NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (February 2023): Criterion have transferred 'Two Films by Marguerite Duras'; India Song (1975) and Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)  to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "New 2K digital restorations". The films are transferred on separate dual-layered Blu-rays and are prefaced with this text screen; "...restored by Technicolor, for Sunshine, with the financial support of CNC Color grading supervised by Bruno Nuytten". Both have max'ed out bitrates but India Song was shot on 16mm in 1.37:1 where Baxter, Vera Baxter was shot on 35mm at 1.66:1. The former can have a deep green bias looking thick, grainy and fairly bold beside the passive colors of Baxter, Vera Baxter. that also exhibits some pleasing, if more subtle, textures.

NOTE: We have added 46 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) in the original French language. India Song is also offered with an, optional, English DUB.  Both films have scores by Argentina-born French composer Carlos D'Alessio (Delicatessen.) In the early 70's, D'Alessio drew the attention of the novelist / director Marguerite Duras, and also became a filmmaker where the two worked together on several projects. The music in India Song was nominated for a César Award for 'Best Music Written for a Film' and the Criterion description of Baxter, Vera Baxter states that his score is "incongruously breezy, endlessly looping score". It all sounds quite authentically flat via the uncompressed transfer. There is not extensive dialogue in the two films. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their two Region 'A' Blu-rays.

The Criterion Blu-rays offer supplements. Shooting India Song - A Story in Four Voices is a 2020 program featuring assistant director Benoit Jacquot, cinematographer Bruno Nuytten, script supervisor Genevieve Dufour, and producer Stephane Tchal Gadjieff who recounting their memories of working with director Marguerite Duras on India Song. It also includes archival interviews with Duras and actor Delphine Seyrig. It runs 3/4 of an hour. Marguerite as She Was (Marguerite, telle qu'en elle-meme) is an intimate hour-long portrait of Marguerite Duras by her friend, editor, and collaborator Dominique Auvray. Released in 2002, the documentary film contains a rich variety of archival materials and examines Duras's childhood in Vietnam, her life in Paris, and her remarkable body of work as a novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Also included is a 4-minute excerpt from the 1977 documentary Portrait of Actress Delphine Seyrig that was shot at the actor's Paris home by Katja Raganelli. In it, Seyrig discusses Marguerite Duras's films La musica and India Song, as well as Duras's filmmaking style. Lastly is a 6-minute 1977 segment from an episode of the French television series Pour /e cinema, where writer-director Marguerite Duras discusses her film Baxter, Vera Baxter, its characters, and the women who inspired it. The package has liner notes with writings by scholar Ivone Margulies.

Marguerite Duras may be known to some for writing the script for Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and her best-selling autobiographical book about her youthful affair with a Chinese-Vietnamese man entitled L'Amant (1984), The Lover, with a 1992 film version produced by Claude Berri and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud - now in 4K UHD! India Song (1975) and Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977) represent unique 'slow moody sensory cinema' - probably not for those anticipating more mainstream narratives. Themes involve boredom, alienation, melancholy in the face of indifferent affairs and bourgeois malaise. The austere cinema of India Song has the beautiful setting of Château Rothschild and there is similarly impressive architecture in Baxter, Vera Baxter. The camera lingers spending time exploring the large empty rooms - haughtily appointed without human spirit. Let's just say that more than the inclusion of Delphine Seyrig makes one think of Last Year in Marienbad. I'm so glad to have seen these two Marguerite Duras films. Another impressive Criterion Blu-ray package that we can easily recommend to the appropriate cinephile audience.

Gary Tooze