1172 Two Films by Marguerite Duras

[yoloswegmaster]

The following extras have been added:

Newly discovered alternate English-language audio track, directed by Marguerite Duras

Program from 2020 on the making of India Song, featuring interviews with the cast and crew

[Red Screamer]

Program from 2020 on the making of India Song, featuring interviews with the cast and crew

I assume this is the same one on the French disc, a nice addition.

Newly discovered alternate English-language audio track, directed by Marguerite Duras

But this is exciting! Given the importance of sound and text in Duras, this would really make the film a different experience.

[yoloswegmaster]

Newly discovered alternate English-language audio track, directed by Marguerite Duras

But this is exciting! Given the importance of sound and text in Duras, this would really make the film a different experience.

Do you know if this has shown up on any of the other releases?

[Red Screamer]

I don't know, it's not on the French blu. A brief internet search isn't bringing up much of anything about an English version of India Song (which is the film I assume the extra's referring to).

[otis]

Beaver, Vera Beaver

[dave1]

I'm assuming India Song here is just like the French blu, with a daytime shot during the nighttime section of the film

Spoiler

and a fade to black on one of the last shots

Spoiler

, outside of Technicolor's usual yellow push (admittedly, different from other labs).

[Red Screamer]

Can anyone who's picked up the release give some more information on the English version of India Song? The performers, quality of translation/performance, differences with the original soundtrack, and so on.

[therewillbeblus]

This release is really crying out for some academic extras. India Song is an iconic feminist film as well as a formal Pandora's Box. So many things to say about this film, and so many people to say it.

Yes, this is such a rich film - one that I don’t feel comfortable beginning to unpack myself, but absolutely crave academic supplements to help me better appreciate it; a real shame Criterion skimped on creating even a subpar critical compendium. A novelistic experimental film like this feels like it should inherently invite complex, conflicting ideas and responses, but its esoteric tightrope-walk is tough to pull off without alienating its audience. Also, this also feels like an excellent version of what Peter Greenaway went on to try to do with aesthetics during at least part of his career.. but I also don’t feel stimulated by whatever Greenaway is doing with that, so maybe this impression deserves a side-eye emoji

[knives]

Jumping a bit in for the desire on some exploratory extras. India Song as an experience was quite delightful, but I at first mistook it as more inline with Hiroshima, Mon Amour and was thrown off by all the French descended people in a movie I thought was about an ethnically Laotian refugee. Instead it reminded me of Reflections in a Golden Eye.

[olmo]

This release is really crying out for some academic extras. India Song is an iconic feminist film as well as a formal Pandora's Box. So many things to say about this film, and so many people to say it.

Yes, this is such a rich film - one that I don’t feel comfortable beginning to unpack myself, but absolutely crave academic supplements to help me better appreciate it; a real shame Criterion skimped on creating even a subpar critical compendium. A novelistic experimental film like this feels like it should inherently invite complex, conflicting ideas and responses, but its esoteric tightrope-walk is tough to pull off without alienating its audience. Also, this also feels like an excellent version of what Peter Greenaway went on to try to do with aesthetics during at least part of his career.. but I also don’t feel stimulated by whatever Greenaway is doing with that, so maybe this impression deserves a side-eye emoji

For me it invoked Jancsó's Electra, My Love with the extended long takes and the disembodied voices of narration.

Like the character's communication via telepathy.

[knives]

Baxter wasn’t as ecstatic an experience for me in part because it is so much more obscure. I think I finally got
The handle in the last forty minutes, but the beginning really only drew me in through the score which should have been terrible, but I found weirdly hypnotic.

[Red Screamer]

I was enthralled by Baxter, Vera Baxter, though I think I’ll be enthralled by every Duras film at this point. She’s able to create a vast meditative space out of almost nothing where each and every filmmaking decision has an intense impact. She’s also quite good with actors, which might be hard to tell from India Song, but is on full display here in a way that reminded me of La musica, another very theatrical work set in a vacation town.

Not to harp on the point, but Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert would’ve indeed made a great third film in this release since they’re all haunted house movies with bold, conceptual uses of sound — I hasn’t read anything about Baxter, Vera Baxter beforehand so realizing what was going to happen on the soundtrack here was a delight — but also because one (at least?) shot is memorably used in both films. It’s also just a stunningly beautiful work, but I digress.