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| mo_flixx |
 Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:49 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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gromit wrote: A 7 film/7 disc Sirk box set for £9 from Amazon UK. Don't know what the shipping charge is or the quality of this set, but seems hard to go wrong for the price.
Scroll down and read the viewer comment. It doesn't sound worth it to me. Poor quality - cheap price. Shipping is 3 pounds.
A better buy to me looks like the 11-disc Powell and Pressburger box set. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:19 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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| So why hasn't there been a Jeanette McDonald DVD set? We keep having to track down used VHS copies. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:39 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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mo_flixx wrote: gromit wrote: A 7 film/7 disc Sirk box set for £9 from Amazon UK. Don't know what the shipping charge is or the quality of this set, but seems hard to go wrong for the price.
Scroll down and read the viewer comment. It doesn't sound worth it to me. Poor quality - cheap price. Shipping is 3 pounds.
A better buy to me looks like the 11-disc Powell and Pressburger box set.
Well, if you have a few hours, I can direct you to a lengthy and contentious discussion about the proper aspect ratio for Magnificent Obsession. The one Amazon reviewer was heavily involved in the beginning of the internet brawl. Basically, the studio was pushing the new widescreen format and the film was composed in both Academy and widescreen ratios. Long argument short, the fisticuffs occur over which was the primary staging and which properly reflects Sirk's art and intent. I wouldn't let that deter anyone, as I don't believe a 1.37:1 Academy ratio MO is available anywhere (and I'm pretty sure Criterion is releasing this in 2.00:1.
Otherwise it seems the transfer of one or more films is a bit soft, but that you get decent prints for a rock bottom price (it was selling for 10x the current price, so wasn't intended as a total cheapie set).
Anyway, I'm just alerting folks, but have no need to order DVd's to China. But $20 total for 7 Sirks (or whatever the exchange rate is) sounds like a deal to me. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:34 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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I don't think I've ever seen a film so impossibly abstruse as Claire Denis' "The Intruder." I've admired her work ever since her first film "Chocolat."
"The Intruder" has an sense of impending doom about it, a remarkable score by Stuart Staples (whose work includes "The Sopranos"), and juxtaposes the cold dark forests of the France/Swiss border area with contrasting sinister locales in the Far East: Korea and Tahiti. The cinematography captures the essence of these places.
Lead Michel Subor presents the right degree of mystery to this role. I see that he starred in Godard's "Le Petit Soldat" as Forestier and played a character of the same name in Denis' "Beau Travail."
All the while, I watched fascinated...but was never quite sure what this film was about.
It took watching the extra with Claire Denis before I realized the full meaning of the title and could piece together this enigmatic story.
Has anyone else seen it? Did anyone else have better luck with figuring it out?
I do recommend the film, but it will require some patience. |
Last edited by mo_flixx on Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 7:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Nancy wrote: So why hasn't there been a Jeanette McDonald DVD set? We keep having to track down used VHS copies.
I was wondering that myself. Part of the problem is likely that the operettas she did at MGM (excepting the first: The Merry Widow) don't have the same cultural cache as the Astaire-Rogers RKO pics or the Busby Berkeley Warner Bros. backstagers. MacDonald's later work tends to be considered kitsch.
She really wanted the role of Anna in the movie of The King and I. Part of me wishes she got it. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 10:20 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Joe Vitus wrote: She really wanted the role of Anna in the movie of The King and I. Part of me wishes she got it.
Hunh! That would've been interesting... although I would've thought that the producers would've found her too old by then. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:48 pm |
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Location: Houston
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| Probably, but she was likely the same age as Gertrude Lawrence, who created the role. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 12:12 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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| Both Lawrence and McDonald would have been too old for the movie. And even with dubbing, I loved Deborah Kerr in the role. Indeed, I don't know when I've loved a dubbed role as much. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 12:31 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| Olivier Assayas' Boarding Gate confirms that 2008 was the year of Asia Argento. And if Michael Madsen gets any cooler he'll singlehandedly reverse global warming. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 12:43 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Just watched Michael Clayton for the third time. This is a movie that just keeps getting better and better. Now that I've seen No Country for Old Men and Zodiac again, Michael Clayton more and more seems like the best film of 2007. (It tied with Zodiac for the Blanche.) |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:06 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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'07 was a good year for foreign films.
The Romanian explosion
(4 mo., 3 d., 2 hrs ... The Paper Will Be Blue ... California Dreamin' ... 12:08 East of Bucharest).
The Lives of Others
2 Days in Paris
This is England
I've been meaning to re-watch 2 Days in Paris and Waitress. Might give Michael Clayton another go, if I can unearth the disc.
As for American films, I preferred those Health Class favorites Sicko and Juno. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:22 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Rod wrote: Olivier Assayas' Boarding Gate confirms that 2008 was the year of Asia Argento. And if Michael Madsen gets any cooler he'll singlehandedly reverse global warming.
Agree about "Boarding Gate" and Argento who was also in this year's "The Last Mistress." |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:48 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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mo_flixx wrote: Agree about "Boarding Gate" and Argento who was also in this year's "The Last Mistress."
Yes. Hence my calling it the year of Asia Argento (and also, by all accounts, The Mother of Tears).
I watched Michael Clayton again the day before yesterday. Admired George Clooney's performance more than ever, and realised how much Tilda Swinton did with a nothing part. Less impressed with Tom Wilkinson, who more or less phones his part in with some of his stock stunts. Apart from that my opinion is unchanged - it tries to touch too many familiar bases under its glaze of artful alienation. I watched it with my dad, who agreed that it could have been great, and doesn't make it. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 9:08 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Agree that Swinton was amazing, but the role was not "nothing." She was the major antagonist in a gripping melodrama. But given that, she added incredible depth to what could have been, I will agree, a "two-dimensional" part.
Wilkinson may have traded on his accent and his built-in mania, but that doesn't detract from the fact that he was perfect for the role.
As for the movie's "greatness," there are so few truly great movies that I don't consider this a problem. It was at the very least superb. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 9:43 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Rod wrote: mo_flixx wrote: Agree about "Boarding Gate" and Argento who was also in this year's "The Last Mistress."
Yes. Hence my calling it the year of Asia Argento (and also, by all accounts, The Mother of Tears).
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Didn't realize that "Mother of Tears" was part of the trio. I rented it recently. I saw BG and TLM in theaters in 2008. The imdb.com lists as all 3 as 2007 releases.
I think it will be a few years before Argento picks up an Oscar however. She's a little too over-the-top for most Academy members. |
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