“If you don’t like me…” Pialat and Depardieu in Sous le soleil…
Maurice Pialat’s cauterizing 1987 film Sous le soleil de Satan (Under the Sun of Satan) has finally gotten the video release it deserves, courtesy of the Masters of Cinema crew. It makes a very fitting closer to the concern’s brilliantly executed Pialat series, which I covered in various Foreign Region DVD Reports and individual features at The Auteurs’ Notebook. And today I give the devil his due, so to speak.
wow. over two days and no comments for Pialat. Under the Sun of Satan has been one of my most rewatched VHS tapes in the DVD era. anyone without a major appreciation for Depardieu need only watch his Pialat films. U.S. release of this Pialat series would help to get more on board.
I’m glad to learn of this. I saw it at a 10am press screening in 1987 and (I think) drifted in and out of consciousness so that I wasn’t sure what was the movie and what was a dream. The truth is, I am rarely fully awake until afternoon… or sundown. I have always wanted to give it another shot.
I’ve been buying the MoC Pialats when I can afford to – so many DVDs, so little cash – and so far the series has been incredible, with “La Guele Ouverte” the highlight for me.
Its incredibly exciting to discover a director whose films feel utterly unique and unlike anybody elses. The fact that he doesn’t enjoy a reputation similar to some of his French peers is baffling…