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