THE CRIMSON RIVERS is one of my favorite movies (starring Jean Reno). It is an intense crime thriller that keeps moving with all the clues in plain sight with a twist at the end of the movie (not dwelled on too much because the director wanted to keep the movie moving forward). The novel is based on the novel by Jean-Christophe Grange (who also co-wrote the screenplay). THE CRIMSON RIVERS spawned a sequel and a TV series. The movie has some beautiful locations mixed with some great cinematography (some done with a happy accident due to the camera lens getting foggy due to how cold it was at night which adds to one of the scenes).

The story follows Comissaire Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno) who is called to a remote French Alps university town to investigate a grisly murder. He uncovers secrets and lies as more murders happen. His case collides with another case being investigated in the nearby town of Sarzac by Detective Inspector Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel). The two must work together to solve the crimes before it is too late when both Niemans and Max like to work alone (and Niemans doesn't care to share information on the case). THE CRIMSON RIVERS still stands up after all of these years since I last watched it.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
There are two new interviews for this edition on the blu-ray (which is region B locked):
Interview with author Jean-Christophe Grange (as he talks about his career as a writer, how THE CRIMSON RIVERS ended up getting adapted quickly and what he thought of the cast and director, and how he came up with new stories for THE CRIMSON RIVERS TV series years later) and Director of Photography Thierry Arbogast (who shot both CRIMSON RIVERS movies and he talks about how it as to work with directors of those respective films). Most of the extras including the audio commentaries have carried over from previous blu-ray and DVD editions of the movie. Also it includes a double sided poster that features the new art created for the Curzon Film 4K and the original French poster art on the other side.

Audio commentary by Director Mathieu Kassovitz, and stars Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel
THE INVESTIGATOR- 52 minute making-of documentary about the making of THE CRIMSON RIVERS about how they changed things from the book and regretfully cut a character out while rewriting the script as they filmed the movie

Featurettes:
THE CORPSE (26:42)- behind-the-scenes look at how the corpse sequence was created and filmed.
THE CAR CHASE (9:17)- find out how they created the car chase late in the movie
MOUNTAIN SEQUENCE (10:42)- a look at the locations used for the mountain sequences and the unsafe conditions that kept the actors on their toes.

Theatrical trailer for THE CRIMSON RIVERS

The things that didn't port over from the Sony Pictures DVD are the filmographies, the production notes, and the DVD insert interview with director Mathieu Kassovitz. Also the English dubbed track on the Sony DVD and Kino Lorber blu-ray isn’t included on the Curzon Film release.

FINAL ANALYSIS: It was great rewatching THE CRIMSON RIVERS so soon after the Kino Lorber blu-ray from a couple of years back. The 4K transfer (based on a new 4K restoration) on the 4K disc looks great (which averages 60 MBps to over 80 MBps) and it is region free if you're just looking to watch the movie in the best quality ever without worrying about getting a region free player to play the extras on the blu-ray.

This review is ©3-23-2023 and 1-1-2026 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com