THIS ITEM IS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR PAYMENT WILL BE TAKEN IMMEDIATELY, AND THAT THE ITEM WILL BE DISPATCHED JUST BEFORE THE LISTED RELEASE DATE.

SHOULD YOU ORDER ANY OF THE ALREADY RELEASED ITEMS FROM OUR CATALOGUE AT THE SAME TIME AS THIS PRE-ORDER ITEM, PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR PURCHASES WILL ALL BE SHIPPED TOGETHER WHEN THIS PRE-ORDER ITEM BECOMES AVAILABLE.

PLEASE PLACE A SEPARATE ORDER FOR PRE-ORDERS IF YOU WISH TO HAVE IN-STOCK ITEMS SHIPPED SOONER.

Série noire

In the dilapidated Parisian suburbs, a down-onhis-luck door-to-door salesman (Patrick Dewaere, Themroc) is appalled when a potential customer casually pimps out her teenage niece (Marie Trintingant) to him in exchange for a dressing gown. Enraged, he becomes determined to set the girl free by any means necessary, providing a catalyst for a spiral of escalating violence, robbery, and murder. Serie Noire, co-written by Corneau and novelist Georges Perec and based on Jim Thompson’s novel A Hell of a Woman, is regarded as possibly the best screen realisation of Thompson’s uniquely bleak and gruesomely comic noir aesthetic, powered by an infamously physical and committed lead performance from Dewaere.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• High definition digital transfer

• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  
  
• Interviews with Alain Corneau, Patrick Dewaere and Miriam Boyer from Belgian Television (1981, 11 mins)
  
  
• Série noire: The Darkness of the Soul - An archival documentary featuring cast and crew on the making of the film (2013, 53 mins)
  
• Archival interview with Alain Corneau and Marie Trintignant (2002, 29 mins)
  
  
• A Hollyhock in a Cornfield - A visual essay about Jim Thompson adaptations for the screen by Paul Martinovic (2024, 30 mins)
  
  
• Trailer
  
  

• Newly improved English subtitle translation

Série noire is also available in USA/Canada from our partners MVD, Diabolik, Orbit, Grindhouse, Rough Cut Canada and others

Year: 1979
Country: France
Cert: 15
Format: Blu-ray
Region: AB
RAD098BD
EAN: 5060974681891
Release date: 20/07/2026

Press for Série noire:

"The film’s greatest achievement as a monumentally misanthropic film noir is embracing Thompson’s playful sense of spite" - Slant

"Alain Corneau and screenwriter Georges Perec display as strong a feel for the novelist’s bleak worldview as can be found in the many films derived from his work. An enticingly nasty little crime film… ripe for rediscovery" - Hollywood Reporter

"A satisfying slice of sleaze served up on celluloid, Série Noire is a deliciously good watch." - Film Inquiry