Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Book On Breillat

If you've got a little extra money to spare (like, oh say, $65), you might be interested in picking up a copy of what Manchester University Press correctly describes to be, "the first English-language book on controversial female director Catherine Breillat."  Titled simply Catherine Breillat, it's written by Douglas Keesey (a professor of film and lit who's also written a similar books on Peter Greenaway, Paul Verhoeven and others) and clocks in at 224 pages.

The official description reads, "This is the first English-language book on controversial female director Catherine Breillat, whose films include Romance, A ma soeur! (Fat Girl), Anatomy of Hell and most recently, The Last Mistress. Thematic groupings - female coming-of-age films, movies about masculinity in crisis, and films dealing with a woman's sexual odyssey - provide the opportunity to study Breillat's treatment of such issues as female virginity, body image, sisterhood, conformity, desire, shame, masochism and self-empowerment, as well as male gender identity, androgyny and macho violence. This volume explores the director's complex relation to religion and to feminism, and it examines the differences between Breillat's films and patriarchal pornography, engaging in detailed analysis of her intimate scenes between men and women. Keesey also discusses the literature, films, paintings and photos that have influenced Breillat's work, and extends this to show how Breillat's films have influenced other filmmakers and artists in turn. A lively and accessible introduction, this book will appeal to students and researchers, as well as all those with an interest in gender studies, French film and contemporary cinema."

It seems a bit academic, but also pretty thorough.  If you're interested, it's available from Amazon (among other places, of course), here.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Bluebeard Out Now In the US!

Bluebeard (Barbe bleue) is out now on DVD in the US! I decided to wait until I got my copy in hand before posting, just in case; but it's here and available now. I figured I posted the front cover images enough (although it differs slightly from the image in my previous post... the final version has a "Critic's Pick" seal on it), so here's the back. :)

As you'd assume, it's widescreen with English subtitles. The only extras are the original theatrical trailer and some trailers for other Strand releases, but that's hardly surprising. So nothing "special" about this edition, but I'm just happy to finally have this on DVD.

Update 7/1/2010: Read the comments for news of the UK DVD. It comes in November with a Breillat interview. If you can hold out 'till then. ;)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Bluebeard US DVD Confirmed

Bluebeard ) is scheduled to be released on DVD in the United States by Strand Releasing on June 22. There don't seem to be any specs available yet... Strand has a page for the film on their site, but it has no details except for a brief synopsis and the director's name, and there's no cover image yet (that's a poster to the right, though I wouldn't be surprised if they wound up looking virtually identical). I don't expect a lot of extras from Strand (though if they want to take that as a challenge, I'd love to be proven wrong!), but they should at least get the aspect ratio right with a respectable transfer.


Update 3/17/10: We've got the actual DVD cover (left) now. basically the same image, yeah.