NOTE: (response): "You are right to say it is not a different cut, or at least one with extra (or less) material … However it is different, and not just at the start... The 12 intertitles that introduce each chapter/tableaux in Nana’s life, are also in English, and the intertitles of PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC are also different. These were scanned from the original 35mm duplicating negative of the British theatrical version held by the BFI National Archive (as is explained in the ‘About the Presentation’, part of the accompanying booklet). We thought it was worthwhile including this alternative presentation, as it is how British Audiences would have originally seen the film. We compared the two versions, and found no other differences, so we just scanned these parts.

Furthermore, to address your question as to why we didn’t use seamless branching… When you seamlessly branch stuff, the bitrate has to match around the splice points. Since the splice points are all white text on black cards, we were going from something like 1mbps up to 30mbps. The solution was to elongate the sections, rather than splice on black, make the cut point 10 seconds or so earlier… The trouble is, this film has a ton of very long shots without cuts. In the end, we were replicating so much footage that it made more sense just to fully encode the film twice… With two encodes we maintain a bit-rate of 28mbps-30mbs for each version, thanks to the space on a BD5, so there is absolutely no discernible loss."

Even the differences have some parity with the same, excellent, audio commentary by Adrian Martin but BFI add a lot more starting with a brief audio introduction from 1980 (offered on both versions) by Leslie Hardcastle at the National Film Theatre, a 36-minute, long unseen archival interview filmed by the University of London Audio Visual Centre of Anna Karina in conversation with Alistair Whyte from 1973 and three short films by Jean-Luc Godard: Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick aka Charlotte et Veronique (1957, 20:28 in 1080P); Une Histoire d'eau (1958, 12:15 in 1080P); Charlotte et son jules (1958, 13:13 in 1080P) plus a trailer (2:21 in 1080P). The package has a 22-page fully illustrated booklet with new essays and full film credits. It's a wonderful release - region "b"-locked fans should indulge and even those with region freedom in 'A' should consider for the supplements and, maybe, the British version if I can ascertain some significant differences.

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Compared to the, decade old, Fox/Lorber DVD the Criterion image is lighter and hence shows more detail in the background of many scenes. It loses the significant chroma, but I did not some faint instances - or my eyes where playing tricks. Long and short of it this is a fabulous improvement - even more so in motion than the static screen captures sample comparisons will indicate. Detail and grain visibility appear to be two of the most notable beneficiaries of the move to 1080P. The damage/speckles are greatly limited. The bitrate of the progressive, dual-layered Blu-ray is just under 6X that of the single-layered DVD - and depending on the system it will show vast to dramatic improvement in the visuals.

Criterion remain faithful to the original French mono with a lossless linear PCM track at a modest 1152 kbps. It was taken from the optical tracks and cleaned - it sounds very good - certainly better than I have ever heard before although, expectantly, there is nothing dynamic about it. Like all the composer's music, Michel Legrand's score is emotionally penetrating and is wonderful to hear in this 'perfect' format. As usual, there are expertly rendered, optional, English subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it is being Region 'A'-locked.

Criterion have done the title up right with extensive extras including the 2001 audio commentary from scholar Adrian Martin. Like all his work, this covers extensive ground in a professional and expert manner with his Aussie accent - in short, a perfect and knowledgeable adjunct to the viewing for cinephiles and novices alike. Next come a 45-minute, 2004, video interview with film scholar Jean Narboni, conducted by historian Noël Simsolo - in French with English subtitles followed by a neat 11-minute interview from April 1962 with actress Anna Karina from the French Television show Cinepanorama. This takes place a few months prior to the releases of Vivre sa vie which would announce the actress to world cinema notoriety. Then we get some excerpts from a 1961 French television exposé on prostitution entitled Faire face (21:48) and an illustrated essay on La prostitution (1959) with the former having those in the justice system commenting on the practice - and the latter book serving as an inspiration for Godard to make the film. There is also an impressive Stills gallery and director Jean-Luc Godard’s original theatrical trailer. Criterion have included a 2-page liner notes booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson, interviews with Godard, a reprint by critic Jean Collet on the film’s soundtrack, and Godard’s original scenario.

I LOVED re-watching this film after so many years - I truly believe it to be my favorite Godard and this Blu-ray gets our highest endorsement. Purchase with extreme confidence!

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