3 Films By Louis Malle [4 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Few directors have portrayed the agonies and epiphanies of growing up as poetically and scandalously as Louis Malle. Laced with autobiographical details, Murmur of the Heart; Lacombe, Lucien; and Au revoir les enfants tell stories of youth, set against the tumult of World War II and postwar France. Controversial, tragic, amusing, and poignant, these three films are not just coming-of-age stories but the director's ongoing response to a world gone wrong, revealing his true nature as rebel. Box set includes a 4th disc of bonus features.

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 4
• Subtitle: Eng
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition Digital transfers
  • New interviews with actor Candice Bergen and biographer Pierre Billard
  • Excerpts from a French TV program featuring the director on the sets of Murmur of the Heart and Lacombe, Lucien
  • Audio interviews with Louis Malle from 1974, 1988, and 1990
  • The Immigrant, Charlie Chaplin's 1917 short comedy, featured in Au Revoir Les Enfants
  • A profile of the provocative character of Joseph from Au Revoir Les Enfants, created by filmmaker Guy Magen, in 2005
  • Original theatrical trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translations
  • Plus: Essays by film critics Michael Sragow, Pauline Kael, and Philip Kemp and historian Francis J. Murphy, as well as a filmography

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 1987 (Louis Malle)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1987 (Louis Malle)
•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 1974 (Louis Malle)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1972 (Louis Malle)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Director - 1988 (Louis Malle)
•     Won Best Picture - 1974 (Louis Malle)
•     Won United Nations Award - 1974 (Louis Malle)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1988

• European Film Academy

•     Won Best Screenplay - 1988 (Louis Malle)

• French Academy of Cinema

•     Won Best Cinematography - 1987 (Renato Berta)
•     Won Best Director - 1987 (Louis Malle)
•     Won Best Editing - 1987 (Emmanuelle Castro)
•     Won Best Original Screenplay - 1987 (Louis Malle)
•     Won Best Picture - 1987 (Louis Malle)
•     Won Best Production Design - 1987 (Willy Holt)
•     Won Best Sound - 1987 (Claude Villand, Bernard Le Roux, Jean-Claude Laureux)

• French Film Critics Circle

•     Won Prix Louis-Delluc - 1987 (Louis Malle)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1974

• Independent Spirit Awards

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1987 (Louis Malle)

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1998

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1974 (Holger Löwenadler)
•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1987
•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1974

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1987

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won Golden Lion - 1987 (Louis Malle)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Charles Chaplin - Immigrant
       Aurore Clement - France
       Edna Purviance - Immigrant
       Benoit Ferreux - Laurent Chevalier
       Albert Austin - A Diner
       Fabien Ferreux - Thomas
       Francois Negret - Joseph
       Peter Fitz - Muller
       Pascal Rivet - Boulanger
       Benoit Henriet - Ciron
       Richard Leboeuf - Sagard
       Xavier Legrand - Babinot
       Arnaud Henriet - Negus/Lafarge
       Ami Flammer - M. Florent

• Director:

  Louis Malle, Charles Chaplin

• Producer:

  Vincent Malle, Claude Nedjar, Louis Malle, Charles Chaplin

• Screenwriter:

  Louis Malle, Patrick Modiano

• Book Author:

  Patrick Modiano

• Cinematographer:

  Ricardo Aronovich, Tonino Delli Colli, Renato Berta, Roland H. "Rollie" Totheroh

• Featured Music:

  Sidney Bechet, Charlie "Bird" Parker

• Composer (Music Score):

  Henri Renaud

• Featured Music:

  Camille Saint-Saëns, Franz Schubert

• Editor:

  Suzanne Baron, Emmanuelle Castro

• Production Designer:

  Jean-Jacques Caziot, Ghislain Uhry, Willy Holt

• Art Director:

  Philippe Turlure, Willy Holt

• Associate Producer:

  Christian Ferry

• Costume Designer:

  Corinne Jorry

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Jean-Claude Laureux, Claude Villand

• Makeup:

  Susan Robertson

• First Assistant Director:

  Ghislain Uhry

• Casting:

  Jeanne Biras

REVIEWS:

• Au Revoir, Les Enfants accepts the weighty challenge of making a Holocaust movie and acquits itself proudly. This was Louis Malle's first French film in a decade, and one gets the sense that it's a story he long felt compelled to bring to the screen. He based Au Revoir, Les Enfants on his own experiences in a Catholic boarding school in World War II and his remembrances of the frequent cowardice, and occasional defiant bravery, of the occupied French. This is not the world of Eastern Europe's constant horrors or England's interminable blitz, but an equally surreal place, where day-to-day life ostensibly continues as normal when the reality is anything but. The film does not explore the violence of the Holocaust directly; rather, it follows the somewhat uneventful lives of two boys who are, above all, just boys. They are children -- wide-eyed, curious, scared, kind, and spiteful -- like children everywhere, except unwitting parties to history's greatest drama. In this respect, the finale -- and in turn, the lasting impact -- of Malle's subtle, measured story is all the more devastating. ~ Matthew Doberman, Rovi
• Louis Malle's drama Lacombe Lucien is one of the most effective films about the capitulation of France to the Nazis during World War II, and one of the most controversial. The film gets its title from the name of its protagonist, Lucien Lacombe (the name is given in reverse order in the title, as it would be in any alphabetical list of names, as a symbol of Lucien's willingness to submit to whatever regime is in power). When World War II breaks out and the Nazis invade France, Lucien first wants to sign up with the Resistance, but no one seems to want him; the Nazis, however, are eager to recruit him, and so Lucien signs up without a second thought. As far as Lucien is concerned, he simply wants to belong; it doesn't matter, really, which side he's on. His father is a prisoner in Germany, so that gives his superiors a hold on him, but none is really necessary; soon he's happily carrying out orders for the Vichy government, until he meets a young girl, France (Aurore Clement), whose father is a well-off Jewish tailor. Suddenly his life becomes more complex than simply the "fun and games" of war, and Lucien is forced to confront his lack of commitment to French society. Louis Malle's film was daring for its time for suggesting that not every member of the French public was a member of the Resistance; that indeed, many were willing accomplices to the Vichy government, and the sting of the film remains to this day. Shot on actual locales whenever possible in lush, saturated color, with a soundtrack by Django Reinhardt from jazz records of the period, Lacombe Lucien succeeds in bringing the viewer back to a time beyond authentic recall and confronting us with a simple question: what choice would we make in Lucien's position? The result is a disquieting, wholly compelling film, from one of the most original filmmakers in French cinema. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, Rovi
• Murmur of the Heart is a film of rare grace and easygoing charm; while its content could seem shocking in the hands of other filmmakers, Louis Malle allows us to see it as a fond remembrance of what it's like to be a 15-year-old boy. Laurent, played with perfectly bemused aplomb by Benoit Ferreux, shoplifts jazz records, indulges in his father's wine and cigars when Dad's not around, masturbates, and almost loses his virginity to a prostitute, but Malle never mines this material for shock value. Instead, Laurent is presented as a typical adolescent adrift between childish impulsiveness and adult appetites and responsibilities. While much has been made of Laurent's incestuous contact with his free-spirited mother Clara (played by Lea Massari with a warm and playful sensuality), Clara never acts much like a mother to begin with; considerably younger than her husband, given to flings with other men, and more conspiratorial than disciplinary when she catches her sons stealing money from her purse, Clara behaves more like a friend and confidante than a parental authority. Clara knows that what's happened between her and Laurent is neither appropriate nor healthy, but she also sees it as an act of affection that need not damage either of them for life. This moment is consistent with the rest of film, which is less about a boy who behaves badly and must be punished than about about a person finding his way through the tricky labyrinths of adulthood; if he makes some mistakes, that's to be expected. The superb music of Charlie Parker and Sidney Bechet provides the perfect cues for the movie's tone. Dozens of films have been made about teenage angst, but Murmur of the Heart has more to say about the fun and mysteries along the way to adulthood. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
• The Little Tramp comes to America in Charles Chaplin's two-reeler Mutual film The Immigrant (1917), an early, astute combination of social satire and straight comedy. Casting a critical eye on Lady Liberty rhetoric about welcoming the huddled masses, Chaplin pointedly contrasts symbols of American freedom with the reality suffered by the Tramp and his fellow poverty-stricken arrivals, as they are roped in like cattle and treated roughly by immigration authorities. At the same time, Chaplin mines humor out of the Tramp's refusal to be brought low, whether he's fishing amid seasick travelers, negotiating the perilously rocking boat, fending off an arrogant waiter, or finding love with Edna Purviance. Chaplin's technical restraint let his mime and sly visual compositions speak for themselves. Chaplin was already a star from his work for Mack Sennett and a seasoned director from his Essanay shorts, but his twelve shorts for Mutual turned him into an international superstar; The Immigrant and Easy Street (1916) presaged the social commentary of such later Chaplin features as The Kid (1921) and The Gold Rush (1925). ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi