Sans Sous-titres

I’ve been delving into Potemkine’s epic Eric Rohmer boxset over the weekend, and despite knowing I was forfeiting extras for luminous HD transfers, I can’t help but feel annoyed at the wealth of intriguing French-only supplements on offer. The La Boulangère de Monceau disc has two particularly valuable short films – the charming 11min Présentation ou Charlotte et son Steak, starring a rather dashing Jean-Luc Godard, and more substantially, the 22min Edgar Allen Poe adaptation Berenice which was photographed by Jacques Rivette and features a memorably intense performance by Rohmer himself as a man with a peculiar obsession that leads to a genuinely disturbing denouement. The film is so visually expressive (and inventive) one can appreciate the film without a lick of French but the presence of substantial unsubbed narration is frustrating ! Fortunately, Tim Lucas has penned a helpful synopsis of the film on his blog. The two teabags that come with the set are probably the most useful extras, but so far I’ve resisted the urge to indulge…