lostatmidnight

For those interested, Paramount will be releasing a set of Ozon's films on November 7. Most of the films have already been released in R1 or R2, but what is significant is that 'Regarde la mer' (See the Sea) will be released as well as 'Sitcom.' All films are special editions with commentaries and other assorted goodies. English subtitles are also available, would be nice if the commentaries were too, but I doubt it.

These discs will also be released seperately, which is good, because I've wanted 'See the Sea' for a long time.

Also, '8 Femmes' will be released on the same date with two seperate editions, a 2 disc and a 3 set. But, neither seem to have subs. shite... Maybe a decent UK or R1 release in the future.....?


Here is Amazon.fr's link
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASI...461308-9155344

Mark McLeod

Seville will be putting 8 Femmes on DVD in one of their Seville Signature Series releases.

Grimfarrow

You'd have to pay me to buy the boxset. I absolutely HATED Water Drops on Burning Rocks and Sitcom. Under the Sand is an improvement, and I will be seeing 8 Femmes soon. But as a general rule I avoid his films with a passion.

marty888

Maybe Canada will come up with a Region 1 release. I'm on the verge of going code-free with a new DVD player, because it is indeed frustrating to see so many desirable titles that are not playable on a Region 1 player - but obviously the frustration will continue if there are no subs. (HK has the right idea - almost everything all-region, and with wide choice of subs.)

Heliosphann

SITCOM RULES!!!!!!!

Haven't seen WDOBR though.

JamesBrian

I haven't gotten around to watching all the 4 or 5 Ozon films that played on IFC or Sundance a few months back, but one look at Ludivine Sagnier in Water Drops and I bought the DVD using only a 10% Borders coupon. She is the ripest young actress I've seen in a long time and the 10 or so minutes she spends simply sitting around without her shirt on are nothing short of spectacular. (see a pic at nitrovideo.com) She looks kinda goofy as the youngest daughter in 8 Femmes but the song she sings is very catchy. I happened to stumble across the music video as filler after the saturday night french movie on the International channel and after further research all I can say is Ooh la la!!!!

blessthemess

Curses. A check with dvdfr.com revealed that yes, there will be NOsous-titres en Anglais on the (seriously)deluxe 3-DVD set. Why do the French torture us so.....

Just watched 8 femmes last nite. What a riot! Bring a date....

Hendrik

"...Why do the French torture us so....."

...because they want you to take some serious French Language courses at the nearest Alliance française Institute...

. . . . . .

blessthemess

Hahaha... which i did... mais c'est mal seulement! C'est incroyable.... Hahahahar.....

Richard Malloy

I recently got this boxed set. Yes, it's apparently out-of-print, but there are/were a number of sealed boxes available from 3rd party vendors at amazon.fr for an excellent price (just under $40 shipped to the US). Even given my extreme criticism of the lousy "Regarde le mer" transfer below, this is a great price for an (otherwise) awesome boxset.

See the boxset here: http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASI...462187-4669742

So far, I've seen "Sitcom" and "Criminal Lovers", and both of these transfers trounce the R1 versions. I was disappointed that the short film "Victor" on the "Sitcom" disc wasn't English subbed, but that was my only minor issue with these two discs.

As for "Regarde le mer"... how shall I put this? The transfer is horrible. First off, it's non anamorphic. Secondly, it has the worst combing of any transfer I've ever seen. It is unwatchable IMO. The other shorts fare better, defects attributable to source elements and none of the terrible combing that plagues "Regarde". However, only a "Une robe d'été" is anamorphically enhanced, even though one or two of the other shorts is also a widescreen ratio. I could live with this, I guess, but as "Regarde le mer" is arguably the most important film on this disc, and certainly the only one approaching feature length, I was most displeased that it was not anamorphically enhanced and has the worst combing defects of any transfer I've ever had the displeasure of trying to watch. I didn't have the R1 disc handy to compare, but I recall that it is 16x9 enhanced and though otherwise not particularly good, it didn't exhibit the massive combing that I saw on this disc (but then, I'm going on memory).

As I've only encountered universal praise for this set, I was quite taken aback. Surely, the lousy nature of this transfer had been mentioned somewhere? Well, not that I could find.

So what might explain this? I suppose it's possible that the lousiness of this transfer has gone unreported. On the other hand, the entire set (sans box) was re-released in 2004, though reportedly with the exact same transfers and features as the original 2001 releases. I have begun to wonder whether the "new" "Regarde le mer" disc was remastered?

FWIW, here's the "new" disc released November 3, 2004:
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASI...462187-4669742

And here's the "old" disc released Oct. 1, 2001:
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASI...462187-4669742

If anyone can shed any light on this, I'd be very much obliged! (Still have to view the "Sous le sable" and "Gouttes d'eau" discs, but hopefully the quality on those is like "Sitcom/Criminal Lovers" and not "Regarde le mer"!)

lostatmidnight

wow...you resurrected this puppy...hhahahah

Richard Malloy

You noted way up in Post 1 that you really wanted to see "See the Sea", so I'm wondering if you're as disappointed by this transfer as I am? I mean, non anamorphic is bad enough, but I've never seen such a plague of combing artifacts as with this transfer.

I briefly checked out the "Sous le sable" and "Gouttes d'eau" discs last night, and those transfers look to be as nice as "Sitcom" and "Criminal Lovers", so I'm just perplexed as hell about this lousy "Regarde le mer" transfer.

lostatmidnight

I never picked up this set, why I can't remember because my memory reserve from that time has been flushed--but I did catch it on Sundance? probably around the sametime because they had an Ozon week or night.

Still would like to see 5x2 as well.

Richard Malloy

A few more specifics on the See the Sea/Short Films disc in this collection as there don't appear to be any reviews of this anywhere...

The bad news, of course, is the horrible transfer for "See the Sea". I think deeming it "unwatchable" isn't an exaggeration. It's not anamorphically enhanced, and displays the worst combing artifacts I've ever seen on any disc. Positively lousy.

"Une robe d'été" is the only anamorphically enhanced transfer on the disc, despite the fact that "See the Sea", "X200" and "Petite Morte" are also in a widescreen ratio. Very peculiar, I think, particularly as "See the Sea" is the "featured" film in this collection and the one that defaults as the starting point on the disc. As for "Robe", the transfer is certainly acceptable, with what appears to be good color timing and contrast levels, and most faults being due to the condition of the film elements.

"X200" and "Petite Morte" are not anamorphic enhanced, but otherwise benefit from much better transfers than "See the Sea". No combing or other obvious digititis here. If you have a good "zoom" feature or scaler, the images can be blown up to fit your widescreen set with very little cropping, though the subtitles extend to just beyond the bottom frame of the image (not a big deal for "X200", which has only a quick snatch of dialog at the very end). The transfers are strong enough to look good "blown up", so long as your zoom/scaler is a good one.

"Action/Verite" and "Scenes du nuit" (do I have these titles correct?) are transferred from somewhat dodgier elements, but nothing that will detract much from the viewing experience. Both films are in the 1.33:1 ratio.

Unlike some of the short films on the other discs in this collection, all the shorts on this disc have removeable English subtitles, that appear accurate and without typos or grammatical howlers. The primary defects of this disc are non-anamorphic transfers for all but one of the widescreen ratio films, and the "unwatchable" "See the Sea" transfer.