Le samouraï from Criterion 11.14.17 (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

• France
• 1967
• 105 minutes
• Color
• 1.85:1
• French
• Spine #306

In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville, Le samouraï is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology.

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Interviews with Rui Nogueira, editor of Melville on Melville, and Ginette Vincendeau, author of Jean-Pierre Melville: An American in Paris
• Archival interviews with Melville and actors Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, and
  Cathy Rosier
• Melville-Delon: D’Honneur et de nuit (2011), a short documentary exploring the friendship between the director and the actor and their iconic collaboration on this film
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Thomson. The Blu-ray also features an appreciation by filmmaker John Woo and excerpts from Melville on Melville.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Very excited about this one and should be available in the November Barnes and Noble sale. Somehow I missed this was coming out until I saw it today.

 

[Lord Dalek]

The French blu-ray apparently left a lot to be desired so I'm preparing for the worst here.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The French blu-ray apparently left a lot to be desired so I'm preparing for the worst here.

Why would you prepare for the worst, this is Criterion we're talking about?

 

[Lord Dalek]

Why would you prepare for the worst, this is Criterion we're talking about?

Yeah but they've been at the mercy of their licencors for French films. Case in Point: Children of Paradise and parts of the Demy box.

 

[bujaki]

Which parts of the Demy box?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The French blu-ray apparently left a lot to be desired so I'm preparing for the worst here.

I know the French blu was supposedly not very good but this does say a "new restoration" so perhaps this is something better than the French disc and a different scan. We can at least wait to see how this looks and give Criterion the benefit of the doubt until we see it with our own eyes.

 

[bujaki]

I know the French blu was supposedly not very good but this does say a "new restoration" so perhaps this is something better than the French disc and a different scan. We can at least wait to see how this looks and give Criterion the benefit of the doubt until we see it with our own eyes.

I'm with you and hoping for the best. Melville deserves the best treatment.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Which parts of the Demy box?

Lola.

 

[bujaki]

Lola.

Thanks. Poor Anouk et al.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, it was pointed out that the Criterion info so far is not touting a new 2K or 4K scan so we are left to wonder what a new "high-definition digital restoration" actually is...does this mean they just fiddled with whatever scan they used for the French disc and I have not seen the French disc...how bad was it?

Not that I'm worried mind you, just curious.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Please continue the discussion from this thread to the one l linked below.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...ion-press-release-le-samouraï-blu-ray.353839/