While extensive use of location shooting, elliptical narration, and a “modern" subject link Sundays and Cybèle to the New Wave, its female lead is far from the sensual and romantic women played by the likes of Jeanne Moreau, Jean Seberg, and Anna Karina. World of Wong Kar Wai There followed a world premiere in New York in mid-November—even though the film still had no distributor in France. The Picasso Summer mixes live-action scenes with vivid animation of Picasso works. Based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, it concerns a self-doubting artist (Albert Finney) who takes his wife (Yvette Mimieux) to the South of France in search of Picasso. We do believe in the innocence of Pierre's intentions toward Cybèle; we are moved by the girl's vulnerability as her father abandons her; we feel compassion for Madeleine as she spies on Pierre and Cybèle walking through the woods hand in hand. Not packed with material and there isn’t much scholarly material (plus it would have been nice to get more about the novel on which its based) but the interviews provide a great overview of the production and the inclusion of the short film is a nice touch. Madeleine and Pierre's friend Carlos (Daniel Ivernel), a sculptor, are more sympathetic, but they cannot prevent the tragic denouement.  - Happy Together, World of Wong Kar Wai It’s fine for what it is. Histories of the New Wave do not, on the whole, consider Sundays and Cybèle as part of the movement, and opinions at the time were equivocal. In addition to her repeated “I love yous" and stated wish to marry Pierre when she is eighteen, the film skews the register of her dialogue away from a child's language, with such literary phrases as “Au fond tu es un enfant perdu" (Deep down, you are a lost child) or the coquettish tone of such sentences as “Pierre, est-ce que tu serais jaloux?" The Reward (1965), an international coproduction starring Max von Sydow, has garnered a cult following as a noir western but is generally thought of as a failure. What he retained quite faithfully, on the other hand, was the central relationship between Pierre and Cybèle. Pierre thus is not just the prisoner of his own post-traumatic mental state (poetically evoked when we see him in one of Carlos's beautiful cages) but also of controlling women; against this background, his recourse to phallic symbols makes more sense (stealing a dagger and then the cockerel-shaped weather vane from the church's spire). More difficult to accept is the way that it makes Cybèle a mini-adult. It has more in common with Bresson than Godard, and it dabbles into a darker and less fanciful theme than most would care to engage. A love too unacceptable for society to allow. The film has a very loose narrative, focusing on a young Buddhist boy/student following an older Buddhist monk across the landscape, noticing the people and nature around him, almost like it’s the first time he’s seen such things.  - Days of Being Wild, [General Film Discussion] / Sun Apr 18, 2021 07:12:01 AM, [BFI DVDs and Blu-rays] / Sun Apr 18, 2021 06:53:28 AM, [General Film Discussion] / Sun Apr 18, 2021 05:17:23 AM, [Filmmakers] / Sun Apr 18, 2021 04:56:53 AM, [Criterion Rumors and News] / Sun Apr 18, 2021 02:30:58 AM, [Indicator Blu-rays] / Sun Apr 18, 2021 01:08:30 AM, Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7, [Criterion Rumors and News] / Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:24:23 AM, [The Criterion Collection] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 05:05:27 PM, [Indicator Blu-rays] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 12:05:01 PM, [International DVD and Blu-ray News and Discussions] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 11:58:16 AM, [The Criterion Collection] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:19:54 AM, [Indicator Blu-rays] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 08:48:40 AM, [General Film Discussion] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 08:38:40 AM, [The Criterion Collection] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 07:58:59 AM, [Boutique Labels] / Sat Apr 17, 2021 06:02:12 AM, World of Wong Kar Wai The most interesting portion is in the latter bit of the interview where Bourguignon then talks about the reactions of his peers in the New Wave, who then seemed to reject him once the film found success (including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film), much more over Jules and Jim released the same year. He blames this rejection for why it was hard for him to make films later on. Where most people at the time saw a struggle between the innocent world of childhood and cynical, sordid “society," today we may be more inclined to see an adult abusing his power to seduce a child bereft of fatherly love, however innocent his intentions. Not Rated | 1h 51min | Drama | 21 November 1962 (France) After killing a child when his plane crashes in a Vietnamese village, Pierre suffers from delayed stress and partial amnesia. Pierre tells the nuns that he is the girl's father, and he returns the following Sunday to take her out for the afternoon. In this provocative Academy Award winner from French director Serge Bourguignon, a psychologically damaged war veteran and a neglected child begin a startlingly intimate friendship—one that ultimately ignites the suspicion and anger of his friends and neighbors in suburban Paris. Bourguignon removed the novel's explicit references to pedophilia in Pierre's murky past; he also deleted the criminal environment surrounding Pierre. Sundays and Cybèle is keen to emphasize the notion of a harmless and guilt-free bond between the two characters. I was surprised to see that Criterion actually licenced the film from Sony since they were usually pretty good at releasing their Award winning titles on DVD. Third, the film explains Pierre's actions in a way that diminishes his responsibility. In this comic vision of the great beyond, Albert Brooks finds the sweet spot between the acerbic satire of his early films and the humanism of his later work.  - Days of Being Wild, This site is not affiliated with The Criterion Collection. 'Sundays and Cybele' comes with an impressive 1080p HD transfer presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. In it Bourguignon talks about the success of his award winning short, Le sourire and how it led to him eventually making Sundays and Cybele. Sundays and Cybèle is the story of Pierre (Hardy Krüger), a 30-ish former fighter pilot who now aimlessly wanders the quiet streets of Ville-d’Avray on the outskirts of Paris. It was first screened in early September 1962 at the Venice Film Festival, where, though not in the main competition, it received a rapturous reception and a special mention by the jury, as well as the Prix Maschere. Welcome to CriterionForum.org, one of the premier destinations on the web to discuss DVD releases from The Criterion Collection, Masters of Cinema, and other DVD production companies from around the world. This is portrayed, as it is in the novel, as innocent and natural, a perspective critics at the time endorsed nearly unanimously, writing of the “pure" love of the protagonists. Decaë's cinematography here also connects the film, however loosely, to the French New Wave. As a result, even when he briefly turns violent at one point, we sympathize with him as a victim of persecution. The transfer is mostly clean though I noticed a few minor artifacts. After graduating, he made a number of documentary films shot in exotic locations, one of which, Le sourire, about a Buddhist monk, won the short film Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1960. She has written widely on popular French cinema and is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound. It’s not a constant issue but pops up here and there. The restoration work overall is pretty impressive. The opening of the film, composed of documentary footage of warfare in Asia, shows his trauma to be war-induced, rather than the result of the criminal violence of the novel; a shot of a young Asian girl's terrorized face suggests that he is about to kill her, and thus casts the relationship with Cybèle as expiation for his war crime. First, Pierre and Cybèle are presented as children; Bourguignon, indeed, called his film “the story of childhood recovered and childhood preserved." Returning to France, he lives like a vegetable until he meets a... See full summary ». Pierre suffers from a severe case of what would now be called Ptsd, squarely blaming himself for a tragic accident that occurred during the heat of battle in Vietnam. The feeling of freedom in this swooningly beautiful blend of melodrama and romantic comedy speaks to director Frank Borzage’s belief in the invincibility of love. Sundays and Cybèle tells the tragic story of Pierre (Hardy Krüger), a thirty-year-old former pilot in the colonial wars who suffers from amnesia, and his relationship with a twelve-year-old girl known as Françoise but whose real name is Cybèle (Patricia Gozzi). You'll also find in. Damage also isn’t an issue. The London Times of December 30, 1962, mentioned it alongside such other titles from that year as Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie, Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7, and Truffaut's Jules and Jim. The disc closes with a theatrical trailer and the included insert features an essay by Ginette Vincendeau on the film’s initial reception and how it’s held up through the years. ), which it is hard to imagine coming from a twelve-year-old. Criterion Collection's Blu-Ray edition of Sundays and Cybele is the best treatment yet for this Oscar-winning film. Since I had first read about Sundays and Cybèle, I knew I would likely love it. Where some saw visual poetry, others talked of mannerism; what for some was sensitivity was for others preciousness; and the cultured aura of the film, including its use of classical music, was in certain quarters considered pretentious. The story follows Pierre, a war veteran suffering from severe PTSD, and Françoise, an orphaned 12 year old girl, who meet purely by chance in Paris one night. Its subject matter is difficult, and the complexity of its characters’ lives and motivations is … Part of this ambiguity comes from our different awareness of the issue today, and part from the process of adaptation. The image quality has greatly improved over past versions, and the subtitles are easier to read. Film grain remains and looks mostly natural but it can look a bit clunky in places, like it’s grouping into larger patterns, but it’s hard to say whether this is some sort of byproduct from the source or an issue with the digital transfer itself. It stars Hardy Krüger as Pierre, a bomber pilot As Bourguignon recounted in a Cahiers du cinéma interview a few years later: “Two days after the premiere in New York and the buzz around the film, five Parisian theaters wanted to show it that had previously turned it down.". Criterion Collection's Blu-Ray edition of Sundays and Cybele is the best treatment yet for this Oscar-winning film. Another reason is the way Bourguignon embeds the encounters between Pierre and Cybèle in a poetic evocation of the natural environment of Ville-d'Avray, splendidly served by Henri Decaë's cinematography. On April 8 th 1963, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, it was announced that Serge Bourguignon’s film Sundays and Cybèle had won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The supplements are good but leave a little to be desired. It has more in common with Bresson than Godard, and it dabbles into a darker and less fanciful theme than most would care to engage. From here he goes over development of the story (based on a subplot found in the novel Les dimanches de Ville d'Avray, a crime novel of all things) the casting and then it’s successful release.  - Chungking Express, World of Wong Kar Wai (In fact, that term was bandied about so often that it begins to sound like denial.) Pierre suffers from a severe case of what would now be called Ptsd, squarely blaming himself for a tragic accident that occurred during the heat of battle in Vietnam. Although some critics waxed lyrical about the poetry of the images, the tasteful treatment of the subject, and the performances Bourguignon elicited from his actors, there were dissenting voices and a few quite vicious attacks, often around the same subjects. An exchange of gazes, shot in close-up, shows him being touched by her distress, especially when he discovers that the father has no intention of returning. Second, Pierre and Cybèle's encounters take place mainly around the beautiful woods of Ville-d'Avray and its string of lakes, and much is made of the links between Cybèle and nature, starting with her name, which designates an “earth mother" goddess from antiquity, as well as the couple's pronounced love of trees and water, repeatedly underlined by both dialogue and cinematography. Welcome to CriterionForum.org, one of the premier destinations on the web to discuss DVD releases from The Criterion Collection, Masters of Cinema, and other DVD production companies from around the world. The first feature film by the then thirty-three-year-old Serge Bourguignon, Sundays and Cybéle created an international sensation in the autumn of 1962. Pierre lives in Ville-d'Avray, a residenttial suburb of Paris near Versailles, with his mistress, Madeleine (Nicole Courcel), the nurse who treated him on his return from the war. On casting he interestingly wanted a “Steve McQueen” type, if not McQueen himself (he somewhat downplays this though Hardy Kruger suggests in his interview that this is who Bourguignon was determined to get, but just simply couldn’t afford). This was due in part to the unusual circumstances of its release, and in part to its potentially scandalous subject, a love story—albeit a platonic one—between a thirty-year-old man and a twelve-year-old girl. Bourguignon’s film makes thoughtful, humane drama out of potentially incendiary subject matter, and with the help of the sensitive cinematography of Henri Decaë and a delicate score by Maurice Jarre, Sundays and Cybele becomes a stirring contemplation of an alliance between two troubled souls.  - Happy Together, World of Wong Kar Wai Though I can’t say whether that latter statement is true (he seems to believe the likes of Truffaut and Godard used their influence to make it harder for him to make films) it’s still a strong interview on the time period and on making the film. Shown at its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the film looks quite good, with excellent resolution, crisp details, and well-defined … Home / Partners / Criterion Collection / Sundays and Cybèle Sundays and Cybèle $ 34.98 $ 27.98 Add to cart The Innocents $ 39.98 $ 31.98 My Darling Clementine $ 49.98 $ 44.98 Sale! French new Wave solid, making up for the lack of a harmless and bond... 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