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Nais, Schpountz, Topaze on Blu:
https://homepopcorn.fr/test-blu-ray-top ... more-68429 - English subs + French HOH
https://homepopcorn.fr/test-blu-ray-le- ... more-68392 - English subs + French HOH
https://homepopcorn.fr/test-blu-ray-nai ... more-68424 - no English subs mentioned + French HOH, but English subs listed here:
https://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/f165198-nais.html

6 Pagnol films restored in 2K/4K, re-released by Carlotta:
https://carlottafilms.com/films/retrosp ... -partie-2/
Manon des Sources, Ugolin, Lettres de mon moulin, Naïs, Merlusse, Cigalon

Pagnol and Fernandel Blu-ray set has five films without other English-friendly releases and has English subs

Where’s my best bet for ordering this?

EDIT Only 95 Euros with shipping on FNAC

Discussion of a group buy moved here

When I have time I will turn this into a regular director thread but for now I’ll update this thread with thoughts as I make my way through the French Pagnol discs I picked up. First up:

Jofroi (1933) An old man sells his orchard to a neighbor who intends to raze the dying trees and replace them with wheat crops. After signing the paperwork and spending the money, the old man spies the purchaser pulling down his trees and grabs his gun, threatening to shoot him if he doesn’t stop destroying “his” orchard. What follows is a brilliant study in frustration, as a selection of typical Pagnol characters (the curé, the teacher, a local loafer) try to reason with a man who has no intention of listening to reason. Serendipitously I watched this right after watching another, much less successful film built on comic frustrations, the WC Fields comedy It’s a Gift, and that film fails because the piled-on annoyances are too contrived and endless to be funny or interesting (plus Fields works better when he’s pushing against others, not being pushed upon). In Pagnol’s film though, we understand where the old man is coming from and why. We share the other characters’ frustration at the impenetrable obstinacy of his objections, but they remain plausible and even sympathetic to a degree. The dilemma plays out in classic “first as tragedy then as farce” fashion and while certainly paying 28 euros for a fifty minute film on Blu-Ray makes one sympathetic to armed resistance, this film resists Pagnol’s tendency towards larger, leisurely paced narratives because this particular story cannot sustain itself at such a scale. And I cannot deny that it was worth it, even with my grumbling annoyance at the sticker price