I watched it, and it's a great film, but it's one I'll need to watch again (and again).
In terms of comparisons, it feels a bit like a feature-length combination of Christopher Maclaine's
The End and Marker's
La Jetee. It's drifting and dreamlike but very concrete, composed rather like a mosaic: lots of small (beautiful black and white) shots of details of setting, location and the existential protagonist, in provocative juxtaposition with one another and with more sweeping architectural shots (there's a seriously incredible crane / zoom shot at the end of the film that takes in an entire neighbourhood, and the city beyond, in one extended, seemingly impossible looping / swirling gesture) accompanied by Perec's text, narrated in the English version by Shelley Duvall.
Normally, I'd prefer the original French voice-over with subtitles, but that would really compromise the film, which seems to me to work very consciously in parallel visual and aural dimensions. I found when watching the film that it was extremely hard to follow the 'narrative' of both dimensions simultaneously (even though they're not obviously divergent - a large part of the film 'illustrates' the narration), and found my consciousness switching between the two (which is one big reason why I know I need to rewatch it) - something that doesn't happen with the two precursors I mentioned above. Turning the narration into another visual element (via subtitles) would cause the film to function in an entirely different way, and I'd probably be missing much more.
I haven't dipped into the extras yet, and it's a shame they're not subtitled, but congratulations for getting such an extrordinary and rewarding film out in such a great, relatively English-friendly edition. What else have you got up your sleeves?
Here's a DVD Beaver review with some representative screen captures.
