Le Plaisir (Blu-Ray)

The French writer Guy de Maupassant has inspired many great filmmakers. Among those to adapt his short stories and novels were Jean-Luc Godard, Kenji Mizoguchi, Walerian Borowczyk, Harry Kümel, Luis Buñuel and Christian-Jacque. But it was arguably Max Ophuls, with his 1952 feature, Le Plaisir, who proved to be the most adept.

Le Plaisir takes three of de Maupassant s stories as its source: in Le Masque, a masked dandy conceals a secret; in La Maison Tellier, the girls of a small-town brothel are taken on an outing to attend the communion of the madam s niece; and in La Modèle, a painter falls in love with his model, but the course of love isn t as smooth as either expected.

To tell these tales, Ophuls assembled a remarkable cast of French talent, including Jean Gabin (Pépé le Moko, La Grande illusion), Pierre Brasseur (Eyes Without a Face, Spotlight on a Murderer), Danielle Darrieux (Madame de…, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort), Claude Dauphin (Casque d Or, Barbarella), Simone Simon (Cat People, La Ronde) and many more besides.

Special features:
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation, from materials supplied by Gaumont
– Original French mono audio (uncompressed LPCM on the Blu-ray)
– Optional English subtitles
– A Journey Through Le Plaisir, a 54-minute documentary by Philippe Roger featuring interviews with cast and crew, and a visit of the film s locations fifty years on
– Diary of a Film Shoot, an interview with Ophuls assistant director, Jean Valerie
– An interview with Marcel Ophuls, the filmmaker son of Max
– Le Plaisir Restored, Ronald Boullet and Andre Labbouz discuss the restoration process
– Theatrical trailer
– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jennifer Dionisio
– FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Alexander Jacoby and Philippe Roger