Twentynine Palms

A crisp transfer of the feature, as is to be expected.

The Making Of featurette is one of those cheap and cheerless efforts, thrown together in about 10 minutes, intercutting interviews with the director and male lead with desultory and unilluminating "behind the scenes footage. Writer/director Bruno Dumont is refreshingly candid and matter-of-fact, while actor David Wissak generally rambles pointlessly.

Interview With The Producer is reasonably engaging. He discusses his working relationship with Dumont since they collaborated on La Vie De Jesus 10 years ago and reveals how Twentynine Palms came to be conceived and shot during a location scout for another film, since postponed, called The End.

A gallery of the striking poster artwork gives those who cannot bear to sit through the entire film a taste of George Lechaptois' striking photography.

Finally, there is a chance to see the original French trailer, which has been edited like a music video (without the music) to give an impression that the film is a taut thriller. Doubtless this was intended to entice the first wave of cinemagoers, but I can't understand why distributors don't simply market films like this to their intended audiences. Misleading them only encourages bad word-of-mouth and is ultimately self-defeating.

Viewers have the option of either a French, or English language, menu and French, or English language, subtitles.