Gaumont French Releases

[tenia]

Many other titles are concerned, like Le sucre, Cousin cousine, Le rouge est mis and some of the Pialat.

[L.A.]

Hopefully the upcoming Jean Epstein Blu stays in pristine condition for all eternity.

[tenia]

They are pressed by Media Industry, which is the new group employing QOL, the manufacturer with the most numerous issues in France. However, they partnered with Sonopress in Germany, which has a much better record, so any guess is as good as mine, though I do believe the peak productions are behind us.

[Aunt Peg]

Many other titles are concerned, like Le sucre, Cousin cousine, Le rouge est mis and some of the Pialat.

Just checked my Cousin cousine on 4 machines and its dead

Did watch Pialat's Police last night and it played fine - my spot check on some of his others were also fine.

[artfilmfan]

Are the Pialat Blu rays at risk? I need to check my copies. Even if they work now, what is the chance that they won’t work a few years from now? Will buying extra copies of the Gaumont releases for backup make sense? Maybe some discs that are still available were pressed later than the original releases?

[Aunt Peg]

Are the Pialat Blu rays at risk? I need to check my copies. Even if they work now, what is the chance that they won’t work a few years from now? Will buying extra copies of the Gaumont releases for backup make sense? Maybe some discs that are still available were pressed later than the original releases?

Its hard to say. I think we are going to have to wait and see. I'm planning on watch Van Gogh & Under Satan's Sun just in case they go off in the future as I haven't seen either since first release.

Buying second disc replacements is risky because you could get another dud. My plan is just hope for a future non French release. For A Man Escaped I simply purchased the British disc to replace my French disc.

[tenia]

Bluraydefectueux.com has a consumer-generated list of the most concerned titles.
The best way to test the discs are to scan them on a computer using softwares like VSO Inspector or scanning all files with BD Info.
Most labels are still offering replacements, but these often go through the manufacturers and some are taking ages to send out replacements because they are not making this a priority and don't allocate the adequate resources for this (they explicitly told me so over the phone). Media Industry are the worst in this regard : it took them 4 months (and a few phone calls from me) to replace my Old Boy and Halloween II discs.
They also consider this is pretty much a favor they're doing for both the labels and the consumers because seemingly, some manufacturers think a 5 years life-span for a BD is more that it was supposed to last.

[TMDaines]

Bluraydefectueux.com has a consumer-generated list of the most concerned titles.
The best way to test the discs are to scan them on a computer using softwares like VSO Inspector or scanning all files with BD Info.
Most labels are still offering replacements, but these often go through the manufacturers and some are taking ages to send out replacements because they are not making this a priority and don't allocate the adequate resources for this (they explicitly told me so over the phone). Media Industry are the worst in this regard : it took them 4 months (and a few phone calls from me) to replace my Old Boy and Halloween II discs.
They also consider this is pretty much a favor they're doing for both the labels and the consumers because seemingly, some manufacturers think a 5 years life-span for a BD is more that it was supposed to last.

Looks like I just have one of these, Elena et les Hommes. Will crack it open and find out for the 1950s list project.

[Aunt Peg]

Are the Pialat Blu rays at risk? I need to check my copies. Even if they work now, what is the chance that they won’t work a few years from now? Will buying extra copies of the Gaumont releases for backup make sense? Maybe some discs that are still available were pressed later than the original releases?

Just thought I should add that since watching Police I have also rewatched Under Satan's Sun & Van Gogh - both played fine. These are the only three French Pialat releases I have. Only just found that that two of these films along with some of Pialat's earlier work are available on Blu Ray in the US via Cohen Media so I might double dip. Don't know if they are region locked or not but as I'm region free its not an issues. Van Gogh is also available in the UK.

Should be noted that the French discs were released in 2013 and all my failed Gaumont discs are from 2010. So maybe they'll remain fine or in a couple of years go the same way as the 2010 discs. Only time will tell.

Must add that it was great to actually finally see the films in their correct ration in pristine condition. I had only ever seen the three of them on broadcast TV.

[artfilmfan]

I’ve checked and my Pialat and French Cancan Blu rays still work. I also bought the BFI release of French Cancan a while back; therefore, there is a backup plan for that.
I’ll keep an eye on those alternative releases of the Pialat titles and if the prices drop, ...
But, here’s hoping that my copies of the Pialat Blu rays will continue to work for at least 50 more years (or until Blu ray players are no longer available, whichever comes first)!

[PillowRock]

I bumped Cousin Cousine from my kevyip to watch yesterday. The main menu screen was very balky, with the the video stopping and starting every few seconds. However, I got lucky and the movie played all the way through without problems. Given the state of the menu screen, I doubt the movie will play for much longer.

[Aunt Peg]

I bumped Cousin Cousine from my kevyip to watch yesterday. The main menu screen was very balky, with the the video stopping and starting every few seconds. However, I got lucky and the movie played all the way through without problems. Given the state of the menu screen, I doubt the movie will play for much longer.

I'm in the process of watching all of my French Blu Rays. My Querelle had trouble loading on one machine but a chapter skip proved fine. It loaded fine on 3 other players. Nevertheless I've ordered the UK edition because its probably just a matter of time and I'll have to bin the Gaumont edition.

Also, Fellini's Casanova (from Carlotta or Wildside?) had trouble loading the menu in one player but a chapter skip proved fine. It too loaded fine on 3 other players. Hopefully just a case of a Blu Ray player on its way out but we'll see in a few more years.

[tenia]

Fellini's Casanova is from Carlotta.

[DeprongMori]

Artificial Eye releases L’Atalante & The Films of Jean Vigo in October. Wonder what this includes.

Does anyone know what happened to this release? Was it a casualty of the acquisition of Artificial Eye by Cohen Film Group? (Presumably it will see light of day once the acquisition is fully digested.)

[Stefan Andersson]

Among the June 3 Gaumont releases are:
Toni, Renoir, a new 4K resto with English subs
Les Félins/Joy House, 1964, with the original French dub and the English dub, plus English subs
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... 10&page=25
https://gaumontpresse.fr/fiche/les-felins/1699 (see under Photo for a clickable image of the back of the Blu disc; I enlarged the image and could barely read the specs about the two soundtracks)

[ellipsis7]

That'll presumably be the same 4K resto of TONI that is coming to Criterion too...

[tenia]

Yes, Toni's 4K restoration was commissioned by Gaumont and that's what Criterion will be using (but with a worse encode of course).

[Calvin]

Hopefully an equivalent UK release of Toni will be announced (MoC?), but the extras on the Criterion are probably enough to make up for any encoding deficiencies for me.

There are a number of Gaumont restorations that I'm waiting to get announced for Blu-Ray release - Tih Minh, L'Enfance nue, Le Garçu, La Fin du monde - that will hopefully be announced sooner rather than later, and not as subtitle-less decouverte releases...

Are the Feuillade and Vigo sets OOP or just out of stock at Amazon due to Covid?

[L.A.]

Phew, Jean Vigo set in stock. Ordered.

[nitin]

Do Gaumont do replacements for discs that have bronzed/died?

If not, and you have to rebuy the title again, do we know if Gaumont's represses are prone to the same issue?

My Les Riveries Pourpres blu no longer works in any of my players.

[tenia]

It's... complicated. They do, but you need to call them at this French phone number (01 46 43 20 00), contact them through this page, or try their Tweeter account.
However, with the pandemic, the person in charge of these replacements is working from home, so it's said to best to wait until September to ask for replacements.

The repressings are hard to keep track of without someone having recently bought a seemingly-new copy and being able to state first-hand what's what. There are too many variables to know what might have been repressed, when and if it has been pressed at a different more reliable plant.

Are the Feuillade and Vigo sets OOP or just out of stock at Amazon due to Covid?

In case of doubt, check FNAC.com, they have been more consistently supplied, while there have been too many hiccups with Amazon to make them readable enough regarding OOP or simple OOS status.

[Calvin]

Thanks! I was holding out for the Artificial Eye release, but that doesn't appear to be forthcoming.

--

I notice that there are some 3 for 2 deals on at amazon.fr, that annoyingly don't let you mix and match. For example, the Finis terrae + La Femme du Bout du Monde and Daïnah la métisse Blu-Rays are both in 'Obtenez 3 au prix de 2' promotions - but different ones. What's included in the deals also seems to be changing quite frequently, as I could swear when I checked last week that Finis terrae wasn't on offer but Pattes Blanches and Je t'attendrai were

[tenia]

It might be that the included titles are added progressively. It wouldn't be a first.

[Calvin]

A wave of Pialat Blu-Rays coming on October 7th - Le garçu, L’enfance nue, Passé ton bac d’abord and Gueule ouverte. The latter two are available stateside in Cohen's Pialat Vol. 1 but Le garçu and L’enfance nue will be making their Blu-Ray debuts. It will mean that La maison des bois is the only Pialat unavailable on Blu-Ray (and still unavailable with English subs).

[Calvin]

Artwork for the October Pialat titles:

Spoiler

L'Enfance Nue and Le garçu are both advertised as new 4K restorations, while La Gueule Ouverte and Passe ton bac d'abord are from 2K masters (advertsied as new, but I'm not sure what the Cohen releases use and if these are just new to France).

L'Enfance Nue will include Pialat's Turkish shorts, but unrestored. In response to a question on the DVDClassik forums, I see that Gaumont have no plans to upgrade The House in the Woods; it's owned by INA, so the ball is presumably in their court when it comes to restoring it.

Also out October 7th is Gilles Grangier's Le cave se rebiffe starring Jean Gabin, which is the middle part of the Max le Menteur trilogy that also includes Touchez pas au grisbi and Les tontons flingueurs.