A Woman Kills appears in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though it came with positives, the image’s inconsistencies harmed it.
In particular, prints flaws became a concern. While some scenes escaped unmarred, plenty of others showed specks, nicks, gates hairs and other blemishes. These could’ve been more extreme, but they nonetheless created fairly persistent distractions.
Sharpness varied. Much of the movie showed reasonably solid delineation, but more than a few soft shots materialized as well.
Still, definition became a relative positive, and I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects. Grain felt light but fairly natural.
Blacks seemed generally deep, while shadows offered appropriate clarity. We found some positives here, but between he occasional softness and the print flaws, I thought this became a spotty presentation.
As for the film’s LCPM monaural soundtrack, it actually provided a stereo affair – sort of. Most of the mix remained centered, but exceptions occurred.
In particular, voiceovers stemmed from the front right, as did occasional snatches of other dialogue and some effects. Eventually, a lot of the track blended to the right without rhyme or reason, which made me wonder if a problem occurred during the encoding, as I found no logical reason for this choice.
Some actual stereo music popped up at times, and other components like fire spread across the front in a broad manner. All of this created a semi-mono impression that lacked consistency.
Audio quality felt dated and occasionally problematic as well. Speech varied from reedy but decent to rough and edgy.
Music also came across as shrill much of the time, and effects showed some distortion. Note that the movie used some elements clearly recorded in more modern times. While those showed superior reproduction, they didn’t blend well with the older stems.
Hiss seeped through at times, though not on a consistent basis. Given the movie’s age and origins, this didn’t become a terrible mix, but it came with real problems.
As we shift to extras, we open with an audio commentary from film critics Kat Ellinger and Virginie Sélavy. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story and characters, historical relevance, cast and crew, thoughts about the film and a few production tidbits.
While we don’t learn a ton about the shoot itself, Ellinger and Sélavy nonetheless offer good context for the movie as well as insights connected to its period and genre. This turns into an engaging and informative chat.
We can view the movie with or without an introduction from Sélavy. She provides some basics about the movie and those involved in this decent lead-in to the flick.
On the Margin offers a 37-minute, 51-second documentary. It offers notes from director Jean-Denis Bonan, cinematographer Gérard de Battista, filmmaker Mireille Abramovici, composer Daniel Laloux and actor Jackie Raynal.
We get a look at Bonan’s career, with an emphasis on Kills. Though never especially tight, this becomes a reasonable overview.
In addition to a modern-day trailer - since the movie never got a release in 1968 – we finish with five short films. All directed by Jean-Denis Bonan, we find 1962’s The Short Life of Monsieur Meucieu (13:04), 1965’s A Crime of Love (6:53), 1966’s Sadness of the Anthrophagi (23:38), 1967’s Crazy Mathieu (17:01) and 1967’s A Season With Mankind (18:43). Note that only rushes exist for Crime, so Bonan narrates the incomplete plot as we watch.
As expected, these films tend to lean toward the experimental/avant garde side of the street, though they do get a bit more “conventional” as they go. For instance, Crazy Mathieu attempts more coherent narrative than does Short Life.
Still, all lean toward self-indulgence and vary from “borderline watchable” to “goofy as hell”. Whatever my feelings about the shorts, though, they offer a nice addition to the package.
An impressionistic take on a serial killer story, A Woman Kills feels too artsy for its own good. Little more than a collection of semi-connected scenes in search of a plot, the movie becomes a silly bore. The Blu-ray delivers lackluster picture and audio along with a good batch of bonus materials. Not much works here.