Claude Chabrol’s second feature, Les cousins, was a mirror image of his first, Le beau Serge. More successful than the former, the complex morality play that mixed elements of farce, romance, thriller, and film noir would go on to help define and vindicate the nouvelle vague.

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The classic that launched the nouvelle vague arrives in a beautifully rendered edition from the Masters of Cinema series.

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Weekend is Jean Luc Godard’s frontal assault on the foibles of the middle class and their values or lack thereof. The Criterion Collection offers this restored version featuring decent if not outstanding sight and sound. Current viewers may find this film’s heavy-handed political agenda to be tough sledding.

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Claude Chabrol’s second feature, Les cousins, was a mirror image of his first, Le beau Serge. More successful than the former, the complex morality play that mixed elements of farce, romance, thriller, and film noir would go on to help define and vindicate the nouvelle vague.

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Claude Chabrol’s first feature film, Le beau Serge, launched the nouvelle vague and showed his mastery as a director from the beginning. It’s a poignant look at the struggles of the working class, far from the glitz and glamor of the big city, shot in stark black and white and natural light.

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Tati’s prophetic 1967 comedy Playtime finally arrives in its restored version on Blu-ray in the UK from the BFI.

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StudioCanal Collection in the UK enters with their superb looking edition of Jean-Luc Godard’s classic, Breathless, but it’s just a little weaker on extras than the Criterion release in the US.

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Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless changed filmmaking forever and defined the French New Wave. Now it gets a definitive high definition Blu-ray release from the Criterion Collection collectors should enjoy.

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Alain Resnais’ enigmatic, genre-defining and defying film, Last Year at Marienbad, arrives on Blu-ray in a pleasing transfer from Optimum Releasing.

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The price of Hollywood, the price of being a god, the dissolution of love — it’s Godard’s most traditional narrative, but “traditional” doesn’t mean banal when it comes to Godard, the complex emotional and symbolic layers of Le Mépris and its leading actress Brigitte Bardot.

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