July 2004 Criterion titles

[asphodel5]

It looks to be a great month for classic French cinema!

Carne's Port of Shadows

Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean (Jean Gabin), an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and kindness turn him into front-page news. Also starring the blue-eyed phenomenon Michèle Morgan in her first major role, and the menacing Michel Simon, Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) starkly portrays an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with their own destinies. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, the inimitable team of director Marcel Carné and writer Jacques Prévert deliver a quintessential example of poetic realism, one of the classics of the golden age of French cinema.

New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound

Interviews with director Marcel Carné, writer Jacques Prévert, and stars Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan

New essay by acclaimed cultural historian Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York

Original theatrical trailer

Poster gallery

New and improved English subtitle translation

Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

More!

Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir

Near the end of his long and celebrated career, master filmmaker Jean Renoir indulged his lifelong obsession with life-as-theater and directed The Golden Coach (1953), French Cancan (1955), and Elena and Her Men (1956), three delirious film, infatuated with the past, love, and artifice. Awash in jubilant Technicolor, each film interweaves public display and private feelings through the talents of three immortal film icons—Anna Magnani, Jean Gabin, and Ingrid Bergman. The Criterion Collection is proud to present these three majestic films by Jean Renoir for the first time on DVD.

New high definition digital transfers of all three features, with restored image and sound

Introductions to The Golden Coach and Elena and Her Men by Jean Renoir

Video introduction to The Golden Coach by director Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Gangs of New York)

Video introduction to French Cancan by director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon)

Original theatrical trailers

Part two of Jean Renoir: a two-part 1993 BBC documentary by David Thompson, featuring reflections on Renoir from his family, friends, collaborators, and admirers

Collections of behind-the-scenes and publicity stills

New and improved English subtitle translations

A new essay by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum discussing all three films

More!


Elena and her Men

Set amidst the military maneuvers and Quatorze Juillet carnivals of turn-of-the-century France, Jean Renoir’s delirious romantic comedy stars Ingrid Bergman in her most sensual role as a beautiful, but impoverished Polish princess who drives men of all stations to fits of desperate love.

French Cancan

Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening of the world-renowned Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin plays the wily impresario Danglard, who makes the cancan all the rage while juggling the love of two beautiful women—an Egyptian belly-dancer and a naive working girl turned cancan star. This celebration of life, art and the City of Light—with a cameo by Edith Piaf—is a Technicolor tour de force by a master of modern cinema.

The Golden Coach

The Golden Coach (Le Carrosse d’or) is a ravishing eighteenth-century comic fantasy about a viceroy who receives an exquisite golden coach, and gives it to the tempestuous star of a touring commedia dell’arte company. Master director Jean Renoir’s sumptuous tribute to the theatre, presented here in the English version he favored, is set to the music of Antonio Vivaldi and built around vivacious and volatile star Anna Magnani.





Individual covers for the box set aren't up yet.

[MooglePorn]

I loved The Rules of the Game so much that the Renoir box set must be mine... the other I'll read about some first. I have noticed a distinct favor I have toward French cinema out of all others in the collection.

[steedecks]

Great! New titles.
Does anyone know if you can still find the Traffic Criterion in Best Buy anymore? I recently watched it and realized its greatness.

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by steedecks

Great! New titles.
Does anyone know if you can still find the Traffic Criterion in Best Buy anymore? I recently watched it and realized its greatness.

I got mine at Borders for $34.99 I believe... well worth it.

[Marq]

Originally Posted by steedecks

Great! New titles.
Does anyone know if you can still find the Traffic Criterion in Best Buy anymore? I recently watched it and realized its greatness.

It's one of the few Criterions I consistently see at various retailers. It seems very easy to find.

Thanks for the news asphodel! I look forward to your eventual reviews of them in helping me decide my interest level.

[SephirothClone]

I havent heard of the first title, but I plan on getting the Renoir set blind. All of his work I have seen so far is good, thus I figure this would be a great buy.

[manicsounds]

You forgot, but Ozu's "Early Summer"
is coming out in july also.

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=240

Originally Posted by steedecks

Great! New titles.
Does anyone know if you can still find the Traffic Criterion in Best Buy anymore? I recently watched it and realized its greatness.

I bought mine for $15 used,
I happen to see that title in used sections more than usual
Criterion releases

[Brikar99]

"Port of Shadows" sounds really interesting. I'll have to check that one out.

[manicsounds]

That Renoir boxset cover has got to be one of the ugliest
dvd covers in Criterion history.....

Looks like a real nasty generic Cereal box to me.

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by manicsounds

That Renoir boxset cover has got to be one of the ugliest
dvd covers in Criterion history.....

Looks like a real nasty generic Cereal box to me.

They were going for a Circus Poster look it seems... I think it's interesting...

[asphodel5]

Originally Posted by manicsounds

You forgot, but Ozu's "Early Summer"
is coming out in july also.

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=240

It wasn't up yet. Thanks for pointing it out!



A nuanced examination of a family falling apart, Early Summer tells the story of the Mamiya family and their efforts to marry off their headstrong daughter, Noriko, played by the extraordinary Setsuko Hara. A seemingly simple story, it is among the director’s most emotionally complex. The Criterion Collection is proud to present one of Ozu’s most enduring classics.

New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound

Audio commentary by Japanese-film expert Donald Richie, author of Ozu and A Hundred Years of Japanese Film

Ozu’s Films from Behind-the-Scenes, a conversation between Ozu producer Shizuo Yamanouchi, actor and technician Kojiro Suematsu, and assistant cameraman Takashi Kawamata

New essay by film scholar David Bordwell, author Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema

Original theatrical trailer

New and improved English subtitle translation

Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

More!

[asphodel5]

Home Vision has been productive in recent months. Since they are essentially "discount Criterion" (same company, focus on high quality a/v, etc.) I'll start including their releases in these little threads.

July
Bob Swaim's LA BALANCE
When a police informant is gunned down, a determined vice cop must recruit a new stool pigeon–one that can finally take down the unassailable mob boss. The line between the cops and gangsters becomes blurred as Dédé (Philippe Léotard, The French Connection II), a charismatic pimp, is forced to ‘rat out’ his former boss
and nemesis, the elusive Massina. Remarkable performances, especially from Nathalie Baye (Catch Me if You Can) as Dédé’s girlfriend, helped La Balance sweep the César Awards.


Claude Chabrol's LA CEREMONIE
In La Cérémonie, Claude Chabrol, known as the “French Hitchcock,” creates one of his most shocking and unforgettable thrillers. Catherine (Jacqueline Bisset, Day for Night, The Deep) hires the illiterate Sophie (Sondrine Bonnaire) as her maid. But Sophie soon falls under the influence of the mysterious Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Player, Merci pour le chocolat), and the stage is set for a tale of murder, violence and betrayal. One of Chabrol’s most acclaimed films, and winner of numerous international awards, La Cérémonie is a masterpiece of suspense.


and STORY OF WOMEN
From acclaimed director Claude Chabrol (La Cérémonie, Merci pour le chocolat) comes the compelling true story of working-class housewife Marie (Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Player, 8 Women), who performs illegal abortions in France during World War II, evading the Nazis, and betraying those she loves. Brought to life by Chabrol on actual locations, Story of Women is an honest, original, and utterly absorbing film, which won Isabelle Huppert Best Actress honors at the Venice Film Festival.

and MASQUES

Philippe Noiret (Il Postino, ‘Round Midnight) delivers a brilliant performance as a TV game show host turned killer in Claude Chabrol’s Masques. Roland Wolf is writing a book on the life of TV personality Christian Legagneur (Noiret)–or is he? He spends a weekend doing research for his project, where he meets Legagneur’s oddball friends and his juvenile charge who suffers from a mysterious ailment. A deadly game of cat and mouse, Masques will keep you guessing from first frame to last.


Bertrand Blier's UN, DEUX, TROIS, SOLEIL

From acclaimed director Bertrand Blier (Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, Too Beautiful for You) comes Un, deux, trois, soleil, the dreamlike tale of Victorine, a young girl growing up in the slums of Marseilles with her alcoholic father (Marcello Mastroianni, star of Federico Fellini’s La Dolce vita and 8½), and her crazy mother. Bizarre and surreal at the same time, reminiscent of Buñuel and Fellini, Un, deux, trois, soleil is innovative, outrageous, and a triumph for Mastroianni, in one of his most unusual roles. Also featuring Olivier Martinez (Taking Lives, Unfaithful), in his breakthrough role.

[pharoahdance]

Is the Ozu film part of a tetralogy? ____ Spring, Early Summer, ___ Autumn, ____ Winter?

[asphodel5]

Originally Posted by pharoahdance

Is the Ozu film part of a tetralogy? ____ Spring, Early Summer, ___ Autumn, ____ Winter?

Not exactly. I've only seen one of his season films, so I don't know how they fit together.

Late Spring, Early Summer, Early Spring, Late Autumn, Early Autumn, Autumn Afternoon are all of them (I think)

From what I know they are all similar family dramas, but not directly related. He uses the same cast members frequently, so that is another link.

[murphywmm]

wow, thanks for the heads-up on the home vision releases, especially "La Ceremonie'! I'm a huge Isabelle Huppert fan, and this was her only role (out of all her nominations) to win her the cesar for best actress, so I have to see it.

[manicsounds]

Criterion's got the new cover art ready for the Renoir set:

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=242
http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=243
http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=244

[jlproffitt]

Originally Posted by manicsounds

Criterion's got the new cover art ready for the Renoir set:

Well, the individual covers aren't as ghastly as the box.

I have The Rules of the Game and the prior CC Ozu's, so this is an exciting month for me.

Port of Shadows looks potentially cool. I'm still behind on getting Children of Paradise. Could be an excuse for a two-fer.

[retroboy]

Mmmm, more Renoir, Ozu and Chabrol on DVD! I haven't seen Port of Shadows, but I'm certainly intrigued. I'm so impressed with the wealth of international films Criterion keeps putting out on DVD---2004 is a banner year!