429-430 The Fire Within and The Lovers

[kinjitsu]

The Fire Within



After rising to international stardom with such seminal crowd-pleasers as The Lovers and Zazie dans le métro, Louis Malle gave his fans a shock with The Fire Within (Le feu follet), a penetrating study of individual and social inertia. Maurice Ronet (Elevator to the Gallows), in an implosive, haunted performance, plays Alain Leroy, a self-destructive writer who resolves to kill himself and spends the next twenty-four hours trying to reconnect with a host of wayward friends. Unsparing in its portrait of Alain’s inner turmoil and shot with remarkable clarity, The Fire Within is one of Malle's darkest and most personal films.

Special Features

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Archival interviews with director Louis Malle and actor Maurice Ronet
- Malle's Fire Within, a new video program featuring interviews with actor Alexandra Stewart and filmmakers Philippe Collin and Volker Schlöndorff
- Jusqu'au 23 Juillet, a 2005 documentary short about Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's novel Le feu follet and dadaist writer Jacques Rigaut (the inspiration for the main character), featuring actor Mathieu Amalric, writer Didier Daeninckx, and Cannes festival curator Pierre-Henri Deleau
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by critic Michel Ciment and historian Peter Cowie

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The Lovers



Louis Malle unveiled the natural beauty of Jeanne Moreau in his breakthrough, Elevator to the Gallows. With his follow-up, the scandalous smash The Lovers (Les amants), he made her a star once and for all. A deeply felt and luxuriously filmed fairy tale for grown-ups, perched on the edge between classical and New Wave cinemas, The Lovers presents Moreau as a restless bourgeois wife whose eye wanders from both her husband and her lover to an attractive passing stranger (Jean-Marc Bory). Thanks to its frank sexuality, The Lovers caused quite a stir, being censored and attacked for obscenity around the world. If today its shock has worn off, its glistening sensuality and seductive storytelling haven't aged a day.

Special Features

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer of the complete, uncensored version
- Selection of archival interviews with Louis Malle, actors Jeanne Moreau and José Luis de Villalonga, and writer Louise de Vilmorin
- Gallery of promotional material from the U.S. theatrical release
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film historian Ginette Vincendeau

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[tavernier]

Let the complaints about more Malle (a.k.a, Ozu Jr.) begin!

[Cinephrenic]

No Zazie? WTF?

[Cronenfly]

I'm sure there will be one, but I hope that there's a feature to with the obscenity charges lain in the USA against The Lovers.

[justeleblanc]

Zazie and Black Moon were recently restored for TCM, but they probably wont be released this year.

I caught THE FIRE WITHIN on TCM at the end of last year and I thought it was pretty terrific. I know Malle isn't always the most popular director in this forum, and I wonder if that's because he's not particularly seen as that artistic when compared to the other young French filmmakers of his time. His career is wickedly inconsistent, so maybe it's better to compare him to someone like Peter Bogdanovich than say someone like Godard.

[tavernier]

"The French Bogdanovich"....what an insult (to Malle).

[Buttery Jeb]

Wow, I didn't realize that "The Lovers" was the first film shot in the Independent Republic of Macedonia.

Hopefully, "Before the Rain" won't be delayed too long. Sorry for the off-topic post.

EDIT: Ahhh, already caught the mistake.

-BJ

[Mental Mike]

This is fantastic news! I know I may be the only one on this forum who considers Malle to be one of the great directors, but it is fortuitous that the folks at Criterion agree with me!

Being an english language speaker with only knowing a smattering of Parisian french, I have always been in awe of the crispness and poetry of Malle's writing in the Fire Within...this film, more than any other New Wave film, inspired me to learn the French language...Malle is the man!

[justeleblanc]

"The French Bogdanovich"....what an insult (to Malle).

I was merely making a point of comparison. Surely Malle is a much better filmmaker than PB (though I do really love WHAT'S UP DOC?)

[tavernier]

On the CC site, The Lovers is listed as being released on 4/27 and Fire Within on 5/13.

[Jeff]

This is fantastic news! I know I may be the only one on this forum who considers Malle to be one of the great directors, but it is fortuitous that the folks at Criterion agree with me!

I'm right there with you. I love Malle. I saw The Lovers for the first time in a great 35mm print last year and have been looking forward to the Criterion release ever since. I can't wait to pick these up.

I'm sure there will be one, but I hope that there's a feature to with the obscenity charges lain in the USA against The Lovers.

There doesn't appear to be anything that directly covers that, which I find very surprising. It's one of the most famous Supreme Court cases. It's the one in which Justice Potter Stuart declared of obscenity, "I know it when I see it."

Zazie and Black Moon were recently restored for TCM, but they probably wont be released this year.

Those two seem like a natural fit for another set of paired releases, though I'm not sure that Black Moon has enough caché for a Criterion disc of its own. Those two films plus My Dinner With Andre should wrap up Janus' Malle holdings.

[justeleblanc]

Dont forget May Fools!

[tavernier]

Sounds like another Malle box should be on the way (not Eclipse).

[Jeff]

Dont forget May Fools!

Right you are. Do they also have Le Voleur? We have it listed in the forthcoming thread. There used to be a thread called "Lotsa Malle" that was created when Janus contributed a number of titles to a large retrospective, and it had definitive Janus credits, but that thread appears to have fallen off the face of the Earth. I suppose they do have enough for another box, but what a motley crew of films that would be. Perhaps they can put Zazie, Black Moon, May Fools, Le Voleur, and My Dinner With Andre in an Eclipse box called "The Completely Random Unrelated Films of Louis Malle."

[Cronenfly]

I'm sure there will be one, but I hope that there's a feature to with the obscenity charges lain in the USA against The Lovers.

There doesn't appear to be anything that directly covers that, which I find very surprising. It's one of the most famous Supreme Court cases. It's the one in which Justice Potter Stuart declared of obscenity, "I know it when I see it."

It could've really helped to fill out the release a bit more to include a video essay (or a doc like Banned in Oklahoma on The Tin Drum) on the issue; it's too bad, because it's something I would've enjoyed delving deeper into. So many bonus features are superfluous that it's sad to see one not included on such a noteworthy matter.

The Fire Within looks great; nice features for a lower tier release, and the film itself looks intriguing, although I have a bit of a soft spot for movies about alcoholism (not all, but Under the Volcano, Leaving Las Vegas, and some others).

[Dylan]

I'd say that Louis Malle compares much more favorably to filmmakers like William Wyler or John Huston, in that he applied the appropriate style to each film rather than possessing an idiosyncratic style (i.e. all of his films look, sound and feel completely different from one another). He was a talented, serious filmmaker who is most definitely worthy of attention and study. The Fire Within is his best film by a mile, and also one of the greatest films of the sixties - flawless and absolutely devastating.

[toiletduck!]

Not being familiar with Fire Within (or most any Malle, really), just how loosely is Alain Leroy 'inspired by' Jacques Rigaut? The mere mention of the name in a doc short is enough to pique my curiosity in this release...

-Toilet Dcuk

[jonjao]

This is great news. Although The Lovers is not my favorite, The Fire Within is an absolute masterpiece. I continue to be baffled by people who loathe Malle (and the reaction really does seem to be that visceral from many). He is one of the most humane and subtle of all directors and his best work has aged beautifully. The emotional ambiguity and elegance of films is almost Mozartian (not to sound too grandiose) and the Criterion releases have been a revelation. I can't wait for this.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

YES!!! =D> I love this film. The desolation of the lead and the cinematography do it to me every time. This film is the sort of character study that I wish I could do for films. I could care less about the extras to be honest. It's nice that they have something talking to Schlondorff, though. After Pierrot, this is the news of the year for me. (Unless they have some Renoir up their sleeve.)

I've never seen Les Amants so can anyone recommend it? I saw Jeff's brief comments, but can anyone else chime in? I haven't seen Elevator To The Gallows either so are they two of the same?

[Narshty]

I continue to be baffled by people who loathe Malle (and the reaction really does seem to be that visceral from many).

To be fair, most of the criticism I've seen levelled at him is that he's a relatively minor talent compared with many of his peers and the "visceral" response is exasperation from people on this board that Criterion would make him into one of their pet directors at the expense of other, "better" films and talents. (I'm only playing devil's advocate though; I like Louis Malle quite a bit and am glad he's getting more exposure now.)

[domino harvey]

I've always considered Malle a kind of French Henry Hathaway: an extremely competent director with no real defining attributes. I still have a lot of respect for him, as he has made two of my favorite films, Zazie and My Dinner With Andre, but he just doesn't inspire devotion.

[colinr0380]

I've always considered Malle a kind of French Henry Hathaway: an extremely competent director with no real defining attributes.

So you mean he is a particularly Malle-able director?

(I should mention that I had a long inner moral struggle before deciding to post such a corny joke!)

[Mental Mike]

In response to the comment that Malle does not inspire devotion, I would have to disagree...

...many of his main characters such as in The Fire Within, Murmur of the Heart and Au Revoir Les Enfants remind me of long-lost friends of my youth, so that I revisit these early times when I view these films...

...Criterion: Bring on more Malle films with Heart!

[Narshty]

I've just finished The Lovers and I think Criterion pegging it as a "fairytale" is the kindest way to put it. It's very Mills and Boon-ish (though it makes the heavy-breathing narration quite fun), as shallow as a summer puddle, but Malle's talent behind the camera is formidable (though it seems to careful a pastiche visually of Smiles of a Summer Night with a touch of Partie de Campagne) and it's never less than very watchable. But the material is a women's magazine short story at best (I watched it this morning and can't recall more than about 20 minutes of it) and no-one makes any kind of impression other than Jeanne Moreau (except when Gaston Modot turns up near the end). It's quite fun but incredibly slim.

[Person]

I know Malle isn't always the most popular director in this forum, and I wonder if that's because he's not particularly seen as that artistic when compared to the other young French filmmakers of his time. His career is wickedly inconsistent, so maybe it's better to compare him to someone like Peter Bogdanovich than say someone like Godard.

My feeling is that he was one of the most interesting filmmakers of the last century by a country mile. An extraordinary body of work that I will cherish throughout my life, I am sure of it.