I came here to see if it was an older movie that had just became popular or re-released but it says 2014.
sharePicture resolution (HD) has absolutely nothing to do with the aspect ratio (16x9) of the picture. But, to answer your question, yes, "they" have HD in France, as does everyone else on the planet who can afford, and chooses to use, HD equipment.
shareYep, it's really strange that it's not widescreen. It was obviously the director's decision because he probably thought, "Hey I'm gonna 'experiment' and go back to the pre-2000 standard. Surely people will love my intelligent creativity." Then again, it is France, and they've always been kinda weird when it comes to cinema.
shareThat implies almost all films have the same 16x9 aspect ratio and this film is some sort of weird outlier, which is just not true. A film's DP (director of photography) decides with the director what 'shape' they want the film to be, for any number of reasons. This film was shot in the Academy ratio, probably intended as a throwback to classic cinema melodramas (almost all films were shot in Academy ratio before 1952; the old movie music playing at their first encounter reinforces this) - but there have been plenty of other recent films shot this way, for example the 2011 Best Picture winner The Artist. In any case, the more 'square'ish shape was used beautifully in this film to frame some amazing shots.
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