In 1999, the Franco-German TV channel Arte devoted a night of programming to the writer Georges Perec, who died in 1982. The centrepiece of that evening was a new restoration of the cult film Un homme qui dort, a study in alienation, adapted by Perec and his friend Bernard Queysanne from Perec's book. The restored version is now presented in this 2-DVD set, along with two documentaries on Perec, made by Queysanne for Arte.

I should say first of all that this French edition is only partially English-friendly. While the film has no dialogue at all (the central character never utters a word) a female voice on the soundtrack addresses us throughout, reading excerpts from Perec's novel. The silky French voice is that of actress Ludmila Mikaël. Three other soundtracks are offered: English (Shelley Duvall), German (Andrea Kopsch) and Spanish (uncredited). There are no subtitles on the film or on any of the extras, so if you don't understand French your only option is to switch to one of the other tracks. Though I have no strong preference between Mikaël and Duvall's readings, the English track does unfortunately have a significant hiss that is not present on the other three.

The black-and-white image quality of this DVD transfer is excellent, with slight film grain and attractive contrast levels throughout (except at those moments when the contrast is deliberately over-boosted to reflect the character's mental state). A close inspection reveals a small amount of compression artifacting, though not enough to become a distraction.

The two documentaries on the bonus disc are about Perec rather than the film. The longer is a profile of the writer through interviews with his friends and colleagues; the other is about the problems of translating his books. These are interesting inclusions, particularly for the archive clips of Perec in TV interviews; but, as already mentioned, these are in French with no subtitles. A 52-page booklet (also in French) includes the full text of the film voiceover, along with production stills and contributions from Queysanne, Perec and Georges Franju.

Overall, a welcome and carefully assembled presentation of an extraordinary film, a work that I found highly reminiscent of Resnais, both stylistically (the slow tracking shots through the streets of Paris evoke Marienbad) and in its themes (Perec, like Resnais, is fascinated by time). The only significant and regrettable omission from this package is the absence of subtitles.