Artificial Eye's Agnès Varda Collection, Volume 2

Artificial Eye in the UK has already announced volume 2 of their Agnès Varda Collections. The first set hits stores on 19 October and contains La pointe-courte, Cléo from 5 to 7 [Cléo de 5 à 7], Les glaneurs et la glaneuse [The Gleaners and I] and Le bonheur. The second will include Vagabond [Sans toit ni loi] and The Beaches of Agnès [Les plages d'Agnès], as well as the harder-to-find Jacquot de Nantes, a film inspired by the childhood of her late husband Jacques Demy, and L'une chante, l'autre pas [One Sings, the Other Doesn't], both available for the first time on DVD with English subtitles. Here's hoping Volume 3 contains the works Varda did with Jane Birkin in the 1980s (Jane B. par Agnès V., Kung-fu master!), Les créatures with Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli and Eva Dahlbeck and her exceptionally rare Lions Love, which features Varda along with Viva, Eddie Constantine, Shirley Clarke, Jim Morrison, Peter Bogdanovich, Gerome Ragni and James Rado.

Artificial Eye announced a few other titles for 2010 in addition to the Varda set and Antichrist, which I mentioned before: Peter Strickland's Katalin Varga (22 February), Marco Bechis' Birdwatchers (25 January) and Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank (25 January). The latter brings me to the topic of the ongoing Decade List project, which (conceivably) only has two-and-a-half months left to go. So far, Fish Tank is my favorite official 2009 release, and I plan to write about it soon, which means that all the years from 00-09 are fair game. There are some significant omissions on the list so far, but I'm still open to more suggestions as the year approaches its close. I've already got a number of entries lined up, and a stack of DVDs ready for watching... so don't hesitate to throw a suggestion or seven my way.

And, just so you know, Lars von Trier's Dogville, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady, Andrew Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation, the Dardenne brothers' L'enfant, Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu [Moartea domnului Lăzărescu], Claire Denis' L'intrus [The Intruder], Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, Michael Haneke's Caché, François Ozon's Le temps qui reste [Time to Leave], Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, Bertrand Bonello's Tiresia and Andrei Zvyagintsev's The Return are all on their way.

Online Viewing @ TheAuteurs

If Polanski: Unauthorized wasn't all you'd hoped and dreamed it'd be, you can go ahead and check out the director's first feature film (Polanski, not Damian Chapa, ha!), Knife in the Water [Nóż w wodzie], for free at The Auteurs, courtesy of Criterion's free monthly series on the site. Currently, the focus is on directors' first films. Check out one of my very favorite films, Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher, if you haven't already. The other films in this series: Jane Campion's wonderful Sweetie, Agnès Varda's La pointe-courte, Sam Fuller's I Shot Jesse James and Marco Bellocchio's Fists in the Pocket [I pugni in tasca] (the latter not being one of my favorites by any means, but hey, if you've already seen the other five...)

César Winners 2009

Séraphine appears to have been the big winner at yesterday's César Awards, taking home the Best Picture, Actress, Original Screenplay and Cinematography, as well as for Art Direction (Décors) and Costume Design (Costumes). Séraphine depicts the life of painter Séraphine de Senlis, played by Yolande Moreau. Music Box Films will release the film within the coming months. Both Mesrine, a two-part biopic on gangster Jacques Mesrine, and Le premier jour du reste de ta vie, a family drama starring Jacques Gamblin and Zabou Breitman, went home with two awards apiece. According to the IMDb, Mesrine will be released in the US by a company called Senator, and though Le premier jour du reste de ta vie is without US distribution, the DVD was released on Region 1 in Canada from Séville Pictures on 3 February. Waltz with Bashir took home the Best Foreign Film prize, a category often dominated by American films; previous winners include Little Miss Sunshine, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Lost in Translation, Bowling for Columbine and Mulholland Drive, as well as non-American films The Lives of Others and In the Mood for Love. Agnès Varda was awarded with the César for Best Documentary for Les plages d'Agnès, which will be released by Cinema Guild in the US sometime this year. Like all award shows, the Césars have their strengths and weaknesses. Awarding a director for their first feature film adds a nice touch, even if their choice this year (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) was pretty awful; previous winners in that category have included Persepolis, Quand la mer monte... [When the Sea Rises...], Depuis qu'Otar est parti... [Since Otar Left...], Darwin's Nightmare, No Man's Land and Ressources humaines [Human Resources]. However, the usual gray area arises in their "newcomer" category, of which I couldn't find any set regulations. Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose when this year's winner, Déborah François, has already been nominated in that category twice before (for L'enfant and La tourneuse de pages [The Page Turner])? I've reposted all the nominees below with the winner in bold.

Meilleur film français [Best French Film]

Entre les murs [The Class] - dir. Laurent Cantet
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime [I've Loved You So Long] - dir. Philippe Claudel
Mesrine (Mesrine: L'instinct de mort; Mesrine: L'ennemi public n° 1) - dir. Jean-François Richet
Paris - dir. Cédric Klapisch
Le premier jour du reste de ta vie [The First Day of the Rest of Your Life] - dir. Rémi Bezançon
Séraphine - dir. Martin Provost
Un conte de Noël [A Christmas Tale] - dir. Arnaud Desplechin

Meilleur réalisateur [Best Director]

Rémi Bezançon - Mesrine
Laurent Cantet - Entre les murs
Arnaud Desplechin - Un conte de Noël
Martin Provost - Séraphine
Jean-François Richet - Mesrine

Meilleur acteur [Best Actor]

Vincent Cassel - Mesrine
François-Xavier Demaison - Coluche, l'histoire d'un mec
Guillaume Depardieu - Versailles
Albert Dupontel - Deux jours à tuer
Jacques Gamblin - Le premier jour du reste de ta vie

Meilleure actrice [Best Actress]

Catherine Frot - Le crime est notre affaire
Yolande Moreau - Séraphine
Kristin Scott Thomas - Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
Tilda Swinton - Julia
Sylvia Testud - Sagan

Meilleur acteur dans un second rôle [Supporting Actor]

Benjamin Biolay - Stella
Claude Rich - Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera
Jean-Paul Roussillon - Un conte de Noël
Pierre Vaneck - Deux jours à tuer
Roschdy Zem - La fille de Monaco

Meilleure actrice dans un second rôle [Supporting Actress]

Jeanne Balibar - Sagan
Anne Consigny - Un conte de Noël
Edith Scob - L'heure d'été
Karin Viard - Paris
Elsa Zylberstein - Il y a longtemps que je t'aime

Meilleur premier film [Best First Film]

Home - dir. Ursula Meier
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime - dir. Philippe Claudel
Mascarades - dir. Lyes Salem
Pour elle - dir. Fred Cavayé
Versailles - dir. Pierre Schoeller

Meilleur scénario original [Original Screenplay]

Séraphine - Marc Abdelnour, Martin Provost
Le premier jour du reste de ta vie - Rémi Bezançon
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis [Welcome to the Sticks] - Dany Boon, Alexandre Charlot, Franck Magnier
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime - Philippe Claudel
Un conte de Noël - Arnaud Desplechin, Emmanuel Bourdieu

Meilleur scénario adaptation [Adapted Screenplay]

Deux jours à tuer - Eric Assous, Jérôme Beaujour, Jean Becker, François d'Épenoux
Le crime est notre affaire - François Caviglioli, Pascal Thomas
Entre les murs - François Bégaudeau, Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet
Mesrine - Abdel Raouf Dafri, Jean-François Richet
La belle personne - Christophe Honoré, Gilles Taurand

Meilleure photographie [Best Cinematography]

Séraphine - Laurent Brunet
Mesrine - Robert Gantz
Un conte de Noël - Eric Gautier
Home - Agnès Godard
Faubourg 36 [Paris 36] - Tom Stern

Meilleur film étranger [Best Foreign Film]

Eldorado - dir. Bouli Lanners - Belgium
Gomorra [Gomorrah] - dir. Matteo Garrone - Italy
Into the Wild - dir. Sean Penn - USA
Le silence de Lorna [Lorna's Silence] - dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne - Belgium
There Will Be Blood - dir. Paul Thomas Anderson - USA
Two Lovers - dir. James Gray - USA
Valse avec Bashir [Waltz with Bashir] - dir. Ari Folman - Israel

Meilleur film documentaire [Best Documentary]

Elle s'appelle Sabine [Her Name Is Sabine] - dir. Sandrine Bonnaire
J'irai dormir à Hollywood [Hollywood, I'll Sleep over Tonight] - dir. Antoine de Maximy
Les plages d'Agnès [The Beaches of Agnès] - dir. Agnès Varda
Tabarly - dir. Pierre Marcel
La vie moderne [Modern Life] - dir. Raymond Depardon

Meilleur espoir masculin [Best Male Newcomer]

Ralph Amoussou - Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera
Laurent Capelluto - Un conte de Noël
Marc-André Grondin - Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet - La belle personne
Pio Marmai - Le premier jour du reste de ta vie

Meilleur espoir féminin [Best Female Newcomer]

Marilou Berry - Vilaine
Louise Bourgoin - La fille de Monaco
Anaïs Demoustier - Les grandes personnes
Déborah François - Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Léa Seydoux - La belle personne

Meilleur court métrage [Best Short Film]

Les miettes - dir. Pierre Pinaud
Les paradis perdus - dir. Hélier Cisterne
Skhizein - dir. Jérémy Clapin
Taxi Wala - dir. Lola Frederich
Une leçon particulière - dir. Raphaël Chevènement

MIA List Update

It's officially 2008, and of the surplus of titles I listed for MIA in 2008 on Region 1 disc, only nine have so far been announced. I also noticed that I included the films Mother Joan of the Angels and Amos Gitai's Promised Land on the list even though they had already been released in the US (albeit by lousy studios, Polart and Sisu, respectively). The titles you can cross off the list are as follows:

I Live in Fear - dir. Akira Kurosawa - Eclipse/Criterion
Le bonheur - dir. Agnès Varda - Criterion
She's Gotta Have It - dir. Spike Lee - MGM
Détective - dir. Jean-Luc Godard - Lionsgate
Passion - dir. Godard - Lionsgate
Hélas pour moi - dir. Godard - Lionsgate
Fiorile - dir. the Taviani brothers - Koch Lorber
The Kingdom 2 - dir. Lars von Trier, Morten Arnfred - Koch Lorber
Lost Highway - dir. David Lynch - Universal

If you have a region-free player, a couple other titles have been announced for Region 2, including Alain Resnais' Je t'aime, je t'aime (08/01), Jacques Rivette's L'amour par terre (25/02), Victor Sjostrom's The Phantom Carriage (11/02), and Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth, retitled Naked Youth in the UK (25/02)

Number two - and, now, 3!

I had hoped that Criterion would scratch another title off the MIA list with their January releases, and lo and behold, my wishes were granted. They will be releasing Agnès Varda's Le bonheur, along with La pointe-courte and a box with Cleo from 5 to 7 and Vagabond (in a remastered edition, I believe). I would have included Alf Sjöberg's Miss Julie on the list, had Criterion not released it already in the Janus box-set. The DVD will be available, outside of the box, in January as well. As for the rest of the Criterion discs for January: Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life with Richard Burton and Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey.

UPDATE: Number 3 has been announced as well - Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It, which was long believed to be a Criterion property. Well, looks like MGM will be releasing it in January. Don't worry, I won't be making a separate announcement for each of the DVDs I listed, but 3 already is looking good to me.