The Blood Rose – Le Chat Qui Fume (4k UHD/Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: France, 1970
Director: Claude Mulot
Writers: Claude Mulot, Jean Larriaga, Edgar Oppenheimer
Cast: Philippe Lemaire, Anny Duperey, Olivia Robin, Elizabeth Teissier, Michèle Perello, Valérie Boisgel, Gérard-Antoine Huart, Jean-Pierre Honoré, Jacques Seiler, Michel Charrel, Véronique Verlhac, Roberto, Johnny Cacao, Howard Vernon

Release Date: May 15th, 2019
Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes 6 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Mono French (4K UHD, DVD), Dolby Digital Mono English (4K UHD, DVD), DTS-HD Mono French (Blu-ray), DTS-HD Mono English (Blu-ray)
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD, Blu-ray), Region 0 NTSC (DVD)
Retail Price: OOP

"The painter Frederic Lansac lives an idyllic love with Anne in their isolated castle in the center of France when a drama brutally breaks this passion. Seriously burned, Lansac's’wife is disfigured, with no hope of recovery. Until one day a surgeon agrees to give him a face back. But for the operation to succeed, the donor must be sacrificed.." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD, Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, “4K Restoration realized by Le Chat Qui Fume from the original negative.”

The Blood Rose comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD

Disc Size: 44.6 GB

Feature: 44.6 GB

The source looks excellent; flesh tones look correct, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always retains an organic look.

The Blood Rose comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 46 GB

Feature: 23.5 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc.

Audio: 4/5

Though the Blu-ray presents the two audio tracks in DTS-HD, for whatever reason the 4K UHD presents them in Dolby Digital. That said, whether DTS-HD or Dolby Digital, all of these audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced, and range-wise, they all sound great. Included are removable English subtitles for the French language track.

Extras:

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include French language theatrical trailer for the film (2 minutes 54 seconds (2 minutes 54 seconds, Dolby Digital mono French, no subtitles), English language theatrical trailer for The Blood Rose (1 minute 48 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an archival featurette titled On the Set of The Rose Flayed (3 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital mono French, no subtitles), an interview with actress Brigitte Lahaie titled Memories of Claude Mulot by Brigitte Lahaie (9 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo French, no subtitles), an interview with screenwriter/producer Edgar Oppenheimer (25 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo French, no subtitles), an interview with cameraman Jacques Assuérus (34 minutes 54 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo French, no subtitles), an interview with Hubert and Georges Baumann (11 minutes 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo French, no subtitles), a VHS sourced presentation of the film under the alternate title Devil’s Maniac (84 minutes 14 seconds, letterboxed widescreen, Dolby Digital mono French, no subtitles), and trailers for La saignée, Maniac, Haine, Return of the Living Dead 3, Vigilante, and Next of Kin.

The DVD has the same extras except for the VHS-sourced presentation of Blood Rose and these trailers: Maniac, Return of the Living Dead 3, Vigilante, and Next of Kin.

Summary:

Claude Mulot directed The Blood Rose. His other notable films include The Contract, Sins of the Flesh, and Knife Under the Throat.

After a tragic accident disfigures his wife, an eccentric painter blackmails a disgraced doctor whose controversial experiments hold the key to restoring his wife’s former beauty.

When it comes to the visuals, The Blood Rose is a film that is filled with striking imagery and overflowing with atmosphere. Though the aesthetic of The Blood Rose was clearly influenced by Gothic cinema, its striking use of color sometimes evokes the vivid palette characteristic of Mario Bava’s work. Another strength of the visuals is how the disfigured wife’s face is rarely shown after the accident, and when she is in the room, the images onscreen represent her fuzzy perspective due to her loss of sight.

Sections of The Blood Rose’s narrative unfold through flashbacks, the majority of which take place during the first thirty minutes. There is a simplicity to the story at hand that makes the far-fetched premise easier to accept. The Blood Rose’s premise is reminiscent of films like Eyes without a Face and Jess Franco’s Orlaff films. Though The Blood Rose’s advertising proclaimed it as the first sex-horror film, many Jess Franco fans might argue that he made these types of films first. Also, while watching The Blood Rose, it becomes clear that the films of Jess Franco may have significantly influenced director Claude Mulot in creating this film.

Besides featuring a bevy of attractive women, the cast of characters in The Blood Rose also includes two deformed midget servants. Though The Blood Rose has many memorable moments, my favorite moment is the scene where a young woman, posing as a writer researching châteaux, looks around the château for clues about her missing sister, and while she walks around in a see-through nightgown, which is barely exposed by the dim-lit candlelight.

The Blood Rose features a melancholy main theme that perfectly sets the stage for what is about to unfold. Besides the magnificent main theme, the score as a whole does a superb job maintaining the tone. Jean-Pierre Dorsay composed the score for The Blood Rose, whose filmography consists of four entries. It is a shame that he did not compose another score after The Blood Rose.

When it comes to the performances, the cast are all excellent, especially Philippe Lemaire (When You Read This Letter) in the role of Frédéric, an eccentric painter who becomes obsessed with restoring his wife’s beauty. Another performance of note is Howard Vernon (She Killed in Ecstasy) in the role of Professeur Römer, a disgraced doctor whose controversial experiments led him to lose his medical license and go to prison.

From a production standpoint, The Blood Rose is a film that exceeds the sum of its parts. The premise is superbly released, and the narrative does a phenomenal job building to an unbelievable ending that is truly out of this world. Spoiler: The ending features a showdown between the two midget servants and their master. Other craziness that occurs during this knock-down, drag-out fight includes the unfortunate demise of the doctor, thus ending the experiments and any chance to repair the wife’s disfigured face. End of Spoiler: Ultimately, The Blood Rose is a cautionary tale about the consequences of obsession.

It's unfortunate that all of the extras are in French with no English subtitles. Fortunately, when it comes to the audio/video presentation, The Blood Rose has never looked or sounded better, recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer