domino harvey wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:17 am
This may help, from Cahiers' 1957 guide to French directors (written by various contributors including Truffaut but not assigned to any) (translation by jdcopp)
Julien Duvivier
Some tell you that today’s Duvivier is not worthy of yesterday’s Duvivier and rate L’Affaire Maurizius by wailing for Pépé le Moko. One could respond by burning Un carnet de bal in the name of Sous le ciel de Paris. In fact, Duvivier’s career is like a temperature chart with spiked highs and vertiginous slumps that, when led back to a happy medium witnesses an enviable warmth. If it it is rare that his films make rapt, it is rarer that his films make bored. His taste for a certain style of the baroque, culminating with La Fête à Henriette make him the champion of the unexpected, often guileful, sometimes aggravating. Constructed in stucco rather than cut in marble, his structures are not those that last but perishables are not the lest of foodstuffs.
If you're still not quite sure what to make of their take, well, welcome to Cahiers du Cinema!
Indeed about the Cahiers du Cinema. I'd like to think the "chart spiking high" was for many of his 1930s output.
Algiers would absolutely make a great supplement in line with The Front Page on the His Girl Friday release. I just wonder being that it's in the public domain how is and who has the negative if they still exist. TCM aired it last week and it looked pretty rough
“Restored in 4K in 2024 by StudioCanal at L’Image Retrouvée laboratory from the 35mm original negative. Funding provided by CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée.”
This is currently on TCM. I can't tell if it's the restoration. Some of it looks really good with strong detail, but still lots of softness. I don't recall how the DVD looked
I'm watching it, too, on the west coast feed. There's a lot of scratches, dust, and jumpiness, so I think this is just the old video transfer. TCM so rarely upgrades their broadcast masters. They're showing North by Northwest on the east coast feed and, based on the colors, I'd swear it's the old DVD transfer.
Yeah Matt, after I posted I saw some really rough spots. I’m hoping the restoration gives this new life but I’m skeptical.
I think TCM usually airs upgrades when it’s Warner Bros films. Like Passage to Marseille was on earlier yesterday and that was clearly the upgrade that WAC released.
