Janus Films

[thelberg]

Man Ray’s Return to Reason

[Matt]

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here talk about this film. Has no one seen it or is it just not good? The trailer makes it seem like very much my thing (weird, French, time-jumping), but I don’t want to spend an hour drive each way plus a 146-minute runtime to find out it’s not.

[Red Screamer]

I had a good time with it but I suspect mileage will vary. The film is split into three time periods and I found the contemporary section much stronger than the others. It’s too one-note and shallow to achieve the James adaptation/statement movie/Seydoux tour de force it’s striving for, but those same qualities help make it an effective, dissonant Lynch-lite horror movie with a bunch of potent mood setting.

[senseabove]

I'll put it this way: I enjoyed The Beast enough to see it a second time within a week to try to figure out what didn't quite work for me. I think Bonello made three of the best films of their decade with L'Apollonide, Saint Laurent, and Nocturama, and while I don't think it reaches their heights, I still think Bonello's one of the most interesting working directors. I assume the unprecedented accolades it's getting are because the guiding, if not commandeering, spirit (like late Bresson was Nocturama's) is Lynch. But I don't think Lynch's strength's are Bonello's, whom I find most fascinating when he explores how emotion is inherently, if unconsciously, political (a theme I sincerely hope Lynch stays far, far away from). And unfortunately this movie feels untethered—not unaware of politics, but they're video game politics, there because it would be ridiculous to pretend they're not, but unengaged; it creeps in around the edges of the (roughly) contemporary plot-line because it can't not, given the (non-James) source extensively and directly quoted, but the past and future storylines feel too distant and curtailed—the weight behind them evaporates just as it gathers.

All that said, I, as an avowed Bonello fan, seem to be among the least fond of this one of folks I know, and though it didn't meet my expectations, I still quite liked it. Seydoux's expectedly great, Mckay's unexpectedly (for me, at least?) really good, and Bonello still has a wonderful flare for the unnervingly piquant. Not to make it sound more middling than I mean it to—I just had insanely high expectations after all the hype for the new one from the director two of whose films were high-ranking orphans on my 2010s list. So if it sounds up your alley, it's probably worth catching. It's a bit dawdling while still being a bit grandiose on a small scale, if that makes sense, so I do think a theatrical setting is a benefit.

[therewillbeblus]

I don't have a ton of experience with his work, but thought Coma was one of the most audacious "covid" films I've seen (if you can even define it). Really curious to explore their other work. I haven't seen The Beast yet, but it doesn't sound like the type of film one leaves and regrets giving it a try (which only happens to me when receiving confirmation bias after entering a movie with low expectations, or when I feel the artists kept things too safe)

[FrauBlucher]

Evil Does Not Exist...Trailer

[brundlefly]

Trailer for Horace Ové's Pressure

[dwk]

36 fillette
A Real Young Girl

[criterionsnob]

Also another Breillat: A Perfect Love

[FrauBlucher]

found more new pages. Oddly many of the URL numbers skip. Some of these have been released by Criterion. William Klein Eclipse is currently unavailable and Carlos Saura Eclipse is OOP. Maybe these will eventually get bluray boxsets. The Kieślowski is in the Dekalog box

Ray...Devi
Hou... Cute Girl
Hou... The Boys from Fengkuei
Hou... The Green, Green Grass of Home
Ivan Passer... Intimate Lighting
William Klein... The Model Couple
William Klein... Mr. Freedom
William Klein... Who Are You, Polly Maggot?
Václav Vorlíček... Three Wishes For Cinderella
Kieślowski... A Short Film About Killing
Saura... Los ojos vendados
Saura... Elisa, vida mia
Saura...The Garden of Delights
Saura...Honeycomb
Saura... The Hunt
Saura... Stress is Three
Saura... Peppermint Frappe
Saura...Sweet Hours
Berlanga... Welcome Mr. Marshall!
Berlanga... Barrios altos
Berlanga... Everyone Off to Jail
Berlanga...Boyfriend in Sight
Berlanga...Miracles of Thursday
Berlanga... Nacional III
Berlanga... Patrimonio nacional
Berlanga... Placido
Berlanga...The Rocket from Calabuch

[Hogfather]

found more new pages. Oddly many of the URL numbers skip. Some of these have been released by Criterion. William Klein Eclipse is currently unavailable and Carlos Saura Eclipse is OOP. Maybe these will eventually get bluray boxsets. The Kieślowski is in the Dekalog box

Ray...Devi
Hou... Cute Girl
Hou... The Boys from Fengkuei
Hou... The Green, Green Grass of Home
Ivan Passer... Intimate Lighting
William Klein... The Model Couple
William Klein... Mr. Freedom
William Klein... Who Are You, Polly Maggot?
Václav Vorlíček... Three Wishes For Cinderella
Kieślowski... A Short Film About Killing
Saura... Los ojos vendados
Saura... Elisa, vida mia
Saura...The Garden of Delights
Saura...Honeycomb
Saura... The Hunt
Saura... Stress is Three
Saura... Peppermint Frappe
Saura...Sweet Hours
Berlanga... Welcome Mr. Marshall!
Berlanga... Barrios altos
Berlanga... Everyone Off to Jail
Berlanga...Boyfriend in Sight
Berlanga...Miracles of Thursday
Berlanga... Nacional III
Berlanga... Patrimonio nacional
Berlanga... Placido
Berlanga...The Rocket from Calabuch

This is a really interesting list, as much for what it includes as what it doesn't.

Devi, the three William Klein films, and A Short Film About Killing are all in the Criterion Collection. in addition, the three Hou films, Three Wishes for Cinderella, the Saura films and the Berlanga films are all on the Criterion Channel. The Boys From Fengkuei in particular has been in the rotation as a World Cinema Project restoration for some time, and I think this is the last step before Criterion puts it out on disc.

What I think is really interesting is that five Saura films are on the Criterion Channel that don't have Janus webpages: Ana and the Wolves, Cousin Angelica, and Deprisa, Deprisa, as well as Cria Cuervos... (the only Saura film to have a solo Criterion release) and Marathon, which is part of the 100 Years of Olympic Films box set. In contrast, Garcia Berlanga's only film in the Collection, The Executioner does have its own page. The two films of his that are on the channel but don't have pages are La Boutique and Long Live the Bride and Groom. I wonder if they only have the streaming rights to these movies or if they just haven't created their webpages yet.

Another interesting thing is to look at the numbers on these webpages. Janus has evidently been sitting on the rights to all of these films (except for maybe Los ojos vendados) for some time but has not (for whatever reason) done anything with the films. In contrast, the Janus webpage for The Executioner has a much larger number than any of the listed pages, meaning that Janus got the rights to it at a later date and released it before the other films.