208 La Marge

[Finch]

Sigismond (Warhol star Joe Dallesandro) enjoys a romantic, sexually fulfilling relationship with his wife, Sergine (Mireille Audibert). In the idyllic countryside, the happy couple raise their young son with the help of their maid, Féline (Louise Chevalier, La Femme infidèle). On a business trip to Paris, Sigismond casually picks up a sex worker (Sylvia Kristel, Emmanuelle). But in the noisy, modern city, their bond soon deepens into a passionate affair, while Sigismond puts off reading a letter from Féline… Starring two major sex symbols, Walerian Borowczyk’s exquisite adaptation of André Pieyre de Mandiargues’ novel balances art and erotica in an embodied meditation on pleasure, love and transactional relationships, soundtracked by 1970s synth rock acts including Elton John, 10cc and Pink Floyd.

4K UHD & BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

4K restoration by Studio Canal
4K UHD SDR and Blu-ray presentation of the feature
Uncompressed mono PCM audio with French and English audio options
Director’s cut (Blu-ray only, exclusive to this edition)
New visual essay by critic and author Samm Deighan (2026)
New appreciation by director and cinematographer Sean Price Williams
Brief von Paris – commissioned by German broadcaster ZDF, this 16mm short film by Borowczyk was shot in the French capital during the release of La marge (1976, 40 mins)
Diana from Amsterdam - this behind-the-scenes footage on the set of La marge, shot on 8mm by camera operator Noël Véry, is narrated by star Sylvia Kristel (6 mins)
Interview with La marge camera operator Noël Véry and assistant director André Heinrich (2007, 4 mins)
Interview with film critic and Borowczyk collaborator Noël Simsolo (2014, 8 mins)
Alternate scenes from the UK version ‘The Streetwalker’
Image gallery
Newly improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original promotional materials
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by film critic David Jenkins
Limited Edition of 5,000 copies presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Year: 1976
Country: France
Cert: TBC
Format: UHD + 2x Blu-ray
Region: B
RAD208UHDLE
EAN: 5060974684137
Release date: 19/10/26

UK release

[Peacock]

Didn’t expect a UHD! Wasn’t going to double dip on this after the German Blu but now I have to… possibly my personal favourite Boro in his very eclectic filmography, but still have a handful to watch… surely that tracking shot from the toes to the head of Sylvia Krystal as Dallesandro slowly kisses his way up is one of the peaks of his career. Tender and beautiful.

I do despair at seeing Brief Von Paris for the 3rd time now on a US/UK Blu-ray however! Kino’s magical Love Rites has it, Arrow’s Behind Convent Walls and now this… MichaelB is there no hope for someone to release the short films: Strip-Tease, The Magician or Hyper Auto Erotic Art?

[TMDaines]

I think Brief von Paris will end up being my most owned film alongside the Lizzani documentary on Visconti that turns up everywhere.

[Aunt Peg]

What does the German Blu Ray have that this doesn't.

Not that it matters as I've already ordered my copy but I'm curious because it will help me to decide whether or not to keep the German edition.

[MichaelB]

German language options?

[spectre]

Wonderful that Radiance is bringing this out – not among my favourite films by Borowczyk, but it does come close to completing my collection of his work, and is a film I'm certainly keen to revisit.

I'm curious about the two different versions of this film presented here, and which one (if either) would align with the somewhat bowdlerised version I saw on the big screen at Melbourne Cinémathèque around ten years ago. Here's what I wrote at the time (comparing it with the DVD from French label Art Films, if I recall correctly):

I watched a print of this as part of a Borowczyk retrospective the other night. Weirdly (and kind of off-puttingly), the print I saw had assiduously removed any glimpse of Kristel and Dallesandro's (or anyone else's) pubic regions, which is perplexing given that this was made in 1976 and by this stage nudity was not only acceptable in mainstream cinema but surely more or less expected in arty softcore happenings like this. I'd love to know who thought such censorship was required or beneficial to the film.

What is much more perplexing, however, is that the print I saw had an absolutely wonderful ending which this DVD version omits – which is to say...

Spoiler

rather than just sitting down in the downstairs bar (a bit of a non sequitur ending at the best of times), Kristel then fights off a lecherous schoolboy before accepting cash from a well-dressed gentleman, with whom she accompanies upstairs, smiling – indicating that her brief fling with Dallesandro was just a short chapter in her life and that she's either forgotten him or learned to move on. It's an acidic contrast to Dallesandro's melodramatic suicide in the penultimate scene, and one of the best things in the film. It's really strange that the DVD distributor chose to leave it off, and I can only presume that it's the result of yet another example of the kind of boneheaded producer interference that Boro had to deal with in his later years as a director.