Radiance Films General Discussion & Wishlist

[knives]

Which also would be a nice release to include some shorts on.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

FWIW, someone (likely Fabrice Aragno) actually approached Godard about using better sources while they were cutting one of his recent films - they made it clear HD sources were available and that they didn't have to use the low-quality video dubs he was using. Godard refused and made it clear the format was a conscious choice, not a compromise. So with that in mind, I doubt these films will ever get rebuilt, not just for practical reasons but aesthetic reasons.

Aragno spoke about this here at the time of The Image Book:

Spoiler

You know how in postproduction you are supposed to color-correct the picture so everything is smooth and even? Jean-Luc wants the opposite. He wants the rupture. Color and then black and white, or different intensities of color. Or how in this film, sometimes you see the ratio of the frame change after the image begins. That happens when he records from his TV onto his old DVCAM analog machine, which is so old we can't even find parts when it needs to be repaired. The TV takes time to recognize and adjust to the format on the DVD or the Blu-ray. Whether it's 1:33 or 1:85. And one of the TVs he uses is slower than the other. He wants to keep all that. I could correct it, but he doesn't want me to. See, here's an image from War and Peace. [Shows sequence on his laptop] He did the overlays of color—red, white, and blue—using an old analog video effects machine. That's why you have the blur. When I tried to redo it in digital, I couldn't. The edges were too sharp. And why the image jitters—I don't know how he did that. Playing with the cable maybe. Handmade. He wants to see that. It's a gift from his old machine.

He makes a book for me to use for each film: first there is the outline of the whole film in chapters, with some of the text and images for each chapter. This is like the book we published with Anne-Marie [Miéville] for this film. We also did them for Film Socialisme and Goodbye to Language. And then he takes one frame from each image he has edited. He gives it a code number, and he writes what the format is, where the sound begins and ends, where the music begins and ends, everything. But I don't use that book very much because I just copy his tapes into DaVinci. And sometimes I find better copies of the films he used and substitute them.

But sometimes, when I try to make things better, it's a mistake. There is a passage from a Dovzhenko film that moves me very much. It's in the section [of The Image Book] called "The Central Region," where the voiceover is about time and the absence of time. I found what I thought was a "better" copy of the film, where you see more of his face, and more of her eyes, and his hand on her breast. All that moved me so much. But Jean-Luc said, "You don't understand me at all. This is what people do when they do restorations. They put Botox in the film." So yes, it's important to see the faces but it's just as important to see the snow in the image—all the deterioration. And also to hear the noise in the sound. Jean-Luc records his voiceover with an old microphone, and we keep all the noise. It's the mark of time.

[zedz]

Godard's later works make so much use of degraded imagery (alongside beautiful, pristine classical photography) that I'm surprised anybody would think it wasn't a conscious choice and would want to 'fix' it.

[zedz]

How different are A Short Film About Killing or …Love from their respective Dekalog chapters?

Based on now-ancient memories, Killing is broadly the same film, but less graphic and with some subplots far less fleshed out, but Love has a radically different ending.

Yes. The main difference that I recall with Killing is that the lawyer's role is built up to such a degree that he is practically a co-lead.

[Finch]

2026 Title Teaser Advent Calendar

Another volume of World Noir

[Peacock]

Our members here have been incredible at predicting the world noir titles, so I have to ask, what are the guesses this time?

[TVC15]

2026 Title Teaser Advent Calendar

A debut by one of France's most revered filmmakers

Someone guessed Rohmer's Le Signe du lion (The Sign of Leo) which could match up with the SOL clue.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Our members here have been incredible at predicting the world noir titles, so I have to ask, what are the guesses this time?

I’ll make a prediction and say they could be Death Is a Caress, Die Sünderin (both of which have received Blu-Rays before), and then Une Balle de Canon (mainly just chosen because I want something Deville from a boutique and this seems like a likely candidate for one of these sets).

[domino harvey]

Our members here have been incredible at predicting the world noir titles, so I have to ask, what are the guesses this time?

They already released all the titles in Kino’s first French Noir set for these boxes, so I imagine they’ll start pulling from the recently released second volume

[What A Disgrace]

I would be pleased if they focused on Japanese noir and released the other three films from the Nikkatsu Noir Eclipse set.

[Finch]

^ Me too.

[therewillbeblus]

I've been waiting for A Colt is My Passport on blu for a while. Criterion could upgrade that set too though, with their Eclipse upgrade initiative

[Finch]

Someone on BR pointed out that La Flor with its 14 hour length could cost over 8k GBP alone to get certified by the BBFC. That's nuts. How are Radiance or any other UK label supposed to get into the black with a title like that and those production costs (I get that that is not the BBFC's concern)? Who has it in the US again? Cinema Guild? They haven't released it on Blu-ray despite requests, including our own members, so far, and they don't ever have to deal with bodies like the BBFC, at least regarding home video certification, because I understand that you only need to run the film past the MPAA once for theatrical.

[Ribs]

Most films in the independent/foreign market do not bother with MPAA certification in the US as it is not really something that prevents any theaters from playing the movie anymore, but certainly if its not a film likely to play AMCs even in major cities. If its the international Oscar movies that get to 100 screens its one thing but things that are in most major markets not even going to get a full engagement it would not be something that would have any benefit.

[Peacock]

I think Grasshopper have it in the US but didn’t seem that keen to put it out on disc.

[domino harvey]

I imagine the region free, English-friendly German Blu-ray that most fans would have already purchased probably factors into that decision

[ryannichols7]

tying this discussion together, I'm surprised Radiance haven't gone for any of the Argentine noirs that Flicker Alley released yet. feel like we are due for another country debut in the World Noir series this time, and that could be a good candidate. Criterion currently have a series on the channel on Nordic Noir and Girl With Hyacinths is there, so maybe some of the other titles are candidates?

[What A Disgrace]

I just bought the most recent of the Argentine noir sets, so I expect Radiance will start pumping them out soon enough.

[Finch]

If Residence got the same Argentine noirs as Flicker Alley, I hope they're not doing them in sets because I only want Bitter Stems. I didn't like the other Argentine noirs as much.

[Peacock]

The Flicker Alley Blu of Bitter Stems is great! I don’t see a reason why these should be added, maybe some of the Argentine noirs not available in the US?

[Finch]

2026 Title Teaser Advent Calendar

A French action classic

[domino harvey]

Some Bebel movie?

[andyli]

"This director's final feature was one of his best", and I was thinking of Bergman and Bresson at first, except that Fanny & Alexander and L'argent are still with BFI. Then there's Tarkovsky and Orson Welles... The Sacrifice has been conspicuously absent from MUBI in UK. Does F for Fake or The Other Side of the Wind count as the last feature? Or maybe I shouldn't think about masters. After all one of his best is not necessarily a masterpiece.

Also, we can rule out female directors because of the pronoun.

[domino harvey]

Sleuth?

[therewillbeblus]

Watch it be Truffaut's Confidentially Yours