'La Vie En Rose' Warning about Canadian Release (1 Viewer)

[Mark Kalzer]

I'm surprised to not see this already on this forum...

I rented this on SD-DVD from Rogers Video, was a little miffed when I first saw the Quebecor media logo at the front, (Since when does this conglomerate, famous for the sleazefest tabloid Toronto Sun start releasing foreign film DVDs?!) and then to my horrible dissapointment, started the film to find it was in non-anamorphic widescreen.

As the owner of a 16x9 screen I was forced to attempt the ugly stretch mode, but this of course pushes all the english subtitles off screen and thus rendered useless. This is clearly not the beautiful American anamorphic release getting rave reviews on all the DVD websites.

Quebecor media should be ashamed for this in this day and age of video media. Why even bother to make a 2:35 widescreen copy if it won't fit properly on widescreen displays?

Is this the only release available in Canada and am I forced to spring for the horribly expensive Blu-Ray (Which I cannot yet find available for rent anywhere) or did Rogers just go for the Quebec release?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

This gives me flashbacks to the Seville release of Run Lola Run (one of several reasons I'm almost ready to make the jump to Blu). It was P/S and you had to manually select the German audio track and English subtitles.

I checked Best Buy's website and they list both an SPHE release and a "French" release from Distribution Select. I can only assume this is the Quebecor Media version you viewed.

I suppose you could always check Schlockbuster.

 

[CraigF]

There have also been recent reports of other Canadian labels still doing non-anamprphic WS releases of "current" films. Might be time to resurrect/update that old thread about differences between U.S. and Canada releases...

Seville is one of those "be wary" labels, as well as the other Quebec-based ones (esp. TVA). Too many of them provide substandard transfers of European films, apparently due to transfers being had via some licensing agreement with a large French company (such as Studio Canal), and the Canadian end not wanting to put any $$ into it. Not that AA or Lions Gate (when they were Canadian) were exactly reliable either.

I would hardly blame Quebecor for the TO Sun. It's not like it got any worse after Quebecor bought it. Have you seen the Quebec tabloids? The English-language ones pale in comparison. But I get your point though...

My experience is to pick up the R2 version of "R2 films" that weren't given a decent theatrical run over here (i.e. by a large studio/distributor). Generally they are better releases, though often the extras aren't subtitled/dubbed in English. It is often many years before we get an R1 version that is as good or better. Also, if you wait a tiny bit, they are quite cheap in R2-land, much cheaper than here where they always remain more of a niche.

 

[Michael Reuben]

In this instance, that isn't necessary. As noted by the OP, there is a U.S. R1 release that is anamorphic widescreen and excellent quality.

M.

 

[CraigF]

^ Yes, I just meant in general, for more "obscure" stuff. If Rogers in Canada has a movie title for rental, that almost certainly means there's a decent U.S. R1 release. I buy most of my discs in the U.S. anyway, to get around the potential Canadian label problems, I just got tired of dealing with it