The Jacques Tati Collection

[MichaelB]

I particularly liked this bit:

The 1080p version for Blu-ray is of an utterly stunning quality. It derives from a recent restoration of the film and essentially could not look any more impressive. Damage is minimal while contrast comes through in a gorgeous, silvery presentation. Looking at this transfer, high definition seems to have been created for monochrome and I have no reason to doubt it. The BFI long ago discovered Blu-ray's little secret that black and white films look not just equal to color but oftentimes better and more beautiful to the eye.

...because it's absolutely true: many of my favourite Blu-rays are of black and white films.

[Ozu Teapot]

I've just bought the dual format editions of Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Playtime, and was wondering if anyone knows if there are any plans on the horizon for duals of Jour de Fête, Mon Oncle, Parade and Trafic - even if it's the distant horizon.

[MichaelB]

Given that the Tati films are amongst the BFI's perennial bestsellers, I'd expect them to have some plans in that direction - but of course it depends on availability of suitable materials.

[mattyl149]

I sent an email to BFI earlier back in May, and this was the reply:

We do have plans to release Tati's 'Jour de Fete' and 'Mon Oncle' on Blu-ray but they are not scheduled yet. I understand that we will not be re-issuing 'Parade' as a Blu-ray since the master materials are video as opposed to film. We don't hold any rights to 'Trafic' but I know the BFI Filmstore (020 7815 1350) have copies of the UK edition in stock.

We are in the early stages of planning our next round of Ozu editions. I believe that we may be releasing his silent 'Student Comedies' as a double disc set next. I hope that helps.

Kind regards

Sonia Mullett DVD Producer

As you can see, they mentioned what we know to be the next Ozu release. It seems ages since the last one came out

[MichaelB]

I understand that we will not be re-issuing 'Parade' as a Blu-ray since the master materials are video as opposed to film.

Yes, I'd forgotten about that - it was made for Swedish TV in the 1970s, so a Blu-ray would be pointless. Although the 2009 BFI DVD is an advance on the 2002 DVDY release, there's only so much that can be wrung out of 1970s analogue videotape.

[ImageBox]

Hi everyone. I just found this article about BFI's BD editions of Playtime and Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.
They make an interesting comparision with the Criterion editon of Playtime wich confirms what has been said here :

"The two Blu-ray editions (For the record, Criterion’s is Region A only) are equal on a playback level for the most part, but have some different extras and slight technical differences. We’ll save most of it for the technical section below, but video versions of the film in all formats have either been on the blue or green side. On Blu-ray, Criterion’s version was a bit blue, while BFI’s is a bit green. To BFI’s advantage, this makes the greens look better and more naturalistic, plus the picture looks slightly more naturalistic with a tad more detail than Criterion’s, expect that it now seem too poor when it comes to the Blues. Why is this happening? Because both are from a 35mm reduction internegative off of the 70mm restored print, so though they both look really good, they are slightly compromised."

Here's the link : http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10 ... ieur+Hulot

Maybe some day they will make a transfert from the 70mm version so the colours will be 100% faithful to the original (if that's the reason)...

As for me, as a big fan of Tati's work, especially Playtime (wich I saw in 70mm a few years ago) and Mon Oncle (please make it a Bluray!), I just bought BFI's editions. Now I plan to buy a Bluray player to enjoy them :)

One regret concerning BFI : I wish they had used the original covers to honor Tati's legendary sense of detail...

[Calvin]

Jour de fete and Mon oncle are getting dual-format releases on October 22nd - just as we thought StudioCanal had gobbled the rights up!

[Jonathan S]

Not only are they dual-format but (as with the BFI's Les Vacances) they offer dual cuts of each film - Jour de fete includes the 1964 version, with additional footage (and selective colouring), while Mon oncle has the alternate English-language version, which also has different footage. Jour de fete also includes three shorts. (Source: play.com listings.)

[MichaelB]

Jour de fete and Mon oncle are getting dual-format releases on October 22nd - just as we thought StudioCanal had gobbled the rights up!

Jack Nicholson "gobbled the rights up" with regard to The Passenger, but he still had to wait several years for existing contracts to expire!

Clearly, the BFI's contracts aren't going to be renewed, but they'll still own the UK rights for however long the original licensing period lasts.

This might also explain why certain other titles have been delayed (such as the Cassavetes titles originally scheduled for October), in order to free up producer time to get the remaining Tatis out in dual-format editions as quickly as possible to maximise the amount of time the BFI has left to market them.

Not only are they dual-format but (as with the BFI's Les Vacances) they offer dual cuts of each film - Jour de fete includes the 1964 version, with additional footage (and selective colouring), while Mon oncle has the alternate English-language version, which also has different footage. Jour de fete also includes three shorts. (Source: play.com listings.)

Yes, I heard last week that they're really pulling all the stops out with these releases. Tati's films rank amongst the BFI's biggest best-sellers, and there's even more of an incentive to create the best possible editions given the limited amount of time they'll have to sell them.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Extraordinary collection of 'Tempo' TV interviews with Tati as well as Orson Welles, Godard and Henri Cartier Bresson.
This seems to be just volume 1 as well
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tempo-1-DVD-Jac ... 617&sr=1-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Zot!]

Tati's films rank amongst the BFI's biggest best-sellers, and there's even more of an incentive to create the best possible editions given the limited amount of time they'll have to sell them.

It's impressive that they are going all-out if they have limited time to market these. I'd have to guess that if Criterion doesn't do something soon, they won't bother at all.

[MichaelB]

Yes, they'll be in exactly the same position, although their licensing clock may have more time to run. Or so little time that it's not worth doing.

As for the reasons why the BFI has rejigged its autumn schedule to do this, the chance to catch the Christmas market with Tati titles for the last time has to be a major incentive. If I remember rightly, the other Tatis often tended to come out quite close to Christmas, and I doubt it was a coincidence.

[zedz]

Tati's films rank amongst the BFI's biggest best-sellers, and there's even more of an incentive to create the best possible editions given the limited amount of time they'll have to sell them.

It's impressive that they are going all-out if they have limited time to market these. I'd have to guess that if Criterion doesn't do something soon, they won't bother at all.

In a situation like this, isn't it possible for BFI to make a really big print run so that the titles will still be available long after the licence expires? There was some speculation that Criterion did this with Pierrot le Fou, as I recall.

[Kauno]

I hope they will make Jacques alive again. I hope they have licenses and rights to do that.

[RossyG]

I hope they will make Jacques alive again. I hope they have licenses and rights to do that.

Alas, I don't think resurrecting the dead is part of the BFI's remit. Be nice if they could, though. I'm sure M. Hulot could have some fun in a world of iPads and mobile phones.

[MichaelB]

In a situation like this, isn't it possible for BFI to make a really big print run so that the titles will still be available long after the licence expires? There was some speculation that Criterion did this with Pierrot le Fou, as I recall.

If I remember rightly, they have to proactively get all unsold copies off the market as soon as the rights expire - you often see really spectacularly good deals over the preceding few weeks, as it's either that or not be able to sell them at all.

Basically, the BFI can't be seen to be promoting the discs any more - much like MoC couldn't sell The Savage Innocents after they lost a rights dispute, though I understand they hung onto their unsold copies just in case things went their way again.

[Stefan Andersson]

Info in French re: new restaurations of films by Tati, Demy (Lola) and others: http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2 ... _3246.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[zedz]

Just popping in to highly recommend the Richard Lester interview on the BFI Vacances de M. Hulot disc. He's relaxed, articulate and has some good insights to offer on Tati's (and his own) visual style, such as the way framing is crucial to Tati's humour (and Keaton's too). The interview runs well over half an hour, too, so it's a substantial extra.

[MichaelB]

This shouldn't come as a surprise at all, but I can now confirm that the two new Tati discs will be Region B.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced for the dual-format Jour de fête:

Jour de fête
A film by Jacques Tati

The BFI’s re-mastered Jacques Tati series continues with the world premiere Blu-ray release of Jour de fête (1949) on 22 October. Tati’s award-winning feature debut, about an appealingly inept postman, is a dazzling blend of satire and slapstick. This new Dual Format Edition contains two versions of the film, both newly mastered to high definition; the ‘Thomsoncolor’ version which was first shown in 1995 and Tati’s rarely-seen 1964 reworking of the original which features additional sequences, hand-painted details and English dialogue.
Jour de fête, an hilarious exposé of the modern obsession with speed and efficiency set amidst the rural surroundings of a tiny French village, was early evidence of Jacques Tati’s unique talent and was internationally acclaimed as a comic masterpiece.

Tati himself plays an appealingly self-deluded buffoon, François – a postman who, impressed by the bristling efficiency of the U.S. postal system, makes a misguided attempt to introduce modern methods in the depths of rural France. Initially released in black and white, but also shot in Thomsoncolor, an untested colour process at the time, the film was later restored and finally made available in its original delicate colour.

Jour de fête was shot in the summer of 1947 in the little town of Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre in the Berry region of central France. Tati’s antics on his wayward bike are endlessly inventive and the film also serves as an affectionate, gently mocking tribute to a vanishing way of life. It was an expansion of the 15-minute short, L’Ecole des facteurs, that Tati had made the previous year, and almost all the gags in the short are brought into the longer film.

Postman François’ brief infatuation with ‘American’ methods of speed and efficiency prefigures the satire on modernity that Tati would go on develop in Mon Oncle (1958), also released on 22 October in a Dual Format Edition, and Playtime (1967), a previous BFI Dual Format Edition release. At first Jour de fête aroused little interest among French distributors. Not until after its London premiere in March 1949, when it got good reviews and went on general release, did the French industry sit up and take notice. It won a prize at the Venice Film Festival, and in 1950 was awarded the ‘Grand Prix du cinéma français’.

Special features
• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition (on both Blu-ray and DVD)
• Original 1949 colour version, first seen by audiences in 1995.
• Tati’s alternative 1964 version, which re-works the original 1949 black and white version, adding a new character (the English-speaking painter) and elements of hand painted colour with English voice-over, 79 mins
• Original trailer (DVD only)
• Three shorts: Soigne ton gauche (René Clément, 1936); L’ecole des facteurs (Jacques Tati, 1947); Cours du soir (Nicolas Ribowski, 1967) (all DVD only)
* Illustrated booklet with film notes and credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1048 / Cert U
France / 1949 / colour / French with English subtitles / 81 mins / Original aspect ratio 1.37:1
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM audio (48k/24-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital audio (320 kbps)

[MichaelB]

...and for the dual-format Mon Oncle:

Mon Oncle
A film by Jacques Tati

The BFI’s re-mastered Jacques Tati series continues with the world premiere Blu-ray release of Mon Oncle (1958) on 22 October. Tati’s multi-award-winning third feature – a satirical assault on the twin targets of efficiency and the modern world – confirmed his reputation as the foremost comic artist of his day. This new Dual Format Edition contains two cuts of the film mastered to high definition; the original French language version and the alternative English language version aimed at the overseas market.

Jacques Tati’s second outing as the accident-prone Monsieur Hulot (first seen in Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, already available in a BFI Dual Format Edition) takes him to Paris where the aggressively high-tech lifestyle of his relatives, the Arpels, is contrasted with his old-fashioned ways in a scruffy part of town. Young Gérard Arpel is very fond of his gauche uncle but his disapproving parents resolve to get Hulot a job or a wife. The disastrous outcome is a masterpiece of design and symmetry and of technically brilliant gags. The heart-warming ending is true to Tati’s vision of the modern world as a confusing place that is ultimately full of charm and humanity.

Mon Oncle was a major hit and picked up a string of awards, including the Prix spécial du jury at Cannes, the New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Film and the 1959 Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

Mon Oncle was shot between September 1956 and February 1957 at three different locations. The old Parisian suburb of Saint-Maur served for ‘le vieux quartier’, where Hulot’s wonderfully ramshackle house was built into the town’s main square. The Arpels’ modernistic dwelling was constructed at the Victorine studios in Nice, and the wasteland between the two was shot at Créteil, a few miles outside Paris, where a new town was about to be built.

With an eye on the international market, and wishing to avoid subtitles, which he always disliked, Tati shot two versions of the film – Mon Oncle and My Uncle, the latter with signs like ‘Ecole’ and ‘Sortie’ replaced with their English equivalents and much of the main dialogue dubbed into English, but with some characters speaking French.

Special features
• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition (on both Blu-ray and DVD)
• High Definition premiere release of both versions of the feature
• My Uncle, (Jacques Tati, 1958, 109 mins): Tati alternative English language version – produced simultaneously with Mon Oncle – featuring alternative opening titles and inserts, and re-worked soundtrack
• Original trailer (DVD only)
• Illustrated booklet with film notes and credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1049 / Cert U
France / 1958 / colour / French with English subtitles / 116 mins / Original aspect ratio 1.37:1
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM audio (48k/24-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital audio (320 kbps)

[MichaelB]

Jour de fête and Mon Oncle have been delayed by a week - they're coming out on October 29th.

(This is direct from the BFI, not some Amazon-sourced extrapolation.)

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital on Jour de Fête and Mon Oncle, with more details about My Uncle:

Fascinatingly, Tati shot most of this film twice, in both French and English. The latter version (which played some English-speaking venues and became a TV mainstay if not a home video one) doesn't take the easy way out of simply dubbing the dialogue; instead whole scenes, fashions, and signs are calibrated to give the film a more Anglo-friendly appearance, resulting in an odd alternate universe presentation that will disorient anyone familiar with this film only through its various DVD-era releases.

[andyli]

Beaver on Jour de Fête and Mon Oncle.

[Gregory]

Not sure how to react to the new Mon Oncle. Shouldn't white appliances be white? In the first two caps, sunlit exterior shots now look gloomy and overcast.