Pickpocket/The Trial of Joan of Arc/L'Argent
Posted: Thu May 05, 2022 1:37 pm
Confirmed for Bu-ray release on 11 July (Pickpocket) and 8 August (the others).
I was just about to post this same thoughthearthesilence wrote: Thu May 05, 2022 2:50 pm Will L'Argent be the same exact master (i.e. color) as the Criterion BD? I hope not - would be more than happy to double dip if the BFI is able to correct things.
PICKPOCKET
A film by Robert Bresson
BFI Blu-ray release on 11 July 2022
See the new trailer here
Following its release in cinemas by BFI Distribution on 3 June, PICKPOCKET (1959), one of the most admired, intriguing and influential films by the great French minimalist director Robert Bresson, comes to BFI Blu-ray on 11 July. Two further Bresson films, THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC (1962) and L’ARGENT (1983) will be released on Blu-ray on 8 August. These releases follow June’s BFI Southbank season, OF SIN AND SALVATION: THE CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON. PICKPOCKET extras include a 1971 audio In Conversation with the director, a newly filmed interview with director Paul Schrader and complementary archival films.
PICKPOCKET sees resolute drifter Michel spends his days learning the art of pickpocketing and targeting the unsuspecting citizens of 1950s Paris. After his inevitable arrest (and almost immediate release), Michel reflects on the morality of crime, developing a vague theory that exceptional individuals are above the law. Lost in another world, he rejects his friends in favour of a life of crime and is seemingly set on finding his place in the world by engineering a head-on collision with society.
PICKPOCKET is a favourite of contemporary directors including Werner Herzog, Lynne Ramsay and Richard Linklater, and heavily influenced Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER.
Special features
• Presented in High Definition
• Robert Bresson Q&A (1971, audio only, 47 mins): the director in conversation with John Russell Taylor, recorded on stage at the NFT during the 15th London Film Festival
• Paul Schrader on Pickpocket (2022, 11 mins): Schrader discusses his relationship with Bresson’s film and how it has influenced him
• The Models of Pickpocket (2003, 52 mins): Babette Mangolte’s documentary tracks down Pickpocket’s performers to discuss their experiences of working with Bresson
• Archive shorts: Thefts From Handbags (1961, 1 min): British television spot warning women to watch out for thieves; Snatch of the Day (1975, 1 min): John Krish’s sporty public information film on the tricks of the pickpocketing trade; Four Men in Prison (1950, 41 mins): controversial drama-documentary from the Crown Film Unit using real-life prison situations to address the purpose of incarceration
• Original theatrical trailer
• Reissue trailer (2022)
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet featuring an essay by Adrian Martin, a biography of Robert Bresson by Michael Brooke, credits and notes on the special features
Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1468 / PG
France / 1959 / black and white / 76 minutes / French with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.37:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)
L’ARGENT
A film by Robert Bresson
BFI Blu-ray release on 8 August 2022, with an iTunes and Amazon Prime release on 15 August
Following the BFI’s Blu-ray release of Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959), the director’s 1983 film L’Argent comes to Blu-ray on 8 August, restored from the original negative. This energetic, enigmatic indictment of capitalism is a late masterpiece by Bresson (which won the Best Director prize at Cannes) imbued with a fierce cinematic power and tautly positioned amid the coldly structured complexities of human behaviour. Extras include a discussion filmed during the recent Robert Bresson season at BFI Southbank, an interview with Jonathan Hourigan, Bresson’s former assistant and a video essay on L'Argent by Michael Brooke.
Adapted from a novella by Leo Tolstoy, Bresson’s portrait of an ordinary man driven to ever-more extreme crimes by social and financial forces beyond his control probes uncomfortably beneath the surface of ‘civilised’ society. This compact, rigorously stylised film and the awkward questions it poses, about the nature of forgiveness and the possibility of redemption, is a rich testament to one of cinema’s greatest auteurs.
Special features
• Restored from the original negative and presented in High Definition
• Style, Anti-style and Influence (2022, 22 mins): an onstage discussion between Geoff Andrew, Jonathan Hourigan and Nasreen Munni Kabir on the films of Robert Bresson, filmed at BFI Southbank
• First and Last (2022, 9 mins): film scholar Jonathan Hourigan, former assistant to Robert Bresson, compares the director’s first feature, Les Anges du péché, with his last, L’Argent
• The Root of All Evil (2022, 19 mins): writer Michael Brooke considers Bresson’s late masterpiece in this newly commissioned video essay
• Jonathan Hourigan on L’Argent (2007, 27 mins, audio only): an audio introduction to the film
• Value For Money (1970, 22 mins): David Blest’s dreamlike, experimental short film, featuring Quentin Crisp, visualises coin-operated connections between money and religion
• Theatrical trailer
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet featuring writing by Jonathan Hourigan an essay by Dr Martin Hall and a review by Tom Milne originally published in Monthly Film Bulletin in 1983; credits and notes on the special features
Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1469 / 12
France / 1983 / colour / 84 mins / French with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.66:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)
THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC
A film by Robert Bresson
BFI Blu-ray release on 8 August 2022, with an iTunes and Amazon Prime release on 22 August
The story of Joan of Arc’s trial and conviction is powerfully retold in Robert Bresson’s minimalist 1962 masterpiece. Working from the official transcript of the 15th century trial, Bresson shoots Joan’s ordeal with a serene simplicity that reveals her vulnerability and her resilient faith.
Following the BFI’s Blu-ray release of Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959), The Trial of Joan of Arc is released on Blu-ray alongside L’Argent (1983) on 8 August. Extras include An Introduction to Robert Bresson by Geoff Andrew, filmed recently at BFI Southbank and a newly recorded audio commentary by Kat Ellinger.
A transcendent and moving evocation of human suffering and spiritual liberation, THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC remains a powerful exploration of religious virtue with one of cinema’s most haunting and poignant finales.
Special features
• Presented in High Definition
• An Introduction to Robert Bresson (2022, 29 mins): film writer and programmer Geoff Andrew discusses Bresson’s oeuvre in this talk presented at BFI Southbank
• Newly recorded audio commentary by filmmaker and writer Kat Ellinger
• Women’s Work in Wartime (1918, 8 mins): a propaganda short looking at the acceptable roles for women at a time of war
• Masculinity in Modes (1931, 1 min): a cinemagzine item showcasing the more masculine trends in Parisian couture
• The Legend of Joan of Arc ballet (1958, 2 mins, extract): an item from the cinemagazine The USSR Today showing a Nikolai Peiko’s ballet performed in Moscow
• Original theatrical trailer
• Stills gallery
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet featuring writing by Lillian Crawford and Richard Combs; credits and notes on the special features
Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1467 / 12
France / 1962 / black and white / 64 mins / French and English language with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.66:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)
Tough call. I've actually seen this projected in 35mm - I believe at this screening at Quad Cinema - but it may have been a print struck by Janus, which could make its similarity to Criterion's grading inevitable. (I don't recall whether or not I saw it, but it's likely the Janus logo opened the print.)
The BFI Blu-ray features an excellent transfer of the 4K restored version with a number of fascinating extras. Recommended.
The Film: B+ Video: A Audio: A Extras: B Overall: A-
Those familiar with the film know there are many 'empty pauses' with sound playing a minor role in the film experience. There are external sounds - cars + crashes, trucks, motorcycles, gun shots etc. that carry depth, but it all sounds as it should - flat and exporting realism.
The BFI has given the film a great Blu-ray release with a number of exclusive extras. The colors and hues of the image may seem slightly off, but still comes as highly recommended.
The Film: A Video: B+ Audio: A Extras: B Overall: B+
Long ago, I believe. I don't recall it working all that well as a Shaw adaptation (Rivette's version felt more Shaw-like to me).