Sunday, October 16, 2011

Breillat On Blu-Ray

Okay, we've been looking at the work of Catherine Breillat that's available on standard definition DVDs, but what if you're ready to step it up a notch? Breillat is sadly under-represented on Blu-Ray - even her latest releases from Pathfinder and Strand are coming out on SD only - but she's not completely out of the picture.

The Criterion Collection has followed up their definitive release of Fat Girl (A ma soeur) with a new, superior edition on Blu-Ray. Fat Girl's transfer was already pretty state-of-the-art on their regular DVD, so there's no major changes to the image quality, apart, of course, from the increased resolution of this new Blu-Ray disc. But that does still make it, then, easily the best looking Fat Girl available anywhere.

The extras are all carried over from Criterion's standard disc. Nothing added, nothing lost.

And that's pretty much it for any of the films she's written or directed. But, one of the films she (and her sister) has a small role in, Bertolucci's Last Tango In Paris, has also made the leap to Blu-Ray. Like the SD disc before it, it has no extras besides the trailer, but it is a substantial upgrade in resolution/image quality.

Update: We've got more Breillat on blu! Most notably, Second Sight has released an attractive special edition of Romance on blu in the UK, as covered here.
The Skin, which she co-wrote, has been released on blu by Cohen Media, as I've covered here.
Police, too, has made it to blu, as covered here.
And finally, Criterion restored And the Ship Sails On, a Fellini film she only very tangentially worked on, as I've covered here.
Oh, and there's the ever on-going saga of Bilitis releases, which now includes multiple blu-rays.

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