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It's sad, but in France there is no Jean Eustache DVDs available. As far as I know, this is because some expensive (c) rights are asked by his family to release his movies on DVD.
But, I've read somewhere that La Maman Et La Putain is available on a Japanese DVD... I took a look at amazon.com and found it.

I can't find tests of this DVD. There is nothing about it on DVDBeaver. I like to know if the transfer is good. If the movie (which was running about 203 mn) is in its full length and if the subtitles are removable or are burn-it in the picture (which would be annoying for me because I'm French)
Is there anyone amongst you who has this DVD and could review it ?

And I like to know if it is available somewhere else on the net than on amazon.co.jp... thanks in advance for your help...

It is also available here.

I don't have it, but I have the same company's issuing of MES PETITES AMOUREUSES. Good image quality, no English subs though...

I've ordered from this site a few times and have never had any issues, decent turn around time too.

I have it. The transfer is not great but definitely watchable, remembering it was a low budget film. The Japanese subtitles are removable and it is the full length version (219 minutes).

In addition to les Petites amoureuses, the same company, Kinokuniya, released a fantastic collection of short films: les mauvaises frequentations/le pere noel a les yeux bleus/les photos d'Alix and both versions of Une sale histoire.

They are expensive but definitely worth getting. CD Japan is a good place to order from.

And his two last short films done for French TV are available in France (included with Cinema 06).

thanks for reply; do you know if it where else it can be ordered ?
I would like to find a retailers which would give me the best lucks to avoid customs (I had some real bad memories with amazon.co.jp; customes taxes were very expensive for just a classic amaray case of Kill Bill 1 uncut; and DVD arrived scratched

CD Japan packs DVDs well for shipping. As for custom charges. I guess it depends on how lucky you are with customs. So far I have only been charged once.

are the subtitles removable ? or are they "burnt-in" ?

They are removable.

I remember that Jean-Pierre Leaud plays many vinyls/LPs during this movie...
Is it true that at one moment it plays a b00tleg/rare recording (probably a live concert if I can remember) of Bruce Springsteen ?

Rupert Pupkin wrote:I remember that Jean-Pierre Leaud plays many vinyls/LPs during this movie...
Is it true that at one moment it plays a b00tleg/rare recording (probably a live concert if I can remember) of Bruce Springsteen ?

It's been a while, so that I don't specifically recall. I think he plays Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra record at some point - but I'm not positive of that either.

yeah i finally saw this last weekend and it sickens me that there isn't even a french version of this DVD.
maybe with childstar and squid and the whale's references there will be enough popular desire to see this film to warrant the high rights costs.

I don't recall any live recording played by Leaud. The only rock is from Deep Purple. I doubt Springsteen would have had any boots out at the time since [1] he was quite unknown and [2] boots were still under 3 years old [Dylan's GREAT WHITE WONDER of 1970 was the first and MOTHER & WHORE was filmed in 1972] so only big names would have made it on unofficial vinyl.

There is a French edition of Mes petites amoureuses available here.

I haven't seen the Japanese edition, but the picture quality is certainly better than the Japanese Maman et la putain. Comes with three short films on the disc (detailed below). No subtitles.

Mes petites amoureuses
un film de Jean Eustache,
France, 1974, couleurs, 123 mn

Enfance d'un cinéaste
un film de Alain Bergala,
France, 2004, 19 mn
Le réalisateur explore l'univers de Jean Eustache et la personnalité du cinéaste à travers des extraits de films et des images d'archives.

Le Combat avec l'ange
un film de Alain Bergala,
France, 2004, 16 mn
Une approche du personnage de Daniel, héros de Mes petites amoureuses et une analyse de l'acte de création cinématographique de Jean Eustache.

L'Argent des grands
un film de Anne Huet,
France, 2004, 32 mn
À travers des extraits de quatre films (Mes petites amoureuses, L'Argent, Les Quatre Cents Coups et L'Esquive), la réalisatrice aborde la question de l'argent dans toutes ses composantes et de son traitement cinématographique

The $64,000 question - subtitles???

No. That serie includes films by Kiarostami, Lang, Truffaut, Ford, etc. Some has been since released commercially with the supplents (e.g. Lang's Moonfleet), but they were initially created as teaching material for French schools.

There are two more Eustache shortson French DVD (no subtitles, and now apparently OOP): Le Jardin des délices et Offre d'emploi.

Boris Eustache's (Jean's son) blog for Tuesday December 13, 2005, states:

The films will be released in 2006 in a Dvd box.
If that interests you, write to: [email protected]

A poster at IMDB emailed Boris and posted this:

If my little French didn't mislead me, you say in your blog that an Euctache boxset will be issued in 2006. Can you please elaborate on this?

To which Boris replied:

Yes, I have the project to edit all Jean Eustache's film in a DVD box in 2006.
I dont know yet if I will have enough money to include subtitles in this edition.
If the DVD include subtitles, I will let you know.

Thanks.
Boris Eustache.

So, if wisdom prevails for once, we'll see more Eustache on DVD in 2006 with English subtitles.

Incredible news! Having only seen The Mother and the Whore, I have a sneaking suspicion that I will fall in love with this box. Course I never jump into these things sight unseen, so I'll hafta wait long enough for my local video store to stock it, for it to retire from the 2-day-rental new release section, and for me to plow through all of the films. But I imagine that after that I may hafta find shelf space for another box set....

I'm thrilled how fast things spread on internet I was the one who e-mailed Boris Eustache, and my original post appeared on Karagarga here.

The last words of that post is worth mentioning here, i think:

I do think that this is great news, we should both encourage and thank to him. If you want to e-mail him and let him know that there are waiting cinephiles who'll be happy to buy&see Eustache films, please do it. Begging for English subs may also prove to be beneficial, who knows

davidhare wrote:Can we get some idea of his frame of reference? Surely -- surely subs aren't out of the question, certainly for the other Euro nations who don't have French as a native language?

Actually, i also wrote him about the Japanese Kinokuniya Eustache DVDs and the unavailability of his hilms with English subs, he replied that he was trying to put all of Eustache films on DVD for quite some time, but he didn't mention any specific time frame. I "felt" that it was not very near due to financial barriers, and English subtitles was an even remoter possiblity I really think e-mailing him and asking about the DVDs and requesting subtitles will help. :-k

backstreetsbackalright wrote:Incredible news! Having only seen The Mother and the Whore, I have a sneaking suspicion that I will fall in love with this box.

After being a longtime fan The Mother and the Whore I did get the chance to see most of his other in recent years, and it totally lived up to my high expectations.

I truly hope for English subtitles, because The Mother and The Whore is in the clutches of New Yorker, so we expect another one of their PAL to NTSC conversions -- this box may be our only chance to have a native transfer. FWIW: they finally fixed the "untranslatable puns follow" part of the subs on recent US 35mm releases.

Ted

Any updates on the Eustache box? He sounds like a very interesting director, and I really want to see "The Mother and the Whore."

Updates?

Nothing happening I guess.

The karagarga.org link is now dead. Boris' blog hasn't been updated since 2005. I am not desperate enough to start ordering Japanese DVDs yet -- Eustache's films play often enough in NYC to keep me happy.

Dylan wrote:Any updates on the Eustache box? He sounds like a very interesting director, and I really want to see "The Mother and the Whore."

Leaud! I am now intrigued.

Are there not even rumours regarding Artificial Eye (R2) and Jean Eustache's "La maman et la putain" ? It feels like waiting for ages on a DVD release ...

Any info is welcome !!