La boulangère de Monceau (1963)

Director:

Eric Rohmer

Writers:

Genre:

Romance | Short

Plot:

Early new wave effort from Rohmer which was the first of his six moral tales. It concerns a young man who approaches a girl in the street...

Plot Keywords:

Street | Date | Pick Up | Paris France | Baker

Cast

Barbet Schroeder	...	Young Man
Claudine Soubrier	...	Jacqueline
Michèle Girardon	...	Sylvie

Also Known As:

The Baker of Monceau
The Baker's Girl of Monceau
The Bakery Girl of Monceau (USA)
The Girl at the Monceau Bakery

Runtime:

23 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:U

Filming Locations:

Monceau, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Les Films du Losange

Movie Connections:

Followed by La carrière de Suzanne (1963)

Criterion DVD "The Bakery Girl of Monceau" disappointing

I am fairly disappointed with the Criterion DVD "The Bakery Girl of Monceau". Actually, to be perfectly honest, I'm extremely disappointed. At about 53 seconds into the movie, a large speck appears at the bottom of the screen, halfway between the middle of the screen and the right edge of the screen. Whatever it is, it looks like a bunch of hair or some sort of bug, it's hard to tell which. This speck, eventually, disappears at approximately 5:14 minutes. It reappears at ± 5:31 minutes then disappears until almost the end of the movie when it reappears.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a few times during the movie, the bottom of the screen is washed out. The best way to describe it is when you're printing a negative and there is light leakage, in the enlarger, at the bottom of the negative.

My Fox Lorber copy of The Bakery Girl of Monceau, which cost a lot less than Criterion's did, does not have any specks at the bottom of the screen and has no washed out bottom edge. As much as I hate to admit it, the Fox Lorber copy, although less sharp, looks better. I bought the Criterion version of the "Six Moral Tales" because I was under the wrong impression that Criterion strives to offer a better, superior, unsurpassed product. Obviously, as I just found out, this is not the case.

I've sent 4 e-mails to Criterion about this problem and - two weeks later - nobody has bothered to reply.