Marguerite Duras

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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rockysds
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 11:25 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Marguerite Duras

#26 Post by rockysds » Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:56 am

Has any Swedes (or anyone else) picked up this release from Atlantic?

It is labeled as having Swedish, Danish (what I'll be fine with), Finnish and Norwegian subtitles, but is the release any good?
Last edited by rockysds on Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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ola t
They call us neo-cinephiles
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 4:51 am
Location: Malmo, Sweden

Re: Marguerite Duras

#27 Post by ola t » Thu Oct 28, 2010 1:27 pm

I assume you mean India Song? :) Yes, I got my copy yesterday. I've only had a brief glance at it on my computer so far. It seems watchable at least; bright scenes look good, dark scenes look... well, dark. My main gripe so far is that I don't think the aspect ratio's right -- it looks like it's open-matte. Tellingly, the end credits are hard-matted to something like 1.66:1, but the movie itself is shown at 1.33:1 with ample headroom in many shots. No special features whatsoever. The subtitle info you had was correct.

I've never tried to take screen captures with the software I've currently got, but I'll give it a shot.

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ola t
They call us neo-cinephiles
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Re: Marguerite Duras

#28 Post by ola t » Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:14 pm


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rockysds
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 11:25 am
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Re: Marguerite Duras

#29 Post by rockysds » Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:46 pm

Yeah, that was it. I did mean to attach this link, but apparently I'm an idiot.

Anyway, thanks for the screen captures. Watchable does seem to be the word.

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R0lf
Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 7:25 am

Re: Marguerite Duras

#30 Post by R0lf » Sat Nov 20, 2010 12:54 am

I saw India Song theatrically last year and it was the same ratio as the DVD.

Are there any releases of India Song with English subtitles? Does the Canadian version have English subs?

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R0lf
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Re: Marguerite Duras

#31 Post by R0lf » Mon Jun 25, 2012 6:29 am

The soundtrack to Vera Baxter is driving me crazy!

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martin
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Re: Marguerite Duras

#32 Post by martin » Thu Nov 27, 2014 9:40 am

A 4-disc box set (DVD) has been released in France by INA. It contains the three feature films:

La femme du Gange (1974)
Des journées entières dans les arbres (1976)
Vera Baxter (1977)
+ a one hour documentary (plus even more supplements and a booklet. More specs here)

All three films are also being released separately. Unfortunately no English subs. Not even French subs if the specs are correct. I'd love to see an English friendly box set of Duras-films!

Edit: The box is cheaper at Amazon.es and Amazon.it at the moment (~28 Euro).
Last edited by martin on Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Marguerite Duras

#33 Post by zedz » Thu Nov 27, 2014 10:48 pm

I believe the majority of Duras' features are now available on French DVD (I also saw Le Camion, Agatha and India Song when I was in Paris recently) - but all without subs, so it's going to be up to some fearless US or UK label to translate them. As far as I know, blaq out's Nathalie Granger remains the only Duras available with English subs.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

Re: Marguerite Duras

#34 Post by Matt » Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:10 pm

India Song has been showing on Mubi for a couple of weeks with English subs. There was a short note about restoration at the beginning. Has there been talk of a US release soon? This was the first chance I've ever had to see it and it was an extraordinary experience.

dave1
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

Re: Marguerite Duras

#35 Post by dave1 » Thu Jun 24, 2021 4:13 am

Three restorations have been recently released (in France, at least):
- Le navire Night is a beautiful 2K, but it's only out on DVD (and on VOD platforms).
- Le camion is another beautiful 2K, out on a Gaumont blu-ray (French HoH subs).
- India Song is another 2K, but the Tamasa blu (no subs whatsoever) has a couple of issues.

The image restoration was done by Technicolor. It's a bit different color-wise than the Benoît Jacob DVD, but nothing too serious (curiously, the blu states "supervised by Bruno Nuytten", and the DVD thanks Nuytten for his personal involvement with the release), except for a shot in the middle of the night-time section of the film. What was before a slight lighting change, now it seems to turn into daytime, despite the shots before and after being at night.
Having seen the film several times on 35mm (the last time was at the FIDMarseille 2014, an English-subbed print), that shot never jumped at me the way it does on the blu.
The main problem however is a fade to black near the end that I don't recall ever seeing before (and it's not on the Benoît Jacob DVD). Maybe Technicolor found it weird that the film cuts straight to black (the next shot starts with a completely black screen, before the camera pans up). I don't have access right now to Marie-Claire Ropars-Wuilleumier shot-by-shot analysis of the film, but I don't think there's a mention of a fade, since all the cuts in the film are straight cuts.

The other issue of the blu is the sound, done by Diapason (I think). While the music and effects (birds and whatnot) sound "normally", on the dialogues the volume appears to rise from 0 at the beginning of each line and fade out at the end. It gives them a strange "copy and paste" feeling, not to mention making them sound kinda muffled and hard to understand.

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: Marguerite Duras

#36 Post by tenia » Thu Jun 24, 2021 4:52 am

Thanks for the feedback.
About the soundtrack, I read that the abnormally low volume on the BD is absent from the DVD, making it look like it's an authoring issue specific to the BD. You might want to check that.

dave1
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

Re: Marguerite Duras

#37 Post by dave1 » Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:14 am

Oh, wow. I would never think of that. I'll take a look then.

dave1
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:16 am

Re: Marguerite Duras

#38 Post by dave1 » Sun Mar 27, 2022 1:52 pm

Now that India Song may end up being released by Criterion (it's a Janus title https://www.americancinematheque.com/no ... g-3-22-22/), let's hope that is a different restoration than the 2K by Technicolor, or at least they look into the issues I mentioned previously (for a comparison, you can check https://twitter.com/DasFP1/status/1508133433427603471)

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