Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh To Master Stroke Its Way Into A Masters Of Cinema Release

UK Release Date:
23rd September 2013
Distributor:
Eureka Entertainment
Buy/Pre-Order:
2-Disc DVD or Blu-ray
Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing VAN GOGH, considered by some to be the greatest film by Maurice Pialat, the legendary French filmmaker, seven of whose previous films have been given Masters of Cinema editions (including L'Enfance-nue and A nos amours). Van Gogh, the epic and powerful bio-pic of the final weeks in the life of Vincent van Gogh, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 23 September 2013.

One of the greatest films by one of the finest directors of the second half of the 20th century, Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh represents an ambitious and crowning achievement in its portrayal of the master painter's final weeks of life, almost exactly one-hundred years earlier.

Van Gogh, depicted by the remarkable actor/songwriter-singer Jacques Dutronc (Godard's Sauve qui peut (la vie)), has arrived at Auvers-sur-Oise to come under the care of Dr. Gachet (Gérard Séty) for his nervous agitation. Soon after the arrival of Vincent's brother Théo (Bernard Le Coq) and his wife, plein air portraiture and conviviality give way to the more crepuscular moods of brothels and cabarets, and the painter's anguished existence, tossing between money worries and an impassioned relationship with the doctor's teenage daughter, finally meets its terminal scene.

With its loosely factual and wholly inspired treatment of the last period of Van Gogh's life, Pialat's film applies an impressionist touch to the biographical picture — indeed, the filmmaker was himself an accomplished painter, and the personal resonance of the subject matter results in an epic, major late work. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, and also in a special two-disc DVD edition.

Check out The Van Gogh trailer...


SPECIAL BLU-RAY AND ‘TWO-DISC DVD’ EDITIONS:

• Gorgeous new restoration of the film, appearing in 1080p on the Blu-ray
• New and improved optional English subtitles
• Van Gogh (1965) — a short, early documentary about the painter, by Maurice Pialat
• A 10-minute video interview with Pialat from 1991
• A 50-minute video interview with Pialat from 1992
• Video interviews with actors Jacques Dutronc and Bernard Le Coq; director of photography Emmanuel Machuel; and editor Yann Dedet
• Deleted scenes
• Original theatrical trailer
• 56-PAGE BOOKLET containing a new and exclusive essay by critic Sabrina Marques; Jean-Luc Godard's letter to Pialat after seeing the film, followed by Godard's tribute to Pialat upon the director's passing in 2003; copious newly translated interviews with Maurice Pialat; images of Pialat's canvasses; rare imagery; and more!

Here's some quotes about Van Gogh...

"Pialat is one of the finest living French filmmakers, and Van Gogh, his tenth feature, is arguably one of his best." –Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader in 1993

"An extraordinary film....We flatter ourselves that if we were around in 1890, we would have recognized Van Gogh's genius and changed his fate. But we probably wouldn't have – just as we probably don't recognize the Van Goghs among us now. In this sad, brilliant film, Pialat gives us a terrible inkling of why." –Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times

We will be hoping to review this closer to the release, so stay tuned. Van Gogh will be released in UK&Ireland on 23rd September on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Floating Weeds Blu-Ray Review (Masters Of Cinema)

Floating Weeds was one of the now legendary Japanese director Yasujitõ Ozu’s last films and one of his only handful of colours films. It is also a remake of an earlier silent film he made called A Story of Floating Weeds.

The film is set during a very hot summer in the coastal town the Inland Sea. A travelling theatre group visits the town for a series of performances. Komajuro (Ganjirō Nakamura) the theatre leader visits an old mistress Oyoshi who he had a son Kiyoshi with but his son doesn’t know who his father is. Sumiko who is Komajuro’s current mistress learns of his and becomes jealous. Sumiko plays a visit to Oyoshi’s eatery but Komajuro chases her away before she can reveal anything and breaks up with her in the rain. Sumiko to get back at Komajuro decides to have a young actress Kayo to seduce Komajuro’s son and more drama happens.

Ozu’s films in the last few decades has been reissued and reevaluated a lot and cited by many directors such as Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch as influence. In the latest Sight & Sound poll his earlier film Tokyo Story was voted the 3rd greatest film made after the standard classics Citizen Kane and Vertigo and it topped the director’s poll. Ozu will be very hard going for a lot of people, the films are very slow paced and his camera literally never moves, the stories are very simple domestic tales of then contemporary Japan.

However his films always very human and always powerful and beautiful in its simplicity and Floating Weeds is no exception. Floating Weeds is probably as “flashy” as Ozu ever got, the use of colour really adds a nice layer to his films with its beautiful composition and his choice of colours. The acting is always impeccably naturalistic at it’s best. Ozu should be studied by anyone interested in film and how great minimalist cinema can be, file next to Robert Bresson.

Floating Weeds has been restored by the always wonderful Masters of Cinema imprint of Eureka Entertainment, like the other recent entry Gate of Hell, it doesn’t feature any bonus features bar a trailer but includes 36 page booklet with a essay, rare photos and entries from Ozu’s personal diary.

Ian Schultz

★★★★1/2

Rating: PG
Release Date: 3rd December  2012 (UK)
Directed By: Yasujirô Ozu
Cast:  Ganjirô Nakamura, Machiko Kyô , Haruko Sugimura
Buy :FLOATING WEEDS [UKIGUSA](Masters of Cinema) (DVD & BLU-RAY DUAL FORMAT) [1959]