Alain Resnais

[Aunt Peg]

I saw Smoking/No Smoking on different days but personally have considered them as one film. I don't recall an specific order they were meant to be watched in. Gosh, its over a quarter of century since I've seen them and I would dearly love an English friendly Blu Ray release.

[Stefan Andersson]

Alan Ayckbourn´s tribute to Resnais, in English, originally in Positif magazine:
http://intimateexchanges.alanayckbourn. ... styled-12/

Among other things, we learn that Resnais, before he passed away, was working on an adaptation of Ayckbourn´s play Arrivals & Departures (2013).

[colinr0380]

When the BBC screened them back in the late 90s they showed Smoking on one weekend and No Smoking the next. I think there is a bit of a re-cap at the beginning of No Smoking, and of course in both films a lot of the action is covered three times over in condensed form in order to reach the branching points for certain alternate endings.

[Stefan Andersson]

DoP Ricardo Aronovich on Providence, discovering (when restoring the film) that part of the OCN (part of the birthday ending sequence) had been replaced by internegative; offering his opinion that the film is very like a novel by Bioy Casares, "Diary of the War of the Pig", and more:

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/cul ... -1.5338793

https://www.afcinema.com/Where-Ricardo- ... ml?lang=fr

[Stefan Andersson]

Jonathan Rosenbaum on a French-language edition of the screenplay for the Harry Dickson film:
https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2021/06/a ... y-dickson/

[Stefan Andersson]

According to Jonathan Rosenbaum, Axel Reval, co-writer on two late Resnais titles, is a pseudonym for Resnais himself:
https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2021/07/resnais-secrets/

[GoodOldNeon]

La guerre est finie and L'An 01 are being released on Blu-ray next month.

[FrauBlucher]

I received Wild Grass from Netflix and Life of Riley is next up in my queue. What do folks think of Resnais' late period? I did see Private Fears in Public Places which I very much liked

[Ribs]

Icarus will be releasing a Blu-ray of five Resnais short films.

[swo17]

Cool, now I can unload my Mystery of Picasso DVD with the Guernica short

[Blutarsky]

I am currently on a Resnais binge and I have not seen Stavisky and Providence in a long time. Does anyone know where I can get an English friendly release of either film anywhere? I know the former got a blu ray release in France about 3 years ago but I don’t know if it is English friendly.

[domino harvey]

Providence is English language, so any copy will be English-friendly

[furbicide]

I am currently on a Resnais binge and I have not seen Stavisky and Providence in a long time. Does anyone know where I can get an English friendly release of either film anywhere? I know the former got a blu ray release in France about 3 years ago but I don’t know if it is English friendly.

As far as I'm aware, you can still buy the DVD of Providence directly from Jupiter Films (it's a French label but, as Domino says above, the film itself is in English): https://www.jupiter-films.com/film-providence-8.php

The R4 StudioCanal DVD release of Stavisky has English subtitles but is OOP I believe. I had a quick look just now and found a number of listings for pre-owned copies on eBay. I don't believe the French Blu-ray has English subs.

[Blutarsky]

Providence is English language, so any copy will be English-friendly

For some reason I remember there being a decent amount of French dialogue. However, the last time I viewed it was on a questionable DVD copy that my friend had lent me that looked cropped. Oh how I don’t miss those times!

[tolbs1010]

I watched both of these films in the past two weeks, as I have also been on a bit of Resnais binge lately.

Kanopy has Stavisky in a nice-looking presentation. If you're in the United States and your local library system is hooked up with Kanopy, you can stream it commercial-free. Kanopy has several other Resnais' films as well, though Providence isn't one of them. Melo is next on my list.

Providence was available on YT in a less-than-optimal but watchable presentation as of a couple weeks ago. This was going to be one of my guesses for the Criterion monthly guessing thread this month. Long overdue.

[knives]

This question comes from the end credits of Providence, but was there a French version shot at the same time with the actors mentioned there?

[otis]

Can anyone comment on the subtitles on the Icarus Alain Resnais: Five Short Films collection? Are they burned in, as on some Icarus discs? Are they yellow (and illegible), as on the clip from Toute la mémoire du monde here?