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Blu-ray Review: America as seen by a Frenchman

Reviewed By Jason Lockard

Arrow Video is known for their amazing Blu-ray releases. And Arrow Academy is a division under the Arrow Video Umbrella. One of the newest release under Arrow Academy is the 1960 documentary entitled "American as seen by a Frenchman".

The film was produced by documentarian François Reichenbach who spent 18 months traveling America with his 35mm camera filming the sights of the United States. He starts off with the amazing sight of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco and goes cross country ending in New York City.

There are some really interesting sights in this documentary. Including a prison rodeo, chickens playing skittles and a horse diving from a platform into a swimming pool. A really strange but interesting time in America. Along with the strange is the amazing sights of parades, aircrafts, football, ballet, and just everyday life.

The film was woven together like a basket. It is tight and the shots are pieced together seamlessly. While there is nothing overtly offensive. It is good to note there is one seen with a topless model.

The film is presented in widescreen format in High Definition (1080p) with the original uncompressed mono audio. Now it is in Frenchman but no worries there. There is the newly translated English Subtitles.  I have to say the transfer looks and sounds really nice. There is very little sign of damage to this print.

Arrow Academy puts some bonus features on this release. But they are very mynute. Let's take a look.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
* F is for French: A new video appreciation of the film by author and critic Philip Kemp
* Image gallery
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ignatius Fitzpatrick
* FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Caspar Salmon

So while most Arrow Video umbrella releases are loaded with bonus feature, you can see this one is a little less than spectacular. But by no means does that mean this is not a good release.

If you are a fan of documentary films America as seen by a Frenchman on Blu-ray will be right up your alley. You can pick up a copy of this Arrow Academy release by going to MVDShop.com or Amazon.com today


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