1040 Toni

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

1040 Toni

#1 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 15, 2020 12:19 pm

Image

In 1934, Jean Renoir stepped off the soundstage and headed to the South of France, where he captured vivid human drama amid the bucolic splendor and everyday social rituals of the countryside. Based on a true story and set in a community of immigrants living, working, and loving on the margins of French society, Toni follows the eponymous Italian migrant (Charles Blavette), whose tempestuous affairs with two women—the faithful Marie (Jenny Hélia) and the flirtatious Josefa (Celia Montalván)—unleash a wave of tragedy. Making use of nonprofessional actors, on-location shooting, and the resources of the great Marcel Pagnol’s Provence studio, Renoir crafts a marvel of poetic feeling that became a precursor to Italian neorealism and a favorite of the directors of the French New Wave.

SPECIAL FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 2006 featuring critics Kent Jones and Phillip Lopate
Introduction by director Jean Renoir from 1961
Episode of Cinéastes de notre temps from 1967 on Renoir, directed by Jacques Rivette and featuring a conversation with actor Charles Blavette about the film
New video essay about the making of Toni by film scholar Christopher Faulkner
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau
New cover by Katherine Lam

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 1040 Toni

#2 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 15, 2020 12:32 pm

Interesting that this ports over the commentary from the long out of print MOC DVD

User avatar
TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: 1040 Toni

#3 Post by TMDaines » Fri May 15, 2020 12:34 pm

Hope we get this in the UK.

User avatar
Grisbi
Joined: Mon Jun 10, 2013 12:19 pm

Re: 1040 Toni

#4 Post by Grisbi » Fri May 15, 2020 12:51 pm

A really beautiful film, one of Renoir's very best imo.

Oddly enough, while I generally don't care much for commentaries and probably haven't listened to 99% of the ones in my collection, I distinctly remember listening to and enjoying greatly the Jones/Lopate track from the old MoC dvd. If I'm correct, they also teamed up for the commentaries on the Naruse box.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 1040 Toni

#5 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 15, 2020 1:04 pm

Glad we’re getting the full Cinéastes de notre temps program previously excerpted on Boudu

User avatar
Rayon Vert
Green is the Rayest Color
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:52 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: 1040 Toni

#6 Post by Rayon Vert » Fri May 15, 2020 1:53 pm

Great news

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 1040 Toni

#7 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri May 15, 2020 1:58 pm

I never understood why MoC's DVD release of this wasn't a smashing (sales) success....

User avatar
Finch
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: Edinburgh, UK

Re: 1040 Toni

#8 Post by Finch » Fri May 15, 2020 2:20 pm

Fantastic month between this film and the Varda set. Never expected to see it on Blu-Ray and so happy to be proven wrong.

User avatar
L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: 1040 Toni

#9 Post by L.A. » Fri Jul 17, 2020 10:52 am


User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: 1040 Toni

#10 Post by Drucker » Fri Jul 17, 2020 12:07 pm

Looks incredible, just hoping the audio isn't too bad.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: 1040 Toni

#11 Post by tenia » Fri Jul 17, 2020 2:17 pm

The Gaumont's track is noticeably better than the Eureka DVD, but is low-pass filtered at 8 kHz. Hopefully, Criterion didn't tinker too much with it. Still, subs proved quite useful for me (twice, actually, since I saw the movie last Oct in theater and more recently on BD).

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 1040 Toni

#12 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:01 am

What a beautiful looking film, especially the shot of the boat on the water where the sky seems to merge seamlessly with the river, but I didn't realize they spliced together two different sources for this restoration. I think that's what I was noticing when certain shots suddenly became heavily de-grained. It was usually in spots where there was a dissolve transition (one particular establishing shot even showed a strange halo of unnaturally pixelated grain around chimneys with the rest of the sky looking as if it was wiped clean), but check out the early scene where Toni first meets Marie. The first straight-on set up looks unnaturally clean, wiped of texture, but they cut away, then cut back, and suddenly a shot from the same camera set-up looks beautiful, rich in subtle grain.

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: 1040 Toni

#13 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Nov 25, 2023 9:42 am

Where do folks put this in Renoir’s canon? And this was a favorite amongst the French new wave, yes?

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: 1040 Toni

#14 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Nov 25, 2023 10:40 am

FrauBlucher wrote:
Sat Nov 25, 2023 9:42 am
Where do folks put this in Renoir’s canon?
My personal favorite.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 1040 Toni

#15 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Nov 25, 2023 2:46 pm

I liked it a lot. It's one of his masterpieces.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: 1040 Toni

#16 Post by MichaelB » Sat Nov 25, 2023 2:50 pm

It's one of Aki Kaurismäki's favourite films, and an acknowledged influence on Le Havre (2011). And, I suspect, on The Other Side of Hope (2018).

Post Reply