Claude Chabrol

[martin]

The German blu-ray of Le scandale (Champagner Mörder) from Koch Media has the English version as the main feature and the longer French cut as a bonus. The French version is also 1080p - not upscaled - but of lesser picture quality compared to the English cut (certainly unrestored with some speckles and dust). Ufortunately the French version does not have any subs at all.

Le scandale has also been relesed on blu-ray in France but the French disc only contains the French version - also unsubbed. I assume the PQ of the French cut is roughly the same on the German and the French blu-rays. There's a somewhat favourable review of the French blu-ray here, while some comments on amazon.fr are rather harsh re. picture quality.

[reaky]

Failed to cheer myself up by watching the bleak, brilliant Que la Bête Meure on the Arrow DVD box. The PQ throughout the set is lamentable, but if this collection was upgraded to blu-ray with good transfers and a raft of extras, it’d sweep every award going in its year (and probably sell very well).

[kekid]

It is incomprehensible why these Chabrols from the sixties have not appeared on Blu Rays. Lots of his lesser films have been restored. Lots of lesser directors have appeared. Either there is some unfortunate rights issue, or the qualities of the source material are not adequate, or the people making these decisions have an unexplained dislike for his art. Who knows?

[domino harvey]

Chabrol’s English-language commercial for Winstons cigarettes

[domino harvey]

A treasure trove of additional Chabrol TV works have been upped on back channels, albeit without subs for now, but still insane to realize I've seen over 70 Chabrol works and there's still somehow more out there

[domino harvey]

According to this lengthy interview with Chabrol, presumably produced for a German DVD release of Under Capricorn, Chabrol directed one shot of Hitchcock’s Topaz that remains in the film, though he doesn’t specify what it is other than that it isn’t very good (which doesn’t help in this film!)

[starmanof51]

It is incomprehensible why these Chabrols from the sixties have not appeared on Blu Rays. Lots of his lesser films have been restored. Lots of lesser directors have appeared. Either there is some unfortunate rights issue, or the qualities of the source material are not adequate, or the people making these decisions have an unexplained dislike for his art. Who knows?

I think a fair amount of the prime stuff never had anything but pretty bad DVDs, never mind blu

[colinr0380]

According to this lengthy interview with Chabrol, presumably produced for a German DVD release of Under Capricorn, Chabrol directed one shot of Hitchcock’s Topaz that remains in the film, though he doesn’t specify what it is other than that it isn’t very good (which doesn’t help in this film!)

I'd love it if it turned out to be that lobby as seen from across the street sequence, which would fit in with the voyeuristic Chabrol style! (Though of course there is just as much evidence of it being Hitchcockian and similar to Rear Window, so we're no further in tracking it down!)

[domino harvey]

"2+2=4", Chabrol's feature-length entry in Simone Signoret's 70s French TV series Madame le juge, has been subtitled on back channels

[nowhereisaplace]

I haven’t seen this posted here yet, but for anyone that can read French there is a fairly new bio out by Antoine de Baecque, who wrote a magnificent 2 volume history of Cahiers du Cinema, and bios of Truffaut, Godard and Rohmer. For those of you familiar with any of the books I mentioned, expect the same level of detail here; I feel de Baecque is best man for the job here and only hope he now writes a biography of Rivette to fill out the key movers from that initial “Scherer gang”.

I haven’t finished this yet (I read French much too slowly), but so far it’s been excellent. Hopefully it will be translated in English, but wanted to give a heads up nevertheless!

I won’t post a link because I never know what is cool with that, but it is easily found on Amazon et al.

[Stefan]

I haven’t seen this posted here yet, but for anyone that can read French there is a fairly new bio out by Antoine de Baecque, who wrote a magnificent 2 volume history of Cahiers du Cinema, and bios of Truffaut, Godard and Rohmer. For those of you familiar with any of the books I mentioned, expect the same level of detail here; I feel de Baecque is best man for the job here and only hope he now writes a biography of Rivette to fill out the key movers from that initial “Scherer gang”.

I haven’t finished this yet (I read French much too slowly), but so far it’s been excellent. Hopefully it will be translated in English, but wanted to give a heads up nevertheless!

I won’t post a link because I never know what is cool with that, but it is easily found on Amazon et al.

I can only second that appraisal (and the wish regarding a Rivette bio). De Baecque did another splendid job with this book about Chabrol. It is one of those which you can flip open at any given page will be marvelled about its detailled reports. A pure joy to read (despite the ignominious cover).

[domino harvey]

After seeing Chabrol cameo in the Paul Gégauff-scripted Monica Vitti goes Mod revenge film (not as fun as that sounds) La Femme ecarlate, I got curious and discovered that, in addition to his numerous cameo appearances, he actually top-lined a 1988 French film as an actor, Alouette, je te plumerai. I think we all need a movie STARRING Claude Chabrol in our lives. If you are on back channels, please consider adding to the pot for subs

[Stefan]

Alouette, je te plumerai can be found on this box-set: https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/33332900 ... rre-zucca/ The director Pierre Zucca had been the set-photographer of some films by Chabrol (and by Rivette, Truffaut, Garrell etc.) in the late 1960's onwards; there is also a spendid book of film photo works, highly recommended: https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B000TTNU ... 206&sr=8-1

[domino harvey]

Completely missed this release and don’t recall it ever being mentioned, but MHz released Chabrol’s Fantomas remake/update on region free DVD with English subs. It’s OOP but a seller on Amazon Prime has it new for only $14.99

Here’s my write up from the Chabrol list

Dr M (1990) and Fantômas (1980)-- Chabrol's pastiche films of Mabuse and, well, Fantômas, respectively-- are interesting, but Fantômas is the more successful of the two. Chabrol only directed the first and fourth feature-length installments, but the casting of Helmut Berger as the titular thief and Jacques Dufilho (Carrying over the casting of a comic French actor in the Juve role from the 60s adaptations) is consistent, and there’s something of an overarching story (and Bunuel's entries are about as good as Chabrol's, really). The first three installments give us much of the same serial points as the original Feuillade films with some fun differences. But the fourth presents us with a different last act, and I must say of the lot I by far favored this last tale of a kidnapped king, mistaken royal identity, and a priceless Hungarian jewel, though I liked the long sequence in the first installment in which Chabrol slavers over a complete tutorial in how to set up a guillotine— a process that honestly never occurred to me to be something I wanted to know, but was glad to learn! Dr M starts promisingly with some anti-Lang anti-sound bridging during a series of mass suicides, but the film is ultimately rather ugly and drab and cursed with a damned lead performance by some German guy who looks like Lorenzo Lamas in Renegade. Alan Bates threatens to save the film with his noble attempts to be as over the top as possible, especially late in the film when he dons a truly unforgettable disguise, but the film still doesn’t quite work.

[domino harvey]

Turns out Alouette, je te plumerai was even more aligned with my interests than I thought, because it also stars Mireille from French in Action as the nurse who invites the convalescing Chabrol into her and Fabrice Luchini’s home so as to inherit his nonexistent millions in a set up borrowed from Bande a part (helpfully excerpted in the film itself). But ultimately this is amounts to no more than a small, cute, instantly forgettable lark

[DeprongMori]

There doesn’t seem to be much discussion about it, but I just picked up Line of Demarcation (1966) in the latest KinoLorber sale and found it tremendously compelling. It’s set in a small French village during the Nazi occupation and takes a prismatic approach to the ways of dealing with this reality among the villagers.

Samm Deighan does an excellent commentary.

[therewillbeblus]

Huh, could've sworn we talked about it during the Chabrol list project, but apparently not. Agreed it's an interesting and good movie, but I don't think I've ever felt much motivation to say more. That's as good as any reason to revisit my copy!

[domino harvey]

One of the few films Chabrol made that reflected his own interest in films about armed resistance (not just the French Resistance, but clearly due to it)

[Stefan Andersson]

Tamasa Films in France has seemingly world rights for 14 Chabrol films:
Les biches, La femme infidèle, Le cri du hibou, La route de Corinthe, Que la bête meure, Le boucher, La rupture, Juste avant la nuit, La décade prodigieuse, Docteur Popaul, Les noces rouges, Nada, Une partie de plaisir et Les innocents aux mains sales

Sources:
https://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/viewto ... 5&start=15 - post by Jerome, May 30, 2024
https://www.lefilmfrancais.com/cinema/1 ... de-chabrol
https://ecran-total.fr/2024/05/16/tamas ... catalogue/

[domino harvey]

Dear God, someone please release them all (well, they can do Popaul last...)

[Aspect]

Yup, that list includes the ones from his golden period. It’s criminal that they haven’t had blu ray releases. I really hope someone (Criterion) got the US rights and remasters them properly.

I’ve still only seen them via the terrible Pathfinder DVDs. Despite how terrible the quality of that set was, it was the single best blind buy of my life. And it was from Best Buy! Those were the days. Probably twenty years ago now.

[domino harvey]

I hope Criterion does NOT have the rights, I want to see these released on good quality discs in my lifetime

I still have my huge Pathfinder box too!

[andyli]

A Spanish blu-ray of Le boucher was recently released. The cover makes no mention of who the licensor is, though.

[domino harvey]

Can you guess Chabrol’s most popular theatrical feature in France? Please note that you won’t guess it

Spoiler

Unbelievably, it’s one of his worst and wholly unrepresentative films, the lame Belmondo-Farrow comedy Docteur Popaul, according to this rundown

More representative are his second and third most popular, Les cousins and A double tour

[Stefan]

Can you guess Chabrol’s most popular theatrical feature in France? Please note that you won’t guess it

Spoiler

Unbelievably, it’s one of his worst and wholly unrepresentative films, the lame Belmondo-Farrow comedy Docteur Popaul, according to this rundown

More representative are his second and third most popular, Les cousins and A double tour

Without having seen the spoiling thing ... it must something cheap and awful. Mmmm ... What do we have in his filmography that covers this? Not so little! My guess would be one of the "Tiger" bad Bond-parody films from the 60's.

Am I right? The (Torn) curtain rises ...