The Jacques Tati Collection

[FrauBlucher]

It'l be interesting to see what CC comes up with. The bar is high.

[manicsounds]

In the paragraph about Trafic, you spelled "Everybody" wrong...

Also, I assume this has both English and French subtitles for everything including extras.
About the English subs: There were a lot of portions in his films, especially Jour De Fete which had a lot of unsubbed dialogue on the BFI. How are the subs for the Studio Canal? More "integrale"?

[michaelgsmith]

In the paragraph about Trafic, you spelled "Everybody" wrong...

Also, I assume this has both English and French subtitles for everything including extras.
About the English subs: There were a lot of portions in his films, especially Jour De Fete which had a lot of unsubbed dialogue on the BFI. How are the subs for the Studio Canal? More "integrale"?

Everything has English subs. The first thing you see when each disc loads is a menu asking you to select "France" or "United Kingdom" -- so I assume the Studio Canal UK discs will be identical (though the packaging will obviously be different). I haven't seen the BFI discs but the subtitles on these seemed fairly complete.

[manicsounds]

So the incidental dialogue has subtitles too? Even in French it sounds a bit unintelligible.

Are you going to give a rundown on the bonus features and specs in your review, or just keeping it to the main features?

[michaelgsmith]

Not all of the incidental dialogue has subtitles. As I'm sure you know, often in Tati the sound of the characters' voices is more important than what they're actually saying (which, as you indicate, sounds unintelligible or half-intelligible by design). However, I didn't feel that there were any passages in any of the films where subtitles were egregiously missing.

I'll just be sticking to the main features on my blog for now. The only special feature I watched was a documentary on the making of Jour de Fete, which was quite good. Honestly, the set is so stacked with extras that it will probably be a very long time before I get around to watching them all.

[MichaelB]

Not all of the incidental dialogue has subtitles. As I'm sure you know, often in Tati the sound of the characters' voices is more important than what they're actually saying (which, as you indicate, sounds unintelligible or half-intelligible by design).

Yes, didn't Tati specifically request that certain passages not be subtitled? For similar reasons, he was very keen on producing English-language (as opposed to dubbed) versions of his films.

[michaelgsmith]

I never heard about him specifically requesting no subtitles for scenes but I don't find that hard to believe. It seems almost absurd that he would bother creating a version of Mon Oncle with English-language dialogue and signage when you consider how little of either is in the film. Dialogue probably plays the biggest role in Jour de Fete. It's crucial, for instance, that the dialogue in the documentary scene about the U.S. postal service be subtitled. The rest of the films can be enjoyed virtually without subtitles.

[Orlac]

So...is Criterion release these for sure? If so, does it bode well for their other Canal+ titles like The Third Man and Peeping Tom?

[knives]

Yes and no in that respective order. The Tati estate specifically intervened to allow a Hulot release by Criterion which should come out some time this year. Other Studio Canal titles don't have that fortune.

[Orlac]

Cool, and nuts.

[HitchcockLang]

Yes and no in that respective order. The Tati estate specifically intervened to allow a Hulot release by Criterion which should come out some time this year. Other Studio Canal titles don't have that fortune.

Do we know yet if this insistence by the Tati estate includes only the first three Hulot films or if it extends to Trafic or if it even extends to Jour de Fete and Parade?

I'm really hoping for a more or less complete Tati box from Criterion. Heck, they could even throw in The Illusionist.

[knives]

I don't believe we have any definitive word on what may or may not be included, but I believe only Trafic would be up in the air as it is fully owned by Canal, while the rest are only leased to them.

[HitchcockLang]

I don't believe we have any definitive word on what may or may not be included, but I believe only Trafic would be up in the air as it is fully owned by Canal, while the rest are only leased to them.

Good to know though disappointing. Not that I don't trust your judgment, but how do I know that Trafic is fully owned by Canal?

[EddieLarkin]

Moe will tell you that Trafic is actually owned entirely by the Tati Estate. Apparently it was already licensed to SC when Criterion wanted it, so they had to go through them. Whether that is correct or not, I do not know.

[Giles]

Whew, those PLAYTIME caps look glorious. Really calls attention to the compression found on the ol' Criterion blu-ray. I'm not entirely sure yet what to make of the color discrepancy though.

ah, so that's where the colors went. I remember being wow'ed by a 70mm print of 'Playtime' (first time view at the AFI Silver) then watching the Criterion blu when it came out elicited a "ewww - not impressed"

for the French disc to use the actual 65mm elements is a major plus. Criterion's use of the 35mm reduction internegative was a step down in my opinion.

[MichaelB]

Criterion's use of the 35mm reduction internegative was a step down in my opinion.

But to be fair to them, it would have significantly increased the production budget, and they're a single-territory distributor. Same goes for the BFI.

As I argued a few years back, a full-scale restoration would be a large-scale cultural project that would need the backing either of the French ministry of culture or a major distributor serving multiple territories, which is why I'm not surprised that the Tati estate ultimately decided to collaborate with StudioCanal (probably the biggest European major with similar cultural priorities).

[whaleallright]

n/a

[Zot!]

if electronics manufacturers are serious about pushing 4K and 8K as home-theater formats (kind of a hail-mary pass for Sony at this point), the first thing they ought to do is sponsor a 8K restoration of this film. I'm sure that will happen soon.

It would amuse me to no end, if instead of the Avatar exclusive that came packaged with the first 3d sets, you would instead get a 4k copy of a mostly mute French film that famously bombed.