Convince Radiance to Release a Michel Deville Film

[domino harvey]

Worth noting I haven’t seen a Deville past Toutes peines confondues because I’m saving my remaining chronological Devilles like people in Chabrol movies save good wine (take a “new” one out every year or two to savor), so there may indeed be other good bets in his later films

[knives]

His holocaust film is good if not one of his greatest films. By the way, I figure my interest is worth more than the average as I’m something of a rare customer. I only bought about three discs last year and have generally saved myself for things I’m very excited for which Deville (and Moullet if I can be really crazy) certainly constitutes.

[therewillbeblus]

His holocaust film is good if not one of his greatest films.

Yes, Un monde presque paisible is wonderful - it never descends into trite melodrama, and balances comic ideas with tragedy extremely well. A real treasure

[TechnicolorAcid]

I’ll throw my name in here and say that even if I haven’t been as keen on Deville as a lot of others here, I would nevertheless still buy the hell out of any of his releases if only to just support his work getting out there (especially The Bear and the Doll and L’Apprenti Salaud).

[Calvin]

Anyway, maybe with enough interest and persistence, a small box set could happen. Would very likely help if the rights were through the same licensor of course, with Gaumont being the common source for Eaux profondes, Péril en la demeure and Le dossier 51 at least. It seems Pathé may have Toutes peines confondues, so not exactly impossible but still worth mentioning.

Gaumont own Eaux Profondes, Péril en la demeure, Le voyage en douce, and La pette bande; the others they previously released were sub-licensed.

I think the biggest batch of his films are
with Playtime - though interestingly, a few fewer than they listed a few years ago when they had pages for The Bear and the Doll, Benjamin, L'Appartement des filles, and Bye Bye Barbara. They're still listed on Unifrance so who knows.

Going by recent CNC restorations, I suspect that Deville's own production company Elefilm also retains some rights/ownership over some.

In terms of what I think would be best for Deville releases:

Adorable menteuse - I swayed over which of his early 60s films would be the 'best' release (and the ideal would be multiple!) but, despite Ce soir ou jamais' selling point of Anna Karina, I wonder if the wider audience might prefer his next feature. A tale of two sisters and a wildly playful genre-bender. Elefilm received 50k for a restoration from the CNC in 2018 but I haven't actually heard of a restoration being screened or released.

The Bear and the Doll - Bardot is sensational in The Bear and the Doll - a quirky odd couple comedy where she sets her sights on Jean-Pierre Cassel, the only man who seems immune to her charms. I'm unaware of any recent restoration.

L'apprenti salaud - I adore this one. Clever, witty, playful. One of the best comedies ever made. Though no available HD master as far as I can tell and I worry that the age gap between the leads might lead to some pitchforks in the Letterboxd reviews.

Dossier 51 - I gather it's not the forum's favourite Deville nor his most representative film, but I think with its genre credentials this would be a fairly easy sell and pretty much inkeeping with some of Radiance's existing French catalog. It's also a cracking film: Deville's answer to the 70s paranoid thriller, told from the POV of a surveillance team tasked with getting dirt on a French diplomat to exploit for political gain. Playtime list it as having an HD master available.

La Maladie de Sachs - One of Deville's later features, which follows a GP in a rural French town. As a GP myself, my connection to this film feels quite personal but I don't think I've ever seen another film that quite 'gets' the the patient-doctor relationship and the complexities of doctors as individuals with, yes, professionalism and empathy and deep humanity but also often dark humour and streaks of misanthropy. While it is quite different from some of his more comedic films, I think it's perhaps the most obvious example of Deville's own intelligence and keen perception.

I think the chances of us coalescing around just one Deville to release might be a difficult ask but if a two-fer would be possible then I'd suggest to test pilot with Ce soir ou jamais and Adorable menteuse - both of which I think are with the same rightsholder and both of which have received CNC funding for restoration (in 2019 and 2018 respectively). Dossier 51 would probably be the easiest single title in terms of marketability and an available HD master, but even if it sells 5000 copies I don't think it's a great yardstick for Deville's wider potental. I do certainly want it though - great film!

[Finch]

I've not seen any Deville but The Bear and The Doll and L'apprenti salaud both sound like low risk blind buys that I'd enjoy.

[therewillbeblus]

I can’t imagine anyone not at least enjoying them, if not falling in love

[domino harvey]

Those two, as I’ve said before, are his best in part because they fully reveal Deville’s unparalleled talent for filmic rhythm. It’s no surprise he loves classical music so much, because he approaches editing and camera movement with the same totality. These two are nothing but constant cycles of escalating, building, reshaping into a remarkable final product. You see the natural evolution of this approach in a movie like Toutes peines confondues where Deville doesn’t even feel compelled to explain what he’s doing for a good half hour of the film, but you hardly even notice or care because the journey is still so fully engaging in its style and structure

[Calvin]

Perhaps getting ahead of myself, but in terms of an overall release it looks like the INA produced a documentary on Deville last year - titled Michel Deville, Le Plaisir du Jeu

[WrathOfAguirre]

I’m completely ignorant of Deville, having not seen any of his films, but the hype and praise from folks here and elsewhere over the years has left me wanting, so definitely count me in.

The Oshima set is a prime (and very recent) example of my love of buying a box set for a director I’ve not delved into but have been aware of for a long time. A box of Deville would be another one I’d do the same for, but just one film? Absolutely.

(As a collector and general physical media enjoyer, I’ve surely blind-bought much worse films over the years.)

[vertigo]

La maladie de Sachs is terrific, and I like very much Le mouton enrage (AKA The French Way)

[vertigo]

I think that The French Way would be commercial enough, starring Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin at her most unforgetable huge great amazing crazy beauty (there's a lot of clips of her, eating and smiling, her outfits from Le mouton enragé, on social media) and is Trintignant, and Florinda Bolkan.

But Cassel is too... forgetable.

[domino harvey]

I think the stars make it seem appealing to license, and I do like it, but it would not be a good film to really show off why so many of us are Deville devotees (and it has an English friendly Blu-ray already from Germany)

[vertigo]

Well, I do not buy blu rays from Germany. Is it out of print in France? I can read French.
I think they have restored La maladie Sachs, I have always read the Recent Film Restorations thread, the best one in the forum.

Radiance should rescue On connait la chanson and The Taste of Others, I love both for the genre.
How do say you in English language when a lot of plots are mixed? Like Nashville. I don't remember it.

[MichaelB]

Why wouldn’t you buy a disc from Germany?

[vertigo]

I bough Lang's M with a book, never more, because I don't speak German.
It's an old beautiful limited blu ray edition, with English subtitles, but of course, all is written in German.

[MichaelB]

But the disc under discussion is English-friendly.

[Never Cursed]

Maybe it has a German audio track by default? I've bought BDs from Germany before that had a dubbed German audio track as the main one for the main feature. Given that a lot of TV in that country is dubbed (and increasingly by AI, apparently) into German, I wouldn't be surprised if some only kept the dub

[domino harvey]

Yes, to confirm, it has original French audio plus German dub plus English subtitles. I own it and it’s how I saw it in the first place

EDIT Gary on the disc - guess there’s an English dub too. I watched with subs obv

[vertigo]

That German disc is Out of print, from 59'99 euros, thats crazy.
98'92 euros another copy, here, that is an insult!

[Calvin]

I see that the most recent CNC funding round gave 40,000EUR towards a restoration of L'apprenti salaud so presumably there will be a new master of that available some point soon.

(They obviously read this forum as they also funded 6 Emmanuel Mouret restorations as well!)

[domino harvey]

Holy shit, Radiance, release that one! Release that one!

[TechnicolorAcid]

Holy shit, Radiance, release that one! Release that one!

I mean it’s an okay movie but I can’t imagine it would go that well as a Deville release, at the very least they should release The Bear and the Doll and Adorable Menteuse first so audiences can know what to expect before tossing them Deville’s most controversial movie

[domino harvey]

Huh? What is controversial about it?

[TechnicolorAcid]

Huh? What is controversial about it?

I watched it with someone who complained how weird it was that the movie was trying to set up a romance between 2 actors who had a 33-year age gap and I could see how the film could easily be twisted into something very creepy under the wrong context. Again I like the film but I can imagine at least a couple people getting up in arms about the central relationship.