A young actress, Ethel, coming from nowhere, is trying to create a personality through her body and her indestructible resolve if necessary, through Elena, her lover's wife who has disappeared. Two men: Lucas Kesling, ambitious cinema director with diabolical powers, and Milan, fallen angel on an earth cracking beneath his feet, both fighting to possess Ethel. The restless filming of a viscontian movie adapted from Dostoyevsky's "The Possessed" in an opulent and smothering set. A political conspiracy conspiring to do away with the prelate from Eastern Europe, which Milan is inadvertently caught up in. An oppressing and eerie Paris transformed into an expressionist universe which these hunted characters are trying to escape from.
These are essential elements of La Femme Publique (The Public Woman), Andrzej Zulawksi's 6th film, where the obsessive themes of his dazzling career Trzecia Czesc Nocy (The Third Part of the Night,1971), L'Important C'est D'aimer (The Important Thing is to Love,1975), and Possession (1981) become entangled.
ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI's La Femme Publique is a cinematic milestone rich with extreme imagery and raw emotions. Twenty five years after its controversial inception at the Cannes Film Festival, this story of a young, struggling actress retains the power to shock even the most seasoned of movie goers with its violently stylish, apocalyptic tone. A woman s destiny, divided between angel and demon...An hour and 54 minutes of painful happiness, La Femme Publique scratches the soul, slaps the eyes, and seduces like the maelstrom that each one of us hides beyond the conscious. To summarize La Femme Publique is impossible, dangerous and impoverishing. Zulawski is not a man of words; he plays and juggles with the image, the color, the rhythm, the sound, the music, and this unspeakable shamelessness that he steals from his actors so effectively. Between humor and paroxysm, La Femme Publique is a fascinating metaphysical experience with a degree of intensity that needs to be seen to be believed. Simply put, it represents cinema at its most insane & brilliant.
MONDO VISION presents the first ever North American release of Andrzej Zulawski's highly anticipated and sought after film La Femme Publique (The Public Woman, 1984) in a gorgeous transfer with all new English Subtitles, UNCUT & Fully Uncensored. Disc 1: The Film
Digitally Restored Transfer Mastered In High Definition Progressive Scan (Approved by Director Andrzej Zulawski)
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Director Andrzej Zulawski And Writer Daniel Bird
Exclusive New Video Interview With Director Andrzej Zulawski
Theatrical Trailer
DVD-ROM Content
Image Gallery
Disc 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD (Exclusive To Limited Edition. 32 tracks CD Digitally remastered in Paris under the supervision of Composer Alain Wisniak) [Available for the first time ever on CD]
+ Exclusive 48pg Commemorative booklet including a newly written essay by Daniel Bird + Rare & Insightful Interviews With Andrzej Zulawski and the Cast [retranslated and published for the first time ever in English]
INTERVIEW with Andrzej ZULAWSKI (Feb, 1984)
INTERVIEW with Francis HUSTER (Feb, 1984)
INTERVIEW with Valérie KAPRISKY (Feb, 1984)
INTERVIEW with Lambert WILSON (Feb, 1984)
"Music Of Apocalypse:" An Interview With ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI [Originally Appeared In The French Film Magazine Cinéma, May 1984 (N°305)]
"A Filmmaker Has To Be Disruptive...":An Interview With ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI [Originally appeared In The French French film Magazine La Revue Du Cinéma, May 1984 (N°394)]
+ 10 B&W Reproductions Of The Original Japanese Publicity Photos
+ Certificate of Authenticity With Unique Serial # [Only 2000 Individually Numbered Sets Produced]
TECHNICAL NOTES:
Le Femme Publique is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and original Mono French soundtrack as intended by Andrzej Zulawski. This Dual Layer disc has been transferred and encoded using a high-frequency process which preserves as much of the detail and texture from the original film as is possible on the NTSC DVD format.
- NTSC All Region
- Limited Edition of 2000
- CD OST
- Booklet
- English Subtitles
- Digitally Restored Transfer Mastered In High Definition Progressive Scan (Approved by Director Andrzej Zulawski)
- Feature Length Audio Commentary With Director Andrzej Zulawski And Writer Daniel Bird
- Exclusive New Video Interview With Director Andrzej Zulawski
- Theatrical Trailer
- DVD-ROM Content
- Image Gallery
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