Chantal Akerman on DVD/BD

[Gregory]

As an aside, D'est has just come out on commercially-available DVD as well, which is quite exciting. I'm optimistic that we'll also see From The Other Side and South some day in the not-too-far-off future.

Has anyone actually found D'est in stock for order anywhere?

The new release seems to be available from the Icarus Films site, but I don't know what happens after one submits the order (e.g. they may be taking orders and then sending out a notice that it's been delayed). There's been at least one review of the new disc, so perhaps that's a good sign.

[kekid]

As an aside, D'est has just come out on commercially-available DVD as well, which is quite exciting. I'm optimistic that we'll also see From The Other Side and South some day in the not-too-far-off future.

Has anyone actually found D'est in stock for order anywhere?

The new release seems to be available from the Icarus Films site, but I don't know what happens after one submits the order (e.g. they may be taking orders and then sending out a notice that it's been delayed). There's been at least one review of the new disc, so perhaps that's a good sign.

I got mine through Amazon.com.

[Gregory]

That's strange. I've kept an eye on the Amazon listing for it off and on, and it now says it's discontinued by the manufacturer. Of course, Amazon claims that thousands of items have been "discontinued by the manufacturer" when no such thing is true, so I haven't given up on it yet.

[foggy eyes]

I got mine through Amazon.com.

Please divulge how.

[foggy eyes]

There's been at least one review of the new disc, so perhaps that's a good sign.

This could have been, and probably was, written without a physical copy of the disc at hand - I doubt it means anything, unfortunately. Has anybody tried ordering from Icarus directly yet? Apparently they don't ship outside the US, so I can't have a go myself...

[markhax]

There's been at least one review of the new disc, so perhaps that's a good sign.

This could have been, and probably was, written without a physical copy of the disc at hand - I doubt it means anything, unfortunately. Has anybody tried ordering from Icarus directly yet? Apparently they don't ship outside the US, so I can't have a go myself...

I ordered a copy from Icarus on October 16, so far no notification of its having been shipped.

[foggy eyes]

I ordered a copy from Icarus on October 16, so far no notification of its having been shipped.

Ah, good. Fingers crossed!

[Gregory]

There's been at least one review of the new disc, so perhaps that's a good sign.

This could have been, and probably was, written without a physical copy of the disc at hand - I doubt it means anything, unfortunately.

Yes, I know that's probably true in this case. Here is another one that's maybe a little more promising, with comments on specific things like the inclusion of a booklet and the lack of any special features. But of course it could have been canceled for some reason anyway, even if review copies already went out. I'm just clinging to whatever straws of hope I can.

[kekid]

I got mine through Amazon.com.

Please divulge how.

No secret to reveal here. I had preordered the item, and they shipped it to me.

[Gregory]

I just gave Icarus a call and the person I spoke with said they are indeed shipping them out via their online store. She couldn't hazard any guess about why it's apparently been pulled from Amazon.com and didn't seem to concerned about it. Anyway, I guess it's well worth putting in an order with Icarus.

[markhax]

I ordered a copy from Icarus on October 16, so far no notification of its having been shipped.

Got mine from Icarus today! I ordered it last Friday night, so it took less than a week. It comes with a thin booklet with an informative essay by Chantal Akerman on why she made the film.

[tavernier]

There were a couple of sellers on Amazon Marketplace who had it, so I took a chance and bought one. (I'm curious about who's sending it--maybe it's Icarus Films!)

[hearthesilence]

Last fall, when MoMA's annual restoration festival screened a few of her films, it was revealed that before Akerman's death, they were in the process of restoring her body of work. It wasn't clear if this meant every single one of her films, but the implication was that it was a huge endeavor, and I just noticed that in addition to the ones that were shown at MoMA, a number of restorations were screening in L.A. as part of the bicoastal celebration of Akerman's work. (Seems like every repertory house in NYC and L.A. is showing her work.)

Not sure how long that link will last after the month is over, so I'll paste the ones noted in the schedule:

Saute ma Ville, 1968, DCP (Restoration by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique), 13 min
Hotel Monterey, 1972, DCP (Restoration by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique), 65 min.
La Chambre 1972, DCP (Restoration by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique), 11 min.
Je tu il elle, 1974, DCP (Restoration by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique), 86 min.
News From Home, 1977, DCP (Restoration by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique), 85 min.
Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (The Meetings of Anna), 1978, 35mm (Restored by Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique), 120 min.

And of course Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles should be added to that list - saw it myself and it looked wonderful.

[hearthesilence]

Question about From the East - I'm pretty sure this was only an issue with the screening I saw, but just to be sure, during the final shot of the film, when the camera "tracks" left, passing not only people but a parked car that appears to have a camera mounted on top (a second camera unit for the film?), does the sound continue to come through loud and clear, and does the recording suddenly get muffled (sometime while that music in the background is still playing), as if the windows were suddenly all rolled up?

[senseabove]

Has there been any indication that the other Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique restorations are coming out anywhere? If there were a French-language box set I'd be tempted to pick it up to rip and use subs from other sources.

[spectre]

Oh man, I'm very much hanging out for these. Any news (even the faintest rumour) would be welcome!

[Stefan Andersson]

Co-writer Eric de Kuyper on La Captive:
https://www.sabzian.be/text/la-captive- ... al-akerman

Collection of film pages:
https://www.sabzian.be/news/chantal-akerman-1950-2015

[hearthesilence]

Much to my regret, I didn't pay close to attention to MoMA's listings for their current Chantal Akerman retrospective nor to the contents of the BFI's recent box set. I discovered too late that the BFI could not include Night and Day / Nuit et Jour, and this happened about an hour after the second and final screening of the movie at MoMA, and they actually projected a 35mm print that came from the Royal Film Archive of Belgium. Massively disappointing, but it turns out a digital SD copy is floating out there, clearly ripped from the OOP Spanish DVD released by Intermedio (a company that may not even exist anymore).

Obviously not in the same league as watching an archival print, but it's not a bad looking transfer, at least for an old DVD, and it's a pretty great movie. I'm seeing a lot of remarks calling it a commercial move of sorts with Dave Kehr (normally a huge champion of Akerman's work) dismissing it after its Chicago premiere as a tired Truffaut tribute that leans on old clichés. I'm not sure if he still feels this way, but I think that's extremely uncharitable, and while it may be a more commercial and accessible work, there shouldn't be the implication that it's somehow compromised or watered down - it's a great film that shares a lot with her past work, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen a more thoughtful and mature film about the intoxicating but solispistic nature of young love, especially one as rich and sympathetic as this one.

Like some of her most famous work, the narrative trajectory is one of disintegration - we started at the emotional and physical height of relationship, and we see how it begins to crack and break apart from a combination of inevitable factors (the encroaching outside world, the inevitable future one must face that makes such a state in relationships unsustainable in the long run, and of course the love triangle that becomes the heart of the film). It's pretty beautiful how this is depicted aesthetically, even down to the sound design - playing off discussions of children that come up during the film, the sound of children is especially potent during the few moments it appears over the soundtrack. More impressive is the staging and the visuals, having a theatrical like (and even painterly like) artifice that accentuates how much the characters have constructed their own private world while attempting to shut out everything else on the outside. The same aesthetic even extends to the dream-like nighttime scenes around Paris - during one courtship scene involving that second relationship, the Paris traffic seems to circle the characters like dancers in a musical ballet, adding to the imagined magic of such moments, but later on when such illusions are crumbling apart, the same cars nearly mow them down over and over again. The world doesn't actually revolve around them, they're really at the mercy of the world. And appropriately, while the opening scenes look like a stage production emulating a painting, the final one is more or less documentary, filmed in the real world under sunlight rather than artificial light, and populated by Parisians that seem to be going about their daily business (whereas before they were mostly absent or seen in situations that either felt very much staged or abstract). Jules and Jim may be an inspiration, but I don't think one should oversell the idea and leave the impression that Akerman is trafficking in the same ideas - they're very different films and what they share is fairly basic and minimal.

From what I can tell, Akerman's film had its champions in the U.S. (Amy Taubin and Jim Hoberman put it in their top ten lists for 1992 and Jonathan Rosenbaum gave it high praise when it opened in Chicago in 1993) but I don't get the impression many people see it as a major work, with few writing much about it even when they generally like it. I'm not sure what the rights situation is, but since MoMA screened a 35mm print, I'm guessing it hasn't been restored yet. (Again, Akerman's entire output was supposed to be restored, so I'm guessing that ongoing project hasn't quite reached the end yet.) Whenever that happens, hopefully it'll get a reissue of some kind.