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Now recognised as one of French cinema's finest talents courtesy of such modern classics as Irma Vep, Carlos, Summer Hours and Clouds of Sils Maria, Olivier Assayas started out as critic and screenwriter before making his debut feature as director in 1986. The Early Films presents this work, Disorder, and his second feature, Winter s Child, in the UK for the first time.

Disorder concerns a group of friends in a post-punk band. When a robbery at a music store turns fatal, the resulting chaos threatens both their working relationship and their long-held friendships as they leave France to tour London and potentially make their big break.

Released two years later, Winter s Child presents a four-person, two-couple tragedy of passion. Natalia is pregnant, but the child s father, Stéphane, doesn t want to know and abandons her. He meets Sabine, a set designer, and falls in love but she is struggling with her attachment to Bruno, an actor with whom she had a brief fling.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 2K restorations of both films, supervised and approved by Olivier Assayas
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations
Original 2.0 Stereo soundtracks
Optional English subtitles
Interview with writer-director Oliver Assayas
Interview with the cast of Disorder, Ann-Gisel Glass, Lucas Belvaux, Wadeck Stanczak and Rémi Martin
Rectangle deux chansons de Jacno, a 1980 short film by Assayas consisting of two music videos for the French musician Jacno
Laissé inachevé à Tokyo, a 1982 short film by Assayas featuring László Szabó (Made in U.S.A., Ismaël s Ghosts) and Arielle Dombasle (Pauline at the Beach)
Winston Tong en studio, a 1984 documentary short by Assayas on the Tuxedomoon singer-songwriter
Theatrical trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the films by Noel Megahey and Glenn Kenny

Disorder is a pretty good example of the sort of thing Assayas has been doing every couple of films since with Clean and After May in particular being good comparison points.

How come all the interesting extras just disappeared?

I'd be wary (unfortunately) of the accuracy of Arrow's product pages. I've seen some where the extras weren't updated, or were changed when the actual content actually didn't. Might be one of these cases.

tenia wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:53 am

I'd be wary (unfortunately) of the accuracy of Arrow's product pages. I've seen some where the extras weren't updated, or were changed when the actual content actually didn't. Might be one of these cases.

But I can no longer find any evidence of all these short films and music videos anywhere. Their Facebook announcement and their site don't list any of these extras.

Oh ok. If it's updated everywhere, then it might be a more trustworthy change.

Which makes me unbearably sad, as those rare short films made this a no brainer. I might hold-on for this until a sale comes

Stand by for a title change to "Some Early Films by Olivier Assayas"

Updated specs:

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new 2K restorations of both films, supervised and approved by Olivier Assayas

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations

• Original 2.0 Stereo soundtracks

• Optional English subtitles

• Interview with writer-director Oliver Assayas

• Interview with the cast of Disorder, Ann-Gisel Glass, Lucas Belvaux, Wadeck Stanczak and Rémi Martin

• Theatrical trailers

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films by Noel Megahey and Glenn Kenny

Yet Amazon UK still shows the old specs. I'm in if they have the shorts, might wait till it's dirt cheap if it doesn't. Anyone can vouch for their quality? I'm fond of the three Assayas I've seen thus far (Sils Maria, Irma Vep and Something in the Air)

It seems like the release was pulled?

I received my copy yesterday so I suspect a logistics issue.

Chatter I saw on Twitter is that Arrow mistakenly locked this to region A instead of B.

I can confirm my copy doesn't play on my Region B PS3 but does on my Region A Panasonic player.

Can you report the final specs?

Backcover says it has an interview with Assayas, one with the cast of Disorder and the theatrical trailers.

What was the reversible cover art for this? The poster for Winter's Child?

What was the reversible cover art for this? The poster for Winter's Child?

50/50 Top DESORDRE / bottom L'Enfant de L'Hiver.

Has anyone found a good source for an English-friendly Paris s'éveille (1991)?

In the 1994 interview with Assayas on the Criterion Cold Water release, he describes Paris s'éveille as part of an informal trilogy along with the two films on the Early Films disc. Curious why Arrow was unable to include it.

AFAIK there isn't one, and the only copy I've found on backchannels is dubbed into German. The fact that it's never been released on DVD anywhere strongly implies some kind of rights issue.

dwk wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:27 am

Chatter I saw on Twitter is that Arrow mistakenly locked this to region A instead of B.

Was really surprised the disc didn’t play on my player (it did however when I switched to A via remote), not on my PS4 either. Has this been corrected?

Also the absence of those short films is a bummer as well.