29 June 2008

Co-founder of the Cinémathèque Française George Franju earned his place in film history for his extraordinary 1960 Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux sans visage), but tracking down other films from his 45 year career has always proved a job and a half, at least in the UK. Now Masters of Cinema have announced a 2 disc DVD release for August containing two of Franju's films the 1963 Judex and the 1973 Nuits rouges in new transfers, both released for the first time on UK DVD.

The magical and rarely seen Judex was largely unappreciated at the time of its release, a lyrical and dreamlike picture and a putative "remake" of the 1916 film of the same name by Louis Feuillade (Fantômas, Les Vampires). As evocative of the silent master's own works as it is of the later films of Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dali, it prompted a French reviewer to write in 1963 that "The whole of Judex reminds us that film is a privileged medium for the expression of poetic magic."

Starring the magician Channing Pollock, the divine Edith Scob and the mesmerising Francine Bergé, Judex concerns a wicked banker, his helpless daughter and a mysterious avenger. It plays like a fairy tale, one in which Franju creates a dazzling clash between good and evil, eschewing interest in the psychological aspects of his characters for unexplained twists and turns in the action. The beautifully controlled imagery, superbly rendered by Marcel Fradetal's black-against-white photography, animates a natural world and the spirits of animals all at war with a host of diabolical forces.

Nuits rouges (Red Nights) – released in the UK as Shadowman – was the second meditation by Franju and co-screenwriter Jacques Champeaux (Louis Feuillade's grandson) on Feuillade's films. It aggressively escalates a pulp atmosphere steeped in shocking turns of events to an even more vertiginous level. Here the object of pursuit is the fabled treasure of the mythical order of the Knights Templar, which the filmmakers use as the jump-off point for staging a series of fantastic set-pieces. As the Fantômas-esque arch criminal (known only as "The Man Without a Face" and played by Jacques Champeaux himself) violently pursues the treasure, the action intensifies amongst a cadre of post-1968 bohemians, the Paris police bureau and a cult of cowled conspirators.

Judex and Nuits rouges will be released as a 2-DVD set by Eureka under the Masters of Cinema label on 25th August 2008 at the RRP of £24.99 and with the following features:

• Gorgeous new transfers in their original aspect ratios;
• New and improved English subtitle translations;
• Video interviews for both films by Franju collaborator Jacques Champreaux;
• 40-page booklet containing newly translated interviews with Georges Franju, newly translated writing by Jacques Rivette, and more.