film as the horrid Wicker Park - of course, they changed everything about it that worked.
It's great to finally have this available in the US. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's released by Lion's Gate, who should just fold up their tent and go away. They are simply the worst company releasing DVDs. The image isn't anything to write home about, but it's the subtitling that's disgusting. Instead of proper subs, we get subtitles for the hard of hearing, complete with descriptions (children playing) and subtitles for the lyrics of an AMERICAN song. Pathetic. It's great to have separate subs for the hard of hearing IF they have regular subs for those who aren't hard of hearing.
Lion's Gate should hang their head in shame, but they won't because they simply don't give a whit about their product or their customers.
Movie Review: Not much of a bargain
Summary: 2 Stars
I'd been kind of hemming and hawing for years about whether to pick up the French DVD of this; it's been out of print for a while and it's a little pricey. Somehow I missed the news that this had finally gotten a DVD release in the U.S., so when I stumbled on it in a store for about $10 I snatched it up without a second thought. That'll show me.
The transfer is not so hot, as others have said. The movie sort of looks as though it's been shot using diffusion filters, but in actual fact there are other DVD releases of this movie that have plenty of detail and sharpness, so something seems to be off here. It's not the worst-looking or -sounding DVD version of this movie out there, but it's far from the best.
What really drove me up the wall, though, were the English subtitles. I don't know if it's a Lionsgate thing or what, but this is the second foreign-language film of theirs I've gotten that has something wonky in that department. Their 'High Tension' DVD had subtitles that matched the dubbed dialogue instead of the French, and 'The Apartment' has a hearing-impaired subtitle track as the only option. Not only do you get the dialogue translated for you, but (English) song lyrics and prominent sound effects are described in text. Subtitles like this are a great option to have if you need them, but if you don't it gets maddening to see "[knock on door]," "[clatter]," "[car engine starts]" and every other thing you can imagine popping up onscreen every couple of minutes. I'll just be doing what I should have done in the first place and picking up the French disc.