Breillat Boxed Set

Ok, let's say for a minute that you do speak French (even though that goes against the very premise of this blog! haha)... or maybe you've got your French/English dictionary in your lap and you're up for a challenge. Well, then this set, which I've already mentioned in four previous posts, is what you want.

The box, released in late 2007 by from Editions Montparnasse is simply titled Catherine Breillat (or Catherine Breillat X, depending whether you think that X from the Romance poster is part of the title or just graphic design). It's four movies on four discs: 36 Fillette, Romance, Fat Girl and Sex Is Comedy... all are top-notch transfers. In fact, as I mentioned in my post for that film, the 36 Fillette transfer is light-years behind the god-awful transfer from Fox Lorber we English speakers have been saddled with (see that post for screenshot comparisons). So you already want this for the vastly superior 36 Fillette transfer.

But then you also want this because three of the four films come with additional making-of featurettes that aren't available anywhere else. Only Sex Is Comedy is missing one. Of course, like the films themselves, none of these extras come with English language options, so we're left out of the fun. :(

Anatomy of Hell (2004)

Anatomy of Hell (Anatomie de l'enfer) took a little while to hit DVD... it first came out on a nice, widescreen and uncut DVD from Russia (CP Digital), but unfortunately it only featured French and Russian language options. I've seen a bunch of US dealers sell it - so I guess there was a market for people who were keen enough to see the controversial bits that they'd watch it without being able to speak the language, but the rest of us would have to wait.

Eventually, Tartan picked it up and put it out in both the US (NTSC R1) and UK (PAL R2) markets. It was a top quality release: an excellent, anamorphic widescreen transfer, and it's uncut (unlike Tartan's release of Fat Girl). They also included a terrific 65 minute(!) interview with Breillat on the film (included on both editions).

The Canadian release from Mongrel Media is a heavily cut, R-rated edition, though, so avoid that (it does still include the Breillat interview, however).

The French disc from Aventi actually has it a little over on the Tartan discs... they have the same, long interview with Breillat, but they've also included a short making-of featurette. As usual, though, there are no English language options on that disc, so we miss out. And by the way, compare the French cover image to the others: exactly the same photo, but they apparently photoshopped a shirt onto Amira Casar in the American, UK, and Canadian markets!

There's also an Australian DVD, by the way, with an uncut, widescreen print (as well as an uncut cover), but it's missing both the Breillat interview and the making-of. So, unless you speak French, take your pick (PAL or NTSC) between the Tartans.

A Real Young Girl (1976)

The question of the ideal DVD release for Christine Breillat's debut starring Charlotte Alexandra, A Real Young Girl (a.k.a. Une vraie jeune fille) is a no-brainer. There's only one English subtitled DVD of the film available. It's the NTSC R1 disc from Fox Lorber, but it's not too bad. The picture quality could definitely stand to be better - it's somewhat murky... definitely not up to par with their Perfect Love disc, but not as bad as 36 Fillette either, and - at least the subtitles are sharp and removable, and it's in its original, widescreen aspect ratio.

For a while this DVD was included in a boxed set with five other, non-Breillat-related films (Lies, In the Realm of the Senses, Erotique, Pola X, and L' Ennui) called the International Erotic Collection, but it's now long out of print. The disc in the collection was no different than the one sold separately, anyway.

There is a more recent Italian market R0 DVD (released in April '07 under the title L' Adolescente) out from Minerva Video which supposedly features a better quality, anamorphic transfer and the theatrical trailer, but it has Italian subtitles only.

So, like I said. Fox Lorber: no-brainer.

Pornocracy (novel)

As I wrote in my introductory post, Catherine Breillat has - in addition to being an acclaimed filmmaker - written many best-selling novels in France... and now in 2008, one of them is finally being translated and released in the United States. Pornocracy (or Pornocratie in its native language), which her film Anatomy of Hell was largely based on, is being released in June (though MIT press seems to have it early) from Semiotext(e) publishing, with a new introduction by Chris Kraus and afterword by Peter Sotos. ISBN: 1584350474

Now, Semiotext(e) claims on their website that "Pornocracy is the first of her novels to be published in English," but strictly speaking, her first book published here was actually her debut novel A Man for the Asking (also known as L'Homme facile or The Easy Man). Originally published in 1968, it was apparently rather scandalous (no surprise, considering the young author) and the translated version arrived stateside in 1969. It's long out of print, but devoted fans shouldn't have too hard a time finding a copy.

Romance (1999)

Controversial upon its original release, Romance (or Romance X) is a film that was censored heavily in most regions for its original home video release, but on DVD we're finally given the 99 minute director's cut. All DVD editions of this film feature nice looking 1.66:1 transfers and include the theatrical trailer (on the US disc from Trimark, left, it's a hidden "easter egg"). Unfortunately, the US disc isn't anamorphic.

The UK DVD from Bluelight - while essentially the director's cut - is still slightly edited, so stay away from that. It's out of print and a bit hard to find, now, anyway. A second UK DVD was released in 2014 from Second Sight, which is both uncut and anamorphic.

The French disc from Éditions Montparnasse once again has it best - featuring an interview with Breillat - but does not feature English subtitles. It also has a much better cover than the ultra-cheesy US DVD (to be fair, yes, the US cover is based on the film's poster... but the US poster was super cheesy; and the French DVD cover is based on the far superior, original French poster). It's also included in Éditions Montparnasse's Catherine Breillat boxed set.