Eve Blu-ray - Jeanne Moreau (2024)

NOTE:The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.ADDITION: Indicator Blu-ray (September 2020): Indicator have transferred Joseph Losey's Eve (aka "Eva" or "The Devil's Woman") to Blu-ray. It offers a "Brand new 2K scan of Eye Filmmuseum’s photochemical restoration of the longest known version of the film, with optional extended ending version". These are seamlessly-branched in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio and are both titled as "Eve". The Blu-ray also offers "High definition remaster of the original European theatrical release version of Eva and a high definition remaster of the alternative The Devil’s Woman version" These are also seamlessly-branched but in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio.

NOTES: "Losey's original cut, which he submitted to the Venice Film Festival, ran 155 minutes. This version was never shown in public, and no longer exists. The film's producers, Robert and Raymond Hakim, cancelled the Venice screenings, citing possible adverse effects on their French distribution deal. After an unsuccessful private preview of the 155-minute cut in Paris, Jeanne Moreau urged a reluctant Losey to shorten the film. The resulting 135-minute version is the last one that Losey personally approved. However, the Hakims then made more extensive cuts, this time to the original. negative. The version that premiered in Paris ran 116 minutes, and was a critical disaster. Despite this, the versions released commercially as Eva (Europe, 1963) and The Devil's Woman (US, 1964), were even more drastically shortened, with further changes on top. In terms of structure, the 109-minute Eva and the 108-minute The Devil's Woman are broadly similar. This restoration of EVE, by the Nederlands Filmmuseum, reconstructs the original version of the film as intended by director Joseph Losey. This reconstruction contains sequences missing from prior versions and is now the most complete version known to exist. Unfortunately, additional sequences described by Losey are still missing and Finnish and Swedish subtitles could not be removed from two of the newly added scenes ( see two samples below.) The restoration was based on acetate prints held at the National Film and Television Archive (London), the Cineteca Nazionale (Roma) and the Svenska Filminstitutet (Stockholm). The laboratory work, including digital image and sound restoration, was conducted at Haghefilm (Amsterdam) in 2005. The Nederlands Filmmuseum thanks the collaborating archives for their support."

Obviously, in the many versions and restoration reconstruction - there are inconsistencies in the 1080P image quality between and within versions. It, generally, looks very thick - we have the, unavoidable, but brief, burned-in Finnish / Swedish subtitles (see samples below) and some damage (samples below.) The image can be very bright but overall I liked the 1080P presentations. You can't help but appreciate that you are seeing something that has not been in circulation, and that the restoration has done the best job possible, and for that we can forgive much. These are groundbreaking HD presentations for Joseph Losey's Eve (aka "Eva" or "The Devil's Woman".)

NOTE: We have added 70 more large resolutionBlu-raycaptures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver PatronsHERE

On their Blu-ray, Indicator use a DTS-HD Master 1.0 channel mono tracks (24-bit) in the original English language (with some Italian.) Like the video there are a few imperfections but dialogue is reasonably consistent and discernable. The score is by Michel Legrand (Cleo From 5 to 7, Castle Keep, La Piscine, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, America as Seen By a Frenchman, A Woman is a Woman, Ice Station Zebra.) NOTE: in The Devil's Woman, and Losey's own cut, there is a far more dramatic use of Legrand's score as per the filmmaker's original intent. The audio transfers reflect this. The audio is authentically flat, but clear and clean in the 24-bit lossless. Indicator offer optional English (SDH) subtitles for the entire film, the option for just the Italian or none at all on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

The Indicator Blu-ray

Gary Tooze