Anniversary and collectors' editions are a good way to boost DVD sales. But should they have a minimum number of specifically-commissioned extra features?
If you bought a 50th anniversary DVD of a seminal work of cinema, you'd probably hope for a clutch of decent features, ideally more than just one archive interview, one featurette, an introduction by a magazine editor and a short film starring Kris Marshall. Especially if the director was still alive and making films – and was, in fact, Jean-Luc Godard.
But that's exactly what you'll find on the new DVD release of À Bout de Souffle, aka Breathless. Ostensibly a celebration of the film's half-centenary, it's not particularly celebratory. While it contains the same restored print that saw a theatrical run in June, the extras are a bit of a letdown. The Blu-ray release has a larger smattering of features, but it's still less than the film deserves.
If you bought a 50th anniversary DVD of a seminal work of cinema, you'd probably hope for a clutch of decent features, ideally more than just one archive interview, one featurette, an introduction by a magazine editor and a short film starring Kris Marshall. Especially if the director was still alive and making films – and was, in fact, Jean-Luc Godard.
But that's exactly what you'll find on the new DVD release of À Bout de Souffle, aka Breathless. Ostensibly a celebration of the film's half-centenary, it's not particularly celebratory. While it contains the same restored print that saw a theatrical run in June, the extras are a bit of a letdown. The Blu-ray release has a larger smattering of features, but it's still less than the film deserves.
- 9/17/2010
- by Anne Wollenberg
- The Guardian - Film News
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