"Histoire(s) du cinéma" DVD Available For Preorder (Again!)

Back in December 2005, we announced that a modestly priced box set of Godard's "Histoire(s) du cinéma", complete with English subtitles, was available for preorder. Then came the delays, and there were those who wondered whether the set would materialize at all. I still treasure the 4-volume illustrated edition of the work published by Gallimard (972 pages, 1998) and an elegant hardcover set published by ECM which includes the complete soundtrack spread over 5 CDs and the entire text in French, English and German. I'm understandably a bit leery of shouting this to the world, but the set is once more available for preorder at Amazon France. And according to DVDBeaver, English subtitles have been confirmed. Does this all sound a bit familiar? Gaumont have taken the liberty of jacking up the price 10 euros, but buyers outside of the EEC benefit from a hefty VAT reduction. The extras include: A press conference with JL Godard at Cannes (52 min), a short entitled "L'Origine du XXIème siècle" [The Origin of the 21st Century] (13 min) and "2 X 50 ans de cinéma français" [2X50 Years of French Cinema" (52 min). Don't expect English subs on any of these.

Spanish speakers have the option of purchasing the fine-looking Spanish 4-DVD set, available as of December 11, 2006 (priced at only 29,96 eur). The only drawback is that the Spanish subtitles are burned-in. Here is a look at the packaging.

Preorder DVD (release date March 20)