Éric Rohmer on DVD and BD

[Yojimbo]

I'm pretty sure that Arrow have plans for at least one Rohmer BD in the not too distant future, almost certainly as part of their relaunched Academy lineup, but all I know is that it'll be "one of the popular ones".

I'm one of those Blu-Ray hold-outs that you keep hearing about, Michael.
And I've got such a long DVD unwatched backlog, that they'll probably be onto the next generation of video-viewing formats before I'll be even considering Blu-Ray

[RossyG]

I'm the opposite: holding off of many DVDs if I think a BD may appear in the next few years. That's certainly been the case with Rohmer's films as they just seemed so likely to become Blu-rays.

I'll buy any Rohmer film on Blu-ray. Am I right in thinking that Arrow own all six of the Comedies and Proverbs films plus The Marquise of O? They also had Love in the Afternoon, but that now seems to be with Artificial Eye alongside the other Moral Tales.

So I suppose the best-case scenario would be The Marquise of O getting an Academy release with a C&P box set close behind.

[rrenault]

I bet they aren't English-friendly though and may well not even have French HOH subtitles

Don't bet your house on it - Potemkine is one of the few French labels who have put out English-friendly boxsets of French films (their Ossang and Rozier sets) and even foreign films (their Lisandro Alonso set). My layman's guess is that unless Losange are planning to or have already licensed these out to AE to be released with forced English subs (which indeed would be less of an issue in this case), they might well have English subs. So optimistically thinking we could have English-friendly Blu-rays on the market soon in either case.

In the case of Agnes B. some releases are and others aren't English-friendly. Their Tarkovsky DVDs don't have English subs, and I assumed their Alonso didn't either, but I guess I'm wrong. By the way, the last minute or so of their transfer of The Mirror was left unrestored, weird, unless it was some deliberate artistic choice on Tarkovsky's part, although I doubt it.

[repeat]

Actually, according to their site, all the films in the Alonso box except Liverpool should have English subs - I guess that omission might be contractual as the Second Run disc would've already been in the works or even out at the time of release.

[shaky]

It seems that the Potemkine Rohmer set will almost certainly have English subtitles, everybody. I emailed Potemkine directly and this is what they said:

"Dear Lee,

Yes we'll have! However, optionnal english subtitles will be available only for the 24 features + the short film La Carrière de Suzanne, not for the bonus unfortunatly.
The box set sketchs will be available on our website very soon, so you can see how beautifull will be the new release on witch we're working very hard.
Thank you for your message,

All the best,

Noémie"

[Calvin]

The release looks lovely

[domino harvey]

Release of the year?

[Zot!]

The release looks lovely

AHHHHHHHH!!! Jackpot! 24 films! Subtitles! Gorgeous art! I guess they gave up on doing multiple boxes. Now if the transfers are passable, this deal is as good as done for me, I might even preorder, and I never preorder anything...actually I preorder Joan of Arc....can you tell I'm excited?

[domino harvey]

The big set is DVD (look at the spines in the pic), I suspect the smaller boxes are for the Blu-ray extracts from the big one

[Calvin]

From what I can gather, the big set has 30 DVDs along with Blu-Ray editions of the 22 feature films that have been restored in HD ("soit au total 30 DVD accompagnés de leur déclinaison blu-ray pour les 22 films restaurés en haute définition").

It looks great but I'm going to wait for some reviews before ordering. The Arrow representative here did say they turned down upgrading their Comedies and Proverbs box set as they weren't happy with the masters. Fingers crossed that Potemkine have got their hands on something better!

[domino harvey]

Jesus! I'll be pre-ordering as soon as such an option materializes

[zedz]

An incredible release, but it's a shame that most of the shorts will be unsubbed.

Also, I'm skeptical that it will really be "L'integral", since his TV documentaries would constitute a box set in their own right.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Holy shit, that's some great art. I better start saving up and brush up on my French.

[Murdoch]

Wow, the Comedies and Proverbs series has been number one on my upgrade list. I'll definitely get this since I can't imagine any other company releasing all the features on blu in one giant box set and region free. Eat your heart out, Criterion.

[rrenault]

Beautiful looking set, but are the films only going to be made available in a giant box like this?

[MichaelB]

Beautiful looking set, but are the films only going to be made available in a giant box like this?

I'd be astonished if they weren't released individually at some point down the line. Eric Rohmer still has a hefty following in English-speaking countries, and the rights are split up amongst multiple companies. And I understand that the HD remasters are from Rohmer's own company, not in-house Potemkine jobs, so presumably they're quite keen for other territories to license them.

[rrenault]

Well I was thinking at least the Moral Tales would have their own set as would the Comedies and Proverbs. I was under the impression that at least every single one of the Moral Tales was owned by the same licenser.

[rockysds]

Preorders up at Amazon.fr. Separate boxes for the cycles also available.

L'intégrale
Moral Tales
Comedies and Proverbs
4 Seasons

[Petaine]

Just learned the news, very-very excited!

I've been occasionally monitoring the web for news about Rohmer on blu-ray for a couple of years now. I considered buying the Japanese versions of Contes des quatre saisons but they are too expensive to ship and have no info on their quality and whether they have english subtitles or not. Anyway, this release sounds great, let's just hope that the transfers look and sound good. It will be fantastic if the difference from the criterion releases is significant, not just a minor upgrade.

The big package looks great, awesome art. Unless they come up soon with news on individual releases, this may be the first time I will actually pre-order something!

[Black Hat]

This is outstanding news. I've gotten so used to all the recent shabby Criterion artwork that I have so much a greater appreciation for the gorgeous artwork here.

[domino harvey]

I don't know, wouldn't this look better with a few Photoshop filters applied and the text in some sort of jungle-themed block font?

[domino harvey]

And fewer extras, of course

[vsski]

I don't know, wouldn't this look better with a few Photoshop filters applied and the text in some sort of jungle-themed block font?

And fewer extras, of course

Hey, that's Criterion's job, how else are they going to stand out!

[GaryC]

Beautiful looking set, but are the films only going to be made available in a giant box like this?

I'd be astonished if they weren't released individually at some point down the line. Eric Rohmer still has a hefty following in English-speaking countries, and the rights are split up amongst multiple companies. And I understand that the HD remasters are from Rohmer's own company, not in-house Potemkine jobs, so presumably they're quite keen for other territories to license them.

That's what I was wondering. There are a few gaps in Rohmer's filmography as far as English-speaking territories go:

The only DVD of Perceval is Fox Lorber's from 2000, which was no great shakes then, let alone now.

4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle is AWOL. (Artificial Eye released it in UK cinemas and VHS but haven't done so on DVD.)

The Tree, The Mayor and the Mediatheque hasn't had a commercial release in an English-friendly edition at all.

I'm presuming the boxset doesn't include TV material, but the feature-length TV movie Catherine de Heilbronn was released as an extra on the French DVD of The Marquise of O. As far as I have been able to find out, that DVD doesn't have English subs or even French ones (except of course for the German-language Marquise). That and The Tree, The Mayor... are the only remaining Rohmer features I haven't seen.

The boxset certainly is tempting (if I had 199.99 euros going spare right now - the Amazon.fr price). A pity that the shorts and extras aren't subtitled, though I have subtitled copies of most of the shorts on various UK DVDs. My French is pretty rusty, and certainly not up to watching Rohmer films sans sous-titres.

[Zot!]

From what I can gather, the big set has 30 DVDs along with Blu-Ray editions of the 22 feature films that have been restored in HD ("soit au total 30 DVD accompagnés de leur déclinaison blu-ray pour les 22 films restaurés en haute définition").

Any bets on what 2 features won't be getting the HD treatment? Or should it be obvious?