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Servais, a reporter and photographer, meets Nadine Chevalier, an actress who is forced to earn her living by accepting roles unworthy of her real talent. She is married to Jacques, a delightful sort of disenchanted clown who runs away from the realities of life. Nadine and Servais soon discover how important their encounter was and neither one of them wants to dismiss it as a mere fling... ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI'S L'important C'est D'er (The Important Thing Is To Love) is a film of dishevelled lyricism, bursting with noise and anger; an insane storm-tainted flamboyant opera; a visual symphony with apocalyptic emphasis featuring sleaze-bags, clowns, drop-outs, wimps, bastards, and "puppet shows depicting lives of complete scoundrels" and "ruined careers". Where some people will see nothing but a graphic canvas of pain, horror and a bloody parade of violence, others who analyze the darkness will see a call for compassion. This is the story of a fragile woman, Nadine Chevalier, who supports her failure-obsessed companion to the bitter end, and who meets a photographer weighed down by remorse. This vibrant & captivating cinema of art, music and sound is down to the genius of Zulawski, and his and sentimental power of evocation, which together create something which reflects the deep and perhaps unconfessed anxiety inside every one of us. It is, as Dostoyevsky said at the end of Crime and Punishment , "the story of a generation". AWARDS: César Awards, France Best Actress: Romy Schneider NOMINATIONS: César Awards, France Best Editing: Christiane Lack Best Production Design: Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko DVD CONTENTS: MONDO VISION presents the first ever North American release of Andrzej Zulawski's 3rd film L'important C'est D'er (The Important Thing Is To Love, 1975) in a gorgeous new transfer UNCUT & Fully Uncensored with all new English Subtitles Supervised & Approved By Director Andrzej Zulawski. * Digitally Restored High Definition Transfer Mastered For Progressive Scan * Feature Length Audio Commentary With Director Andrzej Zulawski And Writer Daniel Bird * Video Interview With Director Andrzej Zulawski * Remastering: Before & After * Theatrical Trailer * Image Gallery * 24-page Booklet Featuring a Newly-Written Essay by Daniel Bird * Case Type: Digipak with Hardcover Slipcase TECHNICAL NOTES: L'Important C'est D'er is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and original Mono French soundtrack as intended by Andrzej Zulawski. After evaluating the quality of the provided materials, Mondo Vision cooperated with Director Andrzej Zulawski to return the film to its original appearance as closely as possible. In addition to color correction, many instances of dirt, dust and scratches have been painstakingly removed by hand. Simply put, the film has never looked this good since its theatrical premier in 1975! 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. Audio: * Original French 2.0 Mono * English Dub (Optional) * German Dub (Optional) Subtitles: English (Optional) Available in White & Yellow Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Anamorphic Widescreen UPC: 837654037904 Catalog#: MVSE002 Review ------ Zulawski hasn't let himself get locked into stereotypes and his work as a director contradicts the subject in question and drives the story to the beyond , a place where the s come off and fall into streams of blood, in a story of hard blows and downward spirals full of dirt and misery, with its characters lost in a sticky, nocturnal whirlwind... All of the starting elements go off at tangents and join back together to create a spectacular crisis, which is what this film (and the idea of cinema itself) is all about. --Noèl Simsolo - Écran 75, March 1975. Andrzej Zulawski has appeared, at thirty four years of age, as one of the greatest directors discovered in many years. Not only is he one of the most personal, but also one of the most competent at expressing and mastering his visions. He s one of the most pessimistic, and also one of the most conscious and most crazy. He s sometimes even one of the most distant and one of the most ironic. His love songs and death chants along with his obsession of the apocalypse lead neither to an abstract metaphysical frenzy nor a flat sense of misery. They find a balance (if a little over-the-top in parts), where all its deliriousness comes together in an organized way, like all true artistic deliriousness. --Frédéric Vitoux - Positif, Feb 1975. Zulawski takes his story to arms and knocks hard. No let-up, no pause. Everything here is violence, rage and scorn. The colours are black, ochre, the murky green of swamps and the wine-coloured red of dried blood. The secondary characters actors, layoffs, body guards create a sinister and beastly representation of mankind. Even the music seems aggressive. One may be irritated by the view Zulawski has taken, his sordid taste and his will to create discomfort, but it s impossible to deny the strength of his direction. --Jean de Baroncelli - Le Monde, Feb 1975. P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); About the Director ------------------ Andrzej Zulawski was born on the territory of what was then the U.S.S.R. in a Polish family with remarkable traditions in arts and literature. After World War II, his her's diplomatic career brought the family to France (1945-1949), Czechoslovakia (1949-1952), and finally to Poland. He studied film direction at IDHEC in Paris (1957-1959) and philosophy at both Warsaw University (1961) and Université de Paris (1962-1964). First, he assisted the famous Polish director Andrzej Wajda during the filming of Samson (1961), Popioly (The Ashes, 1966), and the Warsaw episode of L'Amour à Vingt Ans (Love At Twenty, 1962). In 1967, Zulawski directed two short films, Piesn Triumfujacej Milosci (The Story Of Triumphant Love); and Pavoncello, for Polish TV. His feature debut, Trzecia Czesc Nocy (The Third Part Of The Night, 1971), as well as those previous films were co-scripted by his her, poet Miroslaw Zulawski. The picture was well received at the Venice Film Festival and awarded as the Best Debut in its homeland, but had only limited release due to Polish censorship. Zulawski's next feature, Diabel (The Devil, 1972), was outright banned and not released until 1988. The same happened to his next Polish project, Na Srebrnym Globie (The Silver Globe, 1977/1987). After he finished about 80 percent of the shooting, the authorities ordered him to abandon the picture and to destroy all related materials. Only in 1987 did he manage to complete the film from spare footage, using voice-over commentary for the missing parts. Since the late '70s, Zulawski has lived and worked mostly in France, during which time he developed a knack for showcasing his actresses' talents. L'Important C'est D'er (The Important Thing Is To Love, 1975) brought its star, Romy Schneider, a Cesar (French O) as did Possession (1981) to Isabelle Adjani. He then found his muse in young actress Sophie Marceau who would star in four of his films; they were married for 17 years and have a son together named Vincent. He briefly returned to Poland where he made Szamanka (She-Shaman, 1996). Being a maverick who always defied mainstream commerm, Zulawski enjoyed success mostly with the European art-house audiences. His wild, imaginative, and controversial pictures have received 16 awards at various international film festivals. Zulawski has written over 25 books including the accled novels Il était Un Verger, Lity Bór (a.k.a: La Forêt Forteresse), V Oczach Tygrysa, and Ogród Milosci. See more ( javascript:void(0) )