criterionforum.org

Yes, I should clarify that these problems don’t occur anywhere on the Erotic Nature discs. This is just on the shorts on the 7 Walks with Mark Brown disc.

I Am Pierre Creton, Normand and Filmmaker [Moi, Pierre Creton, Cinéaste et Normand](Dominique Auvray, 2023): 60 minutes

Et voilà, I'm done with this set. This documentary, essentially a long interview with Creton interspersed with clips from his films, is a perfect capstone for this set. It explains many things like how he met some of his collaborators and the importance of Jean Lambert's house to him and his films, but it also leaves many questions unanswered such as those about his origins and upbringing which are intriguingly and very briefly mentioned but not elaborated on. The essay by Cyril Neyrat, apparently the first published writing on Creton, is similar: explaining some things, leaving others tantalizingly out of reach.

To me, this documentary confirms that Va, Toto is his seminal work (up to Un prince at least), the film that best captures and expresses his artistic preoccupations, the film that makes the clearest statement of his work's mission. It includes some clips of short films that are not included in this set which, of course, makes their absence more keenly felt. But it's nice to see moments from them and to hear his thoughts on them several years after making them.

-----

domino harvey wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 3:01 pm Thanks for your write ups, I’ve been enjoying them a lot. I’ll probably just watch the ones you like best first versus a strict chronological viewing, but props to the commitment

Thanks! Writing these up has been a way for me to commit to watching the whole set, but I'm glad if others are getting some value out of it as well. I think you will like Va, Toto—it's hard to imagine anyone not getting something out of this film, even if it's just seeing a cute little baby boar play with a dog.

Beyond that, Paysage imposé, even if it's not as formally distinct or as personal as his other films, is also a beautiful film. I like the unguarded nature of the students contrasted with the seriousness of the instructors. It's meant as the first part of a trilogy of the Pays de Caux region—rural youth here, followed by working farmers in Secteur 545, followed by retirement and old age in Maniquerville. Those seem more distinctly "Cretonesque" in style and content, but it's the best of them for me.

Matt wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 4:05 am

I mentioned above my suspicion that there was something wrong with the subtitles on L’Arc D’Iris (Souvenir D’Un Jardin), and now I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with the disc (or at least my copy of the disc). The sound in this film is actually ahead of the image, and the lag gets progressively longer as the film goes on. The subtitles are synced with the image, but that means they don't appear until well after the dialogue or narration is spoken. By the end of the film, the sound is almost a minute ahead of the image. I've emailed Graham at Several Futures about it to see if it's just my disc or a known issue. The feature, 7 Walks with Mark Brown, is fine. I have not yet checked the third short on the disc or checked the disc on a different player.

I checked the feature & shorts on my disc of 7 Walks with Mark Brown and can confirm that two of the shorts on my disc, Petit traite de la machen en plaine & L'arc d'Iris (Souvenir d'Un Jardin) have the exact same problem so I suspect there is an issue with a batch of discs that were pressed.