A relatively minor epic with a major cast, 'Is Paris Burning?', was recently released by Paramount on laser with a widescreen transfer. The 1966 film is set in the final days of the Nazi occupation of France and subsequent liberation by Allied forces, aided by the French Resistance. The cast list reads like a who's who of 60's cinema. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Gert Frobe, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack and even Orson Welles all show up in this Rene' Clement film scripted by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, no less. Despite the seeming abundance of talent, the somewhat slow pace of the narrative and the black & white, documentary style of filmmaking is likely to appeal only to collectors of such curiosities.
'Is Paris Burning?' was shot in anamorphic Panavision and here we come to the biggest problem with this transfer. Pioneer's transfer has a ratio of just under 2.10:1. While this is often adequate to convey the composition of widescreen films, this film was made in 1966, not 1986. This film was obviously composed for the wide screen with no regard to TV or video. Even what might sound like minor cropping is very noticable in many scenes. I even noticed a clumsy pan or two to cover the frame. To transfer a film that will no doubt appeal mainly to the collector market with such blatant disregard for the artistic merits of the photography is inexcusable. The general quality of the transfer is acceptable, though the film elements are in fairly rough condition. The image is clear with good sharpness and detail. Contrast is better than one might expect, though a few scenes appear overly bright.
The audio transfer is a bit better than one might expect of a film of this age, particularly considering the visible condition of the elements. The score is fully stereophonic with suprising range and depth. Dialog often sounds somewhat compressed, though it and a number of effects sounds have some directionality. There is also a noticable high frequency hiss audible, though not loud enough to be distracting.
The film runs 173 minutes and is spread to 4 sides with side 4 in CAV (contrary to what the disc label states). The side and platter breaks are not too disruptive. No trailer or other extras are included. Pioneer also chose not to include chapter encoding. The film opens with an Overture but without a chapter index, you wouldn't know it. There is also an Intermission and Entr'acte that occur about 24 minutes into side 3 but, curiously, the Intermision title card is missing so you get a fade to black and about 3 minutes of the score before the fade in. List price of this mediocre effort is $49.95.
Some final thoughts on Paramount and Pioneer. I find it ironic that Pioneer, the company most often credited with keeping the LD format alive in the US in the early and mid 80's, can remain so woefully ignorant of the wants of their customers. And Paramount, the only major studio to entrust their laser disc production to an outside company with what appears to be no oversight whatsoever. Does Paramount care so little for their films and the people that collect them? It's obvious that Pioneer has no regard for the artistic merits of the films they put on disc. It is also obvious to this collector that they haven't much regard for the technical merits of their own work. 'Is Paris Burning?' is not a great film, or an important one. But, it and its fans deserve better than this.
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