Philippe Garrel - 1968 Blu-ray collection : Le révélateur / Actua I / La concentration / Le Lit de la vierge

Our BLU-RAY release of these rarely seen films from Philipe Garrel

"Le Révélateur alludes both to the chemical process in photography by which the image is revealed (“develop- er” in English) and, more discretely to the young boy’s deictic role, like that of Saint John the Baptist. The film evokes Christian iconography, and in one particularly striking shot, we see Lafont kneeling on the ground, “crucified,” while her son embraces her. In another scene, Garrel reenacts the Flight from Egypt: there on the road, we see Terzieff and Lafont, with their child. But by the film’s close, the boy is at the edge of a lake, all alone. It is a shot prefiguring the end of Le Lit de la Vierge. Like Pierre Clementi’s Christ, like Garrel himself, the child moves towards his destiny."
- Sally Shafto

"[La Concentration] A birth at the beginning, a death at the end, between the two a lost child and a broken heart. For the first image, you literally have to cut through the night with a chisel. All sorts of links unite the two characters – umbilical cords mooring “superior puppets” – to the practice that drives them: the sound wire serves to make them see, the film to slit their veins, the dolly rails to crawl on, the dolly to transport corpses. Is real life to be found elsewhere? In those three days of uninterrupted shooting, for example, of which the film would be the record, as of a crime?"
- Jean Narboni

"My opinion of the Christian myth is, I think, easily discernible in Le Lit de la Vierge; it’s a non-violent parable in which Zouzou incarnates both Mary and Mary Mag- dalene, and Pierre Clémenti incarnates Christ – a very discouraged Christ, who gives up when faced with the cruelty of the world. In spite of its allegorical nature, the film is a denunciation of the police repression of ‘68."
- Philippe Garrel

FILMS
LE REVELATEUR
(1968, 35mm, B/W, silent, 65 mins, 2015 HD remastering)
director: Philippe Garrel
with: Bernadette Lafont, Larent Terzieff, Stanislas Robiolles

ACTUA 1
(1968, 35mm, B/W, mono, 7 mins, 2015 HD remastering)
director: Philippe Garrel

LA CONCENTRATION
(1968, 35mm, color, mono, 89 mins, 2024 HD remastering)
director: Philippe Garrel
with: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Zouzou

LE LIT DE LA VIERGE
(1969, 35mm, B/W, mono, 99 mins, 2015 HD remastering)
director: Philippe Garrel
with: Pierre Clémenti, Zouzou, Tina Aumont, Margareth Clémenti, Nicole Laguigné, Babette Lamy, Didier Léon, Jaïme Semprun, Jean-Pierre Kalfon