Cold Water 08/19 Blu-ray (Rental)

Long unavailable, Olivier Assayas’s deeply felt coming-of-age drama Cold Water has until now been a missing link in one of contemporary cinema’s richest bodies of work. Drawing from his own youthful experiences, Assayas revisits the outskirts of Paris in the early 1970s, telling the story of teenage lovers Gilles (Cyprien Fouquet) and Christine (Virginie Ledoyen), whose rebellions against family and society threaten to tear them apart. The visceral realism of the movie’s narrative and the near experimentalism of its camera work come together effortlessly thanks to a rock soundtrack that vividly evokes the period. With one of the most memorable party sequences ever committed to film as a centerpiece, Cold Water is a heartbreaking immersion in the emotional tumult of being young. DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Olivier Assayas, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack • New interview with Assayas • New interview with cinematographer Denis Lenoir • Excerpt from a 1994 French television program on the film featuring Assayas and actors Virginie Ledoyen and Cyprien Fouquet • New English subtitle translation • PLUS: An essay by critic Girish Shambu