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(aka "Me" or "Naked Childhood") |
Directed by Maurice Pialat
France 1968
| One of the earth-shaking
feature debuts in the history of cinema, Maurice Pialat’s
L’Enfance-nue [Naked-Childhood] provides a perspective on
growing-up that rejects both sentimentality and modish cynicism. Its
unflinching, but also warmly accommodating, outlook on childhood
attracted François Truffaut to take on the role as co-producer of
Pialat’s film — which, ironically, exists as much as a response to
Truffaut’s own debut
The 400 Blows as that film was to the ‘cinema of childhood’
that came before the New Wave. First-time actor Michel Tarrazon plays the young François, a provincial orphan whose destructive behaviour precipitates his relocation from the home of a long-term foster family to the care of a benevolent elderly couple. In the course of this transition, Pialat’s film presents the turbulence of François’s unmoored existence, and his explosive reactions to the contradictory emotions it engenders. This is the naked portrait of a soul’s — and an entire society’s — dysfunction, before the moment of reconciliation. L’Enfance-nue represents the ideal introduction to the films of Maurice Pialat — an artist whose work resides alongside that of Jean Eustache and Philippe Garrel at the summit of the post-New Wave French cinema. One discovers in his pictures a raw and complicated emotional core which, as in the films of John Cassavetes, reveals upon closer examination a remarkably rigorous visual aesthetic, and a facility of direction which lifts both seasoned actors and debut amateurs to the level of greatness. Coupled here with Pialat’s poetic and brilliant early short L’Amour existe [Love Exists, 1960], L’Enfance-nue is the first masterpiece of an artist whose work has had an incalculable influence on contemporary directors as diverse as Bruno Dumont, Olivier Assayas, Michael Haneke, and the Dardenne brothers, among others — and whose 2003 passing led Gilles Jacob, president of the Festival de Cannes, to declare: “Pialat is dead and we are all orphaned. French cinema is orphaned.” The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Maurice Pialat’s 1968 debut feature film — and Prix Jean Vigo winner — in a magnificent restored transfer for the first time on home video in the UK. |
P
oster
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Theatrical Release: April 4th, 1968
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
DVD Review: Eureka (Masters of Cinema - 2-disc) - Region 0 - PAL
| DVD Box Cover |
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| Distribution |
Eureka (Masters of Cinema) - Spine # 72 Region 0 - PAL |
| Runtime | 1:19:36 |
| Video |
1.66:1
Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.84 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s |
| Audio | Mono Dolby Digital French |
| Subtitles | English, None |
| Features |
Release Information: Studio: Eureka (Masters of Cinema) Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details: 2nd disc (dual-layered)
• Interview with Maurice Pialat, from the programme Champ contre-champ
Set comes with a 40-page booklet containing a new essay by critic and
filmmaker Kent Jones, and newly translated interviews with Maurice Pialat Chapters 16 |
| Comments | NOTE:
DVDBeaver's UK
correspondent for MoC, Henry Kedger, is continuing his reviewing and we
are appreciative. He has sent us some captures and comments
below for Spine # 72 L'Enfance. Gary Tooze *** Firstly, thank to Masters of Cinema for their screener and Gary for allowing me to review it here at DVDBeaver. I am quite honored. This is another two disc offering with the first disc containing Maurice Pialat's debut feature. I found it truly a revelation, like the bastard, adopted, step-child of Truffaut's The 400 Blows (Truffaut actually co-produced L'anfance nue) and Loach's KES, it's hands down the most riveting new find I've come across in years. This is in part down to an incredible central performance by the young Michel Tarrazon, and the piercing, fully-formed directorial style of Maurice Pialat.
MoC have utilised the HD restoration from the French release, in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, anamorphically encoded for DVD (and progressive - I saw no 'combing' anomalies) with MoC's usual care taken with the new English subtitles -- I didn't spot one error although my fluency is somewhat dated being only tested through French cinema these past many years. The image quality is quite pristine. There appears little expense spared on this lavish 2-disc set, with a short (20 minute) Pialat film from 1960 (L'AMOUR EXISTE), an interview with co-screenwriter Arlette Langmann and Pialat- collaborator Patrick Grandperret; a fascinating 2005 catch-up interview with Michel Tarrazon, four decades later; a sublime 50- minute documentary shot during the course of the film's production; original French trailer (and six other wonderful Pialat trailers); and my favourite extra, a 32 minute 1973 television interview with Pialat where we perhaps come closest to understanding Pialat's approach to his work. The 40-page booklet, which I received as a finished lo-res pdf (with my pressed dual-layered 'checkdiscs') is a typical MoC booklet (ie. it adds to the fine range of on-disc supplements (avoiding repetition), and contains incredibly rare interviews alongside newly commissioned work, in this instance a new Kent Jones essay where he suggests that L'ENFANCE-NUE "should be counted as one of the greatest debuts in cinema, on par with CITIZEN KANE, BREATHLESS, BADLANDS, or THE 400 BLOWS." -- I would agree. It's a terrific film, and I'm incredibly grateful to MoC for continuously concentrating on this kind of important and rich work. Fully recommended! Henry Kedger |
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| DVD Box Cover |
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| Distribution |
Eureka (Masters of Cinema) - Spine # 72 Region 0 - PAL |
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Gary Tooze 1775 Rowntree Court Mississauga, Ontario, L4W 4V3 CANADA |
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