Réjeanne Padovani

Details

This listing is for the standard edition Blu-ray. The limited edition slipcover was limited to 1,000 units and is sold out. The two versions are identical, aside from the slipcover.

From arthouse to Canuxploitation, Canadian International Pictures (CIP) is devoted to resurrecting vital, distinctive, and overlooked triumphs of Canadian cinema. This label is focused on the country’s original cinematic boom years – spanning the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s – occasionally venturing past that period (and the country’s borders) to highlight the films of Canada’s most inspired actors and filmmakers. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing CIP's brand new line of home video releases! 

50th anniversary special edition!

Montreal mafioso Vincent Padovani (Tadpole and the Whale’s Jean Lajeunesse) has spent years building a diversified crime empire fronted by “legitimate” business interests and sustained through illicit political connections. Having secured a much-publicized government contract for his thriving construction company, Vincent is throwing an opulent private dinner to thank his many co-conspirators, including the Mayor of Montreal (Blind Trust’s René Caron) and a host of other highly placed powerbrokers. But when the evening is thrown wildly off course – by press at the door, a looming construction protest, and the sudden reappearance of Padovani’s estranged wife Réjeanne (Dirty Money’s Luce Guilbeault) – the mob enforcers and corrupt cops that serve Vincent are called into action for a long and bloody night’s work.

Three decades before winning the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for The Barbarian Invasions, Denys Arcand started his fiction filmmaking career with an informal trilogy (Dirty Money, Réjeanne Padovani, and Gina) that remains the high-water mark for Canadian crime cinema. Powered by an all-star Quebecois cast – many playing thinly veiled versions of real-life politicians and gangsters – Réjeanne Padovani is a grand, gloriously acidic indictment of the pervasive corruption that infiltrated all corners of ’70s Quebec. Mixing the upstairs-downstairs satire of The Rules of the Game with the mafia intrigue of The Godfather, this is one of Canada’s sharpest and most incriminating cinematic self-portraits.

directed by: Denys Arcand
starring: Jean Lajeunesse, Luce Guilbeault, J. Léo Gagnon, Thérèse Cadorette, René Caron, Hélène Loiselle, Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, Frédérique Collin, Roger Lebel, Céline Lomez, Paule Baillargeon, Gabriel Arcand
1973 / 94 min / 1.78:1 / French DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray
• Newly scanned and restored in 2K from the 35mm original camera negative by Éléphant - mémoire du cinéma québécois with sound transferred and restored from the original magnetic final mix and optical track
• Audio commentary featuring author and professor Anthony Kinik
• Shooting Réjeanne (2023, 24 min.) – New interview with director Denys Arcand
• New audio interviews with cast members Gabriel Arcand (10 min.), Paule Baillargeon (11 min.), and Céline Lomez (23 min.)
• Trailers for Arcand’s Dirty Money (1972), Réjeanne Padovani (1973), and Gina (1975)
• Booklet featuring a new interview with author Peter Edwards (The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime)
• Reversible cover artwork
• Alternate English language audio track
• English SDH subtitles