Best non-R1 DVDs

[kieslowski_67]

I'm considering the Resnais boxed set.

which resnais box set would that be? can you provide a link please?

He must be considering this.

I strongly suggest Tavernier's "Un dimanche à la campagne", much better transfer than the Image product.

And Demy's "umbrellas of cherbourg" never looks more gorgegous than in this spectacular 2D9 release.

Truffaut's "two English girls", "soft skin", "woman next door", "the last metro" and "shoot the piano player". Gorgegous transfers. Criterion will use the same material if they plan to release them any way.

And this Chabrol box set also has English subtitles available. All the transfers are better or equal to the R1 counterparts:

Finally the Bresson box set (even if 'pickpocket' is coming from CC soon):

All have English subtitles available.
And I also recommend the following (will check out the availability of English subtitles for you later this week):

Pialat box set (9D9)

Techine box set (5D9)

Blier box set (6D9)

Rivette box set (8D9).

As a general rule of thumb, MK2 and Studio Canal's release of French classics and contemporaries are the ones to go. Criterion and Warner both do great job in transfer quality, but they don't have the resources to give comprehensive coverage on that many directors.
Good luck.

[Arn777]

The Pialat, Rivette and Téchiné boxes are must have, BUT do not have any subtitles.

[backstreetsbackalright]

I would strongly recommend Philippe Garrel's Naissance de l'amour/Sauvage Innocence, from Cahiers du Cinema, both with english subs. And Nicholas Ray The live by night (les amants de la nuit) (see the thread titled new R2 from France below).

How did I sleep on this one?!? Cahiers also lists this Garrel double-feature.

[Arn777]

Yes and I really love Le Vent de la Nuit, unfortunately no English subs on that dvd.

[backstreetsbackalright]

Yes and I really love Le Vent de la Nuit, unfortunately no English subs on that dvd.

10-4. Thanks for clarifying that. I think I'll buy the other one tho!

[godardslave]

thanks kieslowski_67, for all the links.

[BrightEyes23]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I REALLY wish that Rivette boxed set had subs, my french isn't nearly well enough to even consider ordering it yet...perhaps in 3 more semesters .

Does anyone else have any recommendations of some lesser known filmmakers, non-french filmmakers? etc.?

I think I'm gonna add at least one of those cahiers DVDs.

Someone released a DVD of Fellini's Cassanova, was it in france and did it have english subs?

[kieslowski_67]

You probably are talking about this mighty fine Italian R2 release of Fellini's late movies (Ginger and Fred, City of women, Casanova, Satirycon, along with a bonus disc full of special features). Good transfers (all are 16x9) but NO English subtitles.

BTW, Techine, Blier, Pialat, Rivette sets don't have English subtitles available. However, for those Pialat, Techine, and Blier fans, these are the definite box sets to get.

Finally I must rave again and again over these two Tavernier box sets. Although not all movies have English subtitles, nearly each movie boasts a superior transfer to the R1 counterparts (Criterion release included) and it's always nice to watch the great Noiret (life is nothing but, clockmaker of St Paul, Coup de Torchon) and the luminous Nathalie Baye (Une semaine de vacances) at their best.

[porquenegar]

Probably old news, but I recently traded for the R2 Delicatessan put out my Momentum and am very happy with it. Great picture, interesting director commentary and some pretty ok extras.

[Subbuteo]

For all those who haven't taken the plunge with the splendid R2 Offret (SFI)
it is now easier than ever to acquire at a comparable price to the source from Xploited Cinema. For all those in Europe their shipping rates are reasonable!

[marty]

R4 - Wong Kar-Wai's Fallen Angels (Accent)

[porquenegar]

R4 - Wong Kar-Wai's Fallen Angels (Accent)

I have this. The transfer is great on it.

[marty]

I think it is far superior to the Kino version and DVDbeaver.com also think so. Although I believe that Kino and Accent used the same source master, Accent did further restoration of their own that impressed Wong Kar-Wai himself!

[Solaris]

Good to see an R4 release on this thread.

Both Accent and Umbrella have released a few great DVDs down here which are superior to R1 releases (and in some cases the best in all regions).

[zedz]

The Swedish release of Roy Andersson's first feature A Love Story (also known as A Swedish Love Story for the hard of thinking) is magnificent.

It's a superb film, worlds away from Songs from the Second Floor, but just as accomplished in its naturalistic, Czech New Wave way. The transfer is exquisite, and it's a film whose low-key photography (by the great Jorgen Persson - this film might even look better than the more celebrated Elvira Madigan) could easily be completely demolished by a bad transfer (as is demonstrated by some dark and murky extracts among the extras), and the extras are superb.

There's a terrific director's commentary by Andersson (everything has English subtitles), who's completely engaged, informative and candid throughout, even to the point of revealing which movie he nicked the film's signature scene from. Other features include a detailed discussion of the cinematography between Andersson and Persson, the young stars reuniting and revisiting the locations, and period interviews.

And don't assume (as I nearly did) that the Filmography on the disc is a basic text-only affair: it's a video filmography made up of extracts from all of Andersson's films. The big highlight here is that his advertising work is represented by a selection of half a dozen or so of his amazing ads. If I recall correctly, Bergman once called Andersson the greatest living filmmaker simply on the basis of his commercials, and they're unforgettable: hilarious 20- or 30-second condensations of the style of his later shorts and Songs. If you want a taste, here's a link, including a (murky) QuickTime clip.

An exemplary package (also with a generous booklet if you can read Swedish). If this had been released by Criterion, it would have been a strong contender for their best release of that year.

[marty]

Hou's Millenium Mambo in R4, released thru the beleagured Accent (distibuted thru MRA) is a beauty.

Yes, I understand it was released as a rental title only in July so we can look forward to a retail release around Oct/Nov. I love this film so I will wait for retail release to buy it rather than renting.

[porquenegar]

most shaw bros. movies released by celestial pictures are awesome.........,
as for seven samurai buy the criterion 3 disc special ed..............

I own a couple of these. In particular, 36th Chamber of Shaolin has a great print. A few of thier older releases are non-anamorphic, though.

[sevenarts]

It's a superb film, worlds away from Songs from the Second Floor

Just saw this post and it sounds stellar. I'm a big fan of Songs From the Second Floor. Any US-friendly links to where to buy this disc?

[Der Müde Tod]

xploited has it for $28.95.

[denti alligator]

I need to find a thing or two to pair with my amazon.fr order of Hitchcock's Waltzes from Vienna to justify the shipping. Can we revive the "best-French-DVDs" recommendations. What's essential?

[Forrest Taft]

Anyone here familiar with the French edition of David Mamet´s Homicide? English language track? Widescreen? It appears to be OOP, but it´s still cheap from the marketplace sellers.

By the way, should this post be moved to another thread?

EDIT: I ended up bying the German edition. English audio, anamorphic widescreen, removable subs, pretty cheap. Plus it´s a great movie. Recommended.

[Dadapass]

Patty Hearst is not available in the US. Should I get this or is there a better DVD available?
Plus why isn't this out on R1?

Edit:I also found this. It says this version is 103 min. long while the one above is 100. IMDb says it's 108.

[tojoed]

I have the MGM Region 2 edition, which is fine, but has no extras.

It's just over 100 mins, with PAL speed up that's about 105 mins. There's no better one as far as I know.

[tenia]

I'm French so I will speak about French editors I know.

Carlotta do a great job, but these days, they tends to do things already done by Criterion (Two Lane Blacktop, the Ozus, the Mizoguchis, the Fassbinders...), but they have a very nice Monte Hellman's boxset, 2 (soon 3) 8-disks Douglas Sirk (2x4 movies + a lot of extras, including the original movies he remade). They are also releasing a lot of Yoshida's movies (more than 10 so far, including the complete version of Eros + Massacre) and some Oshimas. They have done some great work on Pasolini with Orestia and Salo, but they also released a good boxset of the Trilogy of Life, but I think that the new BFIs are doing bettre now. There's a lot of stuff they did that is great, and I think that Carlotta is our French Criterion.

Wild Side did a enormous job with about 50-60 Shaw Brothers releases, all with better video quality than the Celestrial (including a boxset for 36th Chamber and one for the One-Armed swordsman that are real great). They have a nice collection called Les introuvables (the non-findable) which has some great presentations, with some Fukasakus, some Langs, some Jodorowskys. It's very eclectic, but most of the time, they do a very nice work too (except with the Baby Cart new releases, and the Kurosawas. The HKV were better for the first ones, and the Arte box for the Kurosawas was better too).

We also have MK2 that do great most of the time, and they also have contemporary releases that are pretty complete (like the 2-discs release of Hunger). On the older movies, it's more random.

For Studio Canal, it's kind of random too.

We also have a new editor called Potemkine, which has already done some great stuff, like the Director's Cut of The President's Last Bang, a new edition of Walkabout (in anamorphic), and a restored edition of Come And See (which is said to be the best in the world so far).

[Yojimbo]

I'm French so I will speak about French editors I know.

Carlotta do a great job, but these days, they tends to do things already done by Criterion (Two Lane Blacktop, the Ozus, the Mizoguchis, the Fassbinders...), but they have a very nice Monte Hellman's boxset, 2 (soon 3) 8-disks Douglas Sirk (2x4 movies + a lot of extras, including the original movies he remade). They are also releasing a lot of Yoshida's movies (more than 10 so far, including the complete version of Eros + Massacre) and some Oshimas. They have done some great work on Pasolini with Orestia and Salo, but they also released a good boxset of the Trilogy of Life, but I think that the new BFIs are doing bettre now. There's a lot of stuff they did that is great, and I think that Carlotta is our French Criterion.

Wild Side did a enormous job with about 50-60 Shaw Brothers releases, all with better video quality than the Celestrial (including a boxset for 36th Chamber and one for the One-Armed swordsman that are real great). They have a nice collection called Les introuvables (the non-findable) which has some great presentations, with some Fukasakus, some Langs, some Jodorowskys. It's very eclectic, but most of the time, they do a very nice work too (except with the Baby Cart new releases, and the Kurosawas. The HKV were better for the first ones, and the Arte box for the Kurosawas was better too).

We also have MK2 that do great most of the time, and they also have contemporary releases that are pretty complete (like the 2-discs release of Hunger). On the older movies, it's more random.

For Studio Canal, it's kind of random too.

We also have a new editor called Potemkine, which has already done some great stuff, like the Director's Cut of The President's Last Bang, a new edition of Walkabout (in anamorphic), and a restored edition of Come And See (which is said to be the best in the world so far).

I second Carlotta, both for them being France's Criterion/MoC equivalent, and for most of the items you mention, although I already had the Sirks.
I think my introduction to them was Fuller's 'Forty Guns' as I had been told that the English label DVDs weren't widescreen.

WildSide introduced me to Tomu Uchida who made the marvellous 'Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji', and 'Straits of Hunger', which latter compares favourably with Kurosawas 'High and Low'

I bought a Shaw Brothers box-set, and the transfer quality is stunning,.....better than I remember from watching them in the 70's
'Wild Side' (I think) also do a great complete set of 'Female Prisoner' movies