Pierre Etaix (Criterion Collection) (1971)

Passionate music lover since he was a child and of circus world and influenced by the silent screen comedy artists he love Langdon, Keaton, Laurel & Hardygreat french comedy master Pierre Etaix started his cinematic career in a brief cameo scene of Robert Bresson's Pickpocket and at the side of also comedy genius Jacques Tati. Painter, professional clown he shared stage with Charlie Rivel in the Medrano, joined Tati at the Olympia, on his show "Jour de fete", became a popular comedian on his country working first in famous salas like "Le cheval d'or" and then with his wife Annie Fratellini as comedy couple and graphic artist he drew between others the film posters of Tati's Mon Oncle and Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot he jumped into film direction and the filming of his own stuff joining Jean-Claude Carriere whom Etaix considers his script writing teacher in the short film Rupture(1961),co-directed with Carriere himself. Tagged sometimes as the french Buster Keaton one of his most beloved and admirated comedy artists with Stan Laurel and Charlie Rivel -probably for his precise "mise-en-scene", exquisite and very calculated sight-gags and his way of acting Etaix joins in his films slapstick, classic circus routines and acrobatic bits with sophisticated comedy in films plenty of surreal visual invention. His movies also shine for his great taste for the coreographic visual gag and the funny, very creative use of sound and music. This DVD/Blu-Ray collection as the previous french edition collects all the flicks of Etaix as director five feature films and three shorts: Rupture, Happy anniversary and his episode bit and tribute to Hulot "En pleine forme", added originaly by Etaix, with the other 4 comedy sketches, to his first montage for the 1966's premiere of "As long as you're healthy", and later delated for the 1971 re-release. After a long legal battle (20 years) at the side of his friend and usual film collaborator great french scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carriere for the recovery and exhibition of his films, Pierre Etaix extraordinary films has been shown again at the film theaters and finally edited in DVD in what has been in only few years a metheoric resurrection and recognition of the art of this true comedy genius. A wonderful chance to see in wonderfuly restored copies his absolute feature films masterworks: Le soupirant his feature film debut as director with a plot that reminds in some parts to Buster Keaton's Seven chances -, and YoYo Etaix's personal favorite and a very beautiful tribute to circus world -, so as his great films Le grand amour that contains a delightful dreamy scene in which Etaix's bed goes out of his bedroom taking off down the road, stopping to pick up a gorgeous nightied hitchhiker and passing other beds stopped for repairs, having accidents... -, the episodes movie "As long as you're healthy" that contains between other brilliant comedy sketches a bedtime Hammer style vampire story and Pays de cocaigne, a satyrical candid camera documentary shot after the events of May 68 and focused on french people vacations that was surprisingly punished by the critics, stopping during many years Pierre Etaix's film career.

Passionate music lover since he was a child and of circus world and influenced by the silent screen comedy artists he love Langdon, Keaton, Laurel & Hardygreat french comedy master Pierre Etaix started his cinematic career in a brief cameo scene of Robert Bresson's Pickpocket and at the side of also comedy genius Jacques Tati. Painter, professional clown he shared stage with Charlie Rivel in the Medrano, joined Tati at the Olympia, on his show "Jour de fete", became a popular comedian on his country working first in famous salas like "Le cheval d'or" and then with his wife Annie Fratellini as comedy couple and graphic artist he drew between others the film posters of Tati's Mon Oncle and Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot he jumped into film direction and the filming of his own stuff joining Jean-Claude Carriere whom Etaix considers his script writing teacher in the short film Rupture(1961),co-directed with Carriere himself. Tagged sometimes as the french Buster Keaton one of his most beloved and admirated comedy artists with Stan Laurel and Charlie Rivel -probably for his precise "mise-en-scene", exquisite and very calculated sight-gags and his way of acting Etaix joins in his films slapstick, classic circus routines and acrobatic bits with sophisticated comedy in films plenty of surreal visual invention. His movies also shine for his great taste for the coreographic visual gag and the funny, very creative use of sound and music. This DVD collection as the previous french edition collects all the flicks of Etaix as director five feature films and three shorts: Rupture, Happy anniversary and his episode bit and tribute to Hulot "En pleine forme", added originaly by Etaix, with the other 4 comedy sketches, to his first montage for the 1966's premiere of "As long as you're healthy", and later delated for the 1971 re-release. After a long legal battle (20 years) at the side of his friend and usual film collaborator great french scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carriere for the recovery and exhibition of his films, Pierre Etaix extraordinary films has been shown again at the film theaters and finally edited in DVD in what has been in only few years a metheoric resurrection and recognition of the art of this true comedy genius. A wonderful chance to see in wonderfuly restored copies his absolute feature films masterworks: Le soupirant his feature film debut as director with a plot that reminds in some parts to Buster Keaton's Seven chances -, and YoYo Etaix's personal favorite and a very beautiful tribute to circus world -, so as his great films Le grand amour that contains a delightful dreamy scene in which Etaix's bed goes out of his bedroom taking off down the road, stopping to pick up a gorgeous nightied hitchhiker and passing other beds stopped for repairs, having accidents... -, the episodes movie "As long as you're healthy" that contains between other brilliant comedy sketches a bedtime Hammer style vampire story and Pays de cocaigne, a satyrical candid camera documentary shot after the events of May 68 and focused on french people vacations that was surprisingly punished by the critics, stopping during many years Pierre Etaix's film career.

Buy Pierre Etaix (Criterion Collection) (1971) Now

Criterion has done it again...I want to personally thank Criterion for taking the time and effort to remastering and releasing the films of Pierre Etaix to the public. Like his mentor Jacques Tati, Etaix is a comic genius whose humor is rooted in the classic comedians of the silent era (Buster Keaton, Chaplin, Harold Lloyd). Also like these comedians, Etaix uses humor to comment upon modern society (or what was considered modern at the time he was working). My personal favorite film out of this collection is Le Grand Amour, which takes the cinema trope of the troubled marriage, and brings it to a brilliantly surreal level. This is, without a doubt, the blu-ray release of the year!

Read Best Reviews of Pierre Etaix (Criterion Collection) (1971) Here

A previous reviewer heaped praise on Criterion for "remastering and releasing" Etaix's films to the public. I don't disagree with that sentiment, though it should be limited to releasing the films to the US public. Criterion isn't in the job of remastering, and this was done for the Etaix films by Etaix himself in 2010, with financial support from the Groupama Gan Foundation, and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. We have these versions here, with new subtitles and various features.

Again, this isn't to slight Criterion. If it wasn't for them, it's difficult to think of another publisher that would purchase the US rights to these films. Praise all around, then.

Want Pierre Etaix (Criterion Collection) (1971) Discount?

I saw The Suitor 50 years ago, and was delighted with the beauty of the film, a series of carefully crafted images that told a simple story with a quiet surface but great underlying emotion. Etaix managed an uneasy balancing act of telling a comedic story without making his protagonist a clown.

Now, with the re-release of all his films, I find that Etaix was literally a clown at one time, and brought that background to film. So far, I've watched The Suitor, Yoyo (in which Etaix' background is a major aspect of the plot a rich kid who runs off to join the circus) and two highly inventive short films. All are beautifully filmed on low budgets, but the Blu-Ray restoration helps show the highly polished works that they are.

I would recommend these films to anyone who enjoys Jacques Tati (Etaix's mentor) or Bill Forsyth movies. They are in that quiet spirit, but evoke hearty laughter.

Save 27% Off