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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Marseille Trilogy -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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As decades ago, I was involved with a company that had domestic distribution rights to the Pagnol catalog, I probably know more about these films, at least from a technical perspective than most here.

One must consider the time period, and the lack of quality film elements available here in the States, based upon copyright law at the time, as well as the Pagnol family's desire not to incur legal fees to protect their films, based upon underlying literary rights, which they certainly possessed.

Over the decades, as the film ran in this country, at least, there were seemingly no technical upgrades.

The earliest release here, in April of 1933 (Marius) had extremely abbreviated sub-titles, as did the rest of the catalog. On top of that translations tended toward the "family" and child-friendly ethic, while the films, themselves had a wonderful, a natural, almost unedited feeling to them. People spoke, as they might on the streets around them.

My mind always seems to go to the numbers conversations, all of which were sub-tilted, with those titles set against typical checkered table clothes of the era.

What that meant, was that half the letter (remember they were white, with no drop-shadows) were unreadable.

Let's make it even more difficult for not only those early viewers, but even more so for 16mm audiences in the '60s into the '80s.

Everything was produced from dupes, which picked up contrast as if it was being given away free. When we took over the license to the films, the finest surviving elements here were 35mm nitrate dupe negs and tracks, being held be another distributor.

We were never able to acquire them, as that distributor felt that they had been damaged in some way by the films owners.

What we were able to acquire, from the immediately previous distributor, McGraw-Hill, were a few very used 35mm prints, one each on just a few titles, and 16mm dupe negs produced, not from any prime elements, but rather, from those prints, after they had a few runs on them.

That was the state of the art.

We did explain to the owners, that creating new, updated translations, and title bands, and creating new prints, would allow them to copyright and protect any new elements, and they agreed to do so, if all work was performed in France, inclusive of translations (not a problem), and also the production of all new prints (a problem.)

This would have meant that we would have had to foot the bill for new fine grains, new dupes, new titles, and new safety tracks, and then produce all prints in French labs. No problem with French labs, which could be superb, but rather with the costs of shipping, and US Customs.

In the end, nothing occurred, and while we were paying a 50% royalty, other distributors -- remember, the films were public domain here at that time -- were using prints virtually as good as ours, under-cutting our prices a bit, and ultimately making more in the end.

That information is all prologue for my pleasure in being able to tell you, that viewing Criterion's new Marseille Trilogy (Marius, Fanny, and Cesar), is like seeing the films for the first time.

Beautiful grain structure, black, shadow detail, and finally with the first two films in their correct aspect ratio, of 1.19. Crisp, clean audio.

While my personal favorite remains, The Baker's Wife (1938), the early Trilogy remains an extraordinary treat, with it's representation of life in the area at that time, with its wonderful cast of characters.

For those who have never seen these films, your ability now view them restored is more than worth the price of admission, which is currently under $60 on Amazon.

Image - 4.75

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Very Highly Recommended

RAH
 

Angelo Colombus

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Have not see any of his films but have in my collection the excellent My Father's Glory (1990) & My Mother's Castle (1990) which were adapted from Marcel Pagnol's novel. Will take a look at this new release when my local library gets it.
 
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PMF

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Achievements and offerings such as these are exactly why I have yet to purchase John Wick #2.
All jokes aside, I am altogether intrigued and placing this "Blind Buy" trilogy on the front burner.
Thank you RAH for this background and history; and Criterion for the efforts placed upon this release.
After all, isn't this what film preservation is all about?:)
 

moviepas

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I saw these at home on 16mm in the mid-1970s from prints loaned for six months to the Australian Film Institute in Melbourne for free hire to schools(they had to pay delivery costs only) and I enjoyed these films. I already have the laserdisc copies of these films. We also had The Baker's Wife, The Crime of M. Lange and Paradis Perdu(Paradise Lost) and some later films. Perdu is or was on You Tube recently and had been French VHS. Not sure where the Marius Trilogy elements were stored in France but sometime in WW2 the British destroyed an independent film lab down the Seine and said it was an accident. Not sure of what was permanently lost but what we do know is that the original elements of The Rules of the Game(1939) were lost in that bombing.
 
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PMF

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And what is the status of "The Baker's Wife"?
I did a quick check on-line, but couldn't see any indications of it being on BD.
Meanwhile, I'll be purchasing this trilogy on this week's release date.
New territory for me and I am immensely looking forward to it.
 
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mackjay

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Thanks to your efforts, I was able to see these films for the very first time, and in often amazing restoration. Watching the earliest, MARIUS (1931) I was astounded over and over by the image quality. And the subs are terrific too. One of many fascinating things to note while watching is the frankness about sexual and other matters. These are a real treasure.
 
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Just ordered The Bakers Wife. Hoping for the same treatment some day for CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS. Haven't seen it since the 70's but I recall the same slightly bawdy interplay described for Baker's Wife.
 

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