(John Frankenheimer, 1973)
Release date: 23 January 2024
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World premiere)
Directed by John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate), Impossible Object (also released as Story of a Love Story) is a surreal drama starring Alan Bates (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg), Michel Auclair (The Day of the Jackal), Dominique Sanda (The Conformist), and Lea Massari (L’avventura).
Harry (Bates), a British author living in France with his wife and family, begins an affair with Natalie (Sanda), who herself is unhappily married to Georges (Auclair). However, Harry is unable to untangle the facts of his life from the fictions which he creates, and the line between fantasy and reality become blurred.
Adapted by Nicholas Mosley (Accident) from his own Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, photographed by Claude Renoir (Barbarella), and scored by Michel Legrand (Eve), Impossible Object is a long-overlooked classic of seventies European cinema.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
- New 4K restoration
- Two presentations of the film: Impossible Object, the original French theatrical cut (113 mins); and Story of a Love Story, the alternative English-language international cut (104 mins)
- Original mono audio
- Audio commentary with film expert Tim Lucas (2024)
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Interview with John Frankenheimer (1973): extract from the French television programme Cinéma à, in which the director discusses the first public screening of Impossible Object
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Stories of a Love Story (2024): video comparison analysing the differences between the two versions of the film
- Image gallery: publicity and promotional material
- Newly translated English subtitles for the French theatrical cut
- New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English-language international cut
- Limited edition exclusive 36-page booklet with a new essay by Adam Scovell, a new appreciation by experimental artist and record producer Russell Haswell, a look at the work of Nicholas Mosley and the themes of the source novel, excerpts from John Frankenheimer interviews, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
- World premiere on Blu-ray
- Limited edition of 4,000 copies for the UK and US
