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.

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. ;)

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.

Bluebeard DVD in 2010

Diane from New Wave Films has been good enough to drop us a line to let us know that there are definite plans for an English language Barbe bleue DVD in 2010! She writes, "I work for New Wave Films, the London based distribution company which bought the distribution rights for the UK and Ireland. We'll be releasing Bluebeard theatrically and on DVD in 2010. Check our website for more updates:http://www.newwavefilms.co.uk."

There's nothing Breillat-specific on their site yet, though; I've checked. But we still have half a year 'till '10, so I'm sure there'll be a page or two on the film by then. And I'm guessing we're looking at a third or fourth quarter DVD release, since they're releasing it theatrically in 2010 first. But, hey, I'm happy just knowing that it's coming. 8)

Last Mistress finally on US DVD (sort of)

Thanks to Frank in the comments section for hipping us to the fact that there is now (as of April 20th) a US DVD of The Last Mistress (Une vieille maîtresse)... sort of. It's not available for sale or to rent at most outlets (including Netflix). It's a Blockbuster rental exclusive, which apparently means they have exclusive rights to it for the next three years. So don't plan on picking this up at your local mall or anything (although enterprising fans shouldn't find securing a copy too difficult, since Blockbuster sells their new release DVDs by the pound... there's already a few copies available at Amazon from marketplace sellers).

It is widescreen, anamorphic and uncut, with optional English and Spanish subtitles (and English captioning); though none of the extras from the European discs have been ported over (there's only trailers for A Girl Cut In Two, Love Songs, Inside Paris and Flight Of the Red Balloon that play before the menu). So, yeah... kinda sucks that Blockbuster has this on lock-down here in the states; but I prefer my Artificial Eye disc from the UK, anyway. At least it's finally giving the film some additional US exposure, though, as it certainly deserves to be seen.

Update 6/24/9: Despite an online rumor stating that this US disc features a longer cut of the film than previous releases, I can't find any difference between them (and I'm playing them right alongside each other on different monitors). When I heard it, I thought perhaps they'd edited the deleted scenes back into the film or something, but they have not. I've checked myself (as has Frank, again, in the comments); and the only difference seems to be the PAL speed-up. Interestingly, however, there are slight changes in the subtitles... this new version changes some ellipses to periods and periods to exclamation points. In these cases, the Artificial Eye punctuation seems to be truer to the actors' delivery.