I only bought "Comédie et Proverbes" box set, so I can't tell about the others...
the packaging is nice, beautiful... nice digipack....
The major problem is that they choose a "plastic "thing" (I try to stay polite) to hold and squeeze the disks which is
had they use the same type than the Criterion "Voyage en Italie" :
http://criterionforum.org/dvd_package.php?dvd_id=1192
then their digipack would have been as thin and as beautiful. It's sad to fuck-up the last % with such annoying things...
I will try to take a photo this morning so that you can see this type of plastic way to hold the disks and make your own mind about this. This is the first time I've seen such "thing"...
well, some comments about the blu-ray :
on "
Comédies et Proverbes" :
these blu-ray are in 1080p24 :
- les nuits de la pleine lune
- l'amie de mon amie
these blu-ray are in not in 1080p24 (1080p instead) (while the Potemkine intro is in 1080p24) :
unless my stand-alone blu-ray player (Oppo) give me some false informations
-
Loup y es-tu aka Pauline à la plage
- La femme de l'aviateur (which I saw in theatres)
- Le rayon vert
I watched
Pauline à la Plage with my videoprojector and I was so happy to see it at last in 1:33 (I've always seen it in 1:66 in theatres).
1:33 means with all those scenes in 1 piece swimsuit, more raies du cul...
I had a good laugh with several Arielle Dombasle ("
Pierrrrre !........") scenes...
I enjoyed the Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart "Bongo Fury" vinyl LP artwork cameo...
Nestor Almendros photography is stunning. Colors are magnificient. This is real HD with fine grain. I was very pleased with this transfer.
I think that you won't be disappointed with this transfer.
by the way, you have to see Féodor Atkine in "
Les Milles Merveilles de l'Univers" (a very special S.F movie with Julie Delpy
)
then I watched "
Les Nuits de la Pleine Lune" (which is in 1080p24) :
I completely rediscovered this movie. I saw it in theatres and HD is a good way to "transcribe" this radically different photography by Renato Berta (au revoir les enfants) soft, with some beautiful night scenes, cold day scene in la "ville nouvelle", and those subtles colors pastel (mauve, the blue and mauve neon on the top of the column deco in Pascale Ogier's appartement in Paris) - when it was intended to- those colors are vivid (Fabrice Luchini red scarf) (there's a lot of Mondrian references, and that the color theme in mind was "violet" (I think) when Pauline was red-blue-white)
There is some natural grain, and the restoration is obvious.
I loved Jacno's music/ and the beautiful Elli Medeiros cameo...
and the lovely Pascale Ogier...
well, I can't say I was disappointed.
my guess is that movies which are not in 1080p24 comes from a HDTV (TV collaboration) source.
I really hope that "
Les contes moraux" are in 1080p24. This wouldn't be acceptable if those movies were not available in 1080p24
So, until I don't have feedback about this set. I prefer to stop the "adventure" here...
After all, Criterion put out a fantastic DVD box set several years ago and there is chances - I hope - that they upgrade it in blu.
about the region thing :
I did a test - locking my blu-ray player in region A - then loading the disks. It loads, then stop. No "region error" message on screen, just stopped.
I did try with another disk. Same things happens. You press "Play" and it stops again.
I re-set back my region player to region B and the menu loads immediately...
but I found a way to bypass the loading problem : press "menu" and it will load the menu.
I can not confirm that it will work on every region A player. I have a multiregion player (region B native) so please take this information only like a "simulation of region A" - try to contact Potemkine about this
please note that on the back of each digipack of each movie there is a
region B logo. (which makes me wonder then about the presence of English subtitles... unless a UK release is on its way ? (Artificial Eye perhaps ?)
I confirm the English subtitles. (nice font)
on main feature/ movie only- no subtitles on the extras.
On "Pauline à la plage", I already knew the first extra (a great documentary) which was on a previous DVD I owned... the Amanda Langlet interview on the other hand is new (2013) and was done for this Potemkine box set.