criterionforum.org

Posted: **Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:07 pm**

DVD Empire has listed the R1 release of The Child / L'enfant, the Dardennes' 2005 Palme d'Or winner, for August 15th. It is being released by Sony with an SRP of $24.96. The only listed extra is an interview with the directors.

Note that Blaq Out (France) released an excellent DVD of the film in April (DVD Beaver), and Artificial Eye (UK) has scheduled its DVD release for July 24th.

Nice to see distribution of a Dardenne film from someone other than New Yorker (which released La Promesse and The Son on DVD).

BTW, the brothers' first Palme d'Or winner, 1999's Rosetta, still awaits a DVD release in Region 1. The VHS was released by Polygram USA. It's unclear to me whether Universal (which gobbled up Polygram) or MGM (which bought the Polygram library up to 1999) controls the rights. (That said, Artificial Eye's 2-disc release of Rosetta with La Promesse is excellent.)

Posted: **Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:12 pm**

TVA Films also has a version of L'Enfant that is already out in Canada (it was released May 9). I'm not sure how good the transfer is though and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have English subs. Definitely no features.

Posted: **Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:07 pm**

Noel Megahey judges the Artificial Eye transfer "perfect" at DVD Times.

In R1, the Sony release (surprisingly, under the original title, L'enfant) is still set for August 15.

Posted: **Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:43 pm**

I have the R1 disc in the mail...will be here probably by Friday...I think.

Ciao,
Pro-B

Posted: **Wed Jul 26, 2006 5:50 am**

A quick follow up (the hreview will be up by the end of the week).

Exceptionally strong, progressive, anamorphic transfer on par with the solid disc Sony delivered for CACHE. The transfer is near flawless. The only downside here is (of course) the addition of rather large for my taste yellow subs. Asdie from that this is one top notch package!

Ciao,
Pro-B

Posted: **Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:16 pm**

I've been knocked out by Sony's discs this year, which have some of the sweetest transfers I've seen (Cache, Yes, Saraband, Junebug). My only criticism is the yellow subs and lack of substantial extras, but that's a small criticism compared to those I'd have if New Yorker or Facets had released these titles.