Johnny Guitar (& Le Samourai)

[adamvbarker]

Johnny Guitar (1954) directed by Nicholas Ray, starring Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden.

I received this today from France; it's made by Editions Montparnasse. It's a very fine western (and I'm not really a great fan of westerns per se). It's tightly plotted and tense right from the start, and the performances are great - especially Crawford who's truly magnetic, and looks great in trousers.

On the back cover they apologise for the poor state of the print, and it did have some scratches etc, and an occassional little buzz around reel changes, but I've seen many much worse looking prints passed off without coment. And the transfer is crisp and the colours look good.

Le Samourai
- also received from france. I haven't watched it yet, but can confirm it does have english subtitles, and is 1.66 anamorphic.

[stefmcd]

How much and where from?

[adamvbarker]

from www.musicbox.fr ; their international shipping is a little expensive, but Le Samourai was hard to find elsewhere.

Le samouraï 23,99 Euro

Johnny Guitar 23,17 Euro

[amsdmj]

Could you tell me more about Le samouraï. Whats the picture quality look like? Is it the only version of the film available in france. I couldn't find it at the place you mentioned but did find it at amazon.fr. Do you have a link to it at musicbox as I would be very interested in getting this title, but it must have subtitles as I can't speak a word of French.

David M Jones

[John Hodson]

Damn - I love this film! I couldn't find it on musicbox either, confusingly, amazon.fr lists two versions (one released in September 2001, the other October 2001), but no scan of the cover, and it's not in stock.

On the other hand dvdshoppingcenter.com (which is said to be inaccurate) says this:

Price : 25.76 € (168.97FF) Film Description
Title : Samourai
Categorie : Suspense / Thriller
Director : Jean-Pierre MELVLLE ;
Starring : Jack LEONARD ; Alain DELON ; Michel BOISROND ; Natalie DELON ; François PERIER ; Cathy ROSIER ;
Production Year : 1967
Running Time of the Movie/DVD : 1h35'
Audio Format : Mono
Video Format : 16/9 compatible 4/3
Audio Language : French ;
Subtitles : None ;
Special Features : Yes

DVD Release Date : 21/11/2001

Stock / Delivery : Not in Stock, we are going to order it for You / Usually shipped within 2 to 21 days

Synopsis and Special Features : WARNING: NO ENGLISH VERSION NOR SUBTITLES.

Confused?

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So many films, so little time...

[adamvbarker]

Oops! It looks like I got the last copy of Le Samouraï from Musicbox - they tend not to leave up the details of disks that they don't have in stock or on order.
The picture of the front cover at dvdshoppingcenter looks exactly the same as the one that I have (which has english subtitles) but the two different copies at Amazon are a bit of a worry - could there be two versions with the same cover, one with and one without subtitles? It's possible.
My copy has "sous-titres anglais" written in a panel on the back and is produced by René Chateau Video (amazon has both versions as produced by TF1; mine doesn't mention TF1 anywhere.)
Unhelpfully, www.dvdfr.com has no listing for any version of the film.
The picture quality looks good, anamorphic 1.66; sound is the original mono; the box claims its all "restauré et remasterisé".

[John Hodson]

Oh well, made do with ordering Bob Le Flambeur from dvdboxoffice instead. Got the Anchor Bay Un Flic last year (excellent), if anyone can turn up an English subtitled version (and yes, I know there's not too much dialogue!) of Le Samourai I, and, I suspect, many others, would appreciate it.

Incidentally Fnac have it listed as Supprimé à la vente, indisponible; my schoolboy French is limited, but isn't that 'removed from sale'?

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So many films, so little time...

[John Hodson]

If anyone's still following this:

famousdvd.com have Le Samourai in stock, and the spec looks a bit tasty:-


- Durée : 1H35
- Langue(audio) : Français
- Sous-titrage : Anglais
- Ce DVD contient :
Les Bandes annonces des films 'Le Deuxième Souffle', 'Le Samouraï' et 'Rocco et ses Freres'.
Une Interview d'Alain DELON de 1963
Un extrait du 1er film d'Alain DELON 'Quand la femme s'en mêle'
Les Filmographies de Jean Pierre MELVILLE et Alain DELON
Les Affiches et des photos inédites du film.

The price isn't bad at 23.32 Euros, but delivery of 15.09 Euros is just a joke compared to the delivery prices of R1 and R4 DVDs. Maybe they do not want to encourage les rosbeufs!

I might still pay it though. I mean, this is one cool fim, n'est pas?

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So many films, so little time...

[SimonInd]

Alapage have it here http://www.alapage.com/mx/?id=104201007565427&donnee_appel=ALAPAGE&tp=F&type=4&VID_NUMERO=482490&devise=&fulltext=&sv=X_L but obviously there's no clue about subtitles...I don't think their shipping is too harsh so it might be worth a punt.

If only Artificial Eye would pull their thumb out of their butt and release it in the UK....

Simon

[John Hodson]

Originally posted by adamvbarker
Le Samourai
- also received from france. I haven't watched it yet, but can confirm it does have english subtitles, and is 1.66 anamorphic.

Have you watched the film yet Adam? What's the transfer like? Is the Alain Delon interview subtitled (unlikely I know)...

The minute I buy it, Anchor Bay will come up the goods in R1 or UK R2! But is the French version is good enough...

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So many films, so little time...

[chesterton]

Originally posted by John Hodson


Have you watched the film yet Adam? What's the transfer like? Is the Alain Delon interview subtitled (unlikely I know)...

The minute I buy it, Anchor Bay will come up the goods in R1 or UK R2! But is the French version is good enough...

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So many films, so little time...

Yeah, let us know. This is one cracking film.

Anchor Bay and Artificial Eye have been mentioned, so who exactly does hold the rights for this movie?

[adamvbarker]

I've only looked at the start, but he picture looks good to me. No serious print damage, crisp enough image. It is a little strange that the first letters on some of the credits creep off the edge of the screen (of my widescreen tv, and even in narrow 4:3 mode). But its only literally half of the first downstroke of a letter "N", and it may be to do with my set-up. It looks a pretty convincing anamorphic 1.66

There are no subtitles on the interview. And strangely, there are no chapter stops on the film. Using the menu on my dvd player I can find one stop at about 45 mins which I assume is a layer change, but that's it.

A couple of problems with the versions linked to at alapage:
1) It looks from the image shown like a different version, and therefore might not be subtitled.
2) It says Article actuellement épuisé which I think means out of print, or more literally "article currently destroyed".
So I don't know where to get hold of the subtitled version now it's gone from musicbox. You can see a small scan of the front cover in my dvdprofiler (link below)

[Joe91]

If anyone is still looking for the English subtitles version of 'Le Samourai', Cinestore have it here (http://www.cinestore.com/html/fiche_produits.php?groupe=1&page=1&id=9597&action=addcaddy&promostate=Public&idadd=3055026&ctladd=) for about £19 delivered. They quote availability as 'within 1 - 2 weeks'.

Incidentally, I checked my Artificial Eye VHS copy, and the framing is exactly as described above, with the left hand edges of some of the credits being slightly cropped.