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Some of the best elements of Jan Kounen’s real-life love affair tale are the cinematography, production design and costumes. They are exquisitely represented in this Blu-ray. Coco Chanel’s monochromatic style is rich with deep blacks and pearly whites. In 1080p, the picture is crisp and detailed, while retaining the original film grain feel. When splashes of color are introduced, the picture quality remains firm and rich within the cool ascetic the film is trying to create.

As for the soundtrack, the disc is presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless. Even though this is a quiet drama, the soundscape is filled with the noises of the environments. Claps and jeers fill the room during Stravinsky’s disastrous first performance of “The Rites of Spring.” The sounds of the woods fill the outdoor scenes at the estate. Stravinsky’s bombastic music moves the LFE track. All the elements from dialogue to sound effects to music are perfectly balanced.

Sadly, the special features on the disk include only one making-of documentary. However, it is an intriguing one. It’s definitely not your standard talking heads featurette. The mini-doc focuses on the director working out the characters with his leads Mads Mikkelsen and Anna Mouglalis. A good deal of time is actually spent on how to handle the film’s many full nude sex scenes. I found it very interesting how Kounen dances around calling the film erotic. As one will see Mikkelsen is more direct about the &*%%&.

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This drama might have not been planned as a sequel to the Audrey Tautou film, COCO BEFORE CHANEL, but it works as one. The story of this film picks up pretty much where the other film left off. This film doesn’t have the same ambition or storytelling sophistication, but it does tell a compelling story of a sexual affair where the woman holds all the cards.

The film begins in detail with the disastrous first performance of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” A producer tells Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen, CASINO ROYALE) that the work is too modern for those use to “Swan Lake.” The famed fashion designer Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis, THE CAPTIVE) was one of the few in the audience who saw it as a new masterpiece. The work stuck with her so strongly that years later when she meet the composer again, she offered to be his sponsor. So Stravinsky, his sick wife Katarina (Yelena Morozova) and their brood of children moved into Chanel’s country estate with her. Right from the start, Mrs. Stravinsky knew that their benefactor had more than just an interest in music.
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The king of all movie monsters

The king of all movie monsters comes to Blu-ray this week. Superheroes, real life artists, war and other indie fare grace this week’s column as well.
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Rest assured, WALL STREET fans have nothing to fear, this film does not taint the original. Oliver Stone does what successful sequels all do — build on the chapters that came before. While this critique of Wall Street is not as cutting as the 1987 film, it does have something to say about the current U.S. financial environment.

Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, ROMANCING THE STONE), the ruthless trader from the original, has been released from jail after serving eight years for insider trading. It’s 2008 and he has written a book that reveals the precarious footing the financial system is on. Wall Street big wigs just ignore him. But he does draw the attention of young hotshot broker Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf, TRANSFORMERS), who just happens to be engaged to Gekko’s estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION). Jake wants Gekko’s help digging up info on billionaire broker Bretton James (Josh Brolin, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), who both have an ax to grind with.
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Zack Snyder puts his unique stamp on this animated adventure. Based on Kathryn Lasky’s young adult book series, the film is like LORD OF THE RINGS performed by owls via photoreal animation. The straightforward narrative is made more compelling simply through the visual originality.

The story begins with the young owl Soren (Jim Sturgess, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) telling his little sister Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria) the tales about the great battles of the Guardians. His brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten, TV’s TRUE BLOOD) is tried of hearing about these old myths. Excited following their first flying lessons, the two brothers sneak out of the nest to practice without parental supervision. By accident they fall to the forest floor where they are kidnapped by agents of St. Aegolius, an orphanage that brainwashes its young owlets into being soldiers for the Pure Ones, led by Metal Beak (Joel Edgerton, THE SQUARE) and his bride Nyra (Helen Mirren, THE QUEEN). If the owlets are not the right breed or refuse to conform, they are hypnotized by the moon and forced to pick out metal flecks from the pellets owl cough up.
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The best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed

This is a lighter week leading up to some packed weeks to come. The Pick of the Week is the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed. Two Oscar winners and two interesting new releases are also here.
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Based on the Vertigo comic book series, the film is the better A-TEAM movie released in 2010. The backstabbed black ops team tale doesn’t blaze new ground, but unlike the other A-TEAM film of 2010, it mixes violence, humor and some over-the-top action with a dash of character motivation.

Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, WATCHMEN) leads his black ops team into Bolivia to hit a high profile target. But in the midst of the action, the team discovers children at the compound. They decide to rescue the kids, but discover no one, even the team, was to survive the mission. The operation was being run by Max (Jason Patric, THE LOST BOYS), a powerful government spy who ruthlessly makes deals to defend America and his own self interests — the latter is his chief objective.
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There are a lot of well-written scenes in this indie romance, but they don’t quite add up to a fully fleshed out film. Writer/director Jay DiPietro has a good ear for the way people really talk and how arguments in relationships tend to center around mundane things like ordering food. He shows us many episodes like this in a relationship that starts passionately and descends into ugliness. These episodes jump through time to juxtapose the good and the bad. There is good and bad in this approach.

We first meet Peter (Jason Ritter, MUMFORD) and Vandy (Jess Weixler, TEETH) during a romantic picnic looking out at the Statue of Liberty. The idyllic scene doesn’t end as romantic as either hoped for. They met on a park bench during lunch as Peter tells Vandy that the Chinese restaurant she order from will make a chicken salad instead of the fattening fried rice. An awkward meet cute for sure. Vandy is dating someone, but Peter impresses her with a sweet gesture. Soon enough they are dating and hurling insults at each other over how to make a peanut butter sandwich.
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As the film tells us at the start, the Charlestown section of Boston is the bank robbery capital of the U.S.  It also gives a quote from a Charlestown resident stating that the town was a great place to grow up, but it ruined his life. The characters are products of this environment. It defines them whether they like it or not.

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck, GOOD WILL HUNTING) is the brains of a bank robbery crew. It’s sort of the family business; his father Stephen (Chris Cooper, AMERICAN BEAUTY) is serving time for robbery. During the latest heist, his best friend James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner, THE HURT LOCKER) takes an unnecessary hostage in petrified assistant bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA). Doug feels bad about the whole thing, so he follows Claire to make sure that she is okay. It also doesn’t hurt to know what she knows.
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Serendipity often plays a huge part in some of the greatest documentaries ever made. Like Errol Morris with THE THIN BLUE LINE or Ross McElwee with SHERMAN’S MARCH, filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman had their cameras ready when a story presented itself. They began filming before they really knew what they had. When they started there is no way they could have imagined how crazy the journey to the end would be.

Ariel’s brother Nev is a professional photographer. He often shoots dancers. After one of his pictures appeared in the newspaper, he received a painting of the photograph from Abby, an eight year old living in Michigan. The paintings show talent. Over time he develops a pen pal relationship with the young girl. Her mother Angela says that her daughter’s paintings have sold for upwards of $7,000. Nev becomes friends with them on Facebook and starts chatting up Abby’s older sister Megan, a singer and wannabe model. They talk on the phone and Nev certainly is falling for the pretty girl. His brother and Joost thought they were filming a story of how technology affects modern romance. They got that and so much more.
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