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White Material



In White Material, the great contemporary French filmmaker Claire Denis, known for her restless, intimate dramas, introduces an unforgettably crazed character. Played ferociously by Isabelle Huppert, Maria is an entitled white woman living in Africa, desperately unwilling to give up her family’s crumbling coffee plantation despite the civil war closing in on her. Created with Denis’ signature full-throttle visual style, which places the viewer in the center of the maelstrom, White Material is a gripping evocation of the death throes of European colonialism and a fascinating look at a woman lost in her own mind.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

- New digital transfer,supervised and approved by director Claire Denis and cinematographer Yves Cape (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- New interviews with Denis and actors Isabelle Huppert and Isaach de Bankolé
- Short documentary by Denis on the film’s premiere at the Écrans Noirs Film Festival 2010 in Cameroon
- Deleted scene
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film writer Amy Taubin

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Not a big difference with the Artificial Eye in terms of extras, i was hoping for a commentary.

Indeed, the reviews are going to have to do a lot of convincing for me to double-dip on this one. Love the film, love that it's in the collection, but I think I'm good with the AE blu.

I was holding out on the AE blu because of the upcoming Criterion release, but by April the AE wil be £7 anyway, so no reason for buying the Criterion.

Doesn't make much sense for Criterion to pick this one up if they're just going to throw on there what anyone else who would have released this would have.

this is one of my most anticipated films that is supposed to come to KC in a few weeks finally....may just wait now though. This will be a definite buy for me - And it's being released on my birthday!

domino harvey wrote:Doesn't make much sense for Criterion to pick this one up if they're just going to throw on there what anyone else who would have released this would have.

Yes there are surprisingly few reasons to prefer the Criterion over the AE unless the interviews are more far reaching. Interestingly the announced live footage of Tindersticks shot by Denis didn't make it onto the Wild Side dvd and seemingly not on Criterion's either. Some compensation however in the forthcoming Denis /Tindersticks soundtracks box set. Scheduled on CD and Vinyl around April.

Oh good, I really loved their work on Trouble Every Day.

Whoa, great news! Who is releasing this Tindersticks soundtrack set?

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Whoa, great news! Who is releasing this Tindersticks soundtrack set?

It's not official yet but probably Lucky Dog

domino harvey wrote:Doesn't make much sense for Criterion to pick this one up if they're just going to throw on there what anyone else who would have released this would have.

See: Antichrist

In all honesty, I'm thrilled to hear about this if only to secure that one piece used incessantly in L'Intrus. Most of the rest I already have but I'd put that damned thing on loop all day long.

Tindersticks - Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009.

Oh my. The Trouble Every Day score is one of their greatest works. Of course, I think at least four of their other albums qualify as "greatest," so.

and even better to know that Constellation are releasing this set

This finally hits art houses near me on 3/4/2011. I'm really looking forward to seeing this.

Saw this earlier today and while I'm still processing my thoughts, I thought this was a great film. My initial encounter with Denis was Vendredi soir, which I disliked intensely, but White Material works much better, in no small part due to Huppert's efforts. Denis has a fantastic eye for visual composition (even in the film I didn't like), and this film just looked beautiful on the big screen. Without giving anything away, several of the scenes in the last ten minutes were harrowing; I'm having a genuinely hard time getting them out of my head.

I'm still slightly confused as to

Spoiler

a) who killed André, and b) why she killed her (former?) father-in-law Henri.

Anybody care to fill in the blanks?

Due for release at the end of April, the impressive (and not so cheap) Tindersticks box set is up for pre-order.
Constellation's releases have always been nicely crafted, but they've been outdoing themselves lately.

The new issue of Sight & Sound has a free 9-track sampler CD from this set. I think it might not be included in overseas copies, though.

jbeall wrote:
I'm still slightly confused as to

Spoiler

a) who killed André, and b) why she killed her (former?) father-in-law Henri.

Anybody care to fill in the blanks?

Spoiler

a.) The deleted scene on the disc suggests either the rebels or Maria's son Manuel did it but I am not exactly sure who actually did it.
b.) I took it that she was pissed he sold off the land and after everything seeing him was her breaking point. In her interview on the disc, Huppert suggests it's more or less there to symbolize the end of "white" colonization in Africa.

Blu-ray

You just made me realize that both of Huppert's entries into the collection deal, at least some what, with colonization in Africa. That's an oddly specific running theme.

It's not a particularly rare theme in French cinema.

And just about all of Denis' films deal with French colonialism in one way, shape or form.

Still and all, considering her work record over the past few decades, it's surprising that Huppert has only been represented twice on a Criterion disc. That's what dodging Chabrol gets you, I guess.

zedz wrote:And just about all of Denis' films deal with French colonialism in one way, shape or form.

Still and all, considering her work record over the past few decades, it's surprising that Huppert has only been represented twice on a Criterion disc. That's what dodging Chabrol gets you, I guess.

Funny you should mention that, because after thumbing through her interview in the latest Film Comment, I was thinking precisely the same thing about Juliette Binoche (sans the Chabrol part).

Beaver

"The Criterion is dual-layered with a higher bitrates and has richer colors, better contrast and is somewhat darker... It advances a step beyond the Artificial Eye on the visual front."

Pardon me while I make an appointment at the optician's. the only (infinitesimal) difference I can see is that Isabelle's Huppert's freckles are fractionally more distinct on the AE.