Gaumont French Releases

[Kauno]

Yes, you still can. They're repressing older problematic pressings one after the other, so depending on which titles they now have new discs of, they might be able to fill you in on your defective discs.

Thanks! I will do that at some point, but I just realized that I cannot identify the problematic BDs when fast forwarding. I have to sit and watch them.

[tenia]

Fast forward can allow to skip the defective sectors of the disc. There is another possibility, if you have a BD-ROM player on your computer, which is to scan the disc using VSO Inspector. It will detect defective or close-to-be defective sectors on the disc.

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

Before/after restoration videos up for Judex and Tih-Minh:
https://www.fnac.com/a16278512/Judex-Bl ... 512|BL1|L1
https://www.fnac.com/a16278517/Tih-Minh ... ld-Blu-ray

Finally watched the restoration videos of Judex and Tih Minh— they are astounding! Glad they’ve got English subtitles on the features. I wish they had them on the supplements as well — though each release seems to have only one ~15 minute supplement. Wonder whether Kino will eventually pick these up.

Can anyone confirm that these releases actually have English subtitles? I just ordered them today, remembering reading here that they had. But blu-ray.com says no subtitles, and Amazon.fr does not list any subtitles. However, both Fnac and Potemkine says English subs. Who to trust?

[tenia]

They both have English subs for the intertitles.
I used to update blu-ray.com's specs for this kind of releases, but I'm banned from there so too bad for their accuracy.

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

Thank you, tenia! I'll keep my order, then. Very much looking forward to these. Enjoyed Fantômas and especially Les Vampires immensely. I've always wanted to watch Judex after watching Franju's tribute many years ago, but the dvd looked so bad that I held off. Especially now, it feels like it was the right decision.

[denti alligator]

I watched the Blu-ray of Judex and it is maybe the single best looking pre-1920s film I've ever seen on home video (or anywhere). The restoration is stunning. My son loved it, so we started watching Les Vampires, and by comparison it looks awful (Kino Blu-ray). I hope they're working on a restoration of it, too!

[andyli]

I watched the Blu-ray of Judex and it is maybe the single best looking pre-1920s film I've ever seen on home video (or anywhere). The restoration is stunning. My son loved it, so we started watching Les Vampires, and by comparison it looks awful (Kino Blu-ray). I hope they're working on a restoration of it, too!

Les vampires has already been released by Gaumont, with a newer restoration than the one on the Kino.

[denti alligator]

I watched the Blu-ray of Judex and it is maybe the single best looking pre-1920s film I've ever seen on home video (or anywhere). The restoration is stunning. My son loved it, so we started watching Les Vampires, and by comparison it looks awful (Kino Blu-ray). I hope they're working on a restoration of it, too!

Les vampires has already been released by Gaumont, with a newer restoration than the one on the Kino.

Ahh! Really? Where are the details on this?

Is it in the Feuillade box set? Has anyone posted screen grabs from it? Is the version of Fantomas in that set the same as the Kino or an even newer restoration?

Either way, I may have to splurge on this set, even though it’s expensive for just Les Vampires. Any other must-haves from Gaumont that I might as well throw in the cart if I’m ordering this from Amazon.fr?

[andyli]

Ahh! Really? Where are the details on this?

Is it in the Feuillade box set? Has anyone posted screen grabs from it? Is the version of Fantomas in that set the same as the Kino or an even newer restoration?

Either way, I may have to splurge on this set, even though it’s expensive for just Les Vampires. Any other must-haves from Gaumont that I might as well throw in the cart if I’m ordering this from Amazon.fr?

Yes, it's the Louis Feuillade box set (which I own) I'm talking about. I can't remember seeing any screen grabs posted online. But you can find some detail about the restoration of Les vampires from here.

The box set features both serials in glorious 4K restorations, whereas Kino used an older transfer (with English intertitles) for their Les vampires release and licensed the proper Gaumont restoration for Fantomas.

[denti alligator]

Ahh! Really? Where are the details on this?

Is it in the Feuillade box set? Has anyone posted screen grabs from it? Is the version of Fantomas in that set the same as the Kino or an even newer restoration?

Either way, I may have to splurge on this set, even though it’s expensive for just Les Vampires. Any other must-haves from Gaumont that I might as well throw in the cart if I’m ordering this from Amazon.fr?

Yes, it's the Louis Feuillade box set (which I own) I'm talking about. I can't remember seeing any screen grabs posted online. But you can find some detail about the restoration of Les vampires from here.

The box set features both serials in glorious 4K restorations, whereas Kino used an older transfer (with English intertitles) for their Les vampires release and licensed the proper Gaumont restoration for Fantomas.

So the Kino of Fantomas is the same 4K restoration as in the box set? Just (double) checking.

[andyli]

Yes.

[Aunt Peg]

Gaumont have released some great titles recently with English subtitles:

Aline (Valérie Lemercier) (there is also a special edition which includes a DVD of the film and the soundtrack)
Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions) (Xavier Giannoli)
Les Choses Humaines (The Accusation) (Yvan Attal)
Serre Moi Fort (Hold Me Tight) (Mathieu Amairic) - I don't think this film isn't that good but it has it admirers

[domino harvey]

Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions) (Xavier Giannoli)

This is coming from Music Box in the states, if anyone wants to wait to import

[Fiery Angel]

The last Giannoli movie Music Box distributed only got a DVD release.

[luxta]

Door on the Left as You Leave the Elevator (1988) owned by Gaumont?

[Stefan Andersson]

Interview in French with Gaumont:
https://www.dvdclassik.com/article/entr ... umont-2022
-Gaumont now owns the Roissy Films catalogue (Repas de fauves, Christian-Jaque for example)
-I... comme Icare and Mille milliards de dollars restored, release in June 2022
-Gaumont owns Love at Twenty except the Truffaut segment (MK2)
-Piège pour Cendrillon (Cayatte), from the Japrisot novel, is up for release; a deal with the Japrisot estate has been made
-Christian-Jaque wave upcoming: La Symphonie fantastique, Nathalie, Madame sans-gêne
-Une homme est mort (Deray) will be restored; maybe it will carry both the French and English soundtracks?
-The Judex release carries the original music score
-Le diable probablement, release October 2022

[Calvin]

Thanks for that, the interview is actually quite in-depth and it's fascinating to read the thought that goes into what collection a release goes into and what does and doesn't get restored.

The story behind the recent Franju shorts DVD was interesting; it sounds like the reason they weren't included as extras on a Franju feature was they didn't realise they owned them?!

[tenia]

The story behind the recent Franju shorts DVD was interesting; it sounds like the reason they weren't included as extras on a Franju feature was they didn't realise they owned them?!

It reads to me like they did know they own them, but didn't realise not all of them were out on video. The Cinematheque Franju retrospective generated a look at that, and that's how they found this out. However, they couldn't find a specific way to release them, like as an extra DVD along a main feature, so they had the idea to expand this into a Short Feature special in their budget DVD collection.

[Calvin]

Bresson's The Devil, Probably is coming to Blu-Ray on October 19th

[FrauBlucher]

Lancelot du Lac.... beaver

[therewillbeblus]

Lancelot du Lac.... beaver

After seeing this so many times on the R1 DVD, perhaps any HD transfer would appear stunning, but this really looks terrific

[Michael Kerpan]

The screen captures of the new release look mostly quite dark to me (as opposed to the R2 DVD looks impossibly over bright).

[MichaelB]

I was involved with a twentieth-anniversary 35mm revival back in 1994, and the new Blu-ray (which I’ve had for some time; I bought it when the BFI commissioned my video piece on L’Argent) looks infinitely closer to what I remember. It seems that it’s an intentionally very dark film.

[Calvin]

An interesting interview with Sylvain Perret and Maxime Gruman of Gaumont

[Jonathan S]

Could anyone please confirm - from the actual disc(s) - an English subtitle option on the French Gaumont Blu-rays of Tavernier's Voyages à Travers Le cinéma français, la série (i.e. the 8-part, 3 disc set)? The Amazon listing, other sites and even the rear sleeve state "Anglais" but a customer review claims that "Malgré ce que dit la description du produit, l'audio et les sous-titres sont tous en français." I think it might be a case of Amazon conflating reviews of different products, but I'd like to be sure (I'm aware of the US edition).