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

ADDITION: Radiance Blu-ray (April 2024): Radiance have transferred Jacques Rivette's L'amour fou to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "4K restoration from materials kept at Les Archives du Film and in Éclair-Preservation, under the supervision of Caroline Champetier".

L'amour fou was shot with two different film gauges (theater company sequences in handheld 16 mm, the rest of the film is shot in 35 mm) and the action moves between the two throughout. So the 16mm scenes are extra grainy and, at times, darker, but the overall 1080P is magnificent with consistent textures and sublime contrast. The 4 1/4 hour film (on a lone, unshared, Blu-ray disc) has a supportive bitrate throughout. The restoration looks marvelous in this format.

NOTE: We have added 58 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Radiance use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original French language. L'amour fou no demonstratively aggressive moments - aside from a martial spat of frustration. The score was by Jean-Claude Eloy (The Nun) and some will recognize and excerpt of Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song) performed by Otis Redding. Mostly dialogue-driven the sound is clean and clearly audible in the lossless transfer. Radiance offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

Radiance offers new supplements on an included second Blu-ray disc. In a newly (2024) produced 1.5 hour documentary by Robert Fischer of Fiction Factory, L'amour fou Revisited, Rivette collaborators and experts discuss L'amour fou. With actor Jean-pierre Kalfon; writer and Rivette collaborator Pascal Bonitzer; Rivette biographer Antoine de Baecque and critic/historian Sylvie Pierre; with archival footage of Jacques Rivette. There is also a new 1/2 hour interview with and Audrey Birrien and Caroline Champetier, renowned cinematographer and restoration supervisor discussing the restoration process of L'amour fou. Filmed in Paris in January 2024. The Third Eye is a new 1/4 hour video essay by film critics Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin (Mise en Scène and Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art) that is an analysis and background of L'amour fou, with a focus on the film's dual use of 35 and 16mm cameras. There is a trailer and the package has a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork (see below) and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Jessica Felrice and archival writings by Véronique Manniez-Rivette, an archival interview with Jacques Rivette and images of the director’s notes.

Shared as part of the package are quotes about the film:

“In my opinion—and I think it will be shared by many—this is one of the five or six best films of the New Wave.” - François Truffaut

"L’amour fou is still my favourite film.” - Bulle Ogier

“The work of a rebel, of an artist seeking to smash the codes and clichés of the ‘normal’ productions of the time.” - Jean-Pierre Kalfon

 “L’amour fou, is cinema without formal precedent. As with all great films, it feels like watching the birth of cinema, seeing the first ever film, and also the last.” - André S. Labarthe

“A filmmaker sets up his camera and, above all, watches the actors, with no concern for characters or respect for a preestablished scenario. I'd like to draw inspiration from this. I'd like to grasp the personality of my actors and make cinéma vérité.” - Bernardo Bertolucci

“L'amour Fou speaks to those who are madly in love with cinema. ” Jean De Baroncelli, Le Monde, 1969 “One of Rivette's best films.” Serge Daney, Libération, 1991

Jacques Rivette's L'amour fou is a seminal part of the French New Wave - made two years before his 12+ hour opus Out 1 - also with Bulle Ogier (Celine and Julie Go Boating.) The art-reality relationship in Rivette's L'amour fou comes across organically with the hand-held theater sequences appearing informal, improvised and vérité. This mirrors the marital disintegration - and, no doubt, the shots with mirrors are intentional - sometimes imbuing self reflection, other times spying / distrust. DVDBeaver hosted Order of the Exile - a website about Jacques Rivette and you can read Peter Lloyd's article "Jacques Rivette and L'amour fou", HERE. I am thrilled to have such a pure example of auteur cinema on Radiance Blu-ray - looking gorgeous - recovered from the original celluloid elements damaged by fire. The package includes a feature length documentary, visual essay, interviews, booklet etc. A cinephile must-own.

Gary Tooze