Andrzej Zulawski's La note bleue (1991) Coming Soon from Mondo Vision

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

http://www.mondo-vision.com/la-note-bleue.php

Andrzej Zulawski's La Note Bleue can be called an event. This is probably the first time that a director has, in all humility, treated the life of a composer - Chopin in this instance - without sacrificing any of his ambitions as a filmmaker. In others words, not for a single moment does he attempt to appropriate or put to his own use the music he is filming. He directs it, and perhaps illustrates it, but in no way reduces it.

In La Note Bleue the music therefore serves neither as an excuse nor as a foil. It quite simply is. Invisible by nature, and yet terribly present. Mazurka, Nocturne, Funeral March... Notes heard time and again, but which here regain all their strength, ardor, and virtuosity. New notes altogether, it might seem, and yet profoundly melancholy. Paul Claudel declared "the eye can listen." La Note Bleue proves him to be right, whispering to us that the "ear can see.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

Mondo Vision may be in need of a copy writer. Mind you they release a good disc. I suppose that's the important thing.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Mind you they release a good disc. I suppose that's the important thing.

I though l'important c'est d'aimer?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Zing!

I've never seen this one but I've been more than happy with all of the Mondo Vision releases thus far and see no reason not to keep getting them so long as they keep up the quality level. I have to be in the right mood for a Zulawski movie (don't we all?) but if they wind up releasing his entire filmography and I wind up owning it, well, I can definitely think of worse problems to have.

I guess that's a roundabout way of saying I don't know much about this movie but based on my admiration of other Mondo Vision releases and the strength of the other Zulawski movies I have seen I'll get this.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

I have to be in the right mood for a Zulawski movie (don't we all?) but if they wind up releasing his entire filmography and I wind up owning it, well, I can definitely think of worse problems to have.

I guess that's a roundabout way of saying I don't know much about this movie but based on my admiration of other Mondo Vision releases and the strength of the other Zulawski movies I have seen I'll get this.

My memory may be a bit cooked but I could have swore I remember at one point seeing his entire filmography listed as "coming soon" but looking at the future releases page, My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days and Fidelity are nowhere to be found. That's to bad seeing as both are staggeringly good.

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

Will buy Note Bleue for sure, but I'm a little bummed Mondo Vision decided to release this before On the Silver Globe. I guess I shouldn't complain, since if I recall correctly the reason was they were waiting for better, more HD suited, materials for Silver Globe. Only thing I'm worried about is the extremely slow pace at which they're releasing the Zulawski films. Every time I don't see any updates from them for half a year or so I worry the whole project might be cancelled. I'm also really wating for any news whatsoever of Diabel, the one film in Zulawski's filmography I'm most anxiously waiting for a nice edition of, but it seems this might be a few years in the future considering the release pace. Anyway, Zulawski is one of the truly visionary and unique directors in modern cinema, and I will buy everything Mondo releases without any hesitation

EDIT:
I also really agree you have to be in the right mood to watch a Zulawski. They frantic chaos of his style makes the viewing a really challenging and exhausting experience for the audience, in a good way.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Will buy Note Bleue for sure, but I'm a little bummed Mondo Vision decided to release this before On the Silver Globe. I guess I shouldn't complain, since if I recall correctly the reason was they were waiting for better, more HD suited, materials for Silver Globe.

This could also be the reason why My Nights isn't on their upcoming releases list.

EDIT:
I also really agree you have to be in the right mood to watch a Zulawski. They frantic chaos of his style makes the viewing a really challenging and exhausting experience for the audience, in a good way.

Well then my head must be in a strange place because I've felt like watching his films everyday for a while now

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

You sometimes tend to forget that Mondo Vision probably don't make hardly anything on these releases. Considering the lavishness of the sets, with extremely high quality transfers, packaging and extras, and how long the earlier releases have been in print (I don't believe any are OOP still, after many years?), this whole Zulawski project is probably more of an enthusiast endevour than a serious attempt to make money. So the years long waits for new releases aren't that strange to be honest, but very frustrating of course when you're anxious to get the next one. I hope at least Possession sold well.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

You sometimes tend to forget that Mondo Vision probably don't make hardly anything on these releases. Considering the lavishness of the sets, with extremely high quality transfers, packaging and extras, and how long the earlier releases have been in print (I don't believe any are OOP still, after many years?), this whole Zulawski project is probably more of an enthusiast endevour than a serious attempt to make money. So the years long waits for new releases aren't that strange to be honest, but very frustrating of course when you're anxious to get the next one. I hope at least Possession sold well.

No doubt all the Mondo Vision release are passion projects. Lets face it, even though Zulawski's name has become more known over the years thanks in part to these releases and various retrospective's, the fact is his stuff just isn't mass appeal. This just makes MV's efforts all the more admirable. Just the quality of the discs alone give the likes of Criterion a run for their money.

I think the only release of theirs that's currently on the lamb is the digipack of L'amour braque. All the others, even the limited special editions still seem to be fairly easy to find and for reasonable prices as well which is surprising given how stacked they are.

I'd like to hope Possession did well especially considering all the anticipation on various sites like this. I'll be curious to see the numbers for La note bleue once its out seeing as its a fairly low-key title even among some Zulawski fans.

Another thing to remember is Zulawski himself is an active participant in these releases, supervising the transfers and restorations so just getting everything right picture wise is bound to take some extra time. Wasn't color correction one of the things that held Possession back for so long? The blue had to be just the right shade or something. You certainty can't Zulawski for being a perfectionist. I too can find the long waits frustrating but that goes for any company. Ultimately the results speak for themselves and MV's results don't just speak, they shriek just like one of Zulawski's characters.

[enandalusiskhund An Andalusian Dog Find all posts View Profile Close enandalusiskhund]

The Mondo Vision Zulawski project is unprecedented in the home video world in my opinion. An obscure, extremely niche director, badly represented on video, presented with the quality and care befitting high profile directors from prestige labels like Criterion. Or even higher quality I'd say. The physical presentation of the releases is almost unmatched, and the fact that Zulawski himself has been involved right from the start, as well as the general quality of the transfers and encoding, make every release a stellar effort. Even seven years ago, when Mondo released La Femme Publique as their first tiltle, the disc was pushing the limits of what the DVD format is capable of image wise. I've rewatched it in later years on a 60 inch tv set, after becoming spoiled with HD, and it still looks absolutely spectacular. If they indeed release everything they've got the rights for, the whole project will go down as a high point in the history of film on physical media. It is kind of funny though, that the regular digipack releases are going to become the rare collector's items in the future.

[Ignatius Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ignatius]

All the Mondo Vision DVDs look great thanks to the work of David Mackenzie, who really knows how to get the best from the format.

Possession went through a whole range of setbacks. According to Mackenzie it was supposed to be one of the first Mondo Vision releases, but he looked at the existing masters and told the company he didn't think any of them were good enough for a 'special edition' release. Then they received an HD master with an ugly tape glitch in the middle of it. Then it turned out the colour correction on the master was a mess, so Mackenzie had to redo it himself. This post he made on CriterionForum back in 2012 gives a good overview of the problems they had with the look of the master.

I'm looking forward to seeing La note bleue and hoping they can afford to put it out on Blu-Ray, though I'm not sure my bank account can take it. Hopefully Silver Globe will follow shortly after - their release was said to be nearly complete before they put it on hold. I suspect a lack of quality masters is holding back films like Diabel and I doubt MV has the funds to facilitate new scans.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

February 2017!

[Mark C. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark C.]

Looks very nice. Will pre-order this when It goes live.

[Ignatius Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ignatius]

Here's what David M. said about this release over at CriterionForum. I'm glad Mondo Vision is willing to turn down inferior masters in order to release the best possible version. It can't be easy for a small company to spend money preparing extras for a release, only to end up delaying it for 5 years!

This is a personal one for me, because it was a long journey to get it onto BD. Originally, Mondo Vision were supplied with a PAL telecine that was covered in noise reduction (it's been released on DVD in numerous countries). I advised them against releasing it even on DVD and for trying for something better, which was not a popular decision at the time (although Mondo Vision agreed). If we released it, we'd be putting out a watchable but not exactly great version of the film. But by not releasing it at all, we'd be nixing the first ever English-friendly version of the film.

Ultimately, I got the rightsholder to agree to do a new scan under the condition that I'd handle all the restoration and grading work on my own, which they'd also have access to. The only way to get it done really was to give them an offer that was too good to refuse. Fortunately they agreed and we ended up with a gorgeous new scan from the negative to work from.

It took a long time to finish the work because of all my other industry commitments in both BD and the CE industry, but it was in a near-finished state by the end of last year. Andrzej was able to see it before he died, and Andrzej Jaroszewicz was able to point out all the parts I'd graded incorrectly when he visited New York in early 2016 (during the American COSMOS premiere). Quite an experience having a legendary DoP sit in your apartment to check the work. I then did final adjustments to correct the grade to its intended look (I'd graded it too hot, and he explained that the look is supposed to be similar to a Baroque painting).

The release also has what is probably the last video interview with Marie-France Pisier, where she discusses working with Zulawski, among other things. It was shot for the cancelled Mondo Vision DVD version in February 2011, and has been archived ever since. I'm glad this entire thing is finally on its way to people's hands.