The Sorrow and the Pity

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Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

The Sorrow and the Pity

#1 Post by Ribs » Mon Mar 20, 2017 12:05 pm

Image

Marcel Ophuls’ four-and-a-half hour portrait of the French town of Clermont-Ferrand under German occupation from 1940-44 is one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as important as Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah in its value not just as a film but as an essential historical record in its own right – not least since its interviewees are all long dead.

Describing the fall of France and the rise of the Resistance, with the aid of newly-shot interviews and eye-opening archive footage including newsreels and propaganda films, Ophuls painstakingly crafts a complex, nuanced picture of what really happened in France over this period. He also demolishes numerous self-serving national myths to such an extent that, although he made the film for French television, they wouldn’t show it for over a decade.

But, as he demonstrates again and again, the overwhelming majority of French citizens during this period weren’t heroes, villains or cowards, but simply ordinary people trying to make the best of an impossible situation. And it’s Ophuls’ portrayal of these people, their hopes, their fears and their appalling moral quandaries, that remains unmatched in film history.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation, from materials supplied by Gaumont
  • Original French mono audio (uncompressed LPCM on the Blu-ray)
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Interview with director Marcel Ophuls, filmed in 2004
  • Le Nouveau Vendredi: The Sorrow and the Pity, a 55-minute debate that followed the film’s belated 1981 French television premiere, in which Ophuls and historians Henri Amouroux and Alain Guérin discuss the film and the issues that it raises with an audience of students from Clermont-Ferrand
  • Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Booklet featuring writing on the film by Pauline Kael and Jean-Pierre Melville, plus extensive historical context.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#2 Post by knives » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:05 pm

No Woody Allen appreciation? [j/k]

Love the cover.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#3 Post by TMDaines » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:30 pm

Always watched to watch this. Will definitely buy.

isakorg2
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 11:43 am

Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#4 Post by isakorg2 » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:41 pm

I've been waiting for this one for a while. Does anyone happen to know in what particular limbo Ophuls' The Memory of Justice currently resides?

ethel
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:47 am

Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#5 Post by ethel » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:56 am

Aspect ratio? For a television film made of wartime footage and 1960s interviews, I never understood why the only available previous DVDs and even VHS were all in 16:9. Four and a half hours of wrongly framed archive footage was its own special torture.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#6 Post by MichaelB » Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:12 am

Gaumont's HD master is 1.66:1, which I suspect reflects how it was intended to be shown theatrically.

I can't think of any other reason for that particular framing, as you still get black bars at the sides, so there clearly isn't a screen-filling motivation.

stewartjallan
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:16 am

Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#7 Post by stewartjallan » Tue Mar 21, 2017 9:25 am

isakorg2 wrote:I've been waiting for this one for a while. Does anyone happen to know in what particular limbo Ophuls' The Memory of Justice currently resides?
I'm not sure on its physical release but I just saw this article last week http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/arti ... 4-20170315

I'm pretty excited to finally be able to see it.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#8 Post by MichaelB » Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:58 am

MichaelB wrote:Gaumont's HD master is 1.66:1, which I suspect reflects how it was intended to be shown theatrically.

I can't think of any other reason for that particular framing, as you still get black bars at the sides, so there clearly isn't a screen-filling motivation.
Further to the above, I can now confirm, having experimentally overlaid the old UK DVD image on top of the new Gaumont master and zoomed and shifted to match, that Arrow’s Blu-ray will offer a sliver of extra info at the top but a surprisingly substantial amount of extra picture at the sides and bottom - more than I’d have expected simply from a 16:9-to-1.66:1 reframing.

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tenia
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Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#9 Post by tenia » Wed May 24, 2017 8:07 am

Cover change :

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M Sanderson
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 3:43 am

Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#10 Post by M Sanderson » Sat Jun 03, 2017 3:51 pm

Did people complain against the prominent swastika, even though the subject of the documentary is Nazi occupation, leading the a cover change?

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triodelover
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:11 pm
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Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#11 Post by triodelover » Sat Jun 03, 2017 4:37 pm

M Sanderson wrote:Did people complain against the prominent swastika, even though the subject of the documentary is Nazi occupation, leading the a cover change?
The new cover is the Gallic rooster triumphant perched on the swastika. The old cover with the tricoleur draped over the swastika likely was thought to look more defeatist.

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Thornycroft
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 11:23 pm

Re: The Sorrow and the Pity

#12 Post by Thornycroft » Wed Jul 12, 2017 9:22 pm


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