Claire Denis

[therewillbeblus]

Would love to see Friday Night and US Go Home restored.

Those and Bastards are her best works, so yeah, bring those ones on

[hearthesilence]

Le Cinéma Club recently streamed Claire Denis’ only film made in America, the long-thought-lost 1991 film Keep It for Yourself, which had been commissioned as one third of an omnibus feature showcasing the Figaro, a retro design Japanese car.

In hindsight, I wonder if the original film reels were in DuArt's possession as they're listed in the credits - DuArt was clearing out their vaults about ten years ago, and supposedly it was pretty haphazard as to whether the owners of the films in their possession were contacted or not. Regardless, Le Cinéma Club apparently found someone selling a Japanese-subtitled VHS copy on eBay, and it's the only screenable copy of the film known to exist.

Roxy Cinema just screened it with Sara Driver's You Are Not I as part of their ongoing retrospective of her work (Driver appears in the film) and it looks like someone found a way to download the video from Le Cinéma Club's website and save it for posterity.

[pianocrash]

Snipped from the S&S thread:

Regarding S'en Fout La Mort, this is the original post from "jeromezone" that I referred to:

I worked on this film as an extra and it was a pleasure to meet the fantastic talent in the film. Isaach was a delight and it was great to meet the late, great Jean-Claude Brialy, who had us often in stitches during the breaks. But the sheer brilliance of watching Ms. Denis at work was unforgettable. I would also like to point out that the cockfights in the film look very real but in filming them it was executed so well that no harm was ever done to any animals. It took many, many hours of shooting and many takes to make it look real - and lots of fake blood. Of course they were put into the ring and they hopped around on each other and began to get aggressive but then it would be stopped. Thus the words "no animals were harmed during the making of this film" is true. It was important to show that this type of thing was going on at the time (many people didn't believe it), and how brutal it was.

Pathé 4K Resto French R2 BD/DVD combo will be released on June 28, 2023 - stoked!

[criterionsnob]

Wow! Probably without English subtitles, but must be coming soon in an English friendly edition too.

[criterionsnob]

Claire Denis "...will be returning to Cameroon later this month to scout for locations for her next project, which she finished writing last week."

[dadaistnun]

Wow! Probably without English subtitles, but must be coming soon in an English friendly edition too.

Turns out there are English subtitles.

Available from Fnac.

[Matt]

Speaking of No Fear No Die, I happened to be at my small town’s Vintage Band Festival (brass bands, mariachi, etc.) this weekend and, after finishing a rousingly jazzed up rendition of the theme from The Third Man, a brass band introduced their next number as “the theme from a Claire Denis” film. I thought I misheard, but there followed Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Calypso Minor.” Never in my life would I have considered…

[criterionsnob]

Wow! Probably without English subtitles, but must be coming soon in an English friendly edition too.

Turns out there are English subtitles.

Available from Fnac.

Ordered! I don't mind buying this multiple times, if it gets released in North America. Never thought this film would ever get released in a quality edition.

[criterionsnob]

Speaking of No Fear No Die, I happened to be at my small town’s Vintage Band Festival (brass bands, mariachi, etc.) this weekend and, after finishing a rousingly jazzed up rendition of the theme from The Third Man, a brass band introduced their next number as “the theme from a Claire Denis” film. I thought I misheard, but there followed Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Calypso Minor.” Never in my life would I have considered…

Thanks, I didn't know the No Fear, No Die soundtrack was even available. I've added it to my streaming library. The Tindersticks Claire Denis Films Scores vinyl box set is fabulous, and I love cooking while listening to the Stars at Noon soundtrack. So jazzy!

[criterionsnob]

Does anyone own the Stars at Noon Blu-ray from France? I just realized it exists. I'm wondering if the French subtitles are removable, or if they're forced.

[bad future]

I'm also wondering about that, but also thinking that might be a moot point for me because I don't speak Spanish, and I remember there being enough Spanish in the film that I think I'd miss having English subtitles either way. YMMV obviously. Really too bad it seems to have missed the threshold for release by A24/Lionsgate; this was my favorite Denis film in a long time!

[criterionsnob]

Good point, I might stick with the iTunes version for now. Hopefully A24 comes around someday. Or Criterion for that matter. These A24 releases come out to CAD$88 to import.

[Michael Kerpan]

Is A24 an American company I've never heard of? Or is it based elsewhere?

[TechnicolorAcid]

Is A24 an American company I've never heard of? Or is it based elsewhere?

They’re a film distribution company who distributed stuff like Get Out, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Uncut Gems, Moonlight, and Hereditary. And recently they started re-releasing ‘90s independent projects like Pi and Stop Making Sense.

[swo17]

They distribute an awful lot of zeitgeisty films and TV series. Occasionally they also release them on home video, though their store seems more focused on film ephemera

[Michael Kerpan]

Thanks swo and TechnicolorAcid -- It doesn't look like I've seen anything they handle EXCEPT Stop Making Sense.

[pistolwink]

A24 are one of the few contemporary film distributors to have a genuine "brand." Under-30s will say stuff like "I like A24 films," which basically means, edgy and with imagery that's striking and looks good on Instagram. That includes good stuff and bad stuff and plenty in between.

[therewillbeblus]

My middle-age friends say that too

[senseabove]

Does anyone own the Stars at Noon Blu-ray from France? I just realized it exists. I'm wondering if the French subtitles are removable, or if they're forced.

Caved and ordered this. I was about to confirm the subtitles are not forced, then realized that the avforums region-free firmware patch for the Panasonic players defeats the forced part of forced subs, so checked on the Oppo and they ARE indeed forced.

Good news, though, is that it's a BD-50 with a 40GB feature and, on a spot check it looks really, really good.

[criterionsnob]

Thanks for following up. I may pick it up at some point anyway, forced subs or not.