Reviews (2)

Finally, the complete series is quickening to dvd
This show was sometimes great entertainment to me. Basically a dimestore romantic-adventure novel brought to life. I think the producers were mostly successful with providing something for everyone. The shows ranged from brilliantly written, to definitely a bit cheesey. The dvd collection is better than the vhs, however questions did arise quickly about it's quality. I think it was the 2nd episode on disc one, when the disc appeared to be sort of freezing up for a minute. I hit FF for a second, and it was fine again. ( This was with a brand new dvd player ) Since that occurance, I have not yet run into any other problems; although I've only watched 1/3 ofthe discs. I did have a couple other little gripes about these dvd's, but nothing too serious. I would have preferred more than three episodes on a disc...a typical season for ex. has NINE discs-three unfolding booklets of 3 discs, which all fit into this 1/2 box...I wasn't too crazy about that at all. There is however a lot of content within them if you like bloopers and interviews and watcher chronicles...I do and I don't.. I mean, it's tough enough to watch all 6 seasons..I really don't need boxes hoggin up all my shelf space just so studios get extra market value-which is also why it took em so long to go over to dvd's, and why it's off the air. Nevertheless, I do still appreciate the Highlander phenomenon. It's solidly entertaining while it also demonstrates virtues that I like. I can live without the Duncan Macleod boxer shorts though, and the pillows with kissy lips, and the rest of the merchandising extraveganza. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

The Best series ever made
It's jam pack with everything a fan really wants, and the best part you can go form your favorite episode to another. 2 tumbs up!!!
... Read more

Reviews (19)

Yes this story is descended from reals events many centuries
...Ago ! MARTIN GUERRE ( WAR MARTIN ) was existe many time ago ! And this story of this movie sentimentalize the inquisition period, the differents credences of our french ancestors who could are able to succeed some incomprehension by the ancient people and when a man as much as MARTIN GUERRE was able to to store the wole of privacy from a frend during the war who has never loved his wife and throught that has leave behind she, thus, subssequently he can appropriate the idendity of his bad friend which is not able to love his wife ! But when his family and more its adbenturess enemy past begain to discern the subterfuge, it's too late for them, because MARTIN GUERRE with his lage, big capacity to store evry events can frustrate them easily ! But his illegitimate wife begin to be scared ! And this is the debut of the end for the poor MARTIN GUERRE who's not a coward, he accept his destiny ! VERY GOOD DVD FILM !

Medieval verismilitude....
I bought "The Return of Martin Guerre" because I am a history buff, and the film had been described by a leading historian as the most accurate film one could find depicting the life of the middle class in Medieval France. The story line has been redone by Jody Foster and cast in post-Civil War Virginia, but this film is head and shoulders above the remake. If you can't understand French, read the subtitles and watch it more than once.

The setting is a small village in France during the late Middle Ages. The tale centers on a soldier, Martin Guerre played by Gerard Depardieu (in his younger slimmer body), who returns home after years of absence. He renews his relationship with the wife he deserted (or rather begins again since his former relationship left much to be desired). His years away have made him a better person than the callow youth he was when left the village seeking adventure. He has become a loving husband and a hard worker, and discordance seems a thing of the past.

After much hard work, one day, he asks his family to relinquish a parcel of land he says rightfully belongs to him. This request disturbs the family who had assumed he was gone for good and would never assume ownership of the land. Their greed leads them to begin a court proceeding against him charging him as an imposter who has no right to the land.

I found the legal angles of the story quite intriging. It was illuminating to discover there were laws and jurisprudence as well as thoughtful judges during this period. The "humanist" movement had begun, so there were newer provisions for protecting individuals from the group. The contrast of these provisions with the archaic punishments that date from an earlier period is instructive.

Why, O Why
Great movie, concur with the other comments, but what moron decided to cut the beautiful love scene between Depardieu and Baye from the DVD (the one just before he gets arrested the 2nd time). The perpetrator should be flayed and hanged and everybody who bought the DVD should be provided with a free replacement that includes this scene to compensate for the emotional anguish at seeing this jewel damaged by an incompetent, hypocritical editor.

Stand-Out performances in this true story!
Gérard Dépardieu is exquisite in this true tale of medieval identity theft. Nathalie Baye is excellent in her role as an ingenue who allows herself to believe in a man who she knows is lying to her.

The story flows well and the cinematography is great. The film rises above all expectations and is in a league of its own!

R I D I C U L O U S
This "film" starring the talented French actor Gerard Depardieu is one of the most absurd, unbelievable stories to be set to film--made doubly so by (or perhaps because of) the ridiculous casting of the uniquely cob-nosed Depardieu as the husband who goes off to war and comes back "improved" (both as a person and we're lead to believe, a lover). No doubt the wife knows he's not the same man who left years before (and this makes the story idiotic from the outset) although she pretends she doesn't (how could she not know?). And (big surprise!) the townsfolk are suspicious. Afterall, how many people look like Depardieu? Well, the movie carries this ruse out for all of two, fairly boring subtitled hours of annoying French-speak and gushy google-eyed lovelooks from the movie's "hero" and "heroine" as the viewer is treated like the fool he (or she) is for watching this drivel. The movie gets two stars (instead of one) because the acting is top-notch.

Believe it not, this movie was remade several years ago (I think it was called "Somersault" or something like that) with better (from a believability standpoint) and worse (from an acting standpoint) casting and starred Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. As ridiculous as the original is, the remake is worse. Avoid both if possible. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Misleading (esp. for people new to Highlander)
Ok, so this i probably mostly my own fault for not having done the proper research on it before I purchased it, but when I saw the DVD Highlander "Finale", I was expecting an individual release of the actual final episode of Highlander: The Series. Naturally, I was quite disappointed when I found it to actually be the season finale from year three...which I already have on DVD because I own the complete season boxed set.
However, I give this three stars despite that setback due solely to the fact that being a part of the Highlander series it is naturally a wonderful piece of action/adventure/sci-fi/fantasy storytelling.
If you already own season three you can probably skip this release (unless you are set on having every Highlander DVD that's produced). If not, then I recommend giving this release a shot.

Please Be Advised....
This DVD contains the two-part, season-ending episode from Season 3 of the Highlander TV series. If you already own or are planning to buy the Highlander Season 3 Box Set, please be advised that these episodes are included in that set. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

BEST SERVED COLD
The blackest of black comedies, Bertrand Blier's surreal "BUFFET FROID" (Fox Lorber,...), stars Depardieu as Alphonse, a jobless man who may or may not be a murderer and his relationships with his wife's killer, an oddball police inspector and other cynical misfits.

Very French in it's skewed perspective and very cold-hearted in its execution, this bizarre film is from the director of the shockingly funny "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" and the equally disturbing ugly love story "To Beautiful For You." When I first saw this movie it held my attention and I thought about it for days. Seeing it again, I recall that I never had emotional or intellectual closure. It's meaning escaped me and the subtext was unsettling. I was not enlightened about life but only allowed to share a dream where life is unpredictable, has no meaning and the attempt to seek answers is the first step in one's eventual downfall. Pretty cold servings to digest (hence the title?). Still, this singularly bizarre tale from 1979 is worth seeing. Maybe somewhere in this material is the key to David Lynch's "Mullholland Dr."

The best black comedy in the seventies
In the best tradition of Luis Buñuel and a touch of Billy Wilder, this puzzle comedy turns around three paranoid men each one with his particular focus.
Blier plays the role of the policeman who decides to break the rules.
Depardieu as always is top notch.
The script sails between the irony and the tragedy. It's a clever surrealistic journey about situations out of control.
Please, let the logical out your mind and be part of this well made film.
Enjoyable from beginning to end.

A buñuelian film noir
In the best tradition of the sarcasticc, ironic and devasting spirit of Luis Buñuel's filmography (and obviously a Billy Wilder's touch), the film runs by its own with a masterful plot brilliant travels and remarkable performances.
Blier made a film absolutely free of any kind of convencionalism, intelligent humor, clever sense of absurd and mesmerizing laberyntic journey into the underworld, the acid view about a policeman who decides breaking the rules together with two men who are under a high stress anguish by different reasons . Suddenly all the sense of reality suffers a blackout and you become part of it.
Watch this film. And convince by yourself this is a fascinating tale, a brilliant work, and an unforgettable movie in any age.
You'll be widely rewarded. And please, forget the logical and drown in this surrealistic story.
Eternally enjoyable.
Depardieu as always at his top.

Death Warmed Up
"Buffet Froid" is a thriller without thrills, a murder mystery with no solution, and a comedy that's only funny to a certain type of person. When you add all these ingredients up, you get one heck of a surrealist piece. It is a movie many people will hate after just one viewing. It is bleak, morbid, ruthless, and bizarre in its apparent lack of concern for plot or realism. When I watched in my high-school French class, there wasn't much laughter, though there was a lot of "What??" and "Oh, my God..." I didn't hate it, though. I was quite intrigued.

The film opens in a metro station, where a young man named Alphonse (Gerard Depardieu) attempts to engage an unfriendly older man in conversation. Oddly, the man warms up when the topic of duscussion switches to death and murder. Alphonse produces a switchblade knife, and it's hard to tell if he's threatening or just emphasizing his words. The knife vanishes; the older man grows frightened and flees on a train; and very shortly afterward, Alphonse finds him lying in a passageway with the knife buried in his stomach. Is Alphonse the murderer? Not even he knows.

Alphonse goes home, where his wife doesn't react at all upon learning of the murder. They live in a cheerless apartment halfway up a large tenement complex that is completely uninhabited except for them and their new upstairs neighbor, a police chief. Alphonse's wife goes missing and turns up murdered in a vacant lot, and before we know it, a short, nervous man is knocking on Alphonse's door and introducing himself as the murderer. Alphonse invites him in for a drink, and they are soon joined by the police chief ("I'd like you to meet my wife's murderer." "Pleasure."). Then another man shows up who wants Alphonse to assassinate someone for him, but the victim turns out to be...and so on.

"Buffet Froid" may not look like a surrealist piece, but it definitely is. All throughout the movie, there's a sense of wrongness and unreality. Alphonse, the chief, and the murderer form a kind of alliance and have an odd series of adventures that all result in someone's death. Over the course of the film, no less than fifteen people are shot, stabbed, strangled, drowned, or suffocated, and yet the characters never react to the deaths with anything other than vague interest or mild annoyance. Everyone in the movie is either a murderer or has the potential to be one. No one behaves like a normal human being would in the circumstances, and this makes the film much more unpredictable and unsettling.

It's not just the acting, either. The cinematography is all browns, grays, and earthy colors, with an occaisonal startling splash of bright red (not blood; there is no blood anywhere in the film, despite all the death). There is virtually no music, except in a bizarre scene where Alphonse and the police chief visit a wealthy home and the chief is literally tortured by a string quintet. The scenes have little connection, and the motives of the characters are completely random, except for one person who I won't reveal. The closing scenes involve a bridge, a rowboat, and an ironic final twist that brings the plot in a macabre full circle. As the end credits roll, you feel unsatisfied because you're used to a conclusion that makes sense and wraps everything up. Oh, "Buffet Froid" wraps everything up, but definitely not in a happily-ever-after kind of way.

So, these are my thoughts on this peculiar little film. I recommend it to fans of surrealism and/or morbid humor. I can't say how much I "liked" it, but I admired its style and unapologetic ghoulishness. As long as France keeps making weird movies, I suppose I'll keep watching them. That is all.

comedy's hard to do...black comedy even tougher
I'm a fan of "Get Out Your Hankerchiefs" so assumed this offering from the same director would at least be enjoyable. I kept waiting for something funny to be done or said. I waited and waited. "The Trouble With Harry" or "Dr.Strangelove" are both great black comedies. This strives to be in their league but falls way short of the mark. It's possible that something's lost in the translation because to give the subtitles a dry read is to only further understand why French people revere Jerry Lewis-silliness in a somewhat surreal setting (wow, listen to that alliteration) does not necessarily make for a good comedy. Also the lack of subtlety (in every way with every character)makes this particularly off-putting. I'm at a loss as to how anyone could consider this even mediocre, much less brilliant. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Please Be Advised....
This DVD contains the two-part episode from Season 2 of the Highlander TV series. If you already own or are planning to buy the Highlander Season 2 Box Set, please be advised that these episodes are included in that set. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Yes this story is descended from reals events many centuries
...Ago ! MARTIN GUERRE ( WAR MARTIN ) was existe many time ago ! And this story of this movie sentimentalize the inquisition period, the differents credences of our french ancestors who could are able to succeed some incomprehension by the ancient people and when a man as much as MARTIN GUERRE was able to to store the wole of privacy from a frend during the war who has never loved his wife and throught that has leave behind she, thus, subssequently he can appropriate the idendity of his bad friend which is not able to love his wife ! But when his family and more its adbenturess enemy past begain to discern the subterfuge, it's too late for them, because MARTIN GUERRE with his lage, big capacity to store evry events can frustrate them easily ! But his illegitimate wife begin to be scared ! And this is the debut of the end for the poor MARTIN GUERRE who's not a coward, he accept his destiny ! VERY GOOD DVD FILM !

Medieval verismilitude....
I bought "The Return of Martin Guerre" because I am a history buff, and the film had been described by a leading historian as the most accurate film one could find depicting the life of the middle class in Medieval France. The story line has been redone by Jody Foster and cast in post-Civil War Virginia, but this film is head and shoulders above the remake. If you can't understand French, read the subtitles and watch it more than once.

The setting is a small village in France during the late Middle Ages. The tale centers on a soldier, Martin Guerre played by Gerard Depardieu (in his younger slimmer body), who returns home after years of absence. He renews his relationship with the wife he deserted (or rather begins again since his former relationship left much to be desired). His years away have made him a better person than the callow youth he was when left the village seeking adventure. He has become a loving husband and a hard worker, and discordance seems a thing of the past.

After much hard work, one day, he asks his family to relinquish a parcel of land he says rightfully belongs to him. This request disturbs the family who had assumed he was gone for good and would never assume ownership of the land. Their greed leads them to begin a court proceeding against him charging him as an imposter who has no right to the land.

I found the legal angles of the story quite intriging. It was illuminating to discover there were laws and jurisprudence as well as thoughtful judges during this period. The "humanist" movement had begun, so there were newer provisions for protecting individuals from the group. The contrast of these provisions with the archaic punishments that date from an earlier period is instructive.

Why, O Why
Great movie, concur with the other comments, but what moron decided to cut the beautiful love scene between Depardieu and Baye from the DVD (the one just before he gets arrested the 2nd time). The perpetrator should be flayed and hanged and everybody who bought the DVD should be provided with a free replacement that includes this scene to compensate for the emotional anguish at seeing this jewel damaged by an incompetent, hypocritical editor.

Stand-Out performances in this true story!
Gérard Dépardieu is exquisite in this true tale of medieval identity theft. Nathalie Baye is excellent in her role as an ingenue who allows herself to believe in a man who she knows is lying to her.

The story flows well and the cinematography is great. The film rises above all expectations and is in a league of its own!

R I D I C U L O U S
This "film" starring the talented French actor Gerard Depardieu is one of the most absurd, unbelievable stories to be set to film--made doubly so by (or perhaps because of) the ridiculous casting of the uniquely cob-nosed Depardieu as the husband who goes off to war and comes back "improved" (both as a person and we're lead to believe, a lover). No doubt the wife knows he's not the same man who left years before (and this makes the story idiotic from the outset) although she pretends she doesn't (how could she not know?). And (big surprise!) the townsfolk are suspicious. Afterall, how many people look like Depardieu? Well, the movie carries this ruse out for all of two, fairly boring subtitled hours of annoying French-speak and gushy google-eyed lovelooks from the movie's "hero" and "heroine" as the viewer is treated like the fool he (or she) is for watching this drivel. The movie gets two stars (instead of one) because the acting is top-notch.

Believe it not, this movie was remade several years ago (I think it was called "Somersault" or something like that) with better (from a believability standpoint) and worse (from an acting standpoint) casting and starred Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. As ridiculous as the original is, the remake is worse. Avoid both if possible. ... Read more