Jacques Rozier

[therewillbeblus]

So Nono Nénesse is even weirder than we all speculated upthread. I don't know what to say about it, other than if you want to see adults playing babies (complete with intentionally awful special effects and surprisingly inspired practical effects)- and I mean really going for broke, full-method-babies, you should check this out. At first this was grating (around the five minute mark, at least one voice in your brain will probably be yelling to shut it off) but persisted and somehow I got into its insane rhythm by the 1/3 mark, and the rest was amusing in its own sick branded way. I can't honestly "recommend" this to anyone, but you won't be able to forget it, for better or worse.

[domino harvey]

I mean really going for broke, full-method-babies

This ended up being worse than I imagined precisely because of this choice. I thought they'd be doing that Laurel and Hardy thing where they were funny adults playing kids. No, they're noted French comedians who for some reason are doing the world's most interminable and sincere acting exercise this side of Out 1. Thank God the rest of the footage we were promised was forthcoming never materialized.

[therewillbeblus]

After I acclimated to the nausea-inducing conditions, all I could think about was Who the fuck would put in the effort to make this

[swo17]

How does the approach here compare to Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills, which has adults playing babies and is good?

[domino harvey]

After I acclimated to the nausea-inducing conditions, all I could think about was Who the fuck would put in the effort to make this

My best guess is that this was commissioned by a TV station as a series on the strength of the talents involved and the powers that be then noped the fuck out after seeing the footage coming in and pulled the plug and so what we see is what we get. Perhaps one of our French friends can pick up Bernard Menez' autobiography, which apparently talks quite a bit about his work with Rozier, and fill us in on the deetz behind this war crime

[therewillbeblus]

Thankfully it seems like no one knows about it, since I had to create a letterboxd page for it

[therewillbeblus]

There’s a petition going around collecting signatures to stop the forced eviction of 94-y/o Rozier and his wife from their apt in France

[Calvin]

Duly signed. It would be tragic for anyone in that circumstance, let alone someone who has contributed so much to his nation's culture. There is a Le Figaro article on the situation.

[diamonds]

mk2 acquires rights to "four of Rozier's five recently restored feature films, some of his shorts and an audiovisual work."

[domino harvey]

The link is paywalled, so can’t confirm, but the only feature Rozier directed not out anywhere is Fifi Martingale, but I have a hard time believing that was recently restored. The other four features are what is in the existing French set. But I suspect they’re counting something else as a feature here?

[diamonds]

I just plugged the blurb into Google translate to be honest, could it simply mean that four of the five were restored and that the deal encompasses those four?

Per this article, it includes the 1990 series Joséphine en tournée (assuming that's what the 'audiovisual work' refers to), which seems like a big deal. That hasn't been available anywhere, has it?

[therewillbeblus]

I don't think so, it's on backchannels in what looks to be a TV rip without English subs. Very cool that the deal includes this and nine shorts! I imagine the four films in question are those from the Rozier DVD set, but would love to be wrong and have Fifi Martingale replace The Castaways of Turtle Island as no. 4

[diamonds]

Brace for disappointment: per the announcement on mk2's site, the acquisition inexplicably does not include Du côté d’Orouët.

[domino harvey]

What the actual merde

[therewillbeblus]

They did apparently decide, however, to restore Nono Nénesse, which would be better left in a trash fire. Is there a French version of April Fools Day in February, by chance?

[swo17]

Could it be that it wasn't available because someone else had grabbed the rights to the most prestigious film?

[domino harvey]

Prestigious for a small number of us, perhaps, but AP is far better known. If that wasn’t licensed already, I can’t believe Du Cote was

[hearthesilence]

Adieu Philippine was just restored, so there's a good chance we'll see someone put that one out on Blu eventually, at least

FWIW the DCP (courtesy of MK2) looks great. The title card says it's a 4K scan of the negative with the restoration work done in 2K.

[domino harvey]

Not really sure where to put this but for further evidence of just how good Du côté d'Orouët is, I caught up with Christian Vincent's 1992 Beau Fixe, which on paper sounds a lot like this (to the point that it is clearly conceived in a spirit of homage): a group of young girls take a break to a seaside house and are interrupted from their plans by an interloping male figure. One big difference here is all the girls are annoying in a "This goes beyond realistic brattiness into 'I just don't like any of these characters'" way. They are jerks to the pliant male cousin of one of the girls who shows up to paint the shutters of their villa and there is virtually no payoff to their torture (the single good moment in the entire film, and the filmmaker doesn't even realize it so it barely gets highlighted, is the scene late in the film when the cousin is surrounded by his own friends, male and female, and suddenly has the confidence to be a jerk right back to the girls-- this should have been the start of something more, not a one-off observation). I never once bought any of the girls or their motivations for the film even existing (they're in the remote house to study for their exams, even though it's more distracting to do work on vacation than it would be at home in Paris), none of the melodramas that arose felt real, and there's an emptiness to the swishy camera work that signifies and shows nothing. Probably not as bad a film as I'm making it sound, but when you steal from the best, you better not miss, or however it goes

[fiendishthingy]

On its Henri streaming platform today, the Cinémathèque française posted a 1984 documentary shot by Rozier following Bernard Ménez around on tour. The quality seems to be very rough and there are no subtitles available, but I thought it might be of some interest.

[diamonds]

I made an inquiry about Du côté d’Orouët's absence from the MK2 announcement and was told there is still hope for its acquisition and that a new restoration of the film may be in the cards in 2024. Knock on wood!

[tenia]

It was a restoration project looking for early partners a month ago at Lyon, so it's planned but I suppose it's still in the early stages.

[fiendishthingy]

The Cinémathèque française has a 107-minute interview with Rozier from 1986 available online. No subtitles, unfortunately, but they did add English subtitles to a similar interview with Godard that didn't have them initially, so I guess it's not impossible that they could be added at some point.

[diamonds]

I liked rather than loved Maine Ocean for most of its running time, but that final sequence took everything to a completely different level: one of my favourite unexpected conclusions to any film. And the best thing about it (and about much of Rozier's work) is that it isn't unexpected in a 'plot twist' way, but, as you say, in an "I never expected this film to include this material".

Perhaps it could've been surmised given the improvisatory feel of the films, but Rozier didn't expect it either! Rapscallion producer Paulo Branco said he abruptly pulled the plug on funding six weeks into the shoot and ordered filming be finished. Rozier appealed for one more day and shot the final 20 minutes of the film in just a few hours.

Revisiting the film recently, this unremarkable moment had me grinning ear to ear:

Spoiler

At practically the start of the film, only about two and a half minutes in, Bernard Ménez's ticket inspector passes through the frame, blissfully unaware (as are we on a first viewing) that the ending will fall to him alone.

[domino harvey]

Necessity truly is the mother of invention