Lola (Jacques Demy)

[pro-bassoonist]

Lola Blu-ray PRE-ORDER



NEWS
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=9449

French label Arte Video has revealed that it is planning to release on Blu-ray acclaimed director Jacques Demy's Lola (1961), starring Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel and Jacques Harden. The preliminary release date set by the label is November 21.

In Jacques Demy's gorgeously shot B&W debut feature film and loving tribute to Max Ophuls, Anouk Aimee (A Man and a Woman) is Lola, a sultry nightclub entertainer. Left by her sailor lover Michel (Jacques Harden, Rene Clemet's Gervaise) on the eve of her pregnancy seven years ago, Lola brings up their son while working as a dancer. She anxiously awaits the return of Michel, who has gone to America to seek his fortune. In his absence, Lola spends time in the company of her childhood friend Roland (Marc Michel, Le Trou), and American sailor Frankie (Alan Scott, Vertigo for a Killer). She is a woman searching for love and would settle down with one of them if her heart did not belong to Michel.

Note: In 2010, Arte Video produced a beautiful Blu-ray release of Jacques Demy's classic The Young Girls of Rochefort, starring Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac, which Blu-ray.com has reviewed here.

Pro-B

[McCrutchy]

Excellent news. It will be great to pick up another of Arte's handsome releases.

[RDA]

Does anyone have this yet? Does it have English subtitles?

[pro-bassoonist]

The DVD release was English-friendly. (Bay of Angels is also English-friendly).

I plan to have a review, but I could not get an early screener, so it will be in early December. Sorry.

Pro-B

[pro-bassoonist]

RDA:

Our disc is in transit somewhere, but it is coming later because it is bundled with Polanski's Tess. As I mentioned above, we will have a full review.

I am attaching the official press sheet from Arte that confirms that the English subs from the DVD have been ported:

http://download.pro.arte.tv/uploads/...-COMPLET-3.pdf


And here's some additional info on the restoration. I assume you are fluent in French (there is some English text as well):

http://www.fondation-groupama-gan.co...OLA_DP_V19.pdf

From Mathieu*:

I have seen Lola many times throughout my life, but I truly discovered it during the color grading
of this restored version.

Like all the films I love, I had never managed to «dissect» it, to focus on the directorial aspects in
an attempt to understand where this incredible charm emanating from Raoul Coutard’s black and
white shots comes from… I’d get caught up in the story every time, and the film would end with
me telling myself that I’d just have to do it next time…

Then I saw the film again, very close up, with the Technicolor team in Los Angeles, going over each
scene to refine the picture settings. It offered a different perspective: under a microscope.
As far as the magic goes, I still can’t understand it! I think I’ll have to give up trying to explain
it, but I did notice the series of (barely perceptible) tracking shots of the lovers in the Passage
Pommeraye, the choice of strong contrasts, due to a lack of means for lighting the interiors, the
amazing DIY of the Eldorado song, and once again, I savoured the unforgettable lines of the lovely
Lola: “Touch it! I washed my hair... It’s like silk!”

It is a moving experience for me to immerse myself again today in Jacques’ first film, which he
wanted to give me before he died, at a time when I have also just had my first experience as a
director...

My role was to contribute to making the film visible in contemporary screening conditions,
without betraying the “colour” of the era.

Many thanks to Séverine and Gilles, and I look forward to the public release!

Mathieu Demy

31 May 2012

Now we will be waiting for Bay of Angels to transition from DVD to Blu-ray. The French release is also English-friendly.



Pro-B

**Please see and support Mathieu's fantastic debut, one of the year's best films

[nitin]

good news on the english subtitles, hopefully they havent gone overboard with DNR on the encode.

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

RDA:

Our disc is in transit somewhere, but it is coming later because it is bundled with Polanski's Tess. As I mentioned above, we will have a full review.

I am attaching the official press sheet from Arte that confirms that the English subs from the DVD have been ported:

http://download.pro.arte.tv/uploads/...-COMPLET-3.pdf


And here's some additional info on the restoration. I assume you are fluent in French (there is some English text as well):

http://www.fondation-groupama-gan.co...OLA_DP_V19.pdf

From Mathieu*:


Now we will be waiting for Bay of Angels to transition from DVD to Blu-ray. The French release is also English-friendly.



Pro-B

**Please see and support Mathieu's fantastic debut, one of the year's best films

still wonder why this Mathieu Demy movie hasn't be released in France ??? (only on DVD - no Blu-Ray)

for "La Baie des Anges", is it a with or do you have an info that this is the next blu-ray planned by Cine Tamaris/Arte ?
I was expecting Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (after all it is already available in Japan on Blu-Ray)..

I've been looking forward for your review of Lola, but a few screenshots have been posted here and if this tends to be accurate captures of the Blu-Ray (and not a TV HD broadcast (which I'm afraid it's not the case - apparently it's the Blu-Ray) it's...well.... not again the attack of the DNR kärcher ???? :

http://criterionforum.org/forum/view...412713#p412713


that's one of my XMas present... to be found under the XMas tree...
hope your review will don't confirm this... if this is the case, well December 21 already happened...
I don't know - if this turns out to be true - what happens in France...
restoration documentation are always talking about potential; looks promising (there's even some short documentary of the restoration even before the blu-ray release- those about Lola can be found on youtube), and I don't know if someone is unleashed with the DNR joystick or sit on it and ruin the blu-ray in its last stage of production, but it's sad...

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

I've been looking forward for your review of Lola, but a few screenshots have been posted here and if this tends to be accurate captures of the Blu-Ray (and not a TV HD broadcast (which I'm afraid it's not the case - apparently it's the Blu-Ray) it's...well.... not again the attack of the DNR kärcher ????

David is a good friend, but at this point I really hope he would stop offering opinions while looking at 720p "captures" from sites that promote illegal downloads.

Get the disc, see the film/presentation, offer an opinion if you wish.

The disc may very well turn out to be disappointing, but the right thing to do is actually have the product in your hands before criticizing someone else's work - because most certainly there are real people behind these restorations, transfers, etc.

Anyway, Rupert, our disc is in transit, and as soon as it arrives I will post our review. I love this film, though a little less than Bay of Angels. Mathieu did the grading, so I hope that it is at least a decent release.

I don't have a date for Bay of Angels yet.

Pro-B

p.s. Do you need region coding info on Americano? I could check my disc and update the profile.

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

David is a good friend, but at this point I really hope he would stop offering opinions while looking at 720p "captures" from sites that promote illegal downloads.

Get the disc, see the film/presentation, offer an opinion if you wish.

The disc may very well turn out to be disappointing, but the right thing to do is actually have the product in your hands before criticizing someone else's work - because most certainly there are real people behind these restorations, transfers, etc.

Anyway, Rupert, our disc is in transit, and as soon as it arrives I will post our review. I love this film, though a little less than Bay of Angels. Mathieu did the grading, so I hope that it is at least a decent release.

I don't have a date for Bay of Angels yet.

Pro-B

p.s. Do you need region coding info on Americano? I could check my disc and update the profile.

yes I've seen that the captures are not Blu-Ray resolution. These are the first captures I've seen from "Lola".
generally I try to find full resolution captures before ordering a blu-ray (especially in France), because recently I've been scalded to say the least. Before, it was much more a matter of excitation to see the first captures than the fear of a "hit or miss Blu-Ray".
If some captures are really frightening (alert DNR!) I prefer to cancel my order (if some blu-ray test reviews, later, tends to temper the picture quality impressions or to invalidate the first captures, then it'll be time to re-order it).
Had this Blu-Ray be not a XMas present, I would have canceled my pre-order.

And your right about the resolution of the capture and I can not judge a blu-ray I haven't seen. That's why I wrote "if it turns out to be true"...
I'm just very worried about these captures and was expecting some feedbacks from people who would already have bought it who could tell me that "no there is still grain, it's not another DNR disaster".

I put my trust on Arte videos. And my love goes to Cine Tamaris.
"Les Demoiselles de Rochefort" has great picture quality and there is absolutely nothing to complain about DNR on this blu-ray. So I was totally confident about "Lola"...
Please undertand my when I saw these first captures
I'm really looking forward for your review now
(so far, no captures have been posted on some Blu-Ray French sites or forums...)
it's kind of funny (well, not so...) that we have to wait for people like you to order from "outside" a blu-ray in France to get a proper review.
I put my trust (and my money (because blu-ray in France are expensive) in a site like blu-ray.com
Fortunately blu-ray.com was there to warn me about a disappointing transfer of "Bande à Part" (gasp)


About Mathieu Demy's blu-ray.... it's listed as region A.
Perhaps you could confirm if this is the case or not ?

[pro-bassoonist]

I most definitely understand, Rupert, and I agree with you.

Unfortunately, I could not get an early screener for this release, and I was a bit sick so fell behind on some reviews. But as I mentioned earlier, we will have a review.

What I wanted to convey to you is that I don't like this recent practice/trend where people 'authoritatively' dismiss someone else's work without having even looked at the disc. It is not right. That's all.

As far as Lola is concerned, all of the info on the restoration is in the press sheet I posted above. It is also in French The work was done in Los Angeles, and Mathieu supervised the grading. His statement indicates that he was happy with what he saw. So, for something to have gone wrong, it must have happened in France. But again, it isn't fair to dismiss someone else's work without having the disc. It isn't fair and it is utterly unprofessional if you are a reviewer. That's all.

I personally was very happy with Arte's Les demoiselles de Rochefort.



As you know well, it is also a CineTamaris project.

We will have to wait and see.

Pro-B

p.s. Americano is tested only for Region-A. B and C are untested. Hold on a minute, please. I will update it now.

p.s. I just tested Americano. It is indeed Region-A "locked".

[RupertPupkin]

some real captures of the Blu-Ray have been just posted on dvdclassik French forum, thanks to Geoffrey Firmin

it's difficult to judge a Blu-Ray just from the captures, but whereas it's obviously HD there's clearly a lack of grain.

[RDA]

Thanks for the info Pro-B! I ordered a copy the other day and I'm really looking forward to seeing this! Just hope the transfer is ok..

[toddly6666]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

it's kind of funny (well, not so...) that we have to wait for people like you to order from "outside" a blu-ray in France to get a proper review.

I wonder about this everyday - a country that loves cinema and has great video releases, but when it comes to finding accurate video information from French websites, it's like France becomes a third-world country. Unless there are some great French websites that we don't know about?

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

I wonder about this everyday - a country that loves cinema and has great video releases, but when it comes to finding accurate video information from French websites, it's like France becomes a third-world country. Unless there are some great French websites that we don't know about?

I live in France, and... to answer to your question..... no
I don't know in .fr and I'm still looking for a place which would focuse on the French Blu-Ray (French movies; or movies which are exclusive in France (you'll find more info in the blu-ray.forum section) releases...

you can check :
http://www.dvdfr.com
dvdclassik French forum has now a capture section with some "real screenshots"

I don't trust that much the reviews on Ecran Large, but they did post some early captures of the last Gaumont "Bande à Part" / "La Chinoise"; but blu-ray.com was faster...

http://www.devildead.com is a great French site when you like SF / horror / fantastic movies... I highly recommend this site. I use to visit it since 10 years or something like that...

Dorian Gray forum is a great place ton find some captures of some various DVD/Blu-Ray to see the difference (cropping, color) between each different releases... (from Argento to Melville's Le Cercle Rouge / Le Samourai, to John Carpenter...)

But if you are looking for a site with captures + review; and which will test a blu-ray when it came out (so you can decide if you will order or not a title), I haven't find such a site in France so far...
And I'm not talking about pre-test (such as dvdbeaver or blu-ray.com) which allow you to cancel your pre-order, I haven't find such site in France.

I'll take 2 examples : when Mk2 releases the Kielowski "3 colors" box set + La Vie de Véronique, the first captures were posted on :
forums.highdefdigest.com
this is there where I was warned about the 1080i encoding.

"Bande à Part" (Gaumont) : first review and first captures on blu-ray.com... (and I looked every day with google on several French web site...)
judging the captures and my tolerance about DNR I was able to cancel my pre-orer (thanks again to blu-ray.com)
Blu-Ray are expensive in many countries, and this is the case in France; so this kind of "alert" (1080i, excessive DNR, disappointing release, etc...) is a good thing to save your money; for a better release...

of course you'll find in France a pre-release review of Prometheus or The Dark Knight Rises...
but when it's French movies; or some more "arty" release such as "Moonrise Kingdome"; it was too late when I bought my French Blu-Ray (StudioCanal) to realize that the US Blu-Ray, altough respecting the 16mm photography, has better bitrate, and more HD details. (I bought the US version, so I've been able to compare both releases - I have a full HD projector - the US version have more details, better "3D" feeling (I mean depth, like in the theatrical release, with the backgrounds, landscapes, etc...)

it's even impossible to trust some site like ecran-large about the 1080p24 encoding. You read it's 1080p24, and it turns out that it is 1080i even if in all other countries it has been released in 1080p24 (Stephen Frears's Tamara Drewe for instance is in 1080i)

[toddly6666]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

you can check :
http://www.dvdfr.com
)

Hey Rupert, dvdfr.com is the only site I check but even their site is slow. I understand that French review sites may not be able to get a French Blu-ray before release date, but I find it a shame that there are no reviews a couple days after French Blu-ray release date. It's very sad that I have to wait weeks to months for a respectable review to pop up here at blu-ray.com or dvdbeaver - the only sites that consistenly reviews the important French movie releases released on French blu-ray.

French Blu-rays aren't that expensive - I really can't believe that there isn't one person in France with a blu-ray review website/blog that isn't reviewing French films released on Blu-ray. Tres bizarre!

[RDA]

Received my copy today and will watch it shortly. There's an Arte catalogue in the release which states that the next Demy film that will be released by Arte will be 'Once Upon A Time' in 2013.

[jdgladw]

Any word on when the review for this one might be going up?

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by jdgladw

Any word on when the review for this one might be going up?

Our review will be up tomorrow, Friday

Pro-B

[RupertPupkin]

I watched it yesterday and was very pleased with the transfer...
Sometimes screenshots (those posted on dvdclassik) which frightened don't translate what the film will look like in motion (after all this is a movie); albeit, of course, you can spot excessive DNR on a screenshot.
I'm glad that I didn't cancel my order.

Well, I didn't need to read to booklet (and/or see the restoration bonus; I did after) to be pleased with the picture quality - I don't like to read how much difficulty they had for the restoration, I like to enjoy the movie first without knowning all these details and well the transfert looks "real" and sometimes great.
In a nutshell, I enjoyed the movie (I already saw it on TV, VHS, DVD, etc...) without thinking what the hell they have done with the picture, etc...
I don't notice excessive DNR (altough there has been "digital manipulation" that's sure, there is a slight grain. (I've been uncomfortable to see the "door" example footage in the restoration bonus; but I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't see this documentary)
It doesn't seem to betray the work of Raoul Coutard. What I've seen is close to my memory and the last vision of the movie : that's just that it looks better; it's high def, there is real depth, so it's really film-like, sometimes some shots are magnificiant (really this particular white and black which I've always associated to this movie)
In a nutshell, I was in a familiar world, Lola's world; but I've never seen this movie with such quality.
The French scope format is excellent; it reminds me the Shoot The Piano Player...

now I understand that Mathieu Demy was pleased with the transfer.
We'll discover in the booklet that the original negative has burnt in 1970.
So it's a bit of miracle here. Would have the blu-ray more HD details if the original was still there? I don't know...
So it won't be a 4.5/5 or 5/5 like on Les Demoiselles de Rochefort; but certainly not a 1/5...
Really I was afraid of a Gaumont syndrome, but here I'm very pleased....

What I don't understand is why Raoul Coutard (which is said to have been here for the first step of the restoration process) wasn't there for the digital restoration at Technicolor, L.A.
Perhaps he is very ill ?
I don't understand, because - IMHO - he was behind the camera.
When you see his recent interview footage about his memory about "Week end", he says that he didn't see the movie since its theatrical release (1967) but he remembers everything.

oh, and in the blu-ray there is a Arte/Ciné Tamaris catalog and it seems that "Donkey Skin"/Peau d'Âne will be the next 2013 Blu-Ray title...
another delicious Catherine Deneuve on Blu-Ray (altough that's Les Parapluies that I'm waiting for...)

well, I'm waiting for your review; and please a lot of screenshots of Lola

[pro-bassoonist]

Hello Rupert,

Merry Christmas to you and your entire family.

I was not active for 4 days as I fell very sick (flu complications). I am getting back to normal now but everything will be moving slower for some days, perhaps another week. I will respond to your PMs tomorrow.

The review is also coming up.

Merry Christmas to everyone in France.

Pro-B