La Collectionneuse Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

La Collectionneuse Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 9, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales from Criterion.

One of the rather interesting if simultaneously peculiar trivia points about world cinema is how fecund the French movie critic community has been in producing titans of film making. The iconic French publication Cahiers du Cinéma was a virtual hotbed of activity in this regard, and if names like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut may be at the apex of any list culled from those who began as writers for the magazine and who went on to storied careers in film, there are any number of others, including Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, and the man responsible for the six films (some shorts) in this collection, Éric Rohmer. Rohmer's fame may have at least temporarily eclipsed the likes of Godard and Truffaut, for a little while anyway, when the trifecta of My Night at Maud's, Claire's Knee, and Love in the Afternoon became international sensations as the sixties gave way to the seventies. An obituary for Rohmer in a major newspaper mentioned his "durability" and suggested that even if he didn't have the immediate name recognition of some of his peers, his work had outlasted any flash in the pan sensibility that may have attended releases of films by other former critics. Really fascinatingly in the "trivial pursuit" category is the fact that all six of the "tales" aggregated as exemplars of "morality" by Rohmer are based, at least tangentially, on F.W. Murnau's legendary Sunrise.

There have been at least two other films with the same (translated) title as this 1967 effort from Rohmer, namely William Wyler's sole foray into quasi- horror, 1965's The Collector, and the much less notable 2009 outright horror opus The Collector. Perhaps thankfully, this particular Collector is considerably lighter in tone if still rather serious, and in fact intermittently it can at least hint at some of the classic French farces from the veritable days of yore, though this is most certainly not a "slamming door" effort, and may offer more sly grins in some of the "war of the sexes" bantering than outright guffaws.

As indicated by the suffix of the original French title, it is in fact a woman rather than a man who is designated as the titular character in this film, namely free wheeling Haydée (Haydée Politoff), who is a kind of hanger on at a luxe vacation home (kind of a pre-VRBO) where Adrien (Patrick Bauchau) and Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle) are staying. It's supposedly Haydée's relationship with Daniel that got and keeps her there, though she keeps showing up with different men on pretty much a regular schedule, thus engendering that perhaps slightly judgmental "nickname" mentioned in the film's title. There's a somewhat improvisatory aspect to the narrative, and Rohmer reportedly wrote this with the three main performers, two of whom play characters bearing their real life names, in another prime example of Rohmer's meta proclivities. This was Rohmer's first color film, and it is an extravaganza of gorgeous location work courtesy of cinematographer Nestor Alemendros.

La Collectionneuse Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

La Collectionneuse is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Criterion's insert booklet states that "the restoration of all six films was undertaken by Les Films du Losange, with the support of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)", and further specifies that this particular film was transferred in 2K from the original camera negative. As mentioned above, this is an often stunning tour through some really luscious French land (and sea) scapes, and it benefits from a nicely suffused palette, even if I personally felt things are timed just a bit too much toward yellows on occasion. A lot of the film takes place either outdoors or certainly adjacent to outdoor environments, and the glut of daytime material offers really good opportunities for significant visual pop. Occasional nighttime (or perhaps day for night) material can understandably offer less fine detail. Detail levels are typically great, ranging from natural things like foliage to textures on costumes. Once again a lot of the film tends to offer midrange framings. Grain resolves naturally throughout.

La Collectionneuse Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

La Collectionneuse features an LPCM Mono track in the original French. Some of Rohmer's early films have a distinct lack of consistent underscore or even source cues, but there is music on tap here, which adds to some nice if admittedly languid energy that is probably appropriately attuned to the summery French locales. The glut of outdoor material also provides well rendered ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

La Collectionneuse Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Criterion has packaged My Night at Maud's and La Collectionneuse together on one disc with the following supplements, some of which, while "officially" listed under one particular film, may be more general in nature.

My Night at Maud's

• "On Pascal" (HD; 22:01) is culled from a 1965 television episode from a series whose title translates as Reading Between the Lines. This was directed by Rohmer, where he interviews philosophers Brice Parain and Dominque Dubarle about "Pascal's wager". Subtitled in English.


• Télécinéma (HD; 13:39) is a 1974 episode of a French television show, featuring interviews with Jean Douchet, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Pierre Cottrell. Subtitled in English.


• Trailer (HD; 2:45)

La Collectionneuse

• A Modern Coed (1966) (HD; 12:49) is a documentary detailing the "infiltration" of women to French academies of higher learning.


• Parlons Cinéma (HD; 50:43) is a 1977 interview with Rohmer done for Ontario television. Subtitled in English.


• Trailer (HD; 2:16)

La Collectionneuse Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

La Collectionneuse hasn't seemed to attract the same level of attention as some of Rohmer's other pieces from this same general period, but it's another nice character study which rather slyly does a "gender bender" take on the general Moral Tales setup. Technical merits are solid, and La Collectionneuse comes Recommended.