68 Le Grand Jeu

[Duncan Hopper]

Le Grand Jeu



A marvellous rediscovery from the golden age of French cinema, Jacques Feyder's Le Grand jeu is a tragic doppelgänger romance, steered by the fate of the tarot card, and set against the dizzying exoticism of 1930s Morocco.

When scandalous Parisian playboy Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm) is forced by his family to leave France and his adored lover Florence (Marie Bell), he begins a new life in the Foreign Legion as Pierre Muller. Drowning his regrets in camaraderie, whores, and hell-raising, he is astonished at meeting Irma (also Marie Bell), a prostitute with an uncanny resemblance to his beloved, and begins a fitful scheme to allow her escape.

An early benchmark of poetic realism and a fascinating precursor to both Duvivier's Pépé le Moko and Hitchcock's Vertigo, Feyder's fluid, masterful storytelling make this a unique classic of the screen: vividly forceful yet subtle, acutely observed yet fantastic, world-weary yet tender. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present its UK home viewing premiere.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New high definition digital transfer
• New and improved optional English subtitles
• 28-page booklet with a newly written essay about the film by critic and scholar Ginette Vincendeau; numerous short essays by Jacques Feyder; and eulogies from Feyder's contemporaries following the filmmaker's death.

[peerpee]

I notice that Jacques Feyder's Le Grand Jue has replaced The Burmese Harp as #68 on the MOC website.

Any further information on this? DVD only?

It's DVD only. Yes.

All info, as soon as we've got it, will appear at the website.

[Duncan Hopper]

I do like they way MOC titles appear on the website and twitter etc. It's like a treasure hunt.

[4LOM]

[Knappen]

Nice!

Is it a port from the French release? Or did you make a new transfer?

[peerpee]

We're doing our own encode from Pathé's master. We think we can improve on the DVD encoding.

[Knappen]

You quite probably can!

Looking forward to this.

[Landjorden]

Still no news about this? I´m really looking forward to it and would be glad for every piece of news I could get

[peerpee]

Press releases went out the other day. This and PROFOUND DESIRES OF THE GODS in June.

LE GRAND JEU on DVD only. PROFOUND DESIRES OF THE GODS on BD only.

[What A Disgrace]

Play.com has the specs.

* Beautiful digital transfer, officially licensed from Pathé's film restoration
* New English subtitle translation
* PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by French cinema scholar Ginette Vincendeau, newly translated writings by Feyder, reminiscences by his collaborators and production stills.

[jbaart]

Does this means there's not a single bit of extras beside the booklet? Bummer

[peerpee]

Let's put this release in perspective:

We've done our own progressive encode, desaturating the mouldy green hue from the French release, and improving the bitrate across the entire disc.

We've spent a fair bit of time carefully subtitling this film for the first time in English.

We've commissioned a new essay by Ginette Vincendeau and spent weeks newly translating rare writings by Feyder, his collaborators, and touching up rare production stills for a 28-page booklet.

Sales for this title are not going to set any records. Do we release it in June, or do we delay everything else we're working on to spend more time and resources trying to find/create on-disc extras for this title? Would they increase sales for a title that has never been available before. Is it really a "bummer"? Would any other UK label (other than the BFI) have even done what I've listed above?

We did however drop at the last minute a video of the MoC team pulling their arse cheeks apart (technical reasons). Sorry.

[htdm]

No bummer at all, this is one of my most anticipated titles.
Thanks Nick and MoC!

[What A Disgrace]

Don't worry, Nick. I'll gladly get this DVD of a film I'd probably never get to see otherwise, even if it is devoid of butts.

[jbaart]

Nick, you might have misunderstood. I will certainly get this like I get almost every single one of your releases and I'm grateful it is coming out at all, especially in the (expected) MoC quality. But, lets be honest here, no on disc extras is below average for a MoC release. So, already knowing you'd release it, the "announcement" of no on disc extras can only be a disappointment because what we get now is the minimum standard we have learned to expect from you guys.

That's a great thing actually, that we can trust you will deliver at least this kind of quality. But it is only natural to then be disappointed if there's nothing in addition to that. In short, I was excited when it was initially announced but slightly disappointed when I heard there will be no extras besides the (without a doubt fantastic) booklet. I don't see what's wrong with feeling that way.

[swo17]

With MoC especially, you need to get out of the mindset of the booklet not counting as a substantial bonus feature. They've obviously put a lot of effort into what they're putting out, and it's entirely likely that there isn't much else at their disposal to add to the release. For example, are there any Feyder scholars that could have contributed a commentary or a video essay? I'm guessing a lot of film scholars haven't even seen one of his films before.

Also, as someone who has casually tried to translate a few foreign films from the '30s, I can appreciate the extra effort it takes to do this right, as the dialogue can at times be very difficult to make out, and the older colloquialisms can be unfamiliar.

[jbaart]

With MoC especially, you need to get out of the mindset of the booklet not counting as a substantial bonus feature.

I never said it doesn't count as such.

They've obviously put a lot of effort into what they're putting out, and it's entirely likely that there isn't much else at their disposal to add to the release.

So? I can still be disappointed that there was nothing at their disposal. Being disappointed does not equal blaming them.

[peerpee]

The point is: we announce a risky title, and the response is "not a single extra? Bummer." -- just trying to put it in perspective.

[zedz]

With MoC especially, you need to get out of the mindset of the booklet not counting as a substantial bonus feature. They've obviously put a lot of effort into what they're putting out, and it's entirely likely that there isn't much else at their disposal to add to the release. For example, are there any Feyder scholars that could have contributed a commentary or a video essay? I'm guessing a lot of film scholars haven't even seen one of his films before.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that the MoC booklet for this release will provide more valuable context and useful information than 90% of major studio multi-hour making-of 'documentaries' and audio commentaries.

[peerpee]

jbaart, I understand where you're coming from -- I just wanted to explain the situation from our side of the tracks.

[tenia]

jbaart, I understand where you're coming from -- I just wanted to explain the situation from our side of the tracks.

Personally, I can understand that someone can found "disappoiting" the lack of on-disc extras (especially after some marvelous set like the Mabuse one, and its 9hr of audio commentary, raising the bar quite high ). Some doesn't think that a booklet can replace them directly, and honestly, with some French companies like HK Video gone this way, I sometimes feels this way too, and a barebone disc is always a bit disappointing.

But most of the time, MoC booklets are real goldmines of information about the movies released, being worthy more, like zedz said, than some hour-long documentary. And of course, the amount of work behind only the movie is great enough, as you explained, to justify the worthy of this release.

[jbaart]

The point is: we announce a risky title, and the response is "not a single extra? Bummer." -- just trying to put it in perspective.

That's just not true, I didn't react to the announcement. You announced it on March 4th in this topic (see above). I responded to the specification announcement on May 6th when I already knew about the release itself for two months.

[Finch]

As zedz said, MoC booklets at their best are not equal but hugely preferable to video supplements, and I have every confidence that the Grand Jeu booklet will give more than enough contextualisation (it's Ginette Vincendeau after all etc). MoC's approach to titles like this is very sensible, and it's going to look as good as possible. Looking forward to June.

[Tommaso]

I'm not disappointed about missing on-screen extras at all. How often do you watch a talking head giving some introduction to a film? The booklet essays are much better for quick reference and generally have all the chance to be more substantial. No extras on the disc also allows for a higher bitrate for the film, of course.

Looking very much forward to this release indeed.

[Landjorden]

This is gonna be an easy buy really looking forward to it, now if I only could get hold of a bluray player and a decent tv...