Sundays And Cybele

"Sundays and Cybele" is a French movie made in the early 60s, the era of the New Wave. However, its approach is far removed from that of director Serge Bourguignon's New Wave peers: His story, about a traumatized war veteran who befriends a local young girl, much to the consternation of those around him, is more like a melancholic fairy tale than a work of formal radicalism.

It's a film out of time: A gentle, humanistic lament for the plight of the marginalized released in a era defined by much more experimental forms of rebellion. That's its greatest strength, as well as the likely explanation for why it has never been celebrated in the way other 60s French films have been. It's a humanistic film, alive and awake to the pains that come with making a connection that society deems illicit; unlucky enough to have been released in an era where films were trying to get as far away from humanism as possible.

There is one thing that it shares with its New Wave brethren, though: Luscious, transporting cinematography. Bourguignon and his cinematographer's photography transform the streets and byways of Paris into a labyrinth of inexpressible possibilities, paying special attention to park benches, street corners, and the dimly lit possibilities that lay in the frame beyond them. Criterion's latest high definition release of the film maintains a texture that is surely true to the original 35mm release: The detail on the numerous close-ups (even one of our protagonist while he's up in his plane during wartime) is astounding, the contours of each face rendered with grainy clarity, right down to the stubble.

Criterion's Blu-ray release, in addition to the stunning transfer, comes packed with contextualizing extra features. There's an interview with Bourguignon, running almost a half-hour long, where he discusses both "Sunday" and his other work in the cinema. He even discusses why his work seems to have become marginalized in the ensuing decades, suggesting that the dislike of his work by his contemporary French peers (cinematic giants like Truffaut and Godard) cast him into an unwanted exile. There are some other features included, as well: A theatrical trailer, and two interviews with the film's stars.

The final extra included is a lauded short film by Bourguignon, entitled "Le Sourire." There's hardly any dialogue in the short, which helps it to conjure up the same sort of realist-fairy-tale tone by which "Sundays" is characterized. Bourguignon wasn't able to work much -- he has only a few feature films to his name -- and the inclusion of this short hardly qualifies this disc as a "box set" or anything like that. But having these two works on hand prove him to have been a film artist whose works are well worth our time and attention. "Sundays and Cybele" was never lost, but with this new release, it -- and Bourguignon -- are ready to be found.

"Sundays and Cybele"
Blu-ray
Criterion.com
$39.95