International France...IRMA LA DOUCE and MIRAGE (1 Viewer)

[JPCinema]

Just watched 2 new Blu Rays from France.
Billy Wilder's IRMA LA DOUCE...Wow this must the the brand new transfer ( KL announced last year a new 4K transfer)....It looks spectacular! Good news is it is All Region even though the box says Region B. The French subtitles are moveable as well.
MIRAGE with Gregory Peck and Diane Baker. An excellent blu ray transfer for this black and white film. Once again the box says Region B but it is All Region with removable subtitles.

 

[Alan Tully]

Thanks, I didn't know Irma was released in France (I usually look for these films to come out in Germany if they're not released in the UK), I'll look into it...of course if I was in America I'd wait for the Kino release, but that will be region A locked.

 

[Robin9]

Just watched 2 new Blu Rays from France.
Billy Wilder's IRMA LA DOUCE...Wow this must the the brand new transfer ( KL announced last year a new 4K transfer)....It looks spectacular! Good news is it is All Region even though the box says Region B. The French subtitles are moveable as well.
MIRAGE with Gregory Peck and Diane Baker. An excellent blu ray transfer for this black and white film. Once again the box says Region B but it is All Region with removable subtitles.

Thanks for this info.

Irma la Douce is one of the very few Billy Wilder films I can't get on with but Mirage is a really good mystery thriller. One of the incidental pleasures of Mirage for me is that both the detective and the psychiatrist are totally unlike the cliché characterisations of those professions in most other films. I'll have a look at the DVD to see if I want to upgrade.

 

[JPCinema]

Glad I did not want for the Kino disc as there is no way it could look any better. Most French Blu Rays , at least to me, are better than the German release versions.

 

[JPCinema]

Thanks, I didn't know Irma was released in France (I usually look for these films to come out in Germany if they're not released in the UK), I'll look into it...of course if I was in America I'd wait for the Kino release, but that will be region A locked.

Of course France would release it before Germany. It is a truly French story.-). I do speak French and I really like all the special features on the French blu ray of Irma .

 

[JPCinema]

The blu ray of MIRAGE is vastly superior to the DVD.

 

[PMF]

Shirley MacLaine must be thrilled to learn that "Irma" has been given a new incarnation...um...reincarnation, that is.
P.S. Thanks for the tip, as I'll be going in the French style.

 

[JPCinema]

There is also a 31 page booklet included with many behind the scenes photos.

 

[Alan Tully]

Irma La Douce is not primo Wilder, but I like it. I was 14 when I first saw it (I should have been 16 to see an X certificate, but I was tall so I got in), & Shirley MacLaine's green nylons really got my hormones jumping (just as well you don't see too many green tights these days!), I wonder if that's the reason that that shade of green is my favourite colour. Anyway, I'm having this, another sixties film for my collection.

 

[Thomas T]

Irma La Douce was a charming and effervescent Broadway musical. For some bizarre reason, Wilder decided to eliminate all the songs and do it as a straight comedy All the charm is gone and what we get is a rather prurient comedy. Pauline Kael called the film abominable. I wouldn't go that far but it's pretty dismal. I'd love to see the film done properly by going back to the original Broadway source material.

 

[Henry Gondorff]

Irma La Douce is not primo Wilder, but I like it. I was 14 when I first saw it (I should have been 16 to see an X certificate, but I was tall so I got in), & Shirley MacLaine's green nylons really got my hormones jumping (just as well you don't see too many green tights these days!), I wonder if that's the reason that that shade of green is my favourite colour. Anyway, I'm having this, another sixties film for my collection.

I remember Irma La Douce as a big first-run hit in the USA. I always thought it was too long by one-third but it was one of Wilder's more successful releases. Billy, I'm onboard with those green nylons!

 

[JPCinema]

Watching Irma the other night, I still feel the like the kid who snuck into the adults only movie. With this new HD transfer, there much to marvel at...the eye popping set design, art direction, costuming and green nylons.

 

[haineshisway]

Just purchased both of these. I'd been perusing Amazon.fr the other night and come across Irma, but I wasn't about to purchase until I read something about it. So we're sure that this is the 4K transfer that Kino would have paid for? Seems weird to me.

 

[JPCinema]

Me too...but I have never seen the film look so good.

 

[PMF]

Irma La Douce is not primo Wilder, but I like it. I was 14 when I first saw it (I should have been 16 to see an X certificate, but I was tall so I got in), & Shirley MacLaine's green nylons really got my hormones jumping (just as well you don't see too many green tights these days!), I wonder if that's the reason that that shade of green is my favourite colour. Anyway, I'm having this, another sixties film for my collection.

If it's green for you, then it must be red for me; as I was 9 when I saw Shirley MacLaine for the very first time. The film was "Sweet Charity". And the red...well, those were her thigh-high boots that she danced with during her "I'm a Brass Band" number.
Be it green or be it red, I think it has more to do with Shirley MacLaine.
Oh yes indeed, Shirley, you sure do wear it well.

 

[PMF]

Although this news is par excellence, are we being unfair towards KL; after all, they have gone through the efforts of bringing it our way.
Don't get me wrong, I love how Amazon France is offering much wanted BDs that are Region-Free; such as "Sweet Charity".
And I'm digging these reports that "Irma" looks stunning, too.
But I may wait and compare the reviews. Either way, we have our back up option.

 

[Alan Tully]

Just purchased both of these. I'd been perusing Amazon.fr the other night and come across Irma, but I wasn't about to purchase until I read something about it. So we're sure that this is the 4K transfer that Kino would have paid for? Seems weird to me.

Yes, but did Kino pay for it? If they did (or pay some of it anyway), then they should have the American rights & any European release, to be fair, should really be locked to region B. Anyway, I'm region B & I ordered it today, I was waiting for a European company to pick it up, & I hope Germany, France or the UK picks up Jack The Giant Killer.

 

[Matt Hough]

I love Shirley MacLaine a lot, but she's not right for every role, and I had the same problem with her in Irma La Douce that I had with her in Can-Can: too American for the French sensibilities of these two projects. Maybe it was my fault for being way too familiar with Elizabeth Seal and Lilo in the Broadway cast albums of those two respective musicals, but they're VERY French, and Shirley doesn't have a speck of Paree in her bones (even though Irma's movie wasn't even a musical).

By the way, Shirley absolutely breaks my heart in Sweet Charity. Love her in that.

 

[Robin9]

Irma La Douce is not primo Wilder, but I like it. I was 14 when I first saw it (I should have been 16 to see an X certificate, but I was tall so I got in), & Shirley MacLaine's green nylons really got my hormones jumping (just as well you don't see too many green tights these days!), I wonder if that's the reason that that shade of green is my favourite colour. Anyway, I'm having this, another sixties film for my collection.

Atta boy!

 

[Alan Tully]

Ha, mine arrived today & I had a quick zoom through it. The picture does look stunning, & those rich colours! A few blobs here & there, you'd think MGM would do a complete clean-up, but that's MGM for you.