The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers – Olive Films (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: France/Italy/Japan/Netherlands, 1964
Directors: Hiromichi Horikawa (segment Les Cinq Bienfaiteurs de Fumiko), Ugo Gregoretti (segment La Feuille du Route), Claude Chabrol(segment L’Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel), Jean-Luc Godard (segment Le Grand escroc)
Cast: Mie Hama, Ken Mitsuda, Gabriella Giorgelli, Guido Giuseppone, Giuseppe Mannajuolo, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Catherine Deneuve, Francis Blanche, Charles Denner, Jean Seberg, László Szabó

Release Date: April 25th, 2017
Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes 40 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Japanese/Italian/French/German/English
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: OOP

"The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers combines the talents of top-tier directors and actors from the world of American, French, Italian and Japanese cinema in an entertaining tale of sensational swindles taking place around the globe.

Claude Chabrol directs L'Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel, Jean-Luc Godard directs Le Grand escroc, Ugo Gregoretti directs La Feuille du Route, and Hiromichi Horikawa directs Les Cinq Bienfaiteurs de Fumiko.

The eclectic cast of actors includes Jean Seberg, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Francis Blanche and Ken Mitsuda.

Lending their considerable talents behind the camera are cinematographers Raoul Coutard, Tonino Delli Colli, Asakazu Nakai and Jean Rabier.

The Amsterdam segment, A River of Diamonds (directed by Roman Polanski), which was featured in original theatrical release of The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers, has been removed from presentations of the film at the request of the director." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 22.2 GB

Feature: 21.6 GB

The source used for this transfer is in great shape. Details look crisp, there are no issues with compression and contrast, and black remains strong throughout.

Audio: 4.5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mix in mono, and the following languages are spoken in this film: Japanese, Italian, French, German, and English. The dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced throughout. Subtitle options for this release include English subtitles for all foreign languages or English subtitles for all non-English language dialog.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 56 seconds, DTS-HD mono French, no subtitles). It should be noted that the trailer contains footage from Roman Polanski’s segment La Rivière de Diamants.

Summary:

Les Cinq Bienfaiteurs de Fumiko: Looking for an easy way to raise a large sum of money, a young woman who works as a geisha at a bar pretends to be interested in a composer who carries a bag filled with money.

Les Cinq Bienfaiteurs de Fumiko was directed by Hiromichi Horikawa, whose other notable films include Contract Killer, The Militarists, and The Alaska Story. Key collaborators on Les Cinq Bienfaiteurs de Fumiko include cinematographer Asakazu Nakai (High and Low) and composer Keitaro Miho (Everything Goes Wrong).

At the heart of this film is a tale about greed and how a moment of indiscretion ends in disaster for a young woman who thought she had just pulled off the perfect crime. The characters are well defined and the performances are very good, especially Mie Hama (You Only Live Twice) in the role of the young woman who works as a geisha. The visuals do a superb job of reinforcing the mood, and this tale’s ending provides a very satisfying conclusion.

La Feuille du Route: Desperate to be with the man she loves, a woman whose reputation has been tarnished marries an elderly man so she can remain in Naples.

La Feuille du Route was directed by Ugo Gregoretti, whose other notable films include Omicron and Le Belle Famiglie. Key collaborators on La Feuille du Route include cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli (Once Upon a Time in the West) and composer Piero Umiliani (5 Dolls for the August Moon).

At the heart of this film is a tale about virtue and the lengths a young woman goes through to be with the man she loves. There is a tongue-in-cheek approach to the story at hand. This is most evident in how the pimp manipulates elderly men into marrying the women who work for him. The entire cast is all very good in their respective roles. The standout performance was by Giuseppe Mannajuolo (Murder Rock) in the role of a lawyer who comes up with the idea of having prostitutes marry elderly men to avoid the stigmata that usually befalls those who work in this profession.

L’Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel: A man who is obsessed with the Eiffel Tower is conned into buying the landmark by con men.

L’Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel was directed by Claude Chabrol, whose other notable films include Les Bonnes Femmes, Les Biches, La Rupture, Juste avant la nuit, and Les noces rouges. Key collaborators on L’Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel include cinematographer Jean Rabier (Cleo from 5 to 7) and composer Pierre Jansen (Le Boucher).

At the heart of this film is a tale about obsession and how a gang of thieves uses one man’s obsession to deceive him into buying the Eiffel Tower. Claude Chabrol is best known for his suspenseful films, but he also directs comedies. This tale is played strictly for laughs, and no moment is more humorous than this film’s absurd ending. And when it comes to the performances, the entire cast is very good in their respective roles. Standout performances include Jean-Pierre Cassel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) in the role of the ringleader of a gang of swindling thieves and Francis Blanche (Belle de Jour) in the role of L’Allemand, the man conned into buying the Eiffel Tower.

Le Grand escroc: An American reporter on assignment in Marrakech tracks down and interviews a counterfeiter for a documentary that she is working on.

Le Grand Esroc was directed by Jean-Luc Godard, whose other notable films include Breathless, Contempt, Bande à Part, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou, and Weekend. Key collaborators on Le Grand escroc were cinematographer Raoul Coutard (The Bride Wore Black) and composer Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg).

Content wise, out of the four tales, this one is by far and away the most political. The narrative explores morality and how there is a fine that divides what is and what is not morally acceptable. Needless to say, the tone of this tale is in direct contrast to the other three tales, which all have a sense of irony in their conclusions. Notable cast members include László Szabó (Made in U.S.A.) in the role of a police inspector, Charles Denner (Z) in the role of the counterfeiter, and Jean Seberg (Who’s Got the Black Box) in the role of an American reporter named Patricia Leacock.

Besides the aforementioned composers, this film also features music that was composed by Serge Gainsbourg (Slogan).

A fifth segment that was directed by Roman Polanski (Repulsion, What?) titled La Rivière des Diamants is not included as part of this release. This segment was removed at the director’s request.

Olive Films gives The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers a solid audio and video presentation.

Written by Michael Den Boer