[REL] Le grand départ (1972)

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jezevex
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[REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by jezevex »   109 likes

Very interesting one (but you have to download it and then invert the colors, for example in VLC media player :-) )



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068656/

https://www.rarefilmfinder.com/movie.php?id=54662

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kev
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by kev »   2 likes

jezevex wrote:Very interesting one (but you have to download it and then invert the colors, for example in VLC media player :-) )

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068656/

https://www.rarefilmfinder.com/movie.php?id=54662

LeGrDe_72.mp4
Le grand départ

Great job,jezevex!

I actually almost posted this earlier in the week as I had come across it a couple of weeks ago, but couldn't figure how to present it.

I say that because of ALL the movies we have here that have maybe one or two short, clippable OT moments; THIS movie has to be one of the best hidden gems of those type!

Of sole interest is the director's daughter, Alexandre Raysse who portrays 'Innocence'; a lovely young girl caught up in an insane cult. Her character is indeed the embodiment of 'innocence' as she frolics about, at first nude then with a wispy shawl draped about her, playing with animals and casually observing the mayhem surrounding her caused by the ?adults? involved in this cult she's a part of thanks to her 'father'. (The cat-dude.)

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She has about 5 or 6 mins of pretty good screen time during a road trip a few minutes into the film and then she's relegated to a background character. After she don's the wispy shawl, that's all she wears in any of her further scenes; which she has 4 or 5 of throughout the film. Her walking away from it all is the closing shot of the film.. Very weird, [or 'interesting' as jezevex put it ;) ], but worth a watch. I'd love to get the DVD just for sh*t's sake.. :lol: The dialogue is in both French and at times English..

Thanks again, jezevex for bringing this here.

(More shots for the hell of it:

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[Image][Image][Image][Image] ) :roll:

kev.
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Phuzzy4242
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   1 likes

Even the pix found using DuckDuckGo search are inverted. What the heck?

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kev
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by kev »   1 likes

Phuzzy4242 wrote:Even the pix found using DuckDuckGo search are inverted. What the heck?

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The director filmed it in the negative:
www,fright,com wrote: LE GRAND DEPART

...A prime example of audacious, rule-breaking cinema. It’s an early seventies French film shown almost entirely in negative exposure, which in itself makes it worth a watch.

The Package:
LE GRAND DEPART (THE GRAND DEPARTURE; 1972) was the only feature directed by the famed French painter and sculptor Martial Raysse. In keeping with the revolutionary spirit of the time, LE GRAND DEPART has no plot to speak of and appears to have been largely made up on the spot. It shares a kinship with such films as BEGOTTEN (1990) and the X-rated short THE OPERATION (1995), both of which experimented with negative exposure (and far more effectively).

The (Non)Story:
The opening credits are spoken over pictures of an idyllic beachfront landscape--but then the camera pulls back to reveal those pictures as designs on a guy’s shirt. Said guy is watching footage of political demonstrations on his TV, while outside a weird dude in a cat mask rides by on a bike.
We follow the cat man into a bizarre fantasy universe presented in negative exposure that reverses color values (black is white and vice versa) and written words. The cat man steals a car and then picks up a young girl [who refers to him as 'Daddy'] and he promises to take to “Heaven.” Heaven turns out to be a country chateau inhabited by several more animal mask wearing weirdoes.
There’s also a hippie cult frolicking in the woods nearby. The cult’s leader is an intense English speaking guru who prophecies a “Grand Departure” that will liberate his followers from their Earthly concerns.
Somewhere in here we learn the cat man represents death, as everyone he meets dies soon afterward--if he doesn’t do the killing himself. An example of this occurs when he callously molests a woman on a country road and leaves her for dead.
The cat man winds up on a “raft of freedom” manned by the guru and his followers. The raft becomes a sort of interstellar flying carpet that whisks them all through the cosmos. The trip is fun at first, with the cultists frolicking and playing ball with the Earth(!), but it eventually degenerates into a mass orgy…and the film finally returns to normal exposure. (At this point it focuses on the young girl who we now know as 'Innocence' looking down at something; possibly the remnants of the 'mass orgy'. After a few seconds she stands straight, turns and walks away, thus ending the film.)

The Direction:
This dull, formless film is far from the magical phantasmagoria Martial Raysse appears to have been striving for, but it does have its moments. The negative exposure works wonders, transforming drab Parisian locations into exotic dreamscapes. Of course it can’t do much for the camerawork, which is loose and amateurish; without the visual heightening this would likely play like a crappy home movie. Nor is the acting anything much; the only performer who makes any impression is Sterling Hayden as the cult leader (how Raysse convinced Hayden to appear in this film I’ll never figure out).
Yet those interested in the unusual will definitely want to check out LE GRAND DEPART. It provides an eye-opening look at just how staid and predictable most movies are (comparatively speaking) and suggests a tantalizing possibility: imagine how this film might play were it made by a real filmmaker!
Though everyone talks about the director's choice in filming in 'negative exposure' being an 'artistic' endeavor, I have an alternate theory:
Despite it being filmed in France and their laws being a little more lax about nudity in general, I think that the director knew that having a nude young girl frolicking about for an entire film in the company of adults would be tough to pass off, BUT with everything in the negative her nudity would not be as offensive..

Just a thought....

kev.
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Phuzzy4242
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   0 likes

For users of VLC, to reverse the colors (essential if you want to actually see and enjoy the film AND avoid headaches), use Tools > Effects and Filters > Video Effects > Colors > Negate Colors
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Sully23
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by Sully23 »   1 likes

One of the best I've seen only surpassed by Forest must have many films filed in a trunk, not only in vlc is the filter I did with kmp player can also give in the option 'reflex' because it is edited as a mirror effect and so they can read the right and see the correct angle.

I would like a version 5.1 like Innocence with excellent quality no matter what weighs 4Gb

What a good movie despite the old hopefully the Remakes become fashionable
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ghost
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by ghost »   269 likes

I did a lot of work on this movie. I cutted it in many seperate parts, adjusted the single color channels and did some other fixes. Now it looks quite good to my opinion. This time the source was a DVD-Rip I found.

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Updated link:
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English subtitles:
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Phuzzy4242
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by Phuzzy4242 »   1 likes

Looks like a substantial quality improvement (and a lot of work). Thanks, ghost.
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popdrome
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by popdrome »   1 likes

great work. I confess, I ogled. ;)

Don't go quietly into the night.
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kev
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Re: [REL] Le grand départ (1972)

Post by kev »   1 likes

:icon_idea2

ghost; WOW!! You did a magnificent job with this film! I didn't think about reversing the colors for this film and if I had I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out how to do it..

I saw a clip of this on another forum last month which linked to the YouTube video, and I was shocked that this film had not been so much as even hinted at in the FLM community. It truly is a lost/hidden gem and again you've done a great job with your release..

Many, MANY thanks!!!

kev.
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