criterionforum.org

antnield wrote:Just classified by the BBFC, so we should expect a DVD (and hopefully Blu-ray) after its theatrical re-release in the UK which kicks off on August 5th.

antnield wrote:All of the running times indicated SD only, John. (Take a look at Deep End, for example, or Requiem for a Dream.) I'm guessing they submit check-DVDs as opposed to check-Blus for the BBFC to view.

French Cancan A film by Jean Renoir

The legendary Jean Gabin plays Danglard, mentor to, and lover of, the stage stars of 1890s Paris. When he discovers a naïve young laundress (Francoise Arnoul) dancing in a nightclub he is inspired by her talent to revive the forgotten cancan in a show that the whole of Paris, rich and poor, will never forget.

Based on the true story of Moulin Rouge founder Charles Zidler, Jean Renoir's exuberant tale of an impresario s commitment to his art is a masterpiece of Technicolor brilliance, which features luminaries of the 1950s Parisian café-concert scene, Edith Piaf and Patachou, as period artistes.

Special Features:
Brand new restoration presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
The show must go on! The joys of life by Jean Renoir (2010, 57 mins): documentary on the making of French Cancan
Fully illustrated booklet with new essays, biographies and notes on the soundtrack

French Cancan
A film by Jean Renoir

After bursting on to cinema screens in August, in a new Digital restoration, the BFI now releases Jean Renoir’s exuberant French Cancan in a Dual Format Edition (DVD & Blu-ray discs together), accompanied by an hour-long documentary on the making of the film.
This Technicolor tour-de-force, set in the Paris of the belle époque, brings to ravishing, dazzling life the world of Jean Renoir’s father, Pierre Auguste, and other Impressionists such as Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Manet, in one of the great films about the complex relationship between life and the theatre.

French Cancan is loosely based on the founding of the world famous Parisian cabaret club, the Moulin Rouge. Henri Danglard (Jean Gabin) is a brilliant impresario whose life is fraught with romantic entanglements and financial problems. Falling in love with Nini (Françoise Arnoul), a pretty young laundry girl from Montmartre, he decides to make her the star of his latest venture – a club called the Moulin Rouge which will offer ‘high life for modest purses’. Its principal attraction will be the cancan, an old working-class dance which Danglard plans to revive and revamp. Along the way, however, his dream is threatened by the jealousy of his belly-dancer lover Lola (a flamboyant performance from Mexican star María Félix).

This was the film that marked Renoir’s return to France following a fifteen-year exile in Hollywood, reuniting him with his favourite Jean Gabin (Les Bas-Fonds, La Grande Illusion, La Bête Humaine) and with the Montmartre where he was born in 1894.

Featuring a cameo performance from Edith Piaf and culminating in one of the most spectacular dance scenes in all of cinema history, French Cancan combines truly exhilarating entertainment with remarkable human observation and depth of feeling.

Special features
• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
• Brand new restoration;
• The show must go on! The joys of life by Jean Renoir (2010, 57 mins): documentary on the making of French Cancan;
• French Cancan Restored (2010, 5 mins): a look at the technical work which went into the restoration;
• 18-page illustrated booklet with essays, notes and credits

Release date: 7 November 2011
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1118 / Cert PG
France, Italy / 1954 / colour / French language with optional English subtitles / 104 mins / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Region B
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM mono audio (48k/24-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital mono audio (320kbps)