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Cœur fidèle



Jean Epstein's Cœur fidèle [True Heart] established the great French filmmaker as one of the most inventive directors of the (then still silent) art form. A pared-down tale of a barmaid oppressed by an exploitative foster family who attempt to push her into the arms of an unscrupulous regular-about-town, Marie's heart (exuberantly vivified by Gina Marès) belongs, as far as she’s concerned, to the tenderly blank Jean (Léon Mathot)...

Cœur fidèle drives its simple story (which, with its infamous and exhilarating "carousel sequence", helped pave the way for the narrative tradition of such Murnau masterworks as Sunrise and City Girl) on into the realm of what might be considered an early incarnation of French poetic realism — all while still anticipating Epstein's magical, post-surrealist, later works. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Epstein's breakthrough film for the first time on video in the UK, as a Dual Format Blu-ray/DVD release.

DUAL FORMAT RELEASE INCLUDING BLU-RAY AND DVD VERSIONS OF THE FILM

• Beautiful new high-definition transfer of the film in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, at its true speed and running time – on both formats – and presented in a 1080p AVC encode on the Blu-ray
• New score composed and performed by Maxence Cyrin
• Original French intertitles with newly translated optional English subtitles
• A gallery of rare photography from the Cinémathèque française
• 44-page booklet containing rare production photography, and writing about the film by Jean Epstein, Henri Langlois, René Clair, and more

John Edmond wrote:Jean Epstein's CŒUR FIDÈLE announced for blu-ray (via twitter).

Sweeeet. I was just about to pick up the French DVD.

I could kiss Peerpee now. Second best news of the year (numero uno is still Deep End).

swo17 wrote:Sweeeet. I was just about to pick up the French DVD.

It's been in my cart for about a year now, thank the film gods that MoC is here! Hopefully the first of many Epsteins.

Wow! Incredible news. It's going to look great in 1080p.

Peerpee better come in here with the glorious news of the Epstein blu being region free or I'll just go ahead and buy it anyway.

Mixed feelings on this. Overjoyed for a Blu and that an Epstein has entered the fray but no heel clicking due to it being the one title that's already available in a more than decent version.

No Jean Epstein film has ever been released on home video in the UK, as far as we can work out, so there's lots of heel-clicking going on in the UK. This is being released (and given the royal treatment) because it's the first that's ready. There's a big effort underway to sort the others out but it's going to take years.

peerpee wrote:No Jean Epstein film has ever been released on home video in the UK, as far as we can work out, so there's lots of heel-clicking going on in the UK. This is being released (and given the royal treatment) because it's the first that's ready. There's a big effort underway to sort the others out but it's going to take years.

It's not a big gripe and it will certainly join my sagging MOC shelf whatever. I had just hoped beyond hope that we might at last see at least Usher and some if not all of the 'Brittany' films.
If it's a waiting game I'm already in the queue.
P.S. I like the sound of a 'royal treatment' or are you just releasing it on April 29th?

Royal treatment = Blu-ray for a 1923 silent film. We would have liked very much to put some shorts on this release but we didn't want to put shitty SD masters on there. The shorts will come later, properly, when they're done.

COEUR FIDELE and our other June title will be released on 27th June 2011.

Don't worry, plenty of heel clicking over here as well! Are the rights up for grabs on Finis terrae? I know a glorious HD transfer already exists because I've seen it.

swo17 wrote:Don't worry, plenty of heel clicking over here as well! Are the rights up for grabs on Finis terrae? I know a glorious HD transfer already exists because I've seen it.

Gaumont fielded a question about their Epstein titles recently (of which Finis is one) saying that the future of their silent output is shaky given the poor sales of their Cinema Premier boxes.
Vol 3,which would probably have covered Epstein territory has been cancelled. It has apparently been mooted as a project to be shared with CNC which presumably if successful maybe something MOC would also benefit from.

Oh God give us some more epstein please, this news made my day...

Great news! Any idea roughly which month it'll come out?

From Peerpee over at the MoC cover thread...

COEUR FIDELE and our other June title will be released on 27th June 2011

peerpee wrote: We would have liked very much to put some shorts on this release but we didn't want to put shitty SD masters on there. The shorts will come later, properly, when they're done.

This seems to indicate that MoC is going the CC route, in the sense of only releasing films that exist in a sufficiently good shape even if they already had a great release in some other European country. No problem with that, but nevertheless a question: is there a possibility for you to start an equivalent to the Eclipse series, allowing for first releases of less well-preserved films, or films only existing in SD form at the moment?

Such a stunning film. Can't wait to see it in HD. And the hints of more Epstein in the pipeline, even if it's a very long pipeline with low water pressure, are thrilling. Usher is only the tip of the iceberg.

It has apparently been mooted as a project to be shared with CNC

The same interview notes that many or most of Gaumont's classic titles, including--I presume--the previous "Cinéma premier" sets, had CNC subventions. That's what allows the releases to break even.

So any answer that this is region free or not (prob not, but had to ask)?

Murdoch wrote:It's Region B.

Sadly, the MoC region-free days seem to be over.

Not necessarily. They just have a lot of titles lined up where they have been asked to region-code their discs. Can't be long before the next region-free disc comes out.

Der Spieler wrote:

Murdoch wrote:It's Region B.

Sadly, the MoC region-free days seem to be over.

So the big question now becomes: will the wrong region screen read, "Coeur blimey!"?

The quoted post was an error, I've no knowledge of the region.

Oh, so there is still hope (doubt it though).