Grands soirs & petits matins (William Klein, 1978)

[BusterK.]

The literal translation of the title is Big nights and small mornings.

One of the best political documentaries I've seen, relating the failure of the 1968's French revolution. I just finished watching this movie on DVD (R2 Arte Vidéo released an outstanding edition in 2004), and i was very fascinated by the way it depicts the everyday events of the revolution, in a very confused yet intriguing way.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in political cinema.

[David Ehrenstein]

William Klein is a very important filmmaker. His documentary on Mohamed Ali, his numerous short films (including the hilarious The Little Richard Story), his features Qui etes-vous Polly Magoo?, Mister Freedom, and Le Couple Temoin aren't nearly as well-known as they should be.

[Lino]

I can second that having seen all of the films you mentioned, David with the sole exception of Le Couple Temoin. Klein's films are eye-candy at their visual best and always provocative, a killer combination. I have seen his photography works but in my view, his best results were the moving pictures he created.

I have emailed Criterion in the past asking them if they had any plans to release any of his films, especially Polly Magoo and Mister Freedom. You can guess the answer.

Although I've yet to buy this item here, it's also highly recommended for anyone interested in his Fashion work.

[David Ehrenstein]

Klein was also "special visual consultant" for Louis Malle on Zazie dans le metro. Hence his influence on the look of that great film is as marked as Richard Avedon's on Stanley Donen's Funny Face.

Klein also contributed (and then some) to Loin de Vietnam. He not only did a segment but the entire project was his idea and he was responsible for the overall editing.

[ranaing83]

How would one go about obtaining these dvd's I presume, of Klein's work? I've been very interested in seeing particularly Polly Magoo and Mister Freedom for a while, but never got around to actually tracking them down.

[David Ehrenstein]

Muhamed Ali : The Greatest is widely available on DVD. I got Le Couple Temoin as a Region 2 DVD with Japanese subtitles.

[neuro]

The French label Arte has released a few of Klein's works; most notably a 2-disc set of his work, featuring Who Are You Polly Maggoo? and In & Out of Fashion (with English subs to boot). Here's a listing on amazon.fr, and another listing at a US-based e-tailer. They've also released a disc of Mister Freedom (although I have yet to view it).

For those interested in Klein's photographic work, he's featured on the first volume of a series of documentaries entitled Contacts. The series assembles several notable photographers around a specific theme (for example, Klein's volume is entitled "The Great Tradition of Photojournalism") and has them explain their shooting process, all whilst speaking in reference to their contact sheets (which the viewer sees on-screen). It's been released as a box set in France and as a series of (predictably muddy) discs in R1. Also notable on Klein's volume is a killer set of sheets by Raymond Depardon (who has also moved into filmmaking).

[Lino]

I've always been curious about his Le Messie. Anyone here seen it?