Region 4 Winners and Losers

   A Man Escaped has been released in Region 1 by New Yorker in the United States with only a trailer for an extra and a poor PAL/NTSC conversion. The Region 2 United Kingdom release by Artificial Eye has an identical video and audio transfer to the Directors Suite Region 4 release, but it contains a 54-minute documentary about Bresson's work which includes commentary from leading filmmakers such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Louis Malle and Paul Schrader. This documentary is an excellent account of Bresson's filmography up to the time it was made in 1984 (Bresson retired from filmmaking after the 1983 feature, L'Argent) and looks at specifically Bresson's unique cinematic style. The Region 4 Directors Suite release contains a good commentary by Ross Gibson, so it is up to the preference of the viewer whether they prefer the Region 2 or Region 4 versions of A Man Escaped.