hmm, I was hoping alphaville, breathless and pierrot le fou were in one set.

Depending on what's in the second box (nd the prices), I might skip this and just get the individual criteiron release of breathless.

Me, too. Optimum "quality" is much too spotty for me, and hopefully Criterion also will have "Pierrot le fou" out by the year-end.

The Vol.1 offers 5 discs:

Alphaville
Passion
Breathless
Made in USA
Godard Encore

The discs are placed in exactly the same type of digi-holder as the one seen in the US for the Almodovar collection. Each folder flips and overlaps the next one.

So far I've had the time only to go through Breathless and Alphaville (will finish tonight).

Breathless indeed offers the exact print used by Studio Canal.

Positives: Clearly this is the best English-friendly print of this film. There is plenty of grain (as intended), sharpness is way above average, contrast is treated rather well. Damage is not an issue, even though ocasionally I noticed a few specks here and there - the overall state of the print however I would describe as healthy. The annoying green-tint evident on previous R1 releases is not seen here and the blury haze from the R2 UK older release is absent as well. During the night scenes this new Optimum print is a bit darker as well which I believe suits the film rather well.
Edge-enhancement is tolerable as far as my eyes are concerned.

The print is progressive!

The English subtitles are optional, white, and of decent font!
Extras are good (with that short from the French disc)!

I am not crazy about the coverwork (including these Screen Icons covers on the other series by Optimum...too generic for my taste) but the actual case is fine with me.

The print does not break down when blwon out regardless of the natural grain. With other words, it is strong enough and holds well.

I like the fact that contrast boosting has not been performed even though this will be the area where Criterion will attack and possibly better this release.

What could a possible Criterion release improve? I believe that Criterion could play with some contrast boosting but then I am not sure how they will address the natural film-grain. They could make the whites a tad white-er and the blacks black-er but it remains to be seen if they will keep the film as dark as it already is. What is given here is that if a Criterion release materializes it will surely be based off of this Studio Canal Pirnt.


Negatives: As far as the print goes I already mentioned above it is a direct port of the old Studio Canal release and as such there are few small issues that bother me here (please note that I have never seen a release that has addressed these successfully) -

1) the "haze" I see during some of the indoor scenes will probably be dealt with if this film ever comes on HD.

2) there are a few portions of English dialog which appear with the French text-translation on the actual print. I know and I do understand that this is how the original print was distributed but I am just noting their presence...I don't remember if these were seen on the German disc.

3) I noticed during three scenes that the audio was not balanced! I know that eXcentris will now crawl up and make a point that I am being too critical again but there you have it: I hear these things and I clearly think that for a min or so during a few scenes (most notable scene I think was when Belmondo was begging to...well, have it his way...on the bed, with the hat on) the audio was not as solid as it should have been.

To sum it all up: these Optimum sets will be remembered for their great price tags and as far as I am concerned come recommended.


Ok, this is it for now...

Pro-B