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La Femme Publique LE looks great!
Here's a special peek at the contents of the Limited Edition of Andrzej Zulawski's La Femme Publique, recently given its first ever English-friendly DVD release. You can click the image above for a closer look at the package, which includes the DVD, a soundtrack CD, a sizeable booklet, an individually numbered certificate of authenticity, and ten black and white reproductions of Japanese publicity stills.
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La Femme Publique - c'est fantastique! (Part deux)
More reviews of Mondo Vision's La Femme Publique are beginning to trickle in. Today's comes from Svet Atanasov at DVD Talk, who was extremely impressed:
It is almost too good to be true - Mondo Vision have assembled a package that will warm up the hearts of many film aficionados who have been hoping to see Andrzej Zulawski's La femme publique treated with the proper dose of respect. Well, the wait is over. I would like to go on record here stating that even Criterion could have not produced such a terrific package. This is a gift for all of us and I hope that Mondo Vision will be around for many years to come so we could benefit from their admirable desire to please. Good luck Mondo Vision and thank you for this most beautiful release!! DVDTALK Collector Series.
The review gives the transfer, audio and extras a 10/10 rating each.
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La Femme Publique - c'est fantastique!
The first review of Mondo Vision's upcoming DVD release of La Femme Publique is now online. Over at Bagatellen, Alan Jones appears to be very impressed with the fledgeling company's efforts:
Here's a film that has been highly regarded among buffs since its 1984 release, one with blatant abstractions that are readily defended as inventive. Having finally seen it, I couldn't agree more, and perhaps the experience is sweetened from such a long wait. Now enjoying its debut among English-speakers, La Femme Publique is again available and is, you will agree with me, among the best transfers this side of BluRay since the advent of the DVD.
Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for your own copies.
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DVDs I bought or received in the month of September
- Blow (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
- La Femme Publique (R0 USA, DVD) [sample copy]
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
- The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
- Kill Bill Volume 1 (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
- Kill Bill Volume 2 (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
- Mean Girls (R2 UK, DVD) [gift]
- Mother of Tears (RB France, Blu-ray)
- Tekkonkinkreet (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (RA USA, Blu-ray)
Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days. I've been really busy with PhD work. Hopefully things will quieten down a bit by the middle of next week.
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An ode to B-movies that looks oddly glossy
Last week, I ordered the recent US Blu-ray releases of both volumes of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. I'm sure I said at some point that I wouldn't buy Volume 1 in high definition unless it was the longer, gorier Japanese cut (which most people know as the version which includes the House of Blue Leaves fight scene in full colour, but which in fact also features increased bloodshed and some additional tweaks here and there), but that doesn't appear to be anywhere on the horizon at the moment. Anyway, the image quality of my Japanese DVD of Volume 1 is so god-awful I decided "to hell with it" and ordered the cut American BD.
Due to a delay in dispatching, Volume 1 hasn't arrived yet, but Volume 2 turned up yesterday while I was at work, and I took a look at it last night. The bottom line is that this is a good transfer and one that I suspect is an accurate representation of the master. I say this because I seem to recall that, at the time of the films' release, Tarantino stated that he wasn't entirely happy with the look of the DIs (digital intermediates) prepared for them, feeling that they were too clean and failed to successfully recreate the gritty texture of the films he was aping. (I'm afraid I haven't been able to dig up a source for this - sorry.) I have a feeling that the cleanness he complained about was in fact the level of temporal noise reduction that has been applied to the material. It's not the horrible waxy kind you see in the likes of the Dark City BD, and as such doesn't really show up to a great extent in the captures posted below, but it is noticeable when in motion, giving the image a slightly synthetic look, with textures and facial details tending to drag a bit. The closest equivalent I can think of is Flightplan, also from Buena Vista and also with the NR applied at the DI stage (a fact confirmed independently on IMDB and by my brother, who noticed the artefacts when he saw the film at the cinema).
What's particularly interesting is that, on certain occasions, particularly the extended Pai Mei section, the NR is either turned off completely or at least lowered to an acceptable level, which I take as further evidence pointing to this having been done at the DI stage rather than some inept technician simply flicking a switch when the Blu-ray transfer was being encoded. (At the risk of sounding like a jerk, most people in the encoding business don't seem to want to invest the effort required to approach things on a scene-by-scene basis, unless their name happens to be David Mackenzie and they work on DVDs of Andrzej Zulawski films.) The result is that the Pai Mei sequence is the best-looking part of the film, despite the fact that I get the feeling Tarantino shot it with an eye to it looking like the roughest, lowest budget segment.
So, overall what we have is a reasonably pleasing-looking disc that has a slightly synthetic feel to it but is, ultimately, a massive upgrade on the rather mediocre-looking standard definition release. For the most part, all 1080 lines of resolution are being put to use and many scenes feature a per-pixel level of detail. It's too bad about the NR, but, if my suspicions are correct, then nothing much can be done about that short of going back to the original camera elements and redoing all the post production work.
Kill Bill Volume 2
(Buena Vista, USA, AVC, 35.8 GB)
              
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Quelle surprise!
I got home from work yesterday to find this waiting for me.
Now, before anyone gets a head of themselves, I need to point out that La Femme Publique is not actually shipping just yet. This is an advance copy that was sent to me by the good people at Mondo Vision, and a very nice surprise it was too. (Entering shameless self-promotion mode for a moment, it was also very cool to see my name in the "special thanks" section on the DVD credits screen.)
It's a very nice package overall, with a 24-page booklet including translations of materials from the French press kit and a new essay by Daniel Bird, as well as a handy little sheet that tells you how to set up your display properly (why more DVD releases don't include this basic information is a mystery to me). And, of course, that's in addition to the excellent transfer, exclusive interview and commentary with Andrzej Zulawski (his story about how he persuaded the 20th Century Fox executives to agree to the casting of Valérie Kaprisky is priceless), and, last but not least, the film's first ever English subtitle translation.
Permit me for one moment to sound like a shill, but, if you want a copy of the film and haven't ordered it yet, get yourself to Amazon.com and pre-order either the special edition or premium edition now.
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Mondo Vision's La Femme Publique on Amazon.com
I hereby order ye to get thee to ye olde pre-ordering shoppe immediately!
Special Edition
Premium Edition (limited to 2,000 numbered copies)
The expected release date is September 30th, 2008.
Note: A few people seem to be under the impression that this is a UK release. Just to clarify, it's not: it's a US release.
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Look what arrived this afternoon
Straight from our friends in the People's Republic of China, we have the first check discs for the upcoming release of Andrzej Zulawski's La Femme Publique. This will be the first commercially released DVD for which my brother did the video transfer (as well as other assorted tasks), and we hope to be able to give you a release date soon.
Some screenshots to whet your appetite:
More information about the project is available here, or visit Mondo-Vision.com for a sneak peek at what else is in the pipeline.
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The day approaches...
It's time for me to go into shameless promotional mode, but for good reason. After months of secrecy, I'm finally able to tell you something about the DVD project Lyris is working on. This is the first public announcement of this release anywhere, so consider yourselves lucky indeed.
Later this year, new DVD label Mondo Vision will be releasing its debut title, the first ever English-friendly release of Andrzej Zulawski's La Femme Publique ("The Public Woman"), initially released in 1984 and starring Valérie Kaprisky, Francis Huster and Lambert Wilson. The name of Zulawski may be familiar to some of the Dario Argento fans visiting the site, since Argento has identified his 1981 film Possession as one of his favourites and a key influence on Tenebre.
This upcoming US DVD release is special for a couple of reasons. First of all, the film has never been released on any format in an English-speaking territory. As such, Mondo Vision's DVD will feature the first ever English subtitle translation of the film. Secondly, I've had the opportunity to see the transfer for this film at various stages of its encoding, and I can honestly state that the final encode, completed a few days ago, is one of the best I have ever seen in standard definition. To say that this blows away what most of the other independent and also major studios are routinely putting out would be a gross understatement. Don't take my word for it, though: feast your eyes on the images below (click the smaller thumbnails to view them at their full size).
  
  
  
Not filtered, not edge enhanced, not noise reduced, not tampered with in any way.
Specifications for this release include:
- Digitally restored transfer mastered in high definition progressive video (1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, dual layer)
- French Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono audio
- First ever English-language subtitle translation (optional)
- Feature length audio commentary with Andrzej Zulawksi and Daniel Bird (recorded specially for this release)
- Exclusive new interview with Andrzej Zulawski (recorded specially for this release)
- 1984 theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- DVD-ROM content (original screenplay and high resolution images)
In addition to the standard single-disc release, a limited edition will also be released featuring a bonus CD containing the film's original score, as well as a special commemorative booklet.
Two more Zulawski titles, L'important c'est d'aimer (1975, starring Romy Schneider, Fabio Testi and Klaus Kinski) and L'amour braque (1985, starring Sophie Marceau and Francis Huster), will also be released this year.
http://andrzej-zulawski.com/AZF/index.php
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