People that live quiet lives alone and generally keep to themselves might related to Patrice Leconte’s Monsieur Hire. This picture looks at a man who is a loner but finds love through a window.

This is the tragic story of Hire (Michel Blanc, Strike It Rich, The Odd Job) a middle-aged man who lives alone and seems to be both content and somewhat unhappy with life. He lives alone in France and keeps to himself except when he goes bowling where he performs some tricks to please his audience. His neighbors think he’s a weirdo. And he just might be, as he is a peeping tom voyeur, constantly staring out his window looking at a younger, attractive female, Alice (Sandrine Bonnaire, Secret Defense, Stolen Life) who lives across the way. She has a boyfriend, Emile (Luc Thuillier, Le Jaguar, Rouge baiser) who would like to marry her. Heir himself has fallen in love with Alice which conflicts him. Alice does catch him spying at her and soon they start to talk to each other and go out together. Hire admits to Alice that he witnessed Emile murder a young woman and when he left his bloody raincoat (the evidence) behind, Hire took it and put it in a locker. He is tailed by a police detective (Andre Wilms, The Forbidden Room, Maigret) who suspects him of the murder. Hire refuses to tell the inspector that the murderer being Emile, as it will affect Alice, who Hire himself loves deeply. Hire unfortunately, is the lead murder suspect because his neighbors not only think he is a strange, creepy individual, but he says nothing to clear himself to the inspector. If he just tells the detective the truth, he will be cleared immediately but he wants to protect Alice. Heir’s life of an introvert suddenly has become complicated!

Monsieur Hire is a compelling tale and deep character study which tells of the title character. Michel Blanc is perfect as the troubled, lonely Hire. Alice is sort of the fem fatale, but she is passionate and caring, unlike many fem fatales from years past that you would see in a film noir. The 1989 film has received many accolades and rightly so and won Best Foreign Film at the 27th Annual Guldbagge Awards.

The Cohen Film Collection, which is part of Cohen Media has released Monsieur Hire is presented on Blu-ray. At the start of the film, there is brief text card announcing the restoration in 2020 done by Pathé in 4K. The 1080p transfer with the 4K scan looks quite stunning with strong, bold colors, especially on the bluish side of the spectrum and appears to be the dominant color on this Blu-ray. The color palette tends to be on the cool side often. Some parts of the film also tend to have a dark yellow hue to them. The scenery also is highly detailed with rich textures. Black levels also are nice and inky with great shadow details. The boost in contrast helps to make the image quality look as good as ever. Flesh tones look accurate with close-ups of the actors faces showing lots of detail as well. The delightful cinematography by Denis Lenoir stands out well here on this Blu-ray. Film grain is present throughout. No DNR or other artificial enhancements appear to have been applied.

The Monsieur Hire Blu-ray features a French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack. The sound effects for the movie are more on the mild side, save for a thunderstorm scene where Alice finally sees Hire spying on her, which is my favorite scene in the movie. Michael Nyman’s musical score sounds great throughout, and the dialogue is crisp and clean throughout. The subtitles are forced for this release. No issues such as drop-offs or hissing were detected.

Supplements include a new Interview with Director Patrice Leconte and star Sandrine Bonnaire. They were done separately and edited to where they are commenting about each other or about the same topic. It is subtitled in English.

The release also has an audio commentary by Wade Major, producer/host of the DigiGods podcast, film critic for CineGods and KPCC FilmWeek and a trailer.

Monsieur Hire is an excellent thought-provoking picture that should be seen by those who have a passion or great interest in world cinema. The Cohen Media release has excellent audio and video quality, plus some supplements that make this a recommended release!

Monsieur Hire

Director- Patrice Leconte

Cast- Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire

Country of Origin- France

Distributor – Cohen Media

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date –11/6/2022