Spine #578

SYNOPSIS: Even among cinema’s greatest legends, Jean Vigo stands alone. The son of a notorious anarchist, Vigo had a brief but brilliant career making poetic, lightly surrealist films before his life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis at age twenty-nine. Like the daring early works of his contemporaries Jean Cocteau and Luis Buńuel, Vigo’s films refused to play by the rules. This set includes all of Vigo’s titles: Ŕ propos de Nice, an absurdist, rhythmic slice of life from the bustling coastal city of the title; Taris, an inventive short portrait of a swimming champion; Zéro de conduite, a radical, delightful tale of boarding-school rebellion that has influenced countless filmmakers; and, of course, L’Atalante, widely regarded as one of cinema’s finest achievements, about newlyweds beginning their life together on a canal barge. These are the endlessly witty, visually adventurous works of a pivotal film artist.

Collector’s set includes:

A Propos De Nice - 1930
Jean Vigo was twenty-five when he made this, his debut film, a silent cinematic poem that reveals, through a thrilling and ironic use of montage, the economic reality hidden behind the facade of the Mediterranean resort town of Nice.

Zéro de conduite - 1933

So effervescent and charming that one can easily forget its importance in film history, Jean Vigo’s enormously influential portrait of prankish boarding-school students is one of cinema’s great acts of rebellion.

L’Atalante - 1934

In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope.

Disc Features:

New high-definition digital restorations of all of Jean Vigo’s films: Ŕ propos de Nice, Taris, Zéro de conduite, and L’Atalante (with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray edition)
Audio commentaries featuring Michael Temple, author of Jean Vigo
Alternate shots from Ŕ propos de Nice, featuring footage Vigo cut from the film
Animated tribute to Vigo by filmmaker Michel Gondry
Ninety-minute 1964 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps on Vigo, directed by Jacques Rozier
Conversation from 1968 between filmmakers François Truffaut and Eric Rohmer on L’Atalante
Les voyages de “L’Atalante,” Bernard Eisenschitz’s 2001 documentary tracking the history of the film
Video interview from 2007 with director Otar Iosseliani on Vigo
New and improved English subtitle translations
PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film writers Michael Almereyda, Robert Polito, B. Kite, and Luc Sante

30 Aug 2011
Blu-Ray Box Set
1 Disc
SRP: $39.95

Disc Features

New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New video interview with producer James B. Harris
Excerpts of interviews with actor Sterling Hayden from the French television series Cinéma cinémas
New video interview with film scholar Robert Polito about writer Jim Thompson and his work on The Killing
Restored transfer of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 noir feature Killer’s Kiss
New video appreciation of Killer’s Kiss with film critic Geoffrey O’Brien
Theatrical trailers
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Haden Guest and a reprinted interview with Marie Windsor on The Killing

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

New digital restoration, approved by director Roman Polanski (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
Two Gangsters and an Island, a 2003 short documentary about the making of Cul-de-sac, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor
Interview with Polanski from 1967
Theatrical trailers
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Thompson

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

New digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Lee Chang-dong and cinematographer Cho Yong-kyu (with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
New interview with Lee
On the Set of “Secret Sunshine,” a video piece featuring interviews with actors Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho, as well as behind-the-scenes footage
U.S. theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim

SYNOPSIS: Over the course of his varied career, Koreyoshi Kurahara made exacting noirs, jazzy juvenile delinquency pictures, and even nature films. His free-form approach to moviemaking was perfectly suited to the spirit of the 1960s; he was one of the biggest hit makers working at the razzle-dazzle, youth-oriented Nikkatsu studio during the radical Japanese New Wave. The five films collected here hail from that era, and encompass breathless teen escapades, cruel crime stories, a Mishima adaptation, and even a Hollywood-inspired romantic comedy.