Anatomy of Hell Next To Make the Jump To Blu

Yes, you've read the title right; Breillat's most divisive film, Anatomie de l'enfer, b.k.a. Anatomy of Hell, is finally coming to blu-ray this summer.  Specifically June 5th.  I almost missed it, because it's being released as a part of Umbrella Entertainment's 'New Extremity Collection Volume 1' collection, and I'm really not interested in the other films in that set.  Anatomy of Hell is a real outlier, as it's the only non-horror title, alongside High Tension, Frontier(s) and Martyrs.

It would be hard to argue Breillat's film doesn't qualify as a "new French extremity" by dead-on definition, but I suspect a lot of fans of those other three films are going to be looking at Breillat's film like, "what the heck is this," not unlike how this Breillat fan is looking at the set thinking, "gee, I don't want to have to pay for all those other ones."  And no, there has been no individual release announced for any of the four films.  There is just a Collector's Edition and a Standard Edition, the distinction being a 100 page book, a poster, some unique artwork and some art cards.

Now, technically, this won't be Anatomy's debut on blu.  There is already a French blu-ray that came out last June.  But it is not English-friendly.  It's just got the original French audio with optional French subtitles.  Great if you're fluent in French (it even has a Breillat interview), but sadly useless for the rest of us.

And to give Umbrella due credit, they don't seem to be skimping on their release, packing it with special features.  Admittedly, a lot of these don't sound terribly exciting: an audio commentary by a     horror movie podcast host and three visual essays by experts.  But crucially, they've got an interview with Breillat.  They don't label it as "NEW" like all the other features on their website, so I'm guessing it's the original interview dating back to the Tartan disc, but it's still an important inclusion.  Umbrella's also got a stills gallery and the trailer.  And they're promising all the films are uncut and uncensored.

So as a Breillat fan, you're going to want this disc.  And cinephiles who are looking to explore modern films for their shock value should get a kick out of the whole package.  But I feel like this forced combination is going to annoy more people than it pleases.  Oh well.  It's still a net win to finally have another of Breillat's works available in HD and English for the first time.

Last Summer, Now From Criterion

It's here!  Catherine Breillat's first film in over a decade arrives today, Feb 18th, on DVD and blu, as part of their new Janus Contemporaries line.  We've known about Last Summer (then known as Inavouable, which translates to "Unspeakable") since early 2021, and have just been waiting patiently to get our hands on an English-friendly version of it.  The BD is a dual-layer 1080p disc matting the film to 1.85:1, screenshotted above.  The original French 5.1 audio is presented in DTS-HD with optional English subtitles.

There aren't a whole ton of extras, but critically, we do get an all new, 18+ minute interview with Breillat.  They also include the original theatrical trailer and an insert with notes by Michael Joshua Rowin, a film theorist who teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York.  So it may not be the full-fledged special edition we were hoping for, but it's a satisfying package.  And most important, of course, we can just finally see this film.

And by the way, for those keen to check out the original 2019 Dronningen, a.k.a. Queen Of Hearts, the Danish film Last Summer is a remake of, there are a couple of foreign blu-rays, but they don't include English language options.  Our best bet is unfortunately standard definition-only: an American DVD from Breaking Glass.  It's a DVD-9 in anamorphic 2.39:1 in its original Danish/ Swedish (both stereo and 5.1 mixes) with optional English subtitles with no special features.