4xblu received a half-dozen restocks from France today. Included in the haul were Luis Buñuel’s “Fever Mounts at El Pao,” Orson Welles’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “The Trial,” Jacques Demy’s “3 Seats for the 26th,” Gilles Grangier’s “The Night Affair,” “(The Earrings of) Madame de…” by Max Ophüls, and a celebration of the Lumière brothers entitled “Lumière!”
“Lumière!” contains 114 of the Lumières’ actualities (the name given their brief — typically around a minute long — motion pictures), which were recently remastered in 4k. Although the set is not English friendly [the films are accompanied by unsubtitled French remarks by Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux (which can be turned off) and the collection’s numerous bonus features don’t offer any English subs], the fact is that I did some asking prior to ordering this set and it doesn’t appear that the usual suspects (Kino Lorber, Flicker Alley) are releasing these films in the U.S. Therefore, if you want them as they appear here in your collection (and, in my humble opinion, I can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t — seeing these works, the literal birth of cinema, in such remarkable condition is something that one has to experience) then, at least for the foreseeable future, this set is pretty much the only option.