Like Anna Karina's Eyeshadow, Dress, Rifle, Bathrobe. . .

Apologies for the image-heavy post, but Filmbrain is so completely over the moon with this new Jean-Luc Godard box set that he felt he had to share how wonderful the transfers look. (Not to mention an excuse to fill the page with some smashing pics of this site's patron saint.) In a comment left earlier this week, the Cinetrix was curious to hear about the quality of Made in U.S.A. Like her, Filmbrain's sole experience with the film was the shoddy 16mm print at The Anthology Film Archives, and he assumed that the dull, washed out, fuzzy look was by design. The DVD reveals just how gorgeous and lush Godard's second color feature actually is.

Even more impressive is the transfer of Pierrot Le Fou, as the following shots reveal. Taking a cue from DVD Beaver (a godsend of a site), Filmbrain thought he would compare the new release to the old Region 1 Fox Lorber release. The bottom picture does just that, and it shows how criminally bad the R1 release is -- the image is cropped and/or zoomed, the colors way off, etc. If you own a region-free DVD player, you need this, you want this, you gotta have this. True, the subtitles are unremovable, and there are no extras whatsoever, but we're talking over three hours of Anna Karina for a (somewhat) reasonable price. (Filmbrain will report on Prenom Carmen just as soon as he gets a chance to watch it.)

Comments

[LazyJane]

I adore when she says, looking to the camera, "Dans quelle tragédie de bazar tu me fait-tu, de nouveaux, jouer le dernier rôle?".
And, obviously, when she sang with JP Belmondo Ma ligne de Chance in Pierrot le Fou.
Did you saw the Koralnik's comédie, Anna?

[la depressionada]

i love her. i love her. i love her so. her eye makeup. her hair. those crewneck sweaters. but vivre sa vie isn't there. tant pis! my personal fave. i dressed like, indeed tried to be, nana for a good deal of the 80s.

for the longest husband no. 2 and i used to go to paris to drink coffee and go to the movies. i can recall seeing prenom carmen on the boulevard montparnasse on a rainy day. the area around blvd montparnasse between vavin and maine is a moviegoer's wet dream. around 25 movies playing within walking distance at any given time. my fave: the lucenaire on notre dame des champs. o youth.

[Jay Blanchard]

Those screen captures look great & have finalized my decision to buy the set--thanks for posting them!

[Sal C]

I have already purchased two bootleg VHS copies of Made in USA over the years - the first one not knowing it didn't have subtitles and the second advertised as having them and - guess what? - didn't. I know that if I buy it a third time as part of this set it will be announced the following day that it is being released in R1 a week later as a stand-alone. Nope, can't do it.
As it stands I just read that Celine & Julie Go Boating is finally being released on DVD with English subtitles (UK - August) one month after I succumbed and bought the New Yorker VHS.

[Sei Jin Lee]

It's really not a bad deal, the Godard DVD Collection vol.#2 cost £22.46. Along with 2 other DVDs (Mouchette and Au Hasard Balthazar for £8.49 each) the shipping was £5.06.

Total: £44.50 or around $82 for 5 movies.

[Todd]

Has anyone seen the Region 2 "Week-end" DVD? Is it the same way with the subtitles?

[Jay Blanchard]

I really want to pick up the R2 "La Chinoise" disk, the highest on my "Godard films I've never seen but really, really want to" list.

[Filmbrain]

There's an R2 of La Chinoise? With subtitles? How ever did I miss this?

Todd - to answer your question, the subtitles on the Weekend DVD are removeable.

[Jack S.]

It's a pity that the divine Miss K. isn't that active in the movies anymore. Jonathan Demme cast her as herself in The Truth About Charlie, a tribute to the French New Wave. Anna has come out with Chansons de films, a compilation of songs she's sung in her movies. She is planning a road movie with Philippe Katerine and Philippe Eveno.
She has also published three novels. At 64, Miss K still looks stunning.

[Anna Karina girl]

I love these pics! Why is the colour in french new wave films always so astounding?

[Lina Tani]

Todd, yeah i saw it on dvd, cannot really tell how the subtitles affected the movie. As for her, she looked beautiful