Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, On BD For the French and DVD For Us Lowly Americans

Well, it's a new year, and we have a new Frederick Wiseman doc from Zipporah Films: 2024's Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, his 47th film (48th if we count the weird short film, I Miss Sonia Henie, which he collaborated on early in his career).  It's now available as a 2-DVD set direct from the production company.  Yes, I was very disappointed they decided not to blu this one, a practice they'd happily adopted for his last handful of films, starting with National Gallery.  Now there is a French Menus-Plaisirs BD from Jour 2 Fête.  Apparently it even features a bonus interview with Wiseman, something the director has rather famously always eschewed, plus a 20-page booklet.  But it's not English-friendly.  All of us relying on an English translation just have the Zipporah DVDs.  At least they've graduated from DVDRs to pressed discs.

Menus-Plaisirs (which translates roughly to "small pleasures"), looks at the family restaurant owned by the renowned chef Michel Troigros, which he may or may not be preparing to pass down to his sons, Cesar and Leo.  This is an incredibly thorough documentation of the scrupulous and even absurd lengths they go to in order to create the perfectionist, hand-crafted meals that costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.  We examine every stage, from buying the ingredients, and even touring the facilities where the ingredients are grown, to the army of chefs meticulously laboring over every step.  In true Wiseman-fashion, we also step back to witness every other step in the organization, from planning the menus to booking overnight reservations (diners are encouraged to stay overnight and take all their meals there, not just dinner) and yes, mopping the floors... all the way down to the patrons being served (an elaborate and complex process!) and enjoying their meals.  It was funny to note all the Americans taking out their phones to snap pictures of their food, as opposed to the locals who were considerably cooler about the whole thing.

Boy, if I ever ate at this place, I'd be whispering to everyone: we're going to Popeye's on the way home.  The insane amount of money, labor time and art that these people put into a single plate makes this an interesting counterpoint to 1976's Meat.  Wiseman seems very taken with the family and the place, which makes this feel at times like a four-hour advertisement for their establishment, free of some of the slier observation that sometimes subtly slips into his earlier work.  This gave me more "eat the rich" vibes, and I felt a little less under the spell than many critics seem to be.  I probably prefer to see him documenting places he's a little less buddy-buddy with, but that does seem to be a particular attitude he adopts in his French docs, where he allows himself to be a little less objective and more openly a fawning admirer of his subjects' art (like in La Comédie-Française ou L'amour joué, La Danse and Crazy Horse).  And like those, this is surely a portrait that will stay with anyone who's seen it for a very long time.

2024 Zipporah Films DVD.

Zipporah frames this at a slightly unusual 1.81:1 aspect ratio.  I don't know if that means the DVD is a pinch off, or if it's just a sign of the times where a digital film may as well be framed at whatever the director feels like, since we're no longer adhering to the actual size of film.  But I suspect it's the former.  Listings for the French BD say it's 1.85:1, and I wouldn't be surprised if it actually is, exactly.  Anyway, it's a very minor quibble, more disappointing is just how soft and compressed this film looks, even spread across two discs; and how much cleaner it would likely be in HD.  Oh well.  Otherwise the colors and everything are fine; ad this transfer is probably taken from the same DCP every other stream or disc is.

The back of the case promises stereo and 5.1 mixes, like the French blu, but the actual discs just have the one 5.1 mix.  But that's fine; our TVs can handle the fold down just fine without needing a second separate track.  I'm more just jealous of the BD's mixes being lossless DTS-HD.  But again, importing would be useless, since only this release has English subtitles, which by the way, are burnt in.

And there are no extras, of course, not even the trailer.

By the way, you may've noticed we jumped from covering Wiseman's 45th film to his 47th.  No, DVDExotica didn't pass over one; Zipporah did.  Sadly, they never put out a DVD or BD of A Couple, even though it's a film I prefer to Menus.  There was a French Jour 2 Fête DVD in 2023, with another Wiseman interview and booklet.  But since it's also a French-language film and the disc offers no English subtitles, that means there is still no English-friendly release available anywhere in the world.  So hopefully this post doesn't come across as too salty.  It's at least nice that Zipporah came back to give us Menus on DVD.  I was beginning to worry we'd never get any discs from them ever again.

Frederick Wiseman Gets Freaky At the Crazy Horse

Zipporah Films are getting better at this.  They have BDR options now, and I was pleasantly surprised to see their latest release's audio tracks were even lossless.  So all of Frederick Wiseman's recent films have at least decent HD options; it's just most of his back catalog that's relegated to standard def.  What's worse, most of them are interlaced.  So I was pleasantly surprised again, then, to realize that one of his previous films, Crazy Horse, has a unique HD option thanks to a blu-ray release in China.  Why has just this one particular film of his been so blessed, when I'd actually rank it among the least of Wiseman's works?  Probably because it's chock full of wall-to-wall nudity.

Crazy Horse is a famous, upscale exotic dance cabaret in Paris, France, and also credited as co-producers of this documentary.  Wiseman's studied similar theatrical venues in 2009's La Danse 1996's La Comédie-Française ou L'amour joué and 1995's Ballet; so this is nothing unexpected, apart from the fact that this is the only nudie revue.  Otherwise, as Wiseman documentaries go, this is standard stuff, showing us every aspect of the space, from the on-stage performances to the managers business meetings.  We see the audiences pose for photos, tech rehearsals, the staff preparing the meals, with the usual moody exterior location shots every so often... classic Wiseman.  And, reliably, there are some great moments captured, like the dancers backstage laughing at a tape of ballet bloopers or the managers getting surprised by a transgender performer amidst their auditions.

But Wiseman's decision to retain most of the dance numbers from beginning to end slows the film down to a bit of a crawl.  There are some genuinely strong aspects to the numbers; their creative use of scrims and a particularly clever dance with mirrors.  But you'll figure out quick that the Crazy Horse is mostly a one-trick pony: they project colorful, animated lights onto their dancers' bodies.  The end.  So on the one hand, they're certainly higher quality productions than you'll catch at your corner strip joint, but it still falls pretty short of a profound, high art experience.  We get to hear one song, the main Crazy Horse anthem, several times: they rehearse it, record it, stage it and eventually perform it for their audience: "Paris comes to the Crazy, The Crazy is Paris.  The Eiffel tower.  The Eiffel tower is all lit up like a girl of the Crazy.  What is your name?  D-E-S-I-R-E.!  You'll dream of the Crazy naked in your bed; the girls of the Crazy will watch over you.  D-E-S-I-R-E.!  The girls of the Crazy taste like champagne.  Champagne tastes like the girls of the Crazy."  By the third round, it really hit me: boy, this is a terrible song.  It gets more inane every time we return to it.  They're good dancers, but they're not great singers.  And even the dancing isn't that amazing.  As a Wiseman fan, this film is another intriguingly thorough portrait of an institution, albeit one of the drier ones (minus the easy thrill of naked bodies in nearly every scene), but it sure didn't make me run out to buy tickets.

Zipporah Films released Crazy Horse on DVDR right after its limited theatrical run in 2011.  This was still before they offered BDR options, so I ordered it because it was all there was.  At least at first.  But in 2012, blu-rays were released in China and France.  The French blu isn't English friendly, though, so for those of us who aren't fluent in the language of love, the Chinese blu from CN Entertainment is our only option.  But is it worth it, or just some kind of dodgy upconvert?

2011 Zipporah DVDR top; 2012 CN BD bottom.

Happily, it's a properly pressed, authentically 1080p HD blu.  Zipporah's MOD DVDR was new enough that it wasn't interlaced... exactly.  But as you can see in the first set of shots, it has some frame rate issues, and plays at PAL speeds despite being an NTSC DVD.  This Chinese blu plays at the correct speed (running 134 minutes instead of the DVD's 128), and as you can see, replaces the ghosting visible in the first set of shots.  It also changes the aspect ratio, from the DVD's 1.66 to 1.85:1, revealing more information along the sides, though it does trim a sliver along the top and bottom.  Honestly, it looks like they're both adding mattes to a naturally 1.78 image, but the Chinese disc uncovers more and, to my eye at least, generally looks nicer.  So unless Frederick Wiseman decrees 1.66 his preferred framing somewhere, I'd say CN's is the preferable framing.  And it's naturally sharper and clearer by virtue of being in HD.

Both discs give us the choice of two mixes, Dolby stereo and 5.1 mixes with optional English subtitles, but the tracks are lossless on the blu.  Another win for CN.  Plus, both discs are essentially barebones like every Wiseman release ever; but the blu-ray at least has the trailer, which is more than the DVD can say.

So yes, this blu-ray is a very welcome treat.  Perhaps I should mention that I did have some trouble getting it to play on my Samsung player.  It didn't want to load, and I had to keep ejecting and retrying it for a good ten minutes.  Hopefully it was just my copy (no troubles on PC drive, though), but either way, once it relented and loaded it played fine all the way through.  I sure wish CN would give the same treatment to the rest of Wiseman's catalog, but I suspect the market might not be as flush for the films where everybody keeps their clothes on.

City Hall On Blu

It's been a slow year, so far, for new releases I'm particularly excited about, but we finally got one: Frederick Wiseman's City Hall.  It's a bit ironic, perhaps, as this is one of the least exciting movies in film history; but it works for me.  With the field of documentary film becoming more and more dominated by true crime, political pandering and celebrity garbage, watching a Wiseman flick feels like an increasingly zen experience.  As non-confrontational as his work has always been, it seems like he's been mellowing even further out in the last decade or so - it's hard to imagine the guy who's been giving us At Berkley, Ex Libris, Monrovia, Indiana and now this swinging back to create a Domestic Violence 3.  His shooting and editing formula has eased into a groove so predictable you can call out from your couch, "okay, now we're going to see two still shots of a city street at night and then onto the next meeting," right before it all unfolds on screen.

And that's not a criticism.  At this point he has to expect and want us to relax into a comfort zone.  After all, from the very beginning, Wiseman has been against showy camera tricks, gimmicks, leading narration, emotional score, etc.  The fact that the man behind the camera never leaves you guessing about what he's up to let's you settle in and think exclusively about the people in front of the camera.  For four and a half hours.  By the end of City Hall, you'll feel like a native citizen of Boston, all ready to vote in the next local election, which is the gift of this film.

I do have one complaint about City Hall, however.  One of the consistent strengths of Wiseman's films is what he discovers.  It might be too neat to say each of his films documents a system, but it's pretty true, giving us a keen, insider's view into the world around us we never had before.  From Meat to High School, we're given a deeper insight into what we've already thoroughly experienced (vegans excluded).  "Meetings" are famously dull, but the meetings Wiseman meticulously observes are fascinating because it exposes the inner workings we're usually excluded from.  You could have toured London's National Gallery hundreds of times in your life as a patron, but National Gallery shows gives you the tour only the top level insiders would get to experience.  So City Hall is positioned to be a perfect, multi-tiered exploration of local government, just like his other films have shown us the full cross section of every other system he's turned his camera to.

But unfortunately, this film is really, to use a technical term, up the mayor's butt.  Look, I'm not expecting a scandalous take-down expose from a Wiseman film.  But even in just about every other film he's done, we'd be seeing meetings of the faculty debating what to tell the protesting students or the curators deciding what to charge the patrons.  But outside of one very brief introductory scene, we're not seeing the mayor talking to his staff about what to say at an event or rally, we're just seeing the public speeches he gives there.  I kept thinking, this is what I'd switch off of on my access news channel.  And the mayor isn't just one character in this complex sea of local government, this film follows him around to dozens of events; we're barely given any time away from him before he steps back in front of the camera with another prewritten speech.  I can only assume Wiseman was given very limited access, which would explain barely getting behind the curtain, but even then I can't imagine why he wanted to film all of the mayor's speeches so doggedly.  You start to get the impression that only one person works at city hall.

Not that there's nothing worth discovering; far from it!  There's a frank and charged talk between impoverished locals and business owners who want to open a dispensary in their neighborhood.  We see a number of cases where mostly younger people of color are trying to push diversity movements into their government.  We get an eye-opening glimpse into small room of technicians who monitor and control local traffic with real-time surveillance.  A charming retiree tries to get his landlord to help with a rat problem.  There's a montage of 311 calls that could have been an entire film all to itself.  Nervous scenes where people try to beat their parking tickets or just a calm moment watching a crew slowly pave a road are all great.  Building inspectors, fireman, garbage collectors.  Everything you want from a Wiseman film is here.  Endless indulgent footage of mayoral speeches just happens to be slathered all over it.

2021 Zipporah Films BDR.

Zipporah Films offers this film on either DVDR or BDR, naturally I've chosen the latter.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: their prices are exorbitant for burned discs (they're even high for professionally pressed discs), but at least they do a first class job.  Framed at 1.78:1, City Hall is spread across two dual-layer discs with a clear and vibrant image.  I don't need to compare it to the DVD edition to see from it's obvious sharpness and fine detail that this is pristine HD picture.  Playback can be a little dodgy with BDRs, but I've played these on two different players with zero issues.  We're given the choice of two audio options, both lossless (rare to see on burned discs): stereo in LPCM and 5.1 Surround in DTS-HD.  Optional English subtitles are also included.

So yes, I'd prefer pressed discs, but otherwise you can't say they didn't do a great job.  Obviously, Wiseman is as staunchly against extras as ever[??? I don't get that attitude, but it is what it is], but in terms of presentation, Zipporah has done everything you could ask for.  And City Hall really is a good movie; don't let my complaints put you off.  Yes, I'd have liked to see more of the mayor in the office and certainly a higher ratio of other city employees to him.  But this is still on the level of work most issue-of-the-week documentary filmmakers today should be aspiring to.  I'm already looking forward to his next one!

Meet the People of Monrovia, Indiana

The new Wiseman is finally here!  Monrovia, Indiana has been, like most interesting movies these days, one of those films you read about when they're traveling through the festival circuit, then you have to wait at least a year - if not several - before getting a chance to actually see it.  Honestly, I think I've wound up forgetting about a bunch of flicks I'd been excited to see between the initial hype and the eventual home video release, but of course I can't be sure.  This is Frederick Wiseman though, so there's no way I was gonna forget to jump on this release date.  Originally scheduled for mid-May, Zipporah Film's lab apparently, "had a glitch with the Blu-ray discs," and production was delayed.  But 2018's Monrovia, Indiana is landing this week, and I'm well beyond ready, so let's get moving.

During the past year when I could do nothing but read reviews, I noticed not a single one seemed to be able to go without bringing up Trump.  And even though several of those reviews specifically point out that Trump's name is actually uttered in the course of this doc, I was still expecting Monrovia to be Wiseman's hot take on the current political climate.  But it's really not.  Certainly, if you want to view the experience through that lens, there's a lot to take away from this detailed examination of a very small farming town.  If that's what you want to learn about - like "what are these Conservative people really like?" - you won't be disappointed, although if you're expecting an acute political polemic, you absolutely will be.

Frankly, Wiseman could've made this when Obama was still in office, and it would've been the same film.  It's a deep dive into the public life of an entire community, very much like his previous endeavors Aspen, In Jackson Heights and of course Belfast, Maine.  His cameras visit their high school, barber shop, church, tractor farm, liquor store, supermarket and of course takes us inside local government policy meetings.  There's no talk of immigration, abortion rights or transgenders in the military.  Instead we get the inside scoop on the local library trying to get a new bench that matches the one outside the bank, a big mattress sale that seems to have rented out the high school gymnasium, and an elderly Mason being honored as his wife proudly films it on her phone.  Yeah, we certainly see that the locals love their guns, but this is micro not macro.  And you'll feel closer to these people by the end no matter who you're voting for in 2020.

If you've even dipped your toes into collection Wiseman before, you know what to expect from his US releases.  Pricey burned discs only available direct from his company, Zipporah Films.  So yes, this is a BD-R and no, you don't have to be using an X-Box for that to be an issue.  Watching this film for the first time last night, I paused it about two thirds of the way through to get a drink.  I came back and it wouldn't un-pause.  Ultimately, I had to power down my player, restart the film, skip to the nearest chapter and then rewatch about ten minutes of the film I'd just seen to get back to where I was.  That wouldn't have happened with a pressed disc.  But we've beaten this drum enough times and I'm used to it by now.

2019 Zipporah BD-R.

But as far as BD-Rs go, this one ain't bad.  Monrovia was shot on digital, so don't stress about film grain.  Clocking in under three hours, it fits fine on the completely barebones dual-layered disc.  The film is matted to 1.85:1 and detail is satisfyingly crisp and consistent.  As usual with Zipporah, there are no subtitles and no extras - not even the trailer - but we are given the option between similar sounding Dolby 5.1 and PCM stereo mixes.

And it's a good thing it's good, because it's our only option, at least in HD.  Blaq Out continues to release Wiseman's films in France, but as with his last two films, they're again going DVD only.  And anyway, I'm fine with what we're getting.  I mean, Wiseman seems dead-set against extras of any kind (Blaq Out had some filmed for National Gallery, and he made them nix them), so this was never going to be any kind of special edition.  Of course I'd prefer a pressed disc, but I appreciate that we're supporting an independent filmmaker directly by ordering direct from Zipporah, and considering the profit potential for a commercially off-the-radar film like this, we're lucky to still have the BDR option.  It's a bummer that I'm sure it's warding off more casual viewers who might take a chance on some of Wiseman's work if they were sold at mass market standards and prices, so once again, this is another release just for "us."

The World's Only Ex Libris Blu-ray Review!

So nobody else on the internet reviews Zipporah releases but me, huh?  I keep looking, but every year I seem to be alone in this.  Hey, I'm a big Frederick Wiseman fan, so I'm happy to cover his films (and yes, one of these days, I'm going to start delving through his extensive back catalog), but I'm starting to feel like I've adopted a social responsibility here.  Hey, folks!  We've got one of the greatest American documentary filmmakers for over 40 years.  He just won a lifetime Academy Award last year, and his latest film just came out on DVD and blu-ray.  Does anybody else care?  No, just me?  Well, alrighty, then.  Enjoy your sole review of Zipporah Films' official blu-ray release of Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, Internet.  I even got my hands on a DVD copy, for the world's only direct comparison.

Update 7/12/18: I've added the DVD edition for comparison.

Admittedly, it's not hard to see why the millennial generation hasn't exactly latched onto Wiseman's work.  Ex Libris is, like the last couple decades worth of Wiseman's output has been... pretty dry.  Things weren't always this way.  In many circles, 1967's Titicut Follies is considered an infamous shockumentary, and films like Primate, Meat and Near Death are certainly not for delicate viewers.  And I think I'm actually glad that we're past that.  It was always a little uncomfortable to have ask a video store clerk to unlock the X-rated mondo trash cabinet while you try to explain that, no, this guy's actually a highly respectable documentarian who just gets mixed in with this stuff sometimes.  But even despite Crazy Horse's recently racy subject matter, those edgy days are long gone.

And that's fine.  What we all really watched Wiseman's work for is still here.  In fact, if anything, Ex Libris feels more like the latest chapter in his epic, million-hour documentary he's assembling that will eventually define the entirety of the human condition.  If you've been following his work, you absolutely know what to expect, another detailed, silent observation of another system mankind has created to enrich our lives: in this case, The New York Public Library.  More behind-the-scenes boardroom meetings, more public interactions, more cutting to exterior shots every twenty or so minutes, and every so often watching day turn to night.  No narration, no score, no narrative throughput, no overt emotional manipulation, no message, no human focal point.  Just a calm, three and a half hour crafted observation.  Now, that might sound ideal, or that might make you want to slit your wrists, but that's our Wiseman.

By no message, I mean we're not being sold a particular agenda (at least not overtly).  This is no cheap "we must save the dolphins!" flick.  But there's certainly heaps to take away from this film.  For those who don't know, The NYPL isn't just one big marble building sitting somewhere around the center of NYC.  It's the sum total of 92 branches across Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island.  It's a massive resource, pulling equally from federal and private funding.  From tiny little inner city outposts packed with children's books and best sellers to packed concert halls.  And we every aspect of how they serve the community, from blind children being taught braille to museum-style art displays, replete with gala dinner.  We see the board members debate their policies, fund raisers, the massive sorting system for returns across the state, the high-tech archival work, even the celebrity speakers who gave a talk or performance during the time the film was shot.  And some of the things I had no idea they were doing... Did you know that the NYPL, in the name of eliminating the digital divide in NY, loans out internet hot spots for years at a time to impoverished residents so they can have free internet access in their homes?  Wow.

Oh, but of course, there's the other big reason most review sites aren't covering this film: it's $50 for an MOD BD-R, which is only available from Zipporah's website.  That's boxed set prices, it's not even a pressed disc, and they even kinda stick ya shipping.  And yes, it's a single disc, all 205 minutes.  Plus, the fact that they stick them in the same DVD-standard cases they use for their DVD-R editions just feels cheaper.  I understand Wiseman can't exactly adopt a mass market business plan for this type of material, but buying one of these will be a very bitter pill for most even the most ardent collectors to swallow.  And unfortunately, the time seems to be past where we could count on foreign markets to release more reasonably priced, professional quality discs like we saw with National Gallery.  Blaq Out has seen fit to make Ex Libris a DVD-only title in France, so if you want this film on blu, this is unfortunately your only option.

2018 US Zipporah Films DVD top; 2018 US Zipporah Films BD-R bottom.

So I can't help but feel compression and clarity would be stronger if they didn't try to jam so much onto a single (thankfully dual-layered) BD-R.  Still, of course, it looks better than the DVD.  Not that there's a super wide gulf, but you do see the extra sharpness when you pick out the fine details.  Older Zipporah titles used to at least spread themselves out across multiple discs, but fans might've been more bothered by having to swap discs (a throwback to the laserdisc days) mid-film than the slight dip in PQ.  And I suppose they free up a lot of that space by including absolutely no special features... yay?  The film is slightly matted to 1.85:1, and for all my BD-R grumblings, it is still an attractive, genuinely high def image.  We're given a choice between two very clean audio options: Dolby Digital 5.1 (in DTS-HD on the blu) and Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 (in PCM on the blu).  That's it for frills, no trailer or nothin'.  But at the end of the day, it's not a bad HD presentation of the film, and that's still the critical thing.

So do I recommend this release?  Ha ha - Obviously not for everybody!  It's definitely a film serious documentary lovers will appreciate, but not the sort of thing I'd go around telling the uninitiated to seek out.  Even if they're ready to start watching four-hour vérité documentaries, I'd suggest starting with High School or Domestic Violence before wading into anything from the last couple decades.  But if you're one of us, or just a profoundly dedicated aficionado of the NYPL... I still wish I could point out a more affordable alternative.  If you're rich and happy to know 75% of the purchase price is really just a donation to the Wiseman cause, then perfect.  Otherwise, you might want to consider importing the Blaq Out DVD?  I know, I know, buying SD in 2018; but it's between that, a $50 BD-R or the option most people will unfortunately wind up selecting: just passing on this and Wiseman's body of work entirely.