...continued from
Criterion Catch-Up 2, Part 6A.
Ah, color, lovely color! Yes, even though 1967's
The Collector is Tale #4, it was made third, meaning
Eric Rohmer went from early black and white, to color, then back to black and white: one more small reason viewing these films in the intended order rather than release order feels right. Anyway, color is especially appropriate for this tale about the power of external beauty. Lazing around on an old chateau by the beach, two chauvinist cads (one in particular) wind up throwing themselves on the rocky shores of a young woman named , with a reputation for being a temptress. The humor is up in this one, and you'll learn a lot about the philosophy of dandyism. Probably more than you're ready for. But it's worth it; this movie is so fun.
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2006 Criterion DVD top; 2020 Criterion BD bottom.
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We've moved onto a new page, so I'll just reiterate, all of these Criterion DVD transfers are letterboxed, which was arguably a good thing on old tube TVs, but it's a welcome improvement to see the new BDs take advantage of their full potential resolution. The previous Tales all started at 1.31:1 on DVD, which was adjusted to 1.37 for their blus. The same is true here except this DVD is 1.32:1. Just casually tossing your eyes down the page, immediately you'll have noticed that the blu-ray's colors are more vivid and the contrast is stronger. This one's a new 2k scan of the original 35mm negative, and the difference is obvious. Not just film grain (although, yes) but lots of fine detail is restored compared to the soft, milky image of the old transfer. All these blu-rays are clear improvements, but it's all the more appreciable with these later ones.
And again, while both discs have the original French mono with
optional English subtitles, the blu-ray bumps it up to an uncompressed
LPCM track.
Also again, we're saving all the short films in these
sets 'till the end, but there are a couple of
Collector-specific extras
on hand, in both the DVD and BD boxed sets. Well, primarily one, a vintage television interview with
Rohmer that runs almost an hour (presumably it originally filled the
entire hour slot with commercials). Anyway, it's great and very direct,
revealing a lot of his history and thinking behind the film. There's also the original theatrical trailer.
Finally (because, again, Moral Tale #6,
Love In the Afternoon, has already been covered
here), we arrive at
Claire's Knee from 1970. The beautiful lakeside property in this film makes
The Collector's
chateau look like a dump. Unfortunately, we've hit the cosmically
ordained "creepy middle-aged guy leches over teenage girls" story in our
saga, but Rohmer handles it as elegantly as anybody could, and it's far
more self aware than most modern attempts. This isn't a
Woody Allen-style
romanticization of line-crossing May/ December relationships - though
it may come off that way at first - but a sincere and critical
exploration of that more unfortunate aspect of human nature. But
admittedly, it comes off more skeevy now than it did in its day.
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| 2006 Criterion DVD top; 2020 Criterion BD bottom. |
Well, we're back to 1.31:1 versus 1.37:1. This DVD has a bit of a red hue, which the blu-ray color corrects, despite having a more natural warm tone. You can see how much richer the colors are in that first set of shots, where the DVD comes off as far more pale. This is another fresh 2k scan of an original 35mm camera negative, and while grain capture is a bit patchy, it's light years beyond the DVD's transfer, which doesn't even hint at it's film grain origins.
As always, both discs provide the original French mono with
optional English subtitles, but the blu-ray kicks it up to LPCM.
For extras, we get the theatrical trailer again. And as with
My Night At Maud's, we get another vintage television clip. This time it's nine minutes with stars
Beatrice Romand (who's gone on to appear in at least five other Rohmer films),
Jean-Claude Brialy and
Lawrence de Monaghan.
We're told Rohmer doesn't appear because he refuses to be filmed as he
is "quite unsociable." It's rather superficial and chatty, with the
actors basically just pressed to give their impressions of Rohmer as a
person. Also, the picture quality's pretty rough. But it's a rare bit of video, so it's nice to have it preserved here.
And so now it's finally time for those shorts, which I guess we
shall tackle chronologically. And I'll just take this moment to remind
you the 1958 short
Veronique and her Dunce,
which is in both Criterion boxes (indeed, all the shorts and extras are
the same across the 2006 and 2020 sets) has already been covered here.
We'll start with
Charlotte and Her Steak, a brief 1951 clip starring
Jean Luc Goddard
as a young man who tries to make one woman jealous by visiting the
titular Charlotte, who does indeed cook and eat a steak. It plays like a
brief chapter in a story otherwise left untold - in an opening screed,
they call it a sketch - but it's a well written scene for what it is.
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| 2006 AE DVD top; 2006 Criterion DVD mid; 2020 Criterion BD bottom. |
Well,
I'll tell you up front: don't expect remasters for any of these
shorts. They're included as extras and treated as such. The just
barely shifts from 1.34 to 1.33 to 1.35, respectively, and that's not
down any difference in the framing, just a very imperceptible pinching
of the image. The blu-ray's an upconvert, so they're all just using the
same master, which has some damage, dirt, scratches, judder and just a
generally old and gruff presentation. The opening credits are literally
crooked. And then there's some modern edge enhancement added to the
mix. All three discs have lossy French mono, but at least the subtitles
are removable.
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| 2006 AE DVD top; 2006 Criterion DVD mid; 2020 Criterion BD bottom. |
Next we have the 1964 short,
Nadja In Paris. She's an
exchange student studying abroad in... some French city, I can't remember
which. It's a sort of a brief, personal travelogue essay as she narrates footage
of her time wandering around, chatting with the locals and visiting the
museum. It doesn't look that much fun to me. The blu-ray is a pinch wider (1.35:1, as opposed to the DVDs' 1.33), but otherwise there's really no notable difference between the transfers. The French audio is mono (obviously), and the English subtitles are removable on all three discs, so that's nice.
Now, these next three shorts aren't in the Artificial Eye set, only the Criterion(s).
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| 2006 Criterion DVD top; 2020 Criterion BD bottom. |
First up is a twenty-minute education film about the philosopher
Blaise Pascal from 1965, appropriately titled
On Pascal.
It's really an episode of a vintage TV show (
En profil dans le texte), where two guests, an
author and a priest, discuss/ debate their feelings on his writings.
The DVD is 1.32:1 and the BD is 1.34. Both discs have lossy audio with removable subtitles. The DVD has a faintly blueish hue, while the BD is more green. Both are interlaced, but one benefit of HD is that the combing is smaller/ subtler, so it's by a very thin margin, but I'd actually call the 2020 release an improvement.
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| 2006 Criterion DVD top; 2020 Criterion BD bottom. |
Next we have the 1966 short
A Modern Coed. This is another documentary piece, not a fictional work, where a female student stars and narrates, a la
Nadja In Paris, but this one spends more time actually at school. It's kind of an early feminist observational piece. The only real difference in terms of the image is a slight pinch in the DVD's AR, which is 1.33:1, that the BD shifts to 1.34. The French audio is lossy mono on both discs, which each have removable English subtitles.
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| 2006 Criterion DVD top; 2020 Criterion BD bottom. |
This leaves us at the last Criterion short, the considerably more modern
The Curve from 1999. It's not really a Rohmer film, written and directed by actress
Edwige Shakti,
who of course also stars. Rohmer is just credited as technical
adviser, but she's clearly taking a lot of inspiration from him. She
plays the model of an art student who meets up with his grandfather to
discuss the curve of her back as a symbol of female beauty and comparing her to various works of art. It plays like a clunky student film, and probably was something along those lines. For Rohmer completists, though, it's a nice little bonus. The film is 1.32 on the DVD and 1.34 on the BD and interlaced on both. It was shot on miniDV, though, so that's likely inherent to the footage. Even though it's a new film, the audio is still mono, and lossy on both discs. As always, the subtitles are removable.
But wait, we have one more short film - this one's only in the Early
Rohmer set, and not the Six Moral Tales boxes. It's an hour+ 1968 TV
documentary called
The Lumiere Brothers, about the early cinematic pioneers. It's basically two sit-down interviews with fellow filmmakers
Jean Renoir and
Henri Langlois with some clips inserted. It's a bit dry, mostly just static shots of these guys in their chairs talking towards the cameras, but a rare and knowledgeable discussion by and about some important film masters. It's framed at 1.31:1, and the film has some flecks, but looks pretty good overall. The audio is mono in Dolby Digital 2.0 with removable subtitles.
Eric Rohmer: The Early Works just has the two DVDs in a clear amary case. But the Criterion boxes are packed. The discs are housed a fold-out digi-pack that's housed in a slipbox. Also inside is a 64-page booklet with a series of essays and a vintage Rohmer interview. And more impressively, a 262-page collection of all of Rohmer's original
Six Moral Tales stories. Criterion's BD box is easily the way to go for all six films and the accompanying shorts. But
Sign Of the Lion is only available on DVD as part of the massive French Potemkine set (briefly discussed
here), so many of us Rohmer fans are still holding onto the AE DVDs, too.
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