François Truffaut

[FrauBlucher]

Detailed….

NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM
NEW Truffaut, Bazin, Renoir: A Love Story (2022, 20 mins): film academic Catherine Wheatley's illustrated presentation, recorded at 'François Truffaut's Cinematic and Literary Influences Study Day', BFI Southbank
Audio commentary by Robert Lachenay (2002)
Audition footage (7 mins): Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay and Richard Kanayan in screen tests for The 400 Blows
Les Mistons (1957, 18 mins): Truffaut develops his distinctive style in this early short
Images of Paris: documentary gems from the BFI National Archive:
Panorama Around the Eiffel Tower (1900, 1 min)
Metropolitan Railway of Paris (1913, 6 mins)
Lunch on the Eiffel Tower (1914, 1 min)
Original theatrical trailer
2022 theatrical trailer
Stills gallery
First pressing only: Illustrated booklet with new essays by Ellen Cheshire and Kieron McCormack

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

THE 400 BLOWS
A film by François Truffaut

BFI Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime release on 25 April 2022

See/share the trailer

THE 400 BLOWS, François Truffaut’s directorial debut in 1959, introduces his enduring alter ego, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) – a misunderstood 12-year-old, neglected by his parents and mistreated by repressive schoolteachers, who seeks refuge in truancy, petty crime and, above all, cinema. Following its UK theatrical release via BFI Distribution in January, it now comes to Blu-ray presented in HD from a new 4K restoration, released by the BFI on 25 April and also made available via iTunes and Amazon Prime.

Truffaut’s most autobiographical film is widely regarded as one of the all-time great coming-of-age movies and was a cinematic landmark that heralded the French New Wave. Extras on this Blu-ray release include a feature commentary, audition footage and, Truffaut, Bazin, Renoir: A Love Story, film academic Catherine Wheatley’s illustrated presentation, recorded at François Truffaut’s Cinematic and Literary Influences Study Day earlier this year.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition from a new 4K restoration
• Feature commentary by Robert Lachenay (2002)
• Audition footage (1958, 7 mins): Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay and Richard Kanayan’s screen tests for Truffaut
• Les Mistons (1957, 18 mins): Truffaut develops his distinctive style in this early short
• Truffaut, Bazin, Renoir: A Love Story (2022, 18 mins): Film academic Catherine Wheatley’s illustrated presentation, recorded at François Truffaut’s Cinematic and Literary Influences Study Day, BFI Southbank
• Images of Paris: documentary gems from the BFI National Archive, including Panorama Around the Eiffel Tower (1900, 1 min), Metropolitan Railway of Paris (1913, 6 mins), and Lunch on the Eiffel Tower (1914, 1 min)
• Original theatrical trailer
• 2022 trailer
• Image gallery
• *** First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with an essay by Ellen Cheshire, a biography of François Truffaut, credits and notes on the special features.

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1458 / PG
France / 1959 / black and white / 99 mins / French with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 2.35:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

JULES ET JIM
A film by François Truffaut
Starring Jeanne Moreau

BFI Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime release on 25 April 2022

Starting just before the Great War and spanning three decades, François Truffaut’s hugely popular classic JULES ET JIM depicts one of cinema’s most captivating love triangles, between two best friends – the Austrian Jules (Oskar Werner) and the French Jim (Henri Serre) – and the object of their mutual desire, the enigmatic and alluring Catherine, played with verve and sensitivity by Jeanne Moreau. Following its UK theatrical release via BFI Distribution in February, it comes to Blu-ray in a new 2K restoration, released by the BFI on 25 April. Among the many extras is a new panel discussion about Francois Truffaut’s work and an audio commentary with Jeanne Moreau and Serge Toubiana recorded in 2000.

Fast, funny and stylish, JULES ET JIM is a deeply affecting and engaging testament to love, loyalty and freedom, and remains a highly influential landmark of world cinema.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition from a new 2K restoration
• Audio commentary with Jeanne Moreau and Serge Toubiana (106 mins, 2000)
• François Truffaut panel discussion (2022, 54 mins): film scholars Pasquale Iannone, Marilyn Mallia, Sonali Joshi, Ginette Vincendeau and Catherine Wheatley discuss key themes and influences in Truffaut’s work
• The John Player Lecture: François Truffaut (c1972, 53 mins, audio): the director discusses his films
• Jeanne Moreau in Conversation (1982, 83 mins, audio): the Jules et Jim star talks with Don Allen about her life and career
• Screen Epiphanies: John Hurt on Jules et Jim (2010, 8 mins): the actor on his first viewing of the film and the lasting impression it has left on him
• Trailers
• Stills gallery
• *** First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with essays by Pasquale Iannone and Lillian Crawford; a contemporary review from Monthly Film Bulletin, a biography of Francois Truffaut, credits and notes on the special features.

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1446 / 12
France / 1962 / black and white / 106 mins / French, German and English language, with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 2.35:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)

[L.A.]

The 400 Blows @ DVD Compare

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

THE LAST METRO
A film by François Truffaut
Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Jean Poiret

BFI Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime release on 30 May 2022

François Truffaut’s late-career drama THE LAST METRO (1980) features mesmerising performances from two icons of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve (Belle de jour) and Gérard Depardieu (Cyrano de Bergerac), in a powerful character study set in German-occupied Paris. A multi-award-winning masterpiece, it is presented on Blu-ray in a new 2K restoration along with release on iTunes and Amazon Prime on 30 May, and follows the BFI’s recent Blu-ray releases of Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS (1959) and JULES ET JIM (1962).

THE LAST METRO explores the fortunes of the Montmartre Theatre as its owner, Marion Steiner (Deneuve) battles censorship and compromise while hiding her Jewish husband from Nazi persecution. When a new leading man, Bernard Granger (Depardieu), is hired, she is irresistibly drawn to him – even though he may not be all he seems.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition
• Audio commentary by Gérard Depardieu and historian Jean-Pierre Azéma, moderated by Serge Toubiana, in French with subtitles. (c2000)
• Audio commentary by Annette Insdorf, academic and author of François Truffaut (2022)
• Deleted scene: Angels of Mercy (1980, 5 mins)
• Original theatrical trailer
• Stills gallery
• *** First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with a new essay by Pasquale Iannone, an essay on Truffaut by Catherine Wheatley from Sight & Sound, March 2011, reviews from Monthly Film Bulletin and Sight & Sound from 1981, credits and notes on the special features

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1448 / PG
France / 1980 / colour / 132 mins / French with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.66:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)

[ryannichols7]

am I reading this right, a 2022 commentary with Insdorf? she did the track on the Criterion release in 2009

[manicsounds]

am I reading this right, a 2022 commentary with Insdorf? she did the track on the Criterion release in 2009

Yes. Completely new. She mentions about the 2014 2K restoration at the beginning and states this is a commentary for the BFI's Blu-ray edition.
And just a quick sampling, the opening credits look much better than the older Criterion/Artificial Eye HD transfers.

[ryannichols7]

am I reading this right, a 2022 commentary with Insdorf? she did the track on the Criterion release in 2009

Yes. Completely new. She mentions about the 2014 2K restoration at the beginning and states this is a commentary for the BFI's Blu-ray edition.
And just a quick sampling, the opening credits look much better than the older Criterion/Artificial Eye HD transfers.

that's so bizarre, I wonder how it came about to do a new track rather than reuse the old one. that and 400 Blows not getting a new commentary, but alas

[domino harvey]

She’s done this a few times before. I know she’s recorded different versions of Melville commentaries, and I think Kieslowski too maybe?

[MichaelB]

David Del Valle recorded a second commentary track for the Arrow edition of the Count Yorga films, albeit with a different partner. If I remember rightly, he’d only done the first for another label, and wanted to tackle both films back to back.

[domino harvey]

Adrian Martin re-recorded his Herculean Madman commentary of Le gai savoir for Kino’s Blu-ray, with I believe only a few changes to the text

[MichaelB]

I believe Tim Lucas has tweaked his commentaries from release to release, to reflect more recent scholarship.

[colinr0380]

I particularly remember that the late Stephen Prince did this where his commentary for the 2003 Wellspring DVD edition of Ran got slightly revised for the Criterion DVD edition in 2005. For the majority of the commentary the track is the same but there is a brief added section about homosexuality during the historical period being depicted which seems presumably included because Prince's commentary for the Criterion edition of Kagemusha, which got released in between (earlier in 2005), has a section in which he went into that aspect in much more detail. I assume that when going back to Ran for its Criterion reissue that Prince wanted to maybe add a brief section in there on the same topic too.

[manicsounds]

And just a quick sampling, the opening credits look much better than the older Criterion/Artificial Eye HD transfers.

Maybe I spoke a little too soon on that...

So, "400 Blows" uses the 4K restoration transfer from the French UHD/BD from Carlotta, with a sharp image but with an unnaturally digital looking grain structure.
"The Soft Skin" and "Jules and Jim" use existing 2K transfers which were used on the Criterion, Artificial Eye, etc. Blu-rays in the past and still look exceptionally good.

"The Last Metro" uses a 2K transfer from 2014 and it looks significantly different compared to the past HD version found on the Criterion, Artificial Eye, etc. Blu-rays.
The golden brown hues of the older HD transfers are completely gone, leaving a darker and colder looking hue. It looks sharper and more stabilized but the tone of the film is completely different here, so it should be controversial. I have no idea how original theatrical prints looked, but the 2K transfer comes from the original negative while the older HD transfer came from the interpositive. The differences can be seen in the French Carlotta Blu-ray screencaps which the BFI looks identical to, with the Criterion at the bottom of this review:

https://testsbluray.com/2021/06/21/test ... ier-metro/

[rrenault]

I'm very torn on what to do regarding The 400 Blows. My Criterion blu-ray could certainly use an upgrade. However, I don't want to splurge on Carlotta's UHD set (I speak French, so lack of English subs isn't an issue for me), considering their problematic encodes, while the BFI blu-ray doesn't even manage to be an ideal upgrade by the standards of 4K-sourced standard blu-rays.

Mind you, the Carlotta discs could be among those 4Ks that have been unfairly maligned like Goodfellas, so who knows...It's not like Carlotta to put out such a poorly authored release, given their close relationship with David M. Strange...

P.S. The Breathless UHD also seems to be controversial. Finch classed it at as reference quality here, but it seems to have its share of compression naysayers over at blu-ray.com

[Calvin]

tenia gave the Carlotta set a good review

I think it's a near certainty that Criterion upgrades their set, though in what year is anyone's guess.