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Many artists return to collective memory when they die. Following Maurice Pialat's death, I expected a number of his films to appear on DVD. This has not happened. I am surprised and saddened by the relative neglect of this filmmaker. I had read some rumors, but they not materialized. If anyone knows the existence of, or plans for, Pialat's films on DVD (I only know of "Loulou" in R1), I would appreciate the information.

Criterion will release A nos amours. Only when is the question. Perhaps in 2006.

September 22nd on Artificial Eye: Van Gogh [1991]

Looking forward to both of those. I think I've seen four of his films, and my favorite so far is Police.

L'enfance nue came very near the top of my 60s list (remember the 60s list?) and I was primed to defend it when it failed to make the cut. One of the best films about childhood ever made. Yes, even better than The 400 Blows.

My familiarity with the rest of his work is patchy, however (Passe ton bac d'abord, Police, Le Garcu, maybe one more that slips my mind), but I'd be thrilled to see any of his films get a decent subtitled release.

Along with Eustache, Pialat is one of those crucial French filmmakers that's never achieved the status he deserves internationally, but I think he's actually a more important influence on the most important French filmmakers of the present generation (such as Denis and Assayas, and, if we stretch to Belgium, the Dardennes) than the iconic names of the Nouvelle Vague.

I went to eight of the eleven films screened here in May and promptly put a word in the MoC recommendations thread (knowing Perpee is a Dumont fan and that Pialat is linked on the MoC home page). Mostly I would love to have Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble (We Will Not Grow Old Together) in my greedy hands, but would gladly go for the batch. I've kept my distance from New Yorker's Loulou in hopes of something better. He manages to stare straight into humanity's less than positive aspects realistically and w/o judgement. How I love to hear folks complain about protagonists with whom you cannot empathize. Great to hear there are things in the works, esp from Criterion. Purchasing from Britain is taking enough of a toll on my Canadian $.

Thanks everyone. I somehow missed the news of "Van Gogh" appearing in September. The Criterion "expected" list is getting longer by the day (sigh), and life may pass away before they get to those all.

Why not go for the France R2 box set? Great transfer, great films (a nos amours, Van Gogh, Police, sous les soleil de Satan included), and serious opportunity to pratice French! And when it comes to present French contemporary works on DVDs, rarely anyone outdo either MK2 or Studio Canal.

Now that box set would be worthy of the Criterion collection and make me very happy. Unfortunately the time it would take for me to gain profficiency in French to be able to enjoy the mk2 box and the time it would take to for it to show up on Criterion would be quite comparable. I will take satisfaction in getting Van Gogh next month and dream of the rest.

Maurice Pialat Coffret 2

Alapage claims that this wondrous-sounding box set (L'enfance nue; La gueule ouverte; Passe ton bac d'abord; Loulou; Le garcu; plus, La maison des bois; plus, shorts) has French HOH subtitles.

Has anyone seen this box set and can confirm this? My experience in the past has been that subtitle info on French DVDs is usually not to be trusted. But I'd love to be able to order this today...

Maurice Pialat Coffret 2

Haven't checked other discs yet, but I couldn't find any subs on LE GARÇU.

Mister Zob wrote:Haven't check other discs yet, but I couldn't find any subs on LE GARÇU.

Sob. (But thanks for checking.)

Maurice Pialat Coffret 2

I've only watched 'Passe ton bac d'abord' so far, no subs sadly for non-French speakers. From what I have read the 1st volume was a success but with a low print run, only 5,000 units. I bet Gaumont could have sold a few hundred more by adding subtitles. On the positive side the transfers and extras are great, and maybe Artificial Eye or somebody else will licence them from Gaumont soon.

Arn777 wrote:I've only watched 'Passe ton bac d'abord' so far, no subs sadly for non-French speakers. From what I have read the 1st volume was a success but with a low print run, only 5,000 units. I bet Gaumont could have sold a few hundred more by adding subtitles. On the positive side the transfers and extras are great, and maybe Artificial Eye or somebody else will licence them from Gaumont soon.

Which presumably AE has now done with Van Gogh.

This seems as good a place to put this as any. Just bumped into this on ebay.

Van Gogh is being released by Sony on January 9th.

Van Gogh is a masterpiece, up there with Andrey Rublyov as 'lives of artists' films go, in my opinion. There's already an excellent UK disc of this available, so region-free people might want to hold out for a Beaver comparison.

Anyone who's fluent in French, however, should seriously consider the two compendious French box sets, perhaps the greatest edition of a single artist's work yet produced in the DVD medium. Completely subtitle free, however!

Since my post earlier in this thread I've been fortunate enough to see all of Pialat's films. He's definitely one of the giants, and every film is worth seeing. It's a good mark of his strength as a filmmaker that the two films I find his weakest, Police and Le Garcu, arguably contain the two finest performances Gerard Depardieu has ever committed to film.

On such a fussy, Photoshopped cover you'd think they might have found room for Pialat's name.

Kinsayder wrote:On such a fussy, Photoshopped cover you'd think they might have found room for Pialat's name.

Whose name?

tavernier wrote:

Kinsayder wrote:On such a fussy, Photoshopped cover you'd think they might have found room for Pialat's name.

Whose name?

some guy who directed it, or something...

Having watched the generic, unimaginative cop film '36' over the weekend I suddenly remembered that Depardieu was in the far superior 'Police'.

What a pity AE only released this on VHS and no-one has bothered with an English subbed DVD.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC is having a Depardieu retro Aug. 3-19, and they're showing his four collaborations with Pialat -- LOULOU, POLICE, UNDER SATAN'S SUN and LE GARCU.

I managed to see all four of these. Loulou is very good (which I had seen before on DVD), but both Police and Under Satan's Sun really blew me away, they're unbelievably great. But Le Garcu, though I loved parts of it, seemed the most uneven to me. What do others think of it? I know it's not generally considered one of the best. I've seen two other Pialats on dvd, including "Van Gogh", which if I saw on film I'd probably say is the best.

I consider Le Garcu one of the lesser films, though it's got great bits in it (Depardieu storming around the apartment on the toy truck, the ineffably bizarre accountants-dance-to-'Human Behaviour' scene), and it's both heartening and heartbreaking to see Pialat going off in new directions on what would be his final film.

Actually, I consider Police second-tier as well, mainly because the plot stuff, when it comes in in the second half, is pretty perfunctory, but you have to weigh that up against what could well be Depardieu's best-ever performance (and that brilliant opening).

Van Gogh is indeed even more impressive on the big screen, but the same can probably be said for all of his films, however some of them might seem like chamber works or be primarily about character and acting. Scenes that seem intense enough on the small screen can knock you over in a cinema.

Still coming off a Bresson kick, I discovered that Pialat's Sous le soleil de Satan is, like my favorite Mouchette, based on a novel by Bernanos and even features the character Nadine Nortier made frumpily famous, here played by Sandrine Bonnaire. A VHS ex-rental is on its way to me courtesy of the Amazon marketplace and I am sufficiently intrigued after reading the conversation on this thread. I'm secretly rechristening Pialat's film Mouchette 2: Electric Depardieu, but you don't have to call it that if you don't want to. More to come post-view.