les Diaboliques/Wages of Fear

[Dear Mr Echo]

Just been informed that both these Henri Georges Clouzot classics are being released on Monday (21st) - £14.99 each at Play. Little in the way of extras but, for Les Diaboliques at least, more than The Criterion edition.

Anybody know who is releasing them?
EDIT - apparenly it is Optimum.

Any word on picture quality?

Very nice to see that Les Diaboliques is using one of the original French posters as the basis for the cover (I actually prefer the other poster but this is still good).

cheers
Andrew

[wong fei hong]

As long as they are done right (in terms of language/sound/picture), these two films could be my best buys of the year... finally replacing my worn out tv-taped vhs. I knew that holding off on the expensive and feature-free Criterions was a good idea. :D If the pic quality is bad... well, i go crawling back to Criterion, I suppose.

For those who've never seen them, Les Diaboliques is a noirish thriller about conspiracy to murder, which turns into the first - and best - example of the modern horror film. I can't say anymore - the director Clouzot asks the viewer not to give anything away in a text card in the film!

The Wages of Fear is, equally, the fore-runner of the high-concept action flick of the nineties - Armageddon (which I personally think is... okay) is just a dumbed-down, flashed-up remake in so many ways. It's about a group of men, desperate for money, who take a truck convoy with a dangerous cargo over a hellish landscape. It is beyond good.

Clouzot retrospective, anyone?

[Dear Mr Echo]

Les Diaboliques is without doubt one of my favourite films and I've already praised it in the "Genuinely Scary Film" thread. I haven't actually seen Wages of Fear yet so I might take the plunge with this new R2 release. I may also get Les Diaboliques so I can do a comparison with the Criterion edition.

In terms of extras the R2 releases score over the Criterions but they are very scant and ultimately it's going to be down to picture quality for me.

Andrew