Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin
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Synopsis
Jean-Pierre Gorin, widely known for his collaborations with Jean-Luc Godard in the Dziga Vertov Group (including Tout va bien), established his personal voice with this trio of fascinating, nontraditional documentaries. Made in Southern California after the filmmaker relocated there in the midseventies, Poto and Cabengo, Routine Pleasures, and My Crasy Life illuminate hidden corners of our culture. With these films, Gorin revealed himself as a major chronicler of American life at its most hauntingly enigmatic.
Picture 8/10
The 31st release in Criterion’s Eclipse line presents three “documentary” films by director Jean-Pierre Gorin, bundled together under the name Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin. The set includes the films Poto and Cabengo, Routine Pleasures, and My Crasy Life. All three films are presented in their original aspect ratios of 1.33:1 over three single-layer discs.
All three transfers look splendid and it’s honestly hard to pick out much in the way of faults. Most of the issues lay within the source materials but even then they’re minor problems. All three present some minor blemishes but are generally clean, almost spotless. Of the three Poto and Cabengo shows its age (though in all fairness it looks like a lot of the footage comes from video) with some more faded colours but the others are in generally pristine condition.
Colours are bright and bold in the latter two, rendered beautifully. Black levels are strong with some minor crushing in places and sharpness and detail across all three is terrific with nary a soft spot I can recall (the details on the model trains found in Routine Pleasures can be especially striking.) Compression noise isn’t a major concern, and all three have very clean digital transfers without any distracting issues. In all it’s another fabulous looking Eclipse release.
Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
All three films present acceptable but unspectacular Dolby Digital 1.0 mono tracks. Poto and Cabengo’s age shows a bit more in comparison to the other two, coming off a bit muffled, but overall the three are clear and easy to hear.
Extras 1/10
Sadly we don’t get any supplements. It would have been nice to maybe revisit any of the subjects we find here, and also it would have been great to learn more about how some of the films were accomplished. My Crasy Life is the most unique of the bunch and learning about how Gorin was able to pull off convincing the gang members (and I assume police) present in the film to actually play themselves would have been fascinating. But we do get some great essays on Gorin, his American work, and these three films by Kent Jones, which shed some light.
Closing
I wish the set made it into the main Criterion line if only for the possibility of supplements (plus something tells me these would look great on Blu-ray,) but this is still a great set. The three films, all of which are mesmerizing, and all so distinctive yet from the same hand, get fabulous looking presentations.
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