French DVD/Blu-ray/UHD Recommendations

[Stefan Andersson]

Yasuzo Masumura upcoming from La Rabbia/The Jokers in November:
La bête aveugle, Passion, Femme de champion, Confessions d'une épouse, L'école militaire de Nakano
Source: https://www.bekindreview.fr/forum/blura ... 3-165.html - Aug. 7 post

Titles not up yet at https://thejokers-shop.com/

[Stefan Andersson]

Lumiere 2024 festival -- detailed film pages now online.
Lumière Classics:
https://www.festival-lumiere.org/progra ... ssics.html
Film pages include notes about upcoming theatrical and video releases in France of Pension Mimosas, Four Nights of a Dreamer, Pêcheur d´islande, Pépe le Moko, Viridiana, Tsuma wa kokuhaku suru (Masumura) and others.

Three restored Masumura films, upcoming from Jokers Films, France on dvd/blu:
https://www.festival-lumiere.org/progra ... gonie.html

[andyli]

Links of five Mashmura blu-ray releases already up on Amazon.fr. All are from The Jokers with 4K restored transfers.

[Stefan Andersson]

Le Choix des armes, Corneau, w/ Montand, Depardieu, Deneuve on Blu:
https://digitalcine.fr/4k-bluray-dvd/te ... more-81595
French subs only.

[Stefan Andersson]

La Grande Bouffe, 4 K:
https://www.tamasa-cinema.com/boutique/ ... collector/

Pink String and Sealing Wax:
https://www.tamasa-cinema.com/boutique/ ... ay-et-dvd/

Round Midnight 4K Blu:
https://www.tamasa-cinema.com/boutique/ ... t-blu-ray/

Death of a Bureaucrat 4K:
https://www.tamasa-cinema.com/boutique/ ... ay-et-dvd/

La Ultima Cena 2K:
https://www.tamasa-cinema.com/boutique/ ... ay-et-dvd/

[Stefan Andersson]

Upcoming from Les Acacias - restorations of Sans lendemain, Le Plaisir, Madame de, and de Bosio´s La Terrorista w/ Volonté:
https://www.acaciasfilms.com/films/reeditions/

[Calvin]

Upcoming from Les Acacias - restorations of Sans lendemain, Le Plaisir, Madame de, and de Bosio´s La Terrorista w/ Volonté:
https://www.acaciasfilms.com/films/reeditions/

I don't think there's anything to say they will be newer restorations than those already available?

[Stefan Andersson]

Upcoming from Les Acacias - restorations of Sans lendemain, Le Plaisir, Madame de, and de Bosio´s La Terrorista w/ Volonté:
https://www.acaciasfilms.com/films/reeditions/

I don't think there's anything to say they will be newer restorations than those already available?

My guesses:
News of newer restorations would have been out by now. Sans lendemain is probably the same as the 2K release from Kino Lorber. Sans lendemain is out in France on Blu from Gaumont along with Le Plaisir, Madame de, De Mayerling à Sarajevo and Yoshiwara. Can´t imagine Gaumont giving home video rights to Les Acacias. So maybe Les Acacias is doing a DCP theatrical re-release only. If so, my post was premature.

The Potemkine web store has a handy list of French Ophuls releases:
https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/36074832 ... ax-ophuls/

Update: Here is the trailer:
https://vimeopro.com/furyprod/bandes-an ... 1017465469
Seems Acacias and Gaumont have teamed up for theatrical re-releases. No mention of 4K restorations.

[Aunt Peg]

Terence Davies last film Benediction (2021) has been released in France on a DVD/Blu Ray combo (since August).

Needles to say the pictures quality is exquisite.

Whilst there is no menu option to turn the French subtitles off I could remove them via my remote control and could also push them out of the frame on my Panasonic 4K player. However, on my Region A locked player whilst I could play the film I couldn't remove the subtitles by either method (much older Sony player).

[Stefan Andersson]

La vie à l´envers, Jessua, French subs:
https://homepopcorn.fr/test-blu-ray-la- ... more-68546

[Stefan Andersson]

Bunuel´s El on French blu:
https://testsbluray.com/2024/11/12/test-blu-ray-el/

[Stefan Andersson]

Lobster Films is now FPA Classics:
https://www.fpaclassics.com/catalogue
https://www.facebook.com/FPAClassics/
No online boutique.
Discussion in French about whether FPA will release films on physical media like Lobster did:
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... &start=750

[pistolwink]

I assume this is a reference to David Shepard's Film Preservation Associates, which Lobster was closely tied to. Also seems like they've made a move to another location in the 11e, unless Lobster had made that move prior.

[Stefan Andersson]

Hiventy is now part of TransPerfect Media:
https://www.transperfect.com/ - see under Family of Companies
https://www.hiventy.com/

[Stefan Andersson]

Not on DVD or bluray yet... but restored and re-released in French cinemas in Feb. 2025: five 30s Duvivier titles:
Pépé le Moko
David Golder
Poil de Carotte
Les cinq gentlemen maudits
La tête d´un homme

CNC, Studio Canal, TF1 and Les films Acacia co-credited.

https://www.acaciasfilms.com/film/julie ... annees-30/

[tenia]

Pépé le moko was released in october 25 on BD in France by Studio Canal.

[Stefan Andersson]

Theatrical re-releases by Splendor Films, France -- might blurays be forthcoming?

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, 4K
https://www.splendor-films.com/films/de ... arguerites

Enjo, Ichikawa, restored:
https://www.splendor-films.com/films/le-pavillon-dor

[Stefan Andersson]

Some Coin de Mire Cinema releases planned for 2025:

Feb. 2:
La loi c'est la loi
Monsieur
Le Tonnerre de Dieu
Le diable par la queue
Cerf-volant du bout du monde

May 20:
Ho ! 4K
Les Diaboliques 4K

End of June:
JULIE POT DE COLLE
L’ASTRAGALE
SOPHIE ET LE CRIME
LES FEUX DE LA CHANDELEUR
LES ÉGOUTS DU PARADIS

Second quarter:
UNE PARISIENNE
UNE SOURIS CHEZ LES HOMMES
ELLE COURT, ELLE COURT LA BANLIEUE
TU NE TUERAS POINT

End of 2025:
PEAU DE BANANE
ÉCHAPPEMENT LIBRE
LES TRIBULATIONS D’UN CHINOIS EN CHINE
TENDRE VOYOU

Source: Jan. 27 post here:
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... start=1350

https://www.coindemirecinema.com/collec ... es-sorties

[Stefan Andersson]

A new documentary about the Lumière brothers, apparently including restored shorts:
https://www.advitamdistribution.com/fil ... -continue/

The above film is a follow-up to:
https://www.advitamdistribution.com/fil ... -commence/

[eerik]

It is not really a documentary about the Lumiere brothers, it is just a collection of their newly-restored footage edited together. I have the first one on Blu-ray, it can be watched with just the music (which can get quite repetative) or with added French narration.

[tenia]

Yes, it was a collection of (roughly 100) Lumière shorts newly restored, and this is yet another collection of (roughly 100) newly restored Lumière shorts.
I found the 1st collection fascinating to watch with the French narration (by Thierry Frémaux), because it's a mix of technical comments about the shorts (who are regular "first this" and "first that"), history about them (who did them, etc), but also history about 1900s.

[GoodOldNeon]

I recently picked up the Med Hondo boxset released by Ciné-Archives and ran into a strange technical issue that I have never seen before. When playing the Blu-rays of Soleil Ô and West Indies, les nègres marrons de la liberté (I did not check Sarraounia but assume the same applies), the film plays normally but it doesn't have a timeline that tells you what minute of the film you are at. The consequence of this is that my Panasonic DP-UB820 does not realize that the film is actually playing and automatically switches off after 20 minutes of "inactivity." The DVDs have a timeline and are unaffected by this. If your player doesn't have this feature or you can deactivate it, then it obviously doesn't matter, but with my player it was quite annoying to have to periodically click something on my remote just to activate the player and keep it from switching off, particularly since both films were among the most interesting I have seen in quite some time, and having to remember to keep clicking prevented me from viewing them in the best possible way.

[tenia]

Yes, the authoring of this set is far from great, the movies are encoded in MPEG-2, the BD-50 are poorly used, and the extras have a higher bitrate than the main features.

[pistolwink]

Yes, it was a collection of (roughly 100) Lumière shorts newly restored, and this is yet another collection of (roughly 100) newly restored Lumière shorts.
I found the 1st collection fascinating to watch with the French narration (by Thierry Frémaux), because it's a mix of technical comments about the shorts (who are regular "first this" and "first that"), history about them (who did them, etc), but also history about 1900s.

The films on the first set are absolutely beautiful. I've shown them to people who have nearly gasped at the clarity with which they reveal the world of the last fin de siècle. Everyone should own this. I'd even upgrade my TV to 4K if they released them that way!

[Stefan Andersson]

Yes, it was a collection of (roughly 100) Lumière shorts newly restored, and this is yet another collection of (roughly 100) newly restored Lumière shorts.
I found the 1st collection fascinating to watch with the French narration (by Thierry Frémaux), because it's a mix of technical comments about the shorts (who are regular "first this" and "first that"), history about them (who did them, etc), but also history about 1900s.

The films on the first set are absolutely beautiful. I've shown them to people who have nearly gasped at the clarity with which they reveal the world of the last fin de siècle. Everyone should own this. I'd even upgrade my TV to 4K if they released them that way!

More on Lumière, l´aventure continue:
https://anttialanenfilmdiary.blogspot.c ... .html#more

-1422 of 1428 Lumière films have been re-found
-300 new restorations in 4K are underway at L´Immagine Ritrovata, some are included in Lumière, l´aventure continue

More info downloadable here:
https://www.advitamdistribution.com/fil ... -continue/

Lumière, l´aventure commence:
https://www.advitamdistribution.com/fil ... -commence/
https://anttialanenfilmdiary.blogspot.c ... -2016.html

Online catalogue:
https://catalogue-lumiere.com/