Criterion Premieres: Misericordia

[Ribs]

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the rights to Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia

[Red Screamer]

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the rights to Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia

I loved it and I can't wait to take friends to see it when it comes out near me. A film with formal ideas and a sense of purpose, where every shot was carefully planned! — a novelty at Cannes, somehow. I'd recommend going in cold, since the film plays a delightful cat-and-mouse game with audience expectations, as it starts off unassuming, with a set of familiar elements, and then builds, in a perfectfully controlled slow-burn, into something fairly singular.

Spoiler

My main comparison would be a rural Woman in the Window, a dry comedy made from anxiety dreams. But with the way this film works, the murder, the comedy, and the procedural elements all seem unlikely until they start to appear. The film's style is fairly classical, spatially laid out and composed for relationship dynamics, surprises, or psychological zeroing in—the recurring side characters are even treated like the vivid faces of contract players on the studio rosters of yesteryear. But this traditional form is undercut by the fact that the characters are more or less inexpressive and the streaks of surrealism and comedy keep us uncertain, or should I say the hints of possible surrealism and possible comedy, since the strength and skill of the film is in how it lives in, and continually widens, that in-between space, keeping you guessing at what it's doing and how to react.

With its limited, familiar elements, Miséricorde makes meaning through repetition: of times, locales, situations, actions. It's about rituals and how everything gets absorbed into the vortex of cyclical routines of this town, which breed a particular variety of rural claustrophobia. In opposition to that rigid structure, you have the chaotic (in terms of film conventions) element that the main character has or creates a sexual undertone with just about every other character in the movie. His faced is aged-boyish, like a vintage ragdoll of Alain Delon, and he doesn't seem to have much in the way of charm, but slowly, one by one, each of his relationships takes a sexual turn, all unfulfilled. Which is how the film turns from a rural noir into a droll comedy. In my screening, silence at the beginning gave way to the nervous titters of an audience not sure of how much of the film's humor is intentional which then in turn, in the film's final third, gave way to the roars of a room of people being won over, in fair play, in a game they didn't know was being played. The film's Catholic and gay themes are fused and deepened in this uneasy handoff between genres, as all threads climax at once in the film's disarming final stretch, with a priest being the only character whose words cut through the otherwise intentionally anodyne dialogue, as he embodies both a disturbing philosophy and the film’s simmering tenderness and loneliness without ever becoming a character we can fully trust.

I'm not yet familiar with Guiraudie's other films (a wrong that will soon be righted), but I knew going in, from attending a reading of his a few months ago, that Miséricorde and his last film, Viens, je t'emmène (aka Nobody's Hero) were drawn from his critically acclaimed novel series (Rabalaïre and Pour les siècles des siècles, so far). This film is wonderfully unliterary, so I went to go read more about the novels to see where the connection was. I was surprised to find that the books seem to be maximalist in place of Miséricorde's minimalism, and the narrative thread its based on is taken in a wild, completely different direction

Spoiler

with the priest giving some of his foraged psychedelic mushrooms to the main character to help him cope with his guilt, which results in the character's death. Which results in his soul entering the priest's body. The two souls duel over one body and over the novel's narration as they try to solve the practical, theological, and sexual problems of this situation. For example, the priest is known in the town for sleeping next to people who are recently bereaved or otherwise in need. Needless to say, that ritual becomes even dicier than it already might have been with an unpriestly mind inside of his body. All of which adds a funny shading to the final shot of this film.

[brundlefly]

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the rights to Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia

Trailer.

[Hogfather]

There's a new page for Misericordia on Janus Films' website.

[swo17]

Janus Contemporaries is now Criterion Premieres. First release, Sep 23

[domino harvey]

Wonder if they rebrand the previous releases in this line. I can only assume sales haven’t been great if they’re renaming it to emphasize Criterion

[Mark L.]

Yeah, these seem like the definition of shelf warmers (if places even still carried these in store). I know they're essentially doing us a favor putting these out physically at all, but the whole strategy of this line seems so misguided coming from Criterion. Barebones, 4k exempt, basic poster art, etc. doesn't seem to jibe with Criterion's reputation.

Janus (formerly(?) Sideshow) being announced as the distributor for something has become a bummer. I know Flow made it out of lowrent bluray jail, but I don't think Shrouds will be so lucky. I'm sure stuff like All We Imagine as Light, EO, and, especially a movie featuring their cash cow, Lynch/OZ could make back whatever a couple interviews or a short by the director costs by being part of the wacky C big kids table and getting significantly more eyes on it. It's not like the mainline stuff consistently has much more than that anyway! Speaking personally, I've skipped a couple because it's not like I'm being provided that much more value than what I'm getting on the channel.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

The whole line is quite confusing to me and it's a shame that one of the best films of the last few years like Misericordia is just being dumped with a bonus feature that's mirrored on their streaming site. I swear, they are only making these for institutions to have copies of and for the few obsessive collectors. It makes it feel like their view on contemporary films is that they're second tier with the rest of the Janus library other a few outliers like Flow and Drive My Car.

[Matt]

The new "Premieres" name could possibly indicate a shift in focus from releasing only new Janus/Sideshow films to releasing films that have never been on disc in the U.S. before. Especially films that might not have 4K restos, might not be commercially viable on UHD, or for which Criterion has few extras. So all those things that Janus has been acquiring and sitting on (hi, Kinuyo Tanaka!) could potentially get released in this line.

[Finch]

In fairness to Criterion, the European discs are similarly barebones: The UK BD from New Wave out July 28 has no extras according to the HMV listing while the French one from Blaq Out appears to have an introduction from the director and that's it.

[Oedipax]

They might as well capitalize on the name recognition of Criterion versus Janus, I suppose, but it does just feel very underwhelming in terms of extras and lack of 4K. I'm very much in the target audience for this release - love Guiraudie's films, still purchase a decent amount of physical media, etc. - but it feels like they're doing the bare minimum and it's hard not to feel like the films that end up on this line are viewed as somehow second-rate by Criterion themselves. As others have pointed out, there are other small indie labels investing way more energy into presenting infinitely crappier films in the best way possible, and it's disappointing to not see any of that happening here.

[Matt]

I think it's still a better alternative to having them be acquired by a streamer and never getting a theatrical release or disc release at all. I think the promise to filmmakers of a guaranteed theatrical release, streaming premiere, and timely disc release all from the same company is probably really appealing. Imagine making a great film like Happy as Lazzaro or Atlantics and it's just sitting on a Netflix server, buried by the algorithm.

And don't forget that the Blu-rays are priced $10 less than main line releases, $15 during a half-off sale.

[tenia]

In fairness to Criterion, the European discs are similarly barebones: The UK BD from New Wave out July 28 has no extras according to the HMV listing while the French one from Blaq Out appears to have an introduction from the director and that's it.

The French extra is a 30 min ITW with Guiraudie.

[Matt]

Wonder if they rebrand the previous releases in this line.

They do seem to have already wiped "Janus Contemporaries" off the website as a search filter. I'm sure they'll just quietly update new printings with the new branding. From what I can tell from previous releases, the only place "Janus Contemporaries" appears on the packaging is the spine.

[dwk]

[ I'm sure they'll just quietly update new printings with the new branding. From what I can tell from previous releases, the only place "Janus Contemporaries" appears on the packaging is the spine.

That is exactly what will happen, Scottie at the Blu-ray.com forum got the following email from Criterion

Hi Scott,

Thank you for reaching out. The UPC numbers will remain the same. Films that were previously announced as Janus Contemporaries will have that branding on the cover art for the time being but it's being updated to Criterion Premieres and future copies will have new lithos with that update. Stock will be mixed for those previous films.

New titles like MISERICORDIA and THE SHROUDS will have the new Criterion Premieres branding from the onset.

I hope this helps but let me know if you have any other questions.

Best,
Jon Mulvaney