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As David Hare has posted in the new R4 titles, Madman has just released Les Cousins..

I thought I would mention it here as this is great news. This film has been hard to see for a long time.

Worth noting that those two Chabrols are Janus titles, so as soon as we all order our copies, that New Wave Eclipse set gets announced. But I can risk it, because these are two important Chabrol titles, and Les Cousins is one of his absolute best films

For Americans, I just ordered Les Cousins direct from Madman and it only came out to about $22 American with shipping. If nothing else, Criterion won't be licensing the Adrian Martin commentary and any moderate to severe Chabrol fan can't pass this one up!

What is going on with La Femme Infidele in the R2 Arrow Chabrol Collection? It's stretched out to 2.35:1. I know if could have to do with playback, but I have never had this happen before. In the interest of troubleshooting, I've tried changing player and projector ratio settings, and this does not solve the problem. Has anyone else had this experience?

Gregory wrote:What is going on with La Femme Infidele in the R2 Arrow Chabrol Collection? It's stretched out to 2.35:1. I know if could have to do with playback, but I have never had this happen before. In the interest of troubleshooting, I've tried changing player and projector ratio settings, and this does not solve the problem. Has anyone else had this experience?

I watched this yesterday coincidentally. Had to put my tv to 4:3 (instead of just scan). Then it looked ok (1.66:1-ish), but pictureboxed of course. Tried fiddling with the zoom settings of my tv, but gave up rather soon because it changed the AR again. Weak transfer colorwise too, but enjoyed the movie nevertheless.

I tried all the different aspect ratio settings on my player, and on the projector I tried adjusting both the aspect ratio and the screen size (16:9 or 2.35:1). Nothing worked, including setting both projector and player to 4:3 at the same time. I guess I'm glad I've seen the film before, at least, but I was really looking forward to seeing it again.

I've watched all other discs in both the Chabrol sets (a large mixture of anamorphic and non-anamorphic presentations) and this was a totally unique occurrence. The price was definitely right, at least.

I think it's like 1.78 but then squished down to an MO-esque 2:1 for some reason, ie unwatchable

Gregory wrote:What is going on with La Femme Infidele in the R2 Arrow Chabrol Collection? It's stretched out to 2.35:1. I know if could have to do with playback, but I have never had this happen before. In the interest of troubleshooting, I've tried changing player and projector ratio settings, and this does not solve the problem. Has anyone else had this experience?

It's a shitty release, barely watchable. Not much you can do about it.

Thanks to both for confirming that it's not my setup. I may be been unsure partly out of surprise that no one had mentioned this problem on the forum before. Anyway, I agree that it's unwatchable.

A major discovery in watching the 14 discs of these Arrow sets has been Les Noces Rouges. It's a pretty deft combination, one the one hand, of the kind of thriller we expect from Chabrol; and on the other an unusually explicit political satire that at points borders on farce. Perhaps not his greatest film but an underrated one.

domino harvey wrote:I think it's like 1.78 but then squished down to an MO-esque 2:1 for some reason, ie unwatchable

This sucks. I fiddled with mine and managed to play it squeezed at around 1.66 or squashed at about 2.0, and either way it's pretty hard to take. Is the Pathfinder R1 disc any better?

The R1 is fine, at least in terms of ratio (otherwise the transfer is nothing to write home about).

I started watching the R1 DVD of Le boucher last night and the left and right sides seemed to be cut off as I was watching the opening credits, and I could only guess the rest of the things I saw likely were too. Is this normal?

If memory serves (apologies but my DVDs are all packed up right now), the film is 1.66 and the R1 gives a close approximation (like something between 1.58-1.78?). I can't remember what the R2 is like, but I'm pretty sure it was in the same ballpark-- there is no good print of the film out there, unfortunately.

domino harvey wrote:If memory serves (apologies but my DVDs are all packed up right now), the film is 1.66 and the R1 gives a close approximation (like something between 1.58-1.78?). I can't remember what the R2 is like, but I'm pretty sure it was in the same ballpark-- there is no good print of the film out there, unfortunately.

Okay, thanks for the help. I figured it was just something like that.

Flickhead's Claude Chabrol blog-a-thon is going on now, until June 30.

james wrote:I started watching the R1 DVD of Le boucher last night and the left and right sides seemed to be cut off as I was watching the opening credits, and I could only guess the rest of the things I saw likely were too. Is this normal?

This answer's probably too late to do you any good, but I had the same problem. I had to go into my DVD player's menu and change the setting to widescreen. The disc is flagged incorrectly, I guess. The left and right sides are there, but the player cropped them off until I changed the setting.

I haven't seen much older Chabrol, but I have very mixed feelings on his newer work. His recent films are incredibly entertaining, thought-provoking and deliciously acted... but not very well scripted, and most of them (La Ceremonie esp.) have plot holes you could drive a truck through.

God I'm jealous, it's been my most-wanted Chabrol release forever and I haven't been able to find it through the usual back-alley channels. It's so sad how much of sixties Chabrol is unavailable. Criterion, Eclipse set, hellllooooooooo

domino harvey wrote:God I'm jealous, it's been my most-wanted Chabrol release forever and I haven't been able to find it through the usual back-alley channels. It's so sad how much of sixties Chabrol is unavailable. Criterion, Eclipse set, hellllooooooooo

I'm surprised Rialto hasn't bitten this guy yet.

And how about that Bernadette Lafont?! Wouldn't have minded sharing my 1er arrondissement flat with her back in '61! With Uncle Flix as the gay sidekick.

The Fantomas mini-series directed by Chabrol (and Luis Buñuel's son Juan Luis Buñuel) will be released in Germany on 2 Oktober 2009. It will probably not be English friendly: Amazon.de

Don't know how this slipped under the radar but Chabrol's latest, the Depardieu-starring Bellamy, was released in R1 in December. And the list price is fifty dollars. Uh, I want to see it and all, but c'mon

I picked this up at Amazon.ca for $25 Canadian. I can't be sure, but I believe the DVD on Amazon in the US is the Canadian release. The movie itself is fun and extends Chabrol's recent run of very solid, craftsman-like films. I suspect I might get more out of certain aspects of the film's undercurrents if I look into Georges Simenon's writings or the supposed true-life crime that the story alludes to. The cast is uniformly great and Eduardo Serra's cinematography is a pleasure as always. Seeing Bellamy reminded me how much I have liked Chabrol's late-period output and I am now in the middle of catching up on the films I had not seen from the past couple of decades. I watched The Bridesmaid which I had wrongfully neglected due to lackluster reviews and The Flower of Evil which I might like even more. I still need to see Comedy of Power and The Eye of Vichy which is currently streaming on Netflix instant watch.

PIcked up the Canadian disc of Bellamy off eBay (yes, it's the same one I mentioned above). Mongrel has a bunch of good titles, but based on this one I wouldn't give them money unless I had to-- the film is a bad PAL->NTSC transfer, with ghosting and interlacing on a single-layer disc.



Looks great, huh

But then again, two-thirds of Chabrol's films are only out on shitty DVDs, so it still doesn't feel out of place! As for the film itself, well, I wouldn't hold my breath for an American release, especially in this market. It's another minor key trifle from Chabrol, filled with fun touches for the auteurists and Chabrol purists, and not much for anyone else, really. Highlights include a gay dinner scene that invokes Les Biches, a game and oversexed performance by Depardieu, a powerful early image that turns out to not be what it seemed, and one hell of an acquittal strategy in court. Also, is the little cameo by Chabrol's son supposed to be his character from A Girl Cut in Two? His comment's even funnier if so