E1 Entertainment (formerly Koch Lorber)

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

AFAIK Le Gai Savoir has never received an official home video release anywhere, so that's big news. The odds of getting the Dziga Vertov Group stuff on DVD just got a lot better.

[domino harvey]

They will be releasing Le Gai Savoir as well!

I thought Godard bought the American rights to this so he could sit on it. AMAZING news, one of my favorite Godard films and one of my dream releases!

[Petty Bourgeoisie]

They will be releasing Le Gai Savoir as well!

Wonderful. Any idea about a release date? And seeing how I never bought the region 2 Le Chinoise Koch Lorber will get a good chunk of my money this when these come out.

What a year so far for Godard and Resnais fans with 4 Resnais' coming out on Kino, the Lionsgate Godard set, and now these two releases.

[What A Disgrace]

No specs yet, but Koch Lorber is releasing Julien Duvivier's Don Camillo.

[zone_resident]

DVD Talk reviews of the recently-released Taviani Bros. films:
The Night of the Shooting Stars
Kaos
Fiorile

[What A Disgrace]

...and it actually seems that the Don Camillo release is a double bill with The Return of Don Camillo.

[justeleblanc]

...and it actually seems that the Don Camillo release is a double bill with The Return of Don Camillo.

Does anyone know if these are Studio Canal ports?

[htdm]

I wonder why Good Morning Babylon didn't make it?

[Ovader]

La Chinoise extras: Godard editing table interview, Venice film festival press conference footage, Interview with Anne Wiazemsky and Intro by Colin MacCabe.

[BradStevens]

Seems that Koch Lorber will be releasing a Marco Ferreri box set in August.

The set contains:
El Cochecito
The Seed of Man
La Grande Bouffe
Don'Touch the White Woman
Bye Bye Monkey
Seeking Asylum
Tales of Ordinary Madness
The House of Smiles

There's also a documentary.

Annoyingly, with so many important Ferreri films not available at all with English-subtitles (notably THE LAST WOMAN), Koch Lorber are mostly relying on titles that have already been released on DVD. There's a few nice surprises, though: the rarely seen THE SEED OF MAN is quite something, and I'll certainly be buying the set, if only to get EL COCHECITO (which I've never seen) and THE HOUSE OF SMILES (which I've only seen in unsubtitled form).

Koch Lorber's specs mention a running time of 108 minutes for BYE BYE MONKEY, but my guess is that this will turn out to be the truncated 93 minute version issued previously, which completely eliminates William Berger's character.

[kekid]

Seems that Koch Lorber will be releasing a Marco Ferreri box set in August.

La Grande Bouffe

Do we know if La Grande Bouffe will be anamorphic? The existing DVD is 1:1.33 aspect ratio. The VHS was letterboxed. I do not know the OAR. Anyone?

[pro-bassoonist]

I also saw this set and the Delon film listed at their site and to be honest am quite a bit intrigued. Koch Lorber Films have been churning out some very strong discs as of late and I just wonder what masters were used for these.

I reviewed the UK disc of La Grande Bouffe which is quite decent but definitely could be improved. In any event, I would gladly add this boxset to my collection. I have not seen El Cochecito in years.

Pro-B

[jbeall]

The Chinoise release is pretty good--nice image, good subtitles. The extras weren't Criterion-level, but there's a decent intro to the film and an interesting 1987 interview with Anne Wiazemsky who, like so many on this forum, doesn't care for post-Weekend Godard.

[justeleblanc]

The Chinoise release is pretty good--nice image, good subtitles. The extras weren't Criterion-level, but there's a decent intro to the film and an interesting 1987 interview with Anne Wiazemsky who, like so many on this forum, doesn't care for post-Weekend Godard.

Interesting since I blame her for the radical period.
But then I thank her for contributing to an ontology that Godard so wonderfully crapped on in Numero Deux.

[jbeall]

Interesting since I blame her for the radical period.
But then I thank her for contributing to an ontology that Godard so wonderfully crapped on in Numero Deux.

Well, I can't really speak to that, and I don't know how much this '87 interview is an about-face from earlier stuff. She portrayed the Dziga Vertov Group as JLG & JPGorin, and then a bunch of hangers-on. While she likes La Chinoise, after that JLG got too radical; IIRC, she didn't like the period between Weekend and Passion.

[justeleblanc]

Hrm, she was a radical long before he was. And she was a lot of Jane Fonda in Tout va bien, making Letter to Jane a bit like Godard was yelling at Anne. I dunno. I'm of the opinion that she was to blame for his art, rather than the other way around.

Also, how much is his 70s work hated on this forum. I seem to remember there beeing a lot of Tout va bien, Numero Deux, and Sauve qui peut apologists -- I being one of them.

[jbeall]

I'm probably overstating the disregard for his 70s stuff, but you can find some posts on this page to that effect, and probably elsewhere. I only remembered this discussion b/c I was re-reading the thread yesterday.

That's interesting to know about Wiazemsky; I just don't know enough about his post-67 period, esp. anything outside of the films themselves, to have an informed opinion, so I'm just going by what was in the interview (but I'm hoping to get my hands on the new Godard biography, so maybe I'll learn more there).

[domino harvey]

That's such crap, she and Berto were in the same political student group and they thrived on the Dziga-Vertov group's projects-- I haven't seen the interview but this strikes me as historical revisionism on her part.

[ptmd]

Also, how much is his 70s work hated on this forum. I seem to remember there beeing a lot of Tout va bien, Numero Deux, and Sauve qui peut apologists -- I being one of them.

I love almost all of Godard's films except the loathsome and ideologically inane Dziga Vertov Group films (although some of them, like Vent d'Est, do have some formal interest). That said, Sauve qui peut definitely belongs to a later period (it's more related to Passion and Prenom Carmen than films like Lotte in Italia) and, arguably, so does Numero Deux. Tout va bien is also a bit of an odd fit with the more rigid Dziga Vertov films, which are usually what people are referring to when they speak of Godard's "70s" work.

[justeleblanc]

That's such crap, she and Berto were in the same political student group and they thrived on the Dziga-Vertov group's projects-- I haven't seen the interview but this strikes me as historical revisionism on her part.

That's how I saw it too.

As for post-Weekend stuff, I was under the impression that Godard never fully bought into the radical politics and it was a moment of insecurity as an artist, both in losing his audience and losing his artistic abilities. So in his stuff he did after the DV period, starting with Tout va bien (though I know he gives the credit of that film to Gorin mostly, I still see it as semi-autobiographical) and working through Ici et ailleurs and especially Numero Deux, he was very critical of mixed-messages in political cinema, and less interested in the imaginary working-class class and more interested in the tangible family crisis. I'm probably being facile about it, but to me, the women in his life were incredibly important to his work and Weizamsky represented a dark period for Godard, while Meiville -- who is clearly his intellectual equal if not more so, represents an enlightenment.

Though as much as I dont like Anne W, I really love Berto.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Assigning the "blame" for the radical period to Wiazemsky rather ignores or minimizes the role of Gorin, whose "Marxist-Leninist" bona fides were much stronger than Wiazemsky's and who clearly exerted a strong influence (personal and professional) on Godard as well. And however much Wiazemsky "thrived" on the Group's projects, I've never seen anyone make the case that she exercised a strong creative influence over their work -- Wiazemsky is rarely if ever included in the Group proper (in 1970 Godard named five members, not mentioning Wiazemsky) and Gorin has said, more than once, that the "Group" after Vent d'est was effectively himself and Godard.

To clarify: Wiazemsky's own leftist/radical leanings are well-documented and this obviously rubbed off on Godard -- the student radicalism that figures in his early post-May films (which is largely missing from the Dziga Vertov collaborations) clearly owes much to Wiazemsky. But there's ample evidence Godard was already on that path (he expressed interest in doing a film on student radicals well before he met Wiazemsky) and that her influence over his work of the radical period was one among several, and arguably not even the key influence. I don't see much reason to think that she somehow pushed Godard into making Lotte in Italia and the like, and the fact that she stuck with him during that period is hardly a wholesale endorsement in and of itself.

[justeleblanc]

You're right.

To clarify my position, Anne W was a youthful activist, who, while maybe not directly affecting Godard's art, represented an insecurity for Godard, who I believe was going through some sort of mid-life crisis of sorts. He wanted to win back the youth audience -- and maybe his youth as well -- Anne W was a symbol of this, and his decisions as a filmmaker were an appeal to her tastes and those like hers. This may be too simplistic, and it's based on various articles I've read about the DV period, some of which may not be credible so I apologize for that.

So, and I don't mean to say this with much conviction, while Gorin was a greater influence artistically, Godard continued to consider Gorin an artistic partner only because of Anne W's affect on Godard's personal life.

Also, and this might be inappropriate within the context, but did Anne W ever appear naked in a film and is it available on DVD?

[Via_Chicago]

Also, and this might be inappropriate within the context, but did Anne W ever appear naked in a film and is it available on DVD?

Well, she is naked in Au Hasard Balthazar...but I guess that's not exactly what you meant by "naked."

[colinr0380]

To clarify my position, Anne W was a youthful activist, who, while maybe not directly affecting Godard's art, represented an insecurity for Godard, who I believe was going through some sort of mid-life crisis of sorts. He wanted to win back the youth audience -- and maybe his youth as well -- Anne W was a symbol of this, and his decisions as a filmmaker were an appeal to her tastes and those like hers. This may be too simplistic, and it's based on various articles I've read about the DV period, some of which may not be credible so I apologize for that.

Interesting - I'm just beginning to explore this period and having now picked up the fascinating For Ever Godard book I'm starting to read through the essays. Coincidentally the first essay by Keith Reader mentions the role Wiazemsky may have played in Godard's radicalisation and says that Wiazemsky was attending the Nanterre University as a student, which was one of the earliest universities to start protesting in 68 (according to the essay due to radical staff, along with annoyance and anger caused by unfinished facilities when it opened and poor transport links to Paris), and Godard often went to visit her there after meeting her on the set of Au Hasard, Balthazar. La Chinoise seems the main (along with Un film comme les autres?) Nanterre-influenced film from the way it is described in the essay both in terms of the actors being students and staff of the university and in it being closely linked to that specific ideological climate - so there is a suggestion that he was personally involved in some ways not just with the politics but the people and locations of May 68 and that a lot of the catalyst for that was Wiazemsky, even if they parted ways ideologically after that (I haven't reached that period yet - and the next part of the essay is dealing with Numero Deux! )

From the sound of it The Fanciful Norwegian seems to be onto something talking about Wiazemsky's leanings and that while Godard found them interesting he moved on with the Dziga Vertov films (becoming a radical among radicals?) and did not just find a niche and stick in one mode of filmmaking or with one particular set of ideas, which of couse is something Godard is renowned for.

[tavernier]

Marco Ferreri Collection, coming August 5:

KOCH LORBER FILMS PRESENTS AN EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION OF THE HILARIOUS, DISTURBING AND SHOCKING FILMS BY ONE OF WORLD CINEMA’S GREAT SUBVERSIVE ORIGINALS

For 40 years, Marco Ferreri has stunned and shocked filmgoers with his confrontational and daring works. Politics, impossible relationships, alienation, madness and sexual frankness mark the eight films that make up the Marco Ferreri Collection, a DVD box set to be released on August 5 by KOCH Lorber Films. The collection, covering the range of Ferreri’s career -- from his 1960 breakthrough, El Cochecito (“The Wheelchair”), to his late-career masterpiece The House of Smiles and two new-to-DVD titles -- all feature Dolby Digital sound and most are presented in their original widescreen format. Also included is the documentary “Marco Ferreri: The Director Who Came from the Future.”

Throughout his long career, Ferreri (1928-1997) utilized many of European cinema’s leading stars, including Marcello Mastroianni, Gerard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve and Roberto Benigni, to bring his tales to life. The New York Times said, “The films of Marco Ferreri have a kind of aggressively grotesque intensity about them.” Of Ferreri, Italian-film scholar Lino Miccichè wrote, “[he’s] too eclectic culturally to be given an ideological label, too whimsical in his poetic style to be defined once and for all, Ferreri is one of the greatest.” And at the time of the director’s death, Gilles Jacob, artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival, said, ''No one was more demanding or more allegorical than he in showing the state of crisis of contemporary man.” The films -- in Italian, French, Spanish and English, with English subtitles – included in the Marco Ferreri Collection are:

El Cochecito (“The Wheelchair”) (1960 – 84 minutes – Spanish with English subtitles) -- Much to the dismay of his son, Don Anselmo (Jose Isbert) wants a motorized wheelchair so he can join in the races for the handicapped.

The Seed of Man (1969 - 101 minutes – Italian with English subtitles) After a global plague wipes out most of Earth's population, a young couple argues about having a child. New Wave icon Anne Wiazemsky (Au hasard Balthazar, Weekend) stars. This film makes its DVD debut as part of this collection.

La Grande Bouffe (“The Big Feast”) (1973 - 124 minutes – French with English subtitles) -- In Ferreri’s greatest international success, four friends hire prostitutes and hole up in a Parisian villa for group sex and to eat themselves to death. Starring screen giants Marcello Mastroianni (La Dolce Vita, 8 ½), Philippe Noiret (Cinema Paradiso), Michel Piccoli (Contempt) and Ugo Tognazzi (La Cage aux folles).

Don’t Touch the White Woman (1974 - 106 minutes – French with English subtitles) -- Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour, The Last Metro) and Marcello Mastroianni star in this re-creation of General Custer’s last stand ? filmed in the midst of modern Paris.

Bye Bye Monkey (1978 - 108 minutes - English) -- Gerard Depardieu (Going Places, Green Card) and Marcello Mastroanni star as two foreign eccentrics decaying in a rat-infested NYC apartment.

Seeking Asylum (1979 - 107 minutes – Italian with English subtitles) -- This rare “family film” from Ferreri focuses on unorthodox schoolteacher Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) as he takes over a fortress-like pre-school.

Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981 - 98 minutes - English) – American star Ben Gazzara (The Big Lebowski, The Thomas Crown Affair) plays a drunken poet dealing with the elusive possibility of love in this film based on the writings of Charles Bukowski.

The House of Smiles (1988 - 93 minutes – Italian with English subtitles) -- Ingrid Thulin (Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers) stars as an elderly woman struggling to survive inside an asylum in this film also making its DVD debut.

Total Running Time : 205 mins.

Price: $39.98
Language: English/French/Italian/Spanish with Subtitles
Prebook/Street : July 8/August 5