342-348 Six Moral Tales

[justeleblanc]

Ishmael, I have a paperback of a 1970s printing of Faulkner's WILD PALMS, before the text corrections. The binding is used as well. I have the corrected version and I've read through it and liked it, but if I were to read the book again, I'd probably read the 70s text. Now, all I'm saying is you can get pleasure from watching an old print of a great film, as opposed to waiting for Criterion to release it. That's all I'm saying.

Ishmael, I mean... come on.

[Narshty]

Though truthfully, there's something great about watching a bad print of a great movie. Maybe someone will back me up on this one, but with Rohmer especially, I felt like I was reading from an old 14th century manuscript.

Totally agree, but may I be bold enough to suggest a new thread?

[GringoTex]

But I'm willing to accept the fact that Rohmer may not even agree with me.

Rohmer would completely agree with you. As he's acknowledged in interviews, he literally spends months scouting locations for his films, and often cheats the geography of those locations (shot in one spot, reverse shot in another) to achieve a very exact composition. He's obsessed with mise-en-scene, but he also believe in the complete invisibility of the camera. Viewers normally only remember the visual styles where the camera is an overt force.

So while Rohmer's visuals may not be as "memorable" as Antonioni's, they're just as important to the viewing of the film. You want a director who combines his dialogue with his visuals willy nilly, see Woody Allen (yes, there are a few exceptions in his work).

[kieslowski_67]

Well, I cannot believe that "red desert" or "in the mood for love" can be truly appreciated with a horrordeous transfer. However, the Rohmer fans have survived the worst treatment of any major auteurs on DVD (save Satyajit Ray) and his films still attract major fan base. This might only be opinion of minority, but after having watched nearly all Rohmer works on DVD, I have to say that visual narrative is not the thing that attracts me to Rohmer. A crappy release of Fox Lorber's "summer" (the green ray) is still tremendously enjoyable. All Rohmer's contemporary pieces are like character studies of your friends and relatives. You laugh and cry with their highs and lows. I don't know what more praise I can heap on any auteurs and their works.

[Gigi M.]

A few words about by Robert Harris over at HTF

[What A Disgrace]

Back cover arts.

Six Moral Tales, Bakery Girl of Monceau, Suzanne's Career, My Night at Maud's, La colletionneuse, Claire's Knee, Love in the Afternoon

[colinr0380]

Tim Lucas has also looked at the boxset on his Video Watchblog column.

[Narshty]

No sign of windowboxing on any of those captures. Can it be?

[souvenir]

No sign of windowboxing on any of those captures. Can it be?

Windowboxed

[kieslowski_67]

Windowboxed

So what? "Six moral tales" has never looked so good on DVDs and I cannot wait to watch it after my preordered box set arrives next month.

This is easily my DVD of the year although I have a soft spot for MK2's "double life Veronique".

[justeleblanc]

i have a soft spot for the unreleased criterion veronique

and about windowboxing, i'll just watch these on a television that it's made for and all is well.

[kieslowski_67]

Criterion accidentally leaked out the information that they are considering to release "double life of Veronique" in 2046 on condition that the earth still exists by then.

[Toxicologist]

Not picked this up as yet and was wondering whether this was more of an objective look or just overly harsh?

[Gigi M.]

Don't get me wrong. These six films are wonderful examples of Eric Rohmer's singular style. But the Six Moral Tales as a box set comes up painfully short, mostly in the value department. Audio and video qualities are hit-and-miss, and even though there are two books included in this edition, there is no excuse for spreading the content over six discs. For Rohmer aficionados and carte blanche Criterion freaks only – all others should rent before dropping coin on this one.

Considering the $100 ($65 at DVD Planet) price tag, this looks like a very disappointed set. What I mean, this is clearly not the Doinel Set, nor Casavettes Five Films monster set.

[denti alligator]

Considering the $100 ($65 at DVD Planet) price tag, this looks like a very disappointed set. What I mean, this is clearly not the Doinel Set, nor Casavettes Five Films monster set.

How so? There are more films on this set than on either the Doinel or Cassavetes.

[arsonfilms]

Considering the $100 ($65 at DVD Planet) price tag, this looks like a very disappointed set. What I mean, this is clearly not the Doinel Set, nor Casavettes Five Films monster set.

I haven't recieved my copy yet, but I'd just like to point out that this has the same SRP as the much beloved Doinel Set you mentioned, but has 12 films, two books, and a number of other supplements. At least on paper (and not taking into account the quality of the films themselves), it would seem that the Moral Tales set actually has more value and content dollar-for-dollar than the Doinel box, regardless of what DVD File says.

Just playing Devil's advocate...

[ellipsis7]

$11 a disc - not bad... A lot of the Rohmer films are originated on Standard 16 mm negative, with probably an optical soundtrack - accounts for some technical shortfall...

BTW Gary the Beaver gives it a big thumbs up...

[souvenir]

Considering the $100 ($65 at DVD Planet) price tag, this looks like a very disappointed set. What I mean, this is clearly not the Doinel Set, nor Casavettes Five Films monster set.

There are six of Rohmer's short films and the aforementioned two books/booklets though. The Cassavetes set retails for $125 and the Doinel set, while not lacking in the extras department, does have less content than the Rohmer box (four feature-length films, including the mediocre at best Love on the Run, plus the half hour Antoine and Colette versus four feature-length films and two shorter Moral Tales). Also, for those ordering from DVD Planet, there's really no excuse not to use the $5 of $60 coupon they have each month and bring the cost to just under $60 so, even without having the box yet, I'd say it's no worse a deal than other Criterion sets.

[Gigi M.]

How so? There are more films on this set than on either the Doinel or Cassavetes.

Like the reviewer said, this set could've easily been a three discer. Probably the best features are the books, so I'll give it a buy anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love Rohmer's moral tales, especially Chloe in the Afternoon and Clair's Knee.

[Narshty]

I don't buy Restaino's take on it for several reasons.

1. It's still cheaper than the Fox Lorber releases.
2. It comes with a reprint of the Six Moral Tales book, the cheapest copy of which on Amazon is currently going for $127.43. This should quell anyone's fears about "value for money" right then and there.
3. It's painfully obvious he's not looked at any of the extras. At least he didn't stoop to cutting and pasting them off Criterion's site (like our friends at DVD Movie Central who just had to get the first review of Seven Samurai on the net, regardless of it barely qualifying as one), but there's no actual discussion of their quality.
4. Eric Rohmer has clearly been heavily involved in the preparation of the set and he's obviously not that big on extras. We've got an extra five shorts anyway, aside from all the interview footage. That's good enough for me.

PS. How long are the interviews from someone who already has a copy? Earlier in this thread someone reported the new Rohmer/Schroeder conversation to be almost 90 minutes, and some of the archive interviews were allegedly similarly lengthy and in-depth.

Nothing about that set convinces me he's actually gone through the whole thing - more bizarre opinions:

But Suzanne's Career, the second film in the set, looks dreadful, with tons of strobing and hazy contrast.

One paragraph later:

Like the transfer for Suzanne's Career, the presentation of both of these films are striking, bold, and well-oiled.

EDIT: I can't splel.

[toiletduck!]

Like the reviewer said, this set could've easily been a three discer. Probably the best features are the books, so I'll give it a buy anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love Rohmer's moral tales, especially Chloe in the Afternoon and Clair's Knee.

The reviewer works for DVDFile...

Four features, two shorter films, six shorts, and three hours of interviews on three discs? But hey, for the sake of argument, somehow slide that onto three discs, add two books, and the thing still retails for $33 a disc -- still lower tier prices for what is obviously not a lower-tier release. I fail to see how this release, economically speaking, is anything but a great value.

-Toilet Dcuk

[arsonfilms]

Actually, the reviewer just said it didn't have to be six (not that it could have been three), which technically is correct. It could probably have JUST been a five-disc set with the two books (one for the shorts, four for the feature films), but having six discs instead of five is just fine with me, especially since I'm not paying extra.

[Anthony]

I don't care what anyone (or some idiot at DVDfile) thinks about this set. I can't wait to own it.

[montgomery]

I got this set a week ago, and I think that reviewer is totally off the mark. You can get this set for 65-70 dollars, which comes out to just over 10 bucks a disc, plus the 2 books.
I prefer having all the films on 6 seperate discs, and I think all the extras I've watched so far are excellent. I really don't know what more you can ask for. The transfers are all great, the sound is good. The reviewer seemed to hint that he wanted the mono sound remixed to stereo or surround, which I think is immoral. If it had been, I would not have bought the set.

That said, I'm not exactly thrilled about the new criterion aesthetic either, but that's just a minor annoyance. This is the best Criterion set of the year, no question.

[solent]

I haven't got my set yet - I'm in the land of Oz which means another 3 weeks to wait - and I agree with you all. I know this 'product' will come up trumps in the quality department without having seen it. Anyway ... the Beaver believes it might be the release of the year and he has proven credibility unlike the man from the file.

Even if the discs could have been reduced consider this: Criterion are putting this package together in a literary or academic way. Each film on its own plus a book. Many collected works of writers contain seperate volumes of varying length in order to present the whole in an aesthetic way. They aim their editions at [1] academics and [2] libraries. The only point I agree with is that at least one commentary [the Cassavetes box had one] would have been welcome, perhaps on MAUD. Criterion seem to be doing less of these lately.