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The Fire Within (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

Maurice Ronet (Actor), Jeanne Moreau (Actor) Rated:
NR
Format: DVD
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 32 ratings
IMDb7.8/10.0
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DVD
May 13, 2008
The Criterion Collection
1
—
— $27.88
Genre Drama
Format Multiple Formats, Restored, Widescreen, NTSC, Black & White, Dolby, Subtitled
Contributor Hubert Deschamps, Ursula Kubler, Jeanne Moreau, René Dupré, Maurice Ronet, Francois Gragnon, Mona Dol See more
Language French
Runtime 1 hour and 48 minutes
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Product Description

After garnering international acclaim for such seminal crowd-pleasers as The Lovers and Zazie dans le métro, Louis Malle gave his fans a shock with The Fire Within (Le feu follet), a penetrating study of individual and social inertia. Maurice Ronet (Elevator to the Gallows), in an implosive, haunted performance, plays Alain Leroy, a self-destructive writer who resolves to kill himself and spends the next twenty-four hours trying to reconnect with a host of wayward friends. Unsparing in its portrait of Alain s inner turmoil and shot with remarkable clarity, The Fire Within is one of Malle's darkest and most personal films.

Special Features
* - New, restored high-definition digital transfer
* - Archival interviews with director Louis Malle and actor Maurice Ronet
* - Malle's Fire Within, a new video program featuring interviews with actor Alexandra Stewart and filmmakers Philippe Collin and Volker Schlöndorff
* - Jusqu'au 23 Juillet, a 2005 documentary short about the film and its source novel Le feu follet, by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, featuring actor Mathieu Amalric, writer Didier Daeninckx, and Cannes festival curator Pierre-Henri Deleau
* - New and improved English subtitle translation
* - PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by critic Michel Ciment and film historian Peter Cowie

Product details

  • Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.66:1
  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 ounces
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ CRRN1750DVD
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, Restored, Widescreen, NTSC, Black & White, Dolby, Subtitled
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 48 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ May 13, 2008
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Maurice Ronet, Jeanne Moreau, Hubert Deschamps, Mona Dol, René Dupré
  • Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
  • Language ‏ : ‎ French (Dolby Digital 2.0)
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Criterion Collection
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00152VXU8
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
32 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jenifer Lynne
5.0 out of 5 stars Bleak but Beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
A difficult film to review, but one other person here included riveting in their review. If I had only one word to describe this movie, that would be it. I went into it knowing how it would end, and I still found myself gasping at the final act. I am not familiar with the director or the actors, but they all combine to create a compelling story that centers around one man’s struggle with depression, alcoholism, and loneliness. It’s been 4 months since his last drink, he’s deemed cured by his doctor, and now he must tangle with the demons quieted by alcohol. I also view it as an effective microcosm of the overarching sense of existential dread that faces a person when they realize they can’t supplicate themselves with career, family, drugs, money, or even love. Isn’t that what’s keeping everyone around him intact while he unravels in front of them? Before viewing this, I thought “Melancholia” was the best representation of depression ever put on film. I have much to reconsider. They are such different films in terms of plot, atmosphere, and the protagonist’s control of their fate, but each captures that sense of “this is who I am” and how lonely and isolating depression can be.
2 people found this helpful
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John G. Waite
1.0 out of 5 stars I was unable to access the main menu
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2021
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I was able to view it because my Frence is not good enough to view it without English subtitles
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amorfortuna2
5.0 out of 5 stars Searching, poetic masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2011
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My favorite of many brilliant Louis Malle films. This film is poetic. The dialogue is deep and searching as the main character weaves through the streets of his alcoholic 20's. It is relatable in that many go through a time of vigor and drinking and partying and excess and women or men and somewhere around 25-30 the party is over and its time for family and career, etc. The difference is he found himself alone at this age after years of excess and failed relationships. He doesn't understand the world and it doesn't understand him. What is left for him- he asking throughout, what is there to for someone of his character and delicate temperament. Through whispers and hints, we see glimpses of what he was like when he seemed to own the city. This idea of his former self is fascinating and certainly tragic. Maurice Ronet is very real on the screen- very much alive and heartbreaking. Worth seeing at least twice. Also, check out Malle's  Murmur of the Heart (The Criterion Collection)  for a completely different but incredible movie.
7 people found this helpful
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N. Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars French film scores!
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2008
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Even though apparently aged, black and white, and treatment, this film packs a wallop. Timeless themes and beautifully filmed. Definitely not your Hollywood movie, and not a cheerful one either.
4 people found this helpful
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M. Mara
5.0 out of 5 stars Malle's Best!
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2019
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Usually when a film is a classic masterpiece, I don't bother to review it because it already has hundreds of five-star ratings. But it doesn't seem like many viewers on Amazon Prime have seen this work of art. Malle was a brilliant director and I think this is his best film. It is certainly my favorite by him and one of my favorites in general. A writer is going to kill himself but first he tries to connect with old friends. It is a bleak film. Beautifully filmed. You won't forget this movie. Highest recommendation.
One person found this helpful
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Thomas A. Hanson
2.0 out of 5 stars Overrated, pretentious, ultimately vapid.
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019
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About one hundred minutes of self-pity, acted well, filmed effectively, yet marred by constant pseudo-intellectual claptrap. Anyone who compares this movie to some of the masterpieces of French literature has a very different set of aesthetic values from mine. Movies that attempt to do what literature does are doomed to fail. Malle went on to direct some of my favorite films, and this one has been justly overshadowed by his many successful productions.
One person found this helpful
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MarkusG
5.0 out of 5 stars Spleen
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2008
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Very enchanting film well worth watching several times. Not as depressing as it sounds, it is about an ex-alcoholic, tired of life and/or unable to connect with other humans, visiting the friends who he used to party with for a last time. Beautiful shots, interesting characters, superb acting (also, Jeanne Moreau appears for a few minutes), Paris in the summer. All to the sound of Satie's Gymnopedie...
8 people found this helpful
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mkinla
5.0 out of 5 stars masterpiece by Malle
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017
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This brilliant B&W film by the extraordinary French director Louis Malle is from 1963, not 2017 as stated by Amazon. One of Malle's best and also one of the best film's from a period of time when many masterpieces were made.
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