Time to Play: Films by Jacques Rozier

One of the most original, self-assured, yet undersung voices of the French New Wave, Jacques Rozier crafted across a career spanning five decades a cinema attuned to the beauty and heartbreak of chance encounters, improvised days and spontaneous play. This box set presents the UK Blu-ray premiere of his five feature films and several of his short films across five discs.

In Adieu Philippine (1962), two girls and a young man spend an idyllic few days in Corsica, his upcoming military service in Algeria looming on the horizon. Also abandoning Paris for the seaside, three girlfriends enjoy a languorous late summer break in Near Orouët (1971). A promised Robinson Crusoe experience in the Caribbean turns into something much more chaotic in The Castaways of Turtle Island (1976). Maine-Ocean Express (1986) follows strangers on a wild adventure across the language barrier. In the backstage comedy Fifi Martingale (2001), a superstitious theatre director makes catastrophic changes to a successful play.

BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION BOX SET SPECIAL FEATURES

4K restorations of Near Orouët and Maine-Ocean Express
2K restorations of Adieu Philippine, The Castaways of Turtle Island, and Fifi Martingale
2K restorations of the short films Blue Jeans (1958, 24 mins), Paparazzi (1963, 22 mins), Le parti des choses (1963, 11 mins), and Lettre de la Sierra Morena (1983, 22 mins)
Uncompressed mono PCM audio for Adieu Philippine and The Castaways of Turtle Island, original mono DTS-HD audio for Near Orouët and Maine-Ocean Express and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio for Fifi Martingale
Film scholar Catherine Wheatley and UK arthouse distributor Robert Beeson on the reception of the French New Wave in the UK (2026, 26 mins)
Archival French trailer for Adieu Philippine (1962, 7 mins)
Interview with Adieu Philippine star Yveline Céry (2024, 11 mins)
Interview with Jean-François Stévenin, assistant director on Near Orouët (2008, 9 mins)
Interview with frequent Rozier collaborator, actor Bernard Ménez (2008, 19 mins)
Interview with The Castaways of Turtle Island star Jacques Villeret (2008, 7 mins)
Jacques Rozier: From One Wave to Another - a feature length documentary by Emmanuel Barnault tracing Rozier’s unusual career and his lasting influence, rich in interviews and footage of the director at work; exclusive to this Limited Edition (2024, 63 mins)
Newly improved English subtitle translation for each film
Reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition 80-page book featuring new writing by Caitlin Quinlan, plus writing by and interviews with Rozier
Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Year: 1962-2001
Country: France
Cert: 15
Format: Blu-ray
Region: B
RAD167BDLE
EAN: 5060974683314
Release date: 20/04/26

Press:

“Anyone who has not seen Yveline Céry dancing cha-cha while looking straight at the audience [in Adieu Philippine] should not be allowed to talk about cinema on the Croisette.” – Jean-Luc Godard

On Adieu Philippine
"The film's mighty originality - in its drama, tone, methods, images, dialogue, performance, and political audacity - is both immensely inspiring to other filmmakers … it's a film that belongs to its historical moment but also reflects it from the outside like a magnifying mirror - and these qualities suggest the manifold, elusive nature of Rozier's art." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"A miracle, filmed with intelligence, love and enormous scrupulosity and delicacy" - Télérama

“It’s my new favourite French New Wave film.” - Richard Linklater

On Near Orouët
"With his blend of delicate understatement and raucous spontaneity, Rozier may be the most secretly influential director of the era." - The New Yorker

On The Castaways of Turtle Island
"Stunning, an art of everyday zaniness which had no equivalent at the time - and still has none" - Libération

On Maine-Ocean Express
"What French cinema has produced that is craziest, funniest and most poetic since the death of Jacques Tati" - Le Monde

On Fifi Martingale
"In the manner of Renoir's cinema" - Le Cahiers du Cinéma

“I don’t want to be part of the norm, maybe that’s a bit prideful.” – Jacques Rozier

“The script is a proposal. The act of creation occurs at the moment of filming. Therefore, I consider that as a filmmaker, when one has written a script, one has done nothing.” – Jacques Rozier

Arthouse

Time to Play: Films by Jacques Rozier (LE)