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 S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

( aka "Bad Girls" or "The Does" or "The Girlfriends")

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/direct-chair/chabrol.htm
France 1968

"While the beauty and terrific acting of Sassard and Audran make this film seem to be about sexual roles, sexual ambiguity and personal and sexual identity, at its core, this is about a girl who is or becomes unbalanced, and once she comes unhinged, becomes a violent character from a Fritz Lang noir. The penultimate scene is transfixing, but the entire film is beautifully shot, tautly edited and exceptionally stylish and intelligent without calling attention to itself. As usual, Chabrol begins with a noir thriller and casual plot and transforms these elements into something else."

 

Posters

 

 

Theatrical Release Date: June 1968, Berlin Film Festival

Reviews                                                                               More Reviews

 

DVD REVIEW: Pathfinder -  Region 1 - NTSC 

All screenshots courtesy of Ashirg. Thanks Gregory!

DVD Box Cover

Click the logo to order from:

Or order the complete Claude Chabrol Collection from Pathfinder including: Ten Days' Wonder, The Unfaithful Wife (La Femme Infidele), Les Biches (Bad Girls), Innocents With Dirty Hands, The Butcher (Le Boucher), This Man Must Die, La Rupture (The Breach), and Nada.

          

Distribution

Pathfinder - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime 1:34:27
Video 1.85:1.00 Letterboxed WideScreen 16X9 Enhanced
Average Bitrate: 5.60 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
 

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:

 

Pathfinder

 

Audio French (Dolby Digital 2.0), English and Spanish DUBS
Subtitles English and none
Features

Release Information:
 Distributor: Pathfinder Home Entertainment

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1

Edition Details

  • Commentary

  • Photo Gallery (42 images)

  • Poor Quality Trailer

DVD Release Date: May 20th, 2003
Keep Case
Chapters: 18

 

Comments I was very impressed with the disc - maybe because my expectations were low. The image is anamorphic, grainy, with little marks here and there (including "cigarette burns" * - see the last capture), but overall pretty clean. Colors are washed out. French sound is very good, much better than English and Spanish dubs. No complaints here (at first, there were rumors that this will be dubbed and pan-n-scanned only). Decent commentary - 2 critics I really know nothing about talk throughout the film. I had a chance to listen most of it and I wasn't too impressed.  They talk about influences (Bergman's Persona and Hitchcock's Vertigo), what's going on on screen, other directors, but really very little information.  I was really looking towards the commentary to find out why it was last role for Jacqueline Sassard (and according to Imdb, she's still alive.) Includes a 42-picture gallery and French trailer in a bad shape (trailer is squeezed into 2.35:1).
Looking forward for the rest of the titles in the Boxset, although my expectation of presentation are still low.     

Gregory Meshman

NOTE: This film is included in the Chabrol Boxset, but also available individually HERE

* NOTE:

What are the little black spots on the film?
These marks are call "cigarette burns" or "cue blips". They tell you when one reel is about to end. The first mark appears seven seconds before the film is about to end and again one second before that reel finishes. In the middle of the film, when on reel is about to end and time to start the next reel going, the projectionist sits and waits for the burns to appear. When they do so, the projectionist has approximately seven seconds to start the next reel going on the second projector without people noticing.

Recommended Reading in French Cinema (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

The Films in My Life
by Francois Truffaut, Leonard Mayhew

French Cinema: A Student's Guide
by Philip Powrie, Keith Reader 		Agnes Varda by Alison Smith Godard on Godard : Critical Writings by Jean-Luc Godard Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 2)
by James Quandt		 The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau French New Wave
by Jean Douchet, Robert Bonnono, Cedric Anger, Robert Bononno 		French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present
by Remi Fournier Lanzoni

Check out more in "The Library"



DVD Menus

 

 

 

 

Screen Captures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
DVD Box Cover

Click the logo to order from:

Or order the complete Claude Chabrol Collection from Pathfinder including: Ten Days' Wonder, The Unfaithful Wife (La Femme Infidele), Les Biches (Bad Girls), Innocents With Dirty Hands, The Butcher (Le Boucher), This Man Must Die, La Rupture (The Breach), and Nada.

          

Distribution

Pathfinder - Region 1 - NTSC

 

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