"L'appartement" (France, 1995) Available On UK R2 DVD

This film and La Haine are the two biggest holes I have in Cassel's back-catalogue of starring roles.

I aim to remedy this at some point.

Yeah, I bought the UK release of this a few years ago. One of my favorite Monica Bellucci films.

2 different Korean releases for this film and a boxset of all her ealier work? Why is it that only Koreans fully appreciate the awesomeness that is Mrs. Bellucci.

are you sure there hasn't been a region 1 release? we got a copy of it at the video store where i work, sometime last year. and i see it on amazon right now. ?

yeah there was an R1 release last year. Also there was a French release with english subs and DTS, which is excellent.

Yes, there is a region 1 release (under the title "The Apartment"), but it doesn't have normal English subtitles -- just CC-style subs (where things like [FIRE CRACKLING] show up in the subtitles). Inexplicably, it does have regular Spanish subtitles. It also only has 2.0 audio.

The version I have is the R2 UK DVD from Universal, which is anamorphic and has proper subtitles. What's different about this new version? (I wanted the French DVD that DVDBeaver recommends, but apparently it's out of print.)

What I would really like to see is an HD DVD release. I'm not buying the movie again until that happens (and it's very likely).

As far as I can gather, the R1 Lions Gate release is letterboxed with Dolby 2.0 sound and closed caption subtitles. Apparently the subs are bad enough to have warranted several negative comments over at Amazon's site. I picked up the M6 version of "L'appartement" while I was in Paris a couple of years back, and the image, while indeed richer in color than the Korean editions, was not as clear as it should have been, and the skin tones were off. I had no doubt that the cheap Universal copy would fare no better -- they are always releasing horrendous $5 DVDs in France, the type folks purchase at news kiosks and which come free with the Sunday newspaper. I'd have to agree with ZenAmako -- this film deserves better than the crappy treatment it's received up till now, and those who believe they own an excellent copy of the film are either uncritical or haven't seen what a decent transfer looks like.