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My French is good enough that I can read it, but not good enough for understanding it easily when spoken. I am looking for recommendations for French films on DVD that have subtitles in French, are not available with optional English subtitles, and have a good transfer. Anyone?

A negative report -- none of the French Rivette releases I've gotten so far have had French subtitles (which I find sad). ;~{

God knows if it's still in print (I bought it in 1999), but my French copy of Ridicule had French subtitles only - which is perfect for this particular film, as it forces me to focus on the original wordplay while clarifying some of the more obscure puns.

Actually, this is a useful thread for me as well. Those amazing Pialat sets (maybe the greatest DVD edition of a single director's work yet released) would be infinitely more useful if they had French subs (and I'm sure there are a lot of deaf French cineastes who'd agree with me). If the disc of Raul Ruiz's phantasmagoric City of Pirates had French subs, for example, I'd snap it up. Can anybody confirm or deny?

The superb French 2-disc release of Hou's Millennium Mambo has English subs on the feature, but not on the extensive extras. The best of them at least - an extended, revealing interview with a somewhat tired and emotional Hou - is subbed in French and is well worth working your way through.

Millenium Mambo wont really help since the dialogue is in Chinese......

Jean Pierre Jeunet's "A Very Long Engagement", "City Of Lost Children", in Region 1 have French subtitles.

These Marcel Pagnol classics are available in restored editions with optional French subtitles only:

La Fille du puisatier
Manon des sources & Ugolin

Lots of nice extras, also subtitled. Pricey, though.

The whole Marseilles trilogy by Pagnol is also subbed in french and english.

What you should perhaps know is that french subs seem to differ a little from what is said on the screen. This is because written french takes up much space and the dialogue often needs to be parafrased a little. This being also one of the reasons why they dub foreign films - it is hard to get all the dialogue into the subs.

The guys on the forum often know most about the classics: subs for deaf people is much more common for new french blockbusters than for films by Renoir & Carné! Hearing impaired frenchmen are probably not that much into that.

Another thing you can do if you just want to learn more french is to watch any dvd that has a french soundtrack with the optional french subs! That should enhance your choices as almost any dvd by Universal, MGM etc. has these options.

I was in your shoes some years ago and hardly knew a word of french. I watched tons of films and now I have a master degree from the Sorbonne!

Knappen wrote:The whole Marseilles trilogy by Pagnol is also subbed in french and english.

I know, but I was rather pedantically sticking to the OP's requirement of no English subs.

Another recommendation would be the Gaumont THX editions of Les Tontons flingueurs and Les Barbouzes. Even fluent French speakers may find themselves reaching for the subs button during Michel Audiard's argot-rich machine-gun dialogue (and the booklet comes with a helpful vocabulary guide for when even the subs aren't enough).

zedz wrote:If the disc of Raul Ruiz's phantasmagoric City of Pirates had French subs, for example, I'd snap it up. Can anybody confirm or deny?

I just took the DVD out for a spin to confirm and alas, no French (or any other) subs on the disc.

acquarello wrote:

zedz wrote:If the disc of Raul Ruiz's phantasmagoric City of Pirates had French subs, for example, I'd snap it up. Can anybody confirm or deny?

I just took the DVD out for a spin to confirm and alas, no French (or any other) subs on the disc.

Bugger. But thanks!

I just came up with a new title that corresponds to this post: The Edition Prestige dvd of Duvivier's Maria Chapdelaine. It has French subs pour sourds et malentendants. I posted some caps on the board.

Just a reminder that French subtitles have been supplied for all 15 of the films recently released in the Pathé Classique series:

Accusée, levez-vous (1930, Maurice Tourneur)
Boudu sauvé des eaux (1932, Jean Renoir)
Tartarin de Tarascon (1934, Raymond Bernard)
Les Hommes nouveaux (1936, Marcel L'Herbier)
Les Disparus de St-Agil (1938, Christian-Jaque)
Les Enfants du paradis (1945, Marcel Carné)
L'Armoire volante (1948, Carlo Rim)
Les Orgueilleux (1953, Yves Allégret)
Cadet-Rousselle (1954, André Hunebelle)
Les Femmes s'en balancent (1954, Bernard Borderie)
Ces dames préfèrent le mambo (1957, Bernard Borderie)
Marie-Octobre (1959, Julien Duvivier)
125 rue Montmartre (1959, Gilles Grangier)
Boulevard (1960, Julien Duvivier)
Les Mauvais coups (1960, François Leterrier)

Of course, at least two of these (Boudu and Les Enfants du paradis) are also available in English-subtitled editions from other companies.

Technical reviews of all 15, with screencaps, can be found strewn across various webpages at www.dvdrama.com (if you ask the website's search engine for “pathe classiqueâ€

15 more French films have been released, reportedly again with French subtitles, in the Pathe Classique series. This probably won't be the cheapest way to buy them or the most accurate source of information on points of detail, but it does have the advantage of listing briefly all the titles released in the series either in 11/2006 or in 05/2007.

Once again the batch includes many films never likely to appear on DVD with English subs, though I'm not sure that there are as many treasures among them as there were in the first group.

There is at least one treasure in the group: Jean Epstein's "Coeur Fidele" (1923), one of his three or four very best films and one of the one that has been hardest to see outside of France. I can't speak for the quality of the DVD as it hasn't arrived yet, but the film comes highly recommended.

True. I'm sure there will also be many collectors who will be glad to have Carné's Les Portes de la nuit. Transfer quality should be excellent, judging from the standard of last November's releases.

Pathé Classique have a very intensive release programme planned -- we'll probably see another batch of 15 or so next November. And there are many other treasures in their archives.

There is at least one treasure in the group: Jean Epstein's "Coeur Fidele" (1923), one of his three or four very best films and one of the one that has been hardest to see outside of France. I can't speak for the quality of the DVD as it hasn't arrived yet, but the film comes highly recommended.

This is excellent news. I'm thrilled to finally see some more Epstein on dvd. I'd be glad to know about the image quality when you receive it.

Even when it was shown at the wrong frame speed, as it was at the cinémateque in Copenhagen where I first saw it, CÅ“ur fidèle struck as one of the most beutiful French films of the 20's. And given that the film was never released on vhs anywhere I never thought I'd see it on dvd. Here's hoping the same thing will happen with 6 1/2 x 11 (Six et demi-onze), an Epstein-film that has intrigued mere ever since I first read about it...but which I've never been able to actually see.

Can anyone post caps of this Epstein FIDELIS? This is a no brainer in the sheerest sense and the release almost escaped me. Put together with the forthcoming RIVER, and the Kosintsev/Trauberg, a glorious overseas order of silents is in the wind.

I wish a definitive box set of Epstein would finally be released. I've yet to see a film by this man that wasn't utterly spellbinding (of course limited to LA GLACE, USHER, and TEMPESTIARE, all absolute masterpieces in their own right, and each entirely unique of the other stylistically).

Then of course L'Herbier.

Coeur fidèle:

Holy CANNOLI. Thanks much Knapp. This certainly qualifies as the finest looking Epstein... far better in transfer and elements than the above mentioned three, at least here in US.

The tavern in cap2 looks tantalizingly like the location he shot in near darkness for USHER a couple years later...

There are more good news for Epstein transfers. Finis Terrae was shown as the Silent of the month (Muet du mois) on Atre this september. Reports on the quality have been very favorable. A presentation in French.

Maybe we should move this to an Epstein thread?
I'll come back to Finis.

Time for me to dig up an old thread in search of some Criterion Forum wisdom...

My sister and I have been in tireless search of French films with subtitles, as a gift for my dad. Unlike the OP, we're looking for discs that also have English subtitles, although we might get some French-only imports for some stuff we know he'd like. The object is to make it easier to keep up with and study the French text.

MichaelB's suggestion of "Ridicule" is a particularly good one for this purpose, so I'm thinking of importing the R2 2-disc edition, however, I can't find confirmation that it has French subs (I would assume that since the old one did, it would too). Anyone have it?

Unfortunately, no Criterion releases seem to have French subs, and many French releases don't have them either. Bummer.

I've found that most of the MGM World releases (a lot of the prestige foreign films of the 80s, some Truffaut) have French subs, but most of the other companies don't include them regularly. Other R1 titles include Pialot's Van Gogh (which I haven't seen) and the Jeunet's already mentioned. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Maybe this is more of a "Lists" thread...?

nsps wrote:MichaelB's suggestion of "Ridicule" is a particularly good one for this purpose, so I'm thinking of importing the R2 2-disc edition, however, I can't find confirmation that it has French subs (I would assume that since the old one did, it would too). Anyone have it?

The 2 discs release has french SDH only:

From the POV of practicing and improving my French skills ......

I would be happy if the occasional R1 DVD that has both French dubbing and French subtitles would actually have the two match.

A couple times I've turned both on at the same time ..... and so far the two have never been close.

Thanks for the screencap, Tutut. I already have the US release, so I'll go ahead and pick Ridicule up because I think it'd be good for the language aspect. Also, I worship Leconte.

PillowRock wrote:From the POV of practicing and improving my French skills ......

I would be happy if the occasional R1 DVD that has both French dubbing and French subtitles would actually have the two match.

A couple times I've turned both on at the same time ..... and so far the two have never been close.

Thanks for the note. I wonder if they're writing the subtitles more for Canadian French or something.

Knappen wrote:The whole Marseilles trilogy by Pagnol is also subbed in french and english.

Which release does this refer to? Was there a UK release, or the French CHF? (I don't remember one on the Kino.)