A Man and a Woman [DVD] [1966]

This release of this film is what DVD ought to be about. A Man and a Woman was one of the most popular French films of the 1960s, and perhaps of all time, reaching audiences in the United States that seldom even thought of attending foreign films -- its love theme also constituted a genuine hit, one of those soundtracks that was totally ubiquitous in 1960s adult pop circles. And for all of that, the movie never made it onto laserdisc, bypassing that format across the 1980s and 1990s. But the DVD version arrived in April of 2003 without a lot of fanfare, in a beautifully realized master of the film, and carrying a healthy share of bonus materials. The film itself looks at least as good as it ever did in a theater, with the naturalistic tones of the shooting captured perfectly. The aspect ratio of about 1.66:1 (European non-anamorphic widescreen standard) frames the visuals well, and the sound has been mastered at a healthy volume. The 20 chapters for the 103-minute movie have been well chosen, and they properly delineate the key plot elements. Additionally, a pair of documentary bonuses have been included -- in the newer of them, the12-minute-long "37 Years Later With Claude Lelouch," the director explains how the notion of the movie came to him by sheer chance, and everything else seemed to fall into place, from the cast to the movie's then-groundbreaking visual style (which evolved out of expediency, owing to technical and budgetary limitations). His recollection is supported by a 22-minute period documentary about the shooting, featuring stars Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant and director Lelouch, and both are accompanied by the trailers for this movie and its much less well-regarded sequel, A Man And a Woman: 20 Years Later. The disc opens automatically to a menu that goes down to a second layer for the bonus features, and offers a choice of French-language audio with English, French, or Spanish subtitles, or an English-language soundtrack. It's all a serious bargain-priced package for one of the most successful romantic films of the 1960s, and one long overdue in a high-end video format.