Pathfinder

[domino harvey]

Pathfinder are releasing a group of films under the awkwardly-phrased banner "The Colette's Heroines Collection" on Tuesday: La Seconde, Duo, Julie de Carneilhan, and Le ble en herbe. I'm familiar with Colette but not any of these films-- can anyone vouch for/warn against any of them?

Also, some real A+ MS Paint design on the covers, as per Pathfinder's usual:



(And this is the best cover of the lot, despite looking like the film stars porn star James Deen-- wait, does it star James Deen?)

[martin]

I saw Le blé en herbe on TV in the 90's. It's probably a pretty average TV film but I remember it because of Sophie Aubry (the blonde on the cover). She's since appeared in some films by Benoit Jacquot and Olivier Assayas, and not least in the sublime Le plus bel âge.... I'd actually like to revisit this film.

What's Pathfinder's reputation these days? I've seen some early Chabrol-releases that were absolutely horrible (single-layer, non-anamorphic, interlaced, and with ugly compression artefacts).

[Orlac]

Well Pathfinder managed to make their anamorphic re-issue of Master of the Flying Guillotine look worse than the non-anamorphic dvd (now there's a film that deserves the Criterion treatment!)

[domino harvey]

So, I bit on Le Blé en herbe and can report that while the film is sourced from video (it may have been cut on video, since it's a TV movie), the transfer is actually not bad for Pathfinder: it's progressive and the subs are optional. I don't think that this movie has made it to DVD anywhere else in the world either, so as far as having no other options go, it's obviously a winner. Caps:

[martin]

Optional subs is actually more than I had expected. Thanks for the captures.

[domino harvey]

According to MMM, every Pathfinder release just went out of print