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Madame de... Blu-ray
Posted February 21, 2017 04:49 PM by
The British Film Institute will release on Blu-ray director Max Ophüls' film Madame de... (1953), starring Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Debucourt, and Jean Galland. The release will be available for purchase on May 22.
Supplemental features for this upcoming release have not yet been finalized.
Synopsis: When, beset by debt, the titular Countess Louise (Danielle Darrieux) decides to sell a pair of earrings that were a wedding gift from her husband André (Charles Boyer), she unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that will have serious consequences not only for the Parisian couple but for André's mistress and for an Italian Baron (Vittorio De Sica), who purchased the, by then, much-travelled jewellery. Featuring nuanced performances by all three lead actors and directed by celebrated auteur Max Ophüls, this intricately constructed and elegantly designed drama is a searing study of fateful passion wound up in deceits, deals and desires.
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Also on May 22, the British Film Institute will release on Blu-ray Alan Clarke's film Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987), starring Siobhan Finneran, Michelle Holmes, and George Costigan.
Synopsis: Following an acclaimed career in hard-hitting TV drama, director Alan Clarke achieved a cinema hit with his much-loved comedy. Bradford teenagers Rita and Sue regularly babysit for successful couple Bob and Michelle, whose comfortable suburban lifestyle contrasts with their own bleak existence. One evening when Bob is taking them home, he suggests a detour to the moors. Impressed by his flashy car and worldly ways the girls are smooth-talked into a three-way sexual relationship that becomes very much part of their lives. At first it's a bit of a laugh but people are quick to point the finger and the affair is soon out in the open.
The screenplay was adapted from a series of acclaimed plays by Andrea Dunbar, which were based on her own upbringing on Bradford's Buttershaw estate. The contrast of bawdy laughs with astute social comment results in one of the more memorable and enduring British films from the period.
In today's cacophonic ambiance of Blu-ray.com news, this one stands out from the whole lot. Now we are talking about real cinema! Great director, great story, great actors, great cinematography. Madame de... is a masterpiece! I also bought few months ago the Gaumont release. There's nothing to be ashamed of. I always prefer buying French release of a French movie, the whole package is in French including the bonus! For British folks out there though, get your hands on Madame de... from MoC, it's a must!
If its a new transfer, then it's a must buy. But the current French and Criterion discs are horribly flawed with DNR and filtering, so if its just a port of the same bad transfer, then its a huge pass.
I've got the Gaumont release, and it's not bad by any means, and certainly not "horribly flawed", though by all accounts the earlier Criterion transfer is indeed a disaster. With any luck, the BFI will do a new encode of their own, which should reveal the 2012 restoration to be perfectly presentable.
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