241-244 Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir

[ellipsis7]

Well CORDELIER is JR's take on Jekyll and Hyde - the flipside between the evil and good that inhabit the same man, the dark side of the male psyche - and also as the intro makes clear, essentially a TV project, shot with multiple cameras, utilising new techniques...

FRENCH CAN CAN is wonderful IMHO - a celebration of his father's world, but all three films in the S&S set basically show Art (and the female) triumphing over politics, ambition, materialism, aggression (the masculine imperative) etc.... Submit to Art JR says and we have the best the world has to offer, and the best of worlds - this in the wake of WWII and his return to Europe and France - a philosophy espoused by Renoir senior, reframed in the 1950s by JR through this trilogy of period pieces...

[jbaart]

Has anyone bought the UK release of Golden Coach? I'd be very interested whether this has the same problems as the CC one.

[PillowRock]

For anyone in the Washington DC area: French Cancan will be showing at the National Art Gallery on January 29.

[hearthesilence]

Ah, I'm guessing it's the recent Gaumont restoration. I saw it at MoMA a few months ago, and it looked great - would've been better if it was film, but if it was shot in three-strip Technicolor and they had to do digital realignment on the negative, it's understandable.

[solaris72]

A newer restoration of The Golden Coach is streaming on Amazon Prime. Wasn't looking carefully but didn't notice any problems in the final minutes.

[Tuppence]

For anyone wondering, Raro Video USA's new Blu-ray of The Golden Coach is the same English-language version as the Criterion, looks tons better (from a new 2K restoration), and has no Technicolor-registration issues at all in the final moments.

If you combine these with the BFI Blu-ray of French Cancan, and the Gaumont Blu-ray of Elena and Her Men, you get a very satisfying upgrade for all three.

[tenia]

I suppose it's the 2k 2012 restoration from Digimages ?

[onedimension]

Too bad Coach was poached, that would've been a nice trio to reissue..

Does French Cancan have a 4k restoration?

[Peacock]

I’m hoping someone can compare the Raro encode with the TF1 to see if it’s worth double dipping.

[Tuppence]

I suppose it's the 2k 2012 restoration from Digimages ?

It is, yes. The opening restoration title card looks awful and low resolution, with horrible artifacting, but the film proper looks very nice. Maybe I'm being less critical, because it's nearly the 20th anniversary of Criterion's subpar DVD, but watching this Blu-ray was like an oasis in the desert.