Gaumont French Releases

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tenia
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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#351 Post by tenia » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:35 pm

Lowry_Sam wrote: Hopefully the extras have English subtitles too. Wonder if they will have a Blu-ray only (non-limited) for J'Accuse.
There will be.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#352 Post by Calvin » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:01 pm

How I wish this included Tih-Minh; has anyone seen any comment from Gaumont on the status of that film, and whether or not it's in the pipeline for restoration and release?

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#353 Post by Werewolf by Night » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:29 pm

Tih Minh was restored about a decade ago. No idea why it hasn't seen a physical media release, but Judex and Les Vampires keep getting trotted out on new releases year after year.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#354 Post by perkizitore » Sun Sep 17, 2017 5:40 am

Lowry_Sam wrote:
Just when I thought I'd save money this Xmas....
Hopefully the extras have English subtitles too. Wonder if they will have a Blu-ray only (non-limited) for J'Accuse.
Where did you see any English subtitles listed for the main feature?

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#355 Post by L.A. » Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:27 am

According to Blu-ray.com there is. Also one of the extras:

- un ouvrage inédit de Laurent Véray, "Abel Gance et la Grande Guerre - le Visionnaire contrarié" (en français et en anglais)

It would seem kind of pointless that a supplemental feature is EN-friendly but not the main films. But hey, fingers crossed.
Last edited by L.A. on Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#356 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:45 am

L.A. wrote:According to Blu-ray.com there is. Also one of the extras:

- un ouvrage inédit de Laurent Véray, "Abel Gance et la Grande Guerre - le Visionnaire contrarié" (en français et en anglais)

It would seem kind of pointless that a supplemental feature is EN-friendly but not the main films. But hey, fingers crossed.
I don't know this as gospel but that COULD mean an interview with someone in english, like Brownlow for example, with french subs but not that the french original is subbed in english

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#357 Post by L.A. » Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:49 am

In November we shall see. Also, I understand that La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc should look superb.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#358 Post by Calvin » Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:49 am

Werewolf by Night wrote:Tih Minh was restored about a decade ago. No idea why it hasn't seen a physical media release, but Judex and Les Vampires keep getting trotted out on new releases year after year.
If any kind member of DVDClassik reading this could ask the Gaumont rep over there, it would be much appreciated!

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#359 Post by tenia » Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:46 am

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:
L.A. wrote:According to Blu-ray.com there is. Also one of the extras:

- un ouvrage inédit de Laurent Véray, "Abel Gance et la Grande Guerre - le Visionnaire contrarié" (en français et en anglais)

It would seem kind of pointless that a supplemental feature is EN-friendly but not the main films. But hey, fingers crossed.
I don't know this as gospel but that COULD mean an interview with someone in english, like Brownlow for example, with french subs but not that the french original is subbed in english
This is not just an extra, it's the book and being a book, it won't be subtitled in French.
I'd suppose thus it might rather be a push from Gaumont to do what they did with their Papatakis set, meaning a set which is very English-friendly, down to the written material.

Of course, this doesn't mean all the extras will be, it could even happen that this description is incorrect. But of it is correct, and that the book will be bi-lingual, it would be stupid not to have the whole set being as english-friendly as possible.
L.A. wrote:In November we shall see. Also, I understand that La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc should look superb.
From what I recall, yes it should. But of course, it needs to be properly encoded.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#360 Post by L.A. » Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:40 pm


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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#361 Post by tenia » Tue Sep 26, 2017 4:22 pm

It'll be easier to just post all oct / nov releases as a big recap :

On Oct 11th :
Gaumont Classiques : Je t'attendrai / 14-18 / Viva Maria ! / Le Voleur / My Dinner With André / La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc / Le Rideau rouge / Quand tu liras cette lettre / Le Mystère Picasso / Orfeo
+ Coffret Louis Feuillade - Les Sérials noirs (Fantômas & Les Vampires)
Gaumont découverte : Le Trésor de Cantenac / Je l'ai été 3 fois / Les Hommes ne pensent qu'à ça / On aura tout vu ! / Plein sud

On Nov 29th :
Gaumont Classiques : J'accuse (1938)
+ J'accuse also in a collector boxset (including the 1919 version)
Gaumont découverte : Un nuage entre les dents / L'Horizon / La Drôlesse

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#362 Post by L.A. » Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:08 pm

In 2018 there should be a Jean Vigo collection coming, am I correct?

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#363 Post by tenia » Wed Sep 27, 2017 3:39 am

Jerome Soulet wrote on DVD Classik that it should be expected for Oct 2018. It will contain outtakes, rushes, etc, commented by Bernard Eisenschitz.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#364 Post by L.A. » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:48 pm

According to Amazon.fr the Blu-ray of Jean Delannoy’s La Minute de vérité has English subs. Seriously? :shock:

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#365 Post by tenia » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:53 pm

Except if I missed them, it doesn't.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#366 Post by L.A. » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:54 pm

tenia wrote:Except if I missed them, it doesn't.
Thought so. Thanks.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#367 Post by tenia » Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:03 pm

Some Découverte titles do have Eng subs, though, but true enough, the wave that La minute was in didn't contain many (IIRC, only one).

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#368 Post by Calvin » Sat Mar 03, 2018 7:02 am

Three Ophuls films coming to Blu-Ray: Yoshiwara, From Mayerling to Sarajevo, and There's No Tomorrow.

Sadly, I don't see any mention of English subtitles

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#369 Post by Perkins Cobb » Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:25 pm

L.A. wrote:According to Amazon.fr the Blu-ray of Jean Delannoy’s La Minute de vérité has English subs. Seriously? :shock:
Tenia's post above gave me a scare, but I just checked my copy and the English subs are present as indicated on the packaging.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#370 Post by tenia » Wed Mar 21, 2018 2:33 am

Crap, I'll have to update my review then. Sorry for the mistake.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#371 Post by L.A. » Wed Mar 21, 2018 6:26 am

Perkins Cobb wrote:
L.A. wrote:According to Amazon.fr the Blu-ray of Jean Delannoy’s La Minute de vérité has English subs. Seriously? :shock:
Tenia's post above gave me a scare, but I just checked my copy and the English subs are present as indicated on the packaging.
Yay, thanks for the info!

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#372 Post by tenia » Sat Mar 31, 2018 5:19 am

And indeed, checking back my BD Info scan disc, I forgot to mention in my review that La minute de vérité does have Eng subs. Sorry for the scare... :oops:

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#373 Post by tenia » Sun Apr 01, 2018 4:39 pm

Svet reviewed The Night is My Kingdom and is making the following remark :

"It appears that Gaumont created a very nice remaster for this lovely film, but as it is presented on the Blu-ray its dynamic range is unconvincing. Basically, the gamma levels are off and as a result there are different parts of the film that look uncharacteristically flat. Now, there are certain adjustments that can be done on different equipment to partially restore gamma levels, but the end result isn't always optimal. I don't know if the current gamma settings were introduced when the Blu-ray was encoded or when the restored master was finalized, but as soon as I placed the disc in my player I was able to see the flatness that is noted above. (To get an idea what type of discrepancy can emerge between improper and proper gamma levels, see Gaumont's presentation and Criterion's presentation of the recent restoration of Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows)."

I asked Eclair myself directly about this. They answered me the following :

"The choice of levels, especially black, is an editorial choice not done by Eclair but by the customer on a movie-by-movie basis. This choice is acted in our projection room, where one of our colorist do the grading under the customer's supervision. The colorist brings his experience and culture, in a way that 2 colorists would not always have the same approach for a given movie.
This work is then reported on the video version, where we try to maintain of the original intention to the small screen and its more limited dynamic. A specificity of our chain of work is that our movie colorist supervises the video too, and thus preserves the levels, while video colorists tend to put black levels at 0 by "culture" (often because TV channels could otherwise reject the master).
One remark regarding compression problems : it is true that some discs performed from our restorations have been disrespectfully compressed by other subcontractors. We let the customer know, because in such cases, while we don't control the whole chain of work, the operations performed below can have significant consequences on how our work will look."

What's interesting is that this makes the comparison with Elevator to the Gallows quite moot :
- it means that Criterion willingly modified the restoration to re-adjust the black levels and increase the restoration greyscale dynamic. I don't mind myself, because I prefer blacks at 0 and whites at 255, but it goes what professionnals accept as being the usual 35mm film dynamic in projection. So all considered, it might be perceived as superfluous modifications.
- Elevator has an incorrect encode which most likely isn't coming from the restoration itself but the compression. Eclair does most of Gaumont's encode, and it's doubtful they did the problematic Malle titles' encode (The Lovers also had huge issues).

It also means it's a very conscious choice from Eclair and Gaumont (which can also be found in a few Eclair / Pathé restorations), and not a mistake introduced somewhere along the process.

In a similar case, Criterion's use of Gaumont's restoration for Dreyer's Joan of Arc also is through a re-adjustment of the contrast.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#374 Post by Moshrom » Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:07 pm

Gamma refers to the shape of the entire luminance curve, from black to white. Changing gamma can 'remap' black/white, but it can't bring back detail that has already been lost -- like details in dark areas of the frame that simply don't exist on so many of these French discs. The Criterion Elevator to the Gallows is definitely not a gamma correction. Joan of Arc probably is.

And while I agree that every frame doesn't need blacks at 0 and whites at 255, these problematic restorations go too far the other way. It's like they don't even use a waveform monitor when grading.

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Re: Gaumont French Releases

#375 Post by tenia » Tue Apr 03, 2018 4:54 am

While I agree with the overall feeling that the resulting flatness can be problematic (I myself prefer a more contrasted aspect, even if possibly just by force of habit), I argue two things :
- if these levels are willingly decided at the restoration level by Eclair, I'm unsure if there are any details lost in these darker areas to begin with. There are many restorations with blacks at 0 where these darker areas show no detail there. Having them at, say, 7 instead of 0 won’t change that. That’s what happens with Joan of Arc for instance : Criterion used the Gaumont restoration and just re-adjusted the contrast (or the gamma), but flat black areas were flat grey areas, and won’t show more detail on the Criterion disc. Yet, because it uses the full video range, it won’t be picked up. And indeed, Svet didn’t pick it up and gave the PQ 5/5, but these darker areas won’t have any more shadow details than the Gaumont release.
- Many of the issues visible on the Gaumont release of Elevator to the Gallows are not a result of the lighter gamma / contrast, but of the encode being unable to handle it correctly. Eclair has produced other light-looking restorations, but most of them aren’t encoded as poorly, and the result is thus much less debatable (Les tontons flingueurs, typically). I’d also believe that Criterion hasn’t done things very differently than for Joan of Arc (AR aside, of course), but I don’t have the Criterion to compare, and blu-ray.com caps don’t match, so I’m not sure.

Note that it's also varying from restoration to restoration indeed : Quand tu liras cette lettre has lower blacks (but not at 0), Joan of Arc has them at 11, Le voleur 2, Le plaisir 3, Le dernier des six 4, Un carnet de bal 17, Trois chambres à Manhattan 4. It's thus not a homogeneous result.

The new Tontons flingueurs restoration is all the more an interesting example because it's now lighter than the past restoration (though I haven't wrote down how low the blacks go), but while the older restoration was quite well received, the new one reveals more shadow detail because it seems the older one simply was too contrasted. Blacks were rich, but they were too rich.


Now, I'm not particularly educated on this part of PQ, so can't go deeper in that, but I felt these info would be interesting for people here.

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