JonasEB
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Posts posted by JonasEB
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I'm either not interested in what's in theaters or anything I would be interested in seeing isn't available in my town.
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20th Century Fox has had a couple of disastrous vault fires over the years The victims were primarily pre-merger Fox Film Corporation titles, so good prints of a film like this are going to be hard to come by. We're lucky to have this film in the shape that it is in. The overall quality of the image though (contrast, detail) isn't any different from any other early talkie.
The fascinating thing about Up the River is that it started out as a prison drama but was changed into a comedy after The Big House came out. This is tonally all over the place and its movement from prison film to vaudeville show to social dramedy to sporting event bring Ford's vignette approach and comedic tendencies to a new level. Here it's a bit of a mess but he'll sort it all out by the time of the Will Rogers comedies.
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> {quote:title=TheCid wrote:}{quote}
> BTW, how many silent movies were made after sound was introduced? None and there is a reason for that.
City Lights and Tabu, both from 1931, both among the best and most enduring films of that year.
The end of the silent cinema had absolutely nothing to do with artistry.
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Looks like my original post was deleted for no apparent reason...
> {quote:title=TheCid wrote:}{quote}
> TCM has had marathons of nothing but foreign movies during the day and prime time. Classic example was the Japanese movie marathon recently.
That was one full day marathon and full night time programming once each week for the duration of one month.
You are aware that TCM shows thousands of unique films every year and that these Kurosawa films, celebrating the centennial of one of the most famous directors of all time, only made up 26 of these films? And you are aware that foreign language films, like silents, usually only occupy 4-6 spots on each month's schedule?
It's absolutely ludicrous that someone would complain in light of these facts.
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Please, TCM, never listen to anyone who foolishly dismisses silents.
November has been spectacular. I'd like to see as many silents as we've had this month on the schedule every single month.
> {quote:title=kinokima wrote:}{quote}
>You know what I am sick of I am sick of people complaining. So you don't like silents big deal. There are a lot of films TCM plays that I am not interested in. However I am not selfish and I don't put up threads complaining about things I don't like because I know other people do.
AMEN.
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> {quote:title=TheCid wrote:}{quote}
> Silent movie marathons during the day and prime time. Foreign language marathons during day and prime time. I don't watch any of these.
> When the above are being shown, I don't watch TCM at all. I switch to Fox Movie Classics, AMC, etc.
Well, there's no accounting for bad taste...
TCM usually only shows foreign language and silent fare round midnight on Sundays. Except for the Kurosawa tribute earlier this year there hasn't been another day long marathon of foreign language films within the last year - that's a couple of day long marathons next to the thousands of films TCM has shown in this year long period. We usually don't get much more than four to six silents a month. Silents still make up only about 10% of November's entire schedule.
I don't care if you don't like silent films. Anyone who doesn't appreciate the silent period simply doesn't understand cinema at all.
> {quote:title=Big Bopper wrote:}{quote}
> TCM is narrow minded on this topic. They have a problem showing them. They want to avoid controversy. By being gutless. I suppose the lazy cutter/filmlover tcm apologists will crawl out of the woodwork now. where's my can of raid?
There are lots of films TCM doesn't show. The evidence doesn't suggest they have a problem showing those films simply because they're soviet propaganda. Outside of the Melies package TCM hasn't shown any prominent French silents in the last couple of years. The upcoming Ozu silents must be the first Japanese films of the era in many years. Victor Sjostrom's Phantom Carriage has been the only Swedish silent in the last few years. In fact it appears that a larger number of Russian silents have aired on TCM over the last few years than any other European country (with the possible exception of Germany.)
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Gagman, Intolerance is on in December. Do you have any idea which version TCM is likely to show? Is there any chance it could be the Photoplay version? I assume that it, like their excellent edition of The Birth of a Nation, is the best restoration of the film.
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> {quote:title=MyFavoriteFilms wrote:}{quote}
> I don't think this film has revolutionary camera techniques.
> The camera is stationary for 98% of the shots. Only in one sequence, did he move the camera to give us a panoramic view of fighting on the battlefield.
> In every other instance, the actors and animals came into the camera view. The entire thing, interiors (especially) and exteriors were very stagey.
Have you watched the other silents TCM has aired over the past couple of weeks? You see the progression quite clearly and if we compare The Birth of a Nation to the first film of Monday night, Traffic in Souls, it's entirely clear that The Birth of a Nation and Griffith are far more advanced and sophisticated. Griffith's use of long shots, medium shots, and closeups, the variety of his set ups in general, his blocking in the frame, the spacial qualities of the sets, etc. Griffith's performers contain more personality and individual focus within the narrative. Moving camera was difficult to pull off at this time and wherever it appears it is quite effective (and there is more of it than the panoramic view of the battlefield.) A lack of camera movement doesn't necessarily mean the film is stagey (John Ford resisted camera movement, reserving it for the most significant moments, and yet he is immensely cinematic.)
We can and should take into consideration the context of when it was made. For instance, we don't disregard paintings from the Medieval period and the Middle Ages just because Renaissance artwork is a quantum leap in complexity and visual richness. The silent films of the late 20s were even more enormously sophisticated than The Birth of a Nation was in 1915 but it doesn't take away from the significance of Griffith's works.
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> {quote:title=MyFavoriteFilms wrote:}{quote}
> Personally, I don't consider him or Leonard Maltin historians. I consider them specialists. To be a true historian, you have to know the history of everything in Hollywood, and that is not possible. They are fans (like us) who specialized in sharing their acquired knowledge about film.
A historian doesn't have to know everything about Hollywood. You can be a silent film historian (Kevin Brownlow, who is getting an honorary Oscar this year, and who most certainly is a definite film historian.) You can be a pre-code historian. You can be a Mack Sennett historian. You can be a historian of cameras and film stock. It doesn't matter that they specialize in particular areas; they are still film historians because they actively preserve the history of film by cataloging documents, materials, films, restoring films, showing them, writing about them, etc. These are complex areas in their own right and they need particular people to focus on them.
If historians needed to know everything, we would know little specifically of anything.
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Who gives a damn if we can use that superficial term "classic" to describe it or not? The importance of The Birth of a Nation is unquestionable, its craft is fine, and its subject matter reprehensible.
Why not assail Gone With the Wind as well? That gets a guaranteed showing at least a couple of times each year and its depictions of black people and the old south are as damaging as The Birth of a Nation is (in different ways, of course) yet we don't hear nearly as much about it. So it's okay to show the foolish, jovial, contented slave of an old Hollywood film on TV (and "Classic" Hollywood films are full of these and similarly damaged depictions of African Americans) but it's not okay to show The Birth of a Nation once every few years?
Whenever Birth rears its head it always comes with notes about its content and context as well as Griffith's racism. It is inescapable. It is fully discredited in terms of its subject. The vast majority of people who will watch it do so in the manner of Eisenstein's Strike, Potemkin, and October - examples of socio-political thought of the era, revealing looks at propaganda, and as fine, groundbreaking aesthetic examples of cinema.
It was the most popular film of the 1910s. It is the culmination of cinematic technique up to that point. Its effect on American culture was profound. It's an important part of Griffith's history, film history, Hollywood history, and even of American history. Deal with it.
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An update about the French Carlotta Borzage silents on Blu-ray: According to DVDBeaver, they are in fact region free.
7th Heaven - http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews52/7th_heaven_blu-ray.htm
Street Angel - http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews52/street_angel_blu-ray.htm
Lucky Star - http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_reviews52/lucky_star_blu-ray.htm
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The Cranes Are Flying - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050634/
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Skimpole's selections tend to reflect mine but I would make some changes/additions...
I'd add Nanook of the North to the 1920s.
Keeping with the America only request, I'd replace M with Hallelujah (1920s) or Morocco (1930s) as examples of truly significant early sound films.
I'd cite John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1930s) and How Green Was My Valley (1940s) as superior examples of the merging of sound and image for their time, a vitally important continuation of Murnau's pure cinematic expressionism/modernism.
For the 1950s, I would add a film by Nicholas Ray - Johnny Guitar, Rebel Without a Cause, or Bigger Than Life. Ray reflected more than anyone else the auteurist notion of transforming/transcending genre, to the point of nearly obliterating the concept itself. Ray was also arguably the first master of widescreen cinema. Along with Rossellini, one of the fathers of the New Wave.
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Tillie's Punctured Romance (November 1914) was the first feature length comedy but it wasn't the first feature length film. In America we have Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man (February 1914) and D.W. Griffith's Judith of Bethulia (March 1914) earlier that year. Outside of America: The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) from Australia and Cabiria (April 1914) from Italy.
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Oh, I agree that it's not a particularly good score but it doesn't ruin the movie for me. Broken Blossoms is also one of the few silents I believe genuinely works perfectly without the aid of music so I could choose to just turn off the sound if need be. And then there is the Image or Kino disc I could go to.
I just think it's refreshing to see Broken Blossoms in regular rotation since TCM usually restricts silents to Sunday or the odd special occasion. I believe it has aired 4 times since late 2009, I wish they would do that more often with other silents.
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> {quote:title=gagman66 wrote:}{quote}
> Where is Silent Sunday Nights? I don't see anything listed until the last two weeks of the month.
Gagman, the three Yasujiro Ozu films are silent. Sound didn't really take hold in Japan until the mid 30s.
This is an extraordinary schedule, perhaps even better than November. The Ozu and the rare and out of print Josef von Sternberg films would have been more than enough for me but TCM really went the extra mile this to begin the year. Films from Wim Wenders, Lindsay Anderson, Powell and Pressburger, and Fritz Lang, Our Gang shorts among the Hal Roach tribute (including a lot of silents!), John Ford's Rookie of the Year, the rare Rouben Mamoulian City Streets (as well as Love Me Tonight), John Huston's Wise Blood, Otto Preminger's The Cardinal, a couple of Japanese horror films, an Ernst Lubitsch set, and Scarface, Broken Blossoms, and Breathless as icing on the cake. And so much more...
Great work TCM and thanks for getting so many of my requests in there!
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That was Miss Mend (1926) by Fyodor Ostep.
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Fox provided the masters for both of these outstanding Blu releases...
City Girl - http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49/city_girl_blu-ray.htm
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49/city_girl_blu-ray/large/large_city_girl_blu-ray4.jpg
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49/city_girl_blu-ray/large/large_city_girl_blu-ray13.jpg
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49/city_girl_blu-ray/large/large_city_girl_blu-ray15.jpg
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49/city_girl_blu-ray/large/large_city_girl_blu-ray17.jpg
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49/city_girl_blu-ray/large/large_city_girl_blu-ray18.jpg
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews49/city_girl_blu-ray/large/large_city_girl_blu-ray19.jpg
Bigger Than Life (Never released on home video in America before this year) - http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdreviews19/bigger_then_life_dvd_review.htm
Other Fox films released by Eureka/MOC and Criterion on Blu-ray are equally stunning.
If Fox released all of the films in this 75th anniversary package on Blu-ray instead (at least the first set anyway) I would be absolutely pleased. This is what they need to do.
Fox could be doing amazing work with catalog titles on Blu-ray. If Fox loans out their more obscure properties to companies like Eureka/MOC or Criterion, or release MOD DVDs, and press only the popular canon titles on their own that's fine by me because this format needs to be supported. Fox may have flubbed some of their Blus (such as Patton) but their genuine classics on DVD seem to be untouched (such as the Ford at Fox set.) It's unlikely that they would DVNR and edge enhance the crap out of a Blu-ray of All About Eve. How Green Was My Valley would look mind blowing on Blu-ray (any John Ford would.) I demand that they spend their money releasing that on Blu-ray instead of stuffing it into this redundant, over-priced, pointless package. This 75th anniversary package simply prevents them from jump starting the necessary shift to Blu-ray.
The most popular of the canon always comes first. This is exactly what happened with VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD. Financially it makes sense so it's silly to blame Blu-ray for a problem that has existed since the early video formats developed. For Blu-ray it will be an even more difficult uphill battle getting any classics on the format because of how the public perceives older films in general and their maddening misconceptions about the point of even releasing those films on the format in particular ("What?!! They didn't have HD back then!"). It appears Fox will be starting a manufacture on demand service like Warner's and Sony's in the future. This has its pros and cons but it does at least mean we will keep getting more obscure films on home video. I think we have to accept that this is a necessary development. Blu-ray will always support DVD, so the studios have flexibility in releasing their catalog on video if they keep these options available.
Blu-ray will last for a long time. The nature of the format, its versatility and technological malleability, as well as prospects of any TV resolution jumps in the near future (completely unlikely), and the non-feasibility/sustainability of quality digital downloads, will keep it in the market place for many years.
Edited by: JonasEB on Oct 13, 2010 1:44 AM
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> {quote:title=filmlover wrote:}{quote}
> from digitalbits.com:
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> And for the ?ber-collector, Fox has set a massive Fox 75th Anniversary Giftset for DVD release on 12/7 (SRP $499.98), containing 3 volumes of discs (broken by time period: 1935-1960, 1961-1985 and 1986-2010) and a total 75 films in all, representing (nearly) every significant film or franchise released in the history of the studio. It also includes a pretty elaborate book and a slipcase. Here's the complete list of films, for those who may be interested...
>
> http://www.digitalbits.com/#mytwocents
"(Nearly) every significant film or franchise released in the history of the studio"? Oh, come on, a cursory glance at the first set doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what Fox has.
Cavalcade and Steamboat aren't even "20th Century Fox" films, it was still Fox Film Corporation at the time, so if they're going to break a 75th anniversary rule and not include even Sunrise among their many great silents...
Instead of this pointless set they should be releasing more classics on Blu-ray.
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TCM just showed the 98 Touch of Evil last month so they do have it.
I prefer Touch of Evil 98 but there's no reason that that should be the only televised version. Despite Universal's claims, it isn't really, "Restored to Orson Welles original vision." The 98 reconstruction is only re-edited in accordance to Welles' thoughts about changes Universal had made after he was locked out of the editing room...not what he himself would have done had he complete control over the project (this is a distinction Welles himself made and he never completed a "final cut" before Universal intervened.) Rick Schmidlin and Walter Murch, the men behind this restoration, and consultant Jonathan Rosenbaum do not want the 98 edit thought of as Welles' perfect vision (which is how Universal describes it in the trailer.)
After all, it was the original 1958 theatrical release of Touch of Evil that prompted Truffaut and Godard to become full time filmmakers.
The above subject came up during that last showing. Perhaps TCM was paying attention to FredCDobbs' complaints about the 98 version taking precedent over the 58 version.
I didn't watch, did they show it letterboxed (1:85:1) or open matte? A major issue with presenting Touch of Evil is here. Many, myself included, find the open matte (1:33:1 - this is NOT pan & scan by the way) version the correct way to see the film. Welles had worked in 1:33:1 on his preceding two films, one made after the switch to wide ratios and it seems that he was still composing for that ratio. On the other hand, it's possible 1:66:1 may have suited the film, the ratio Welles favored on subsequent works. An open matte edition of Touch of Evil is currently not in print on video (perhaps it can be rectified for Blu-ray.)
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One of the best, maybe the best, film about devotion to art, the relation of art and life, and artistic collaboration. The Red Shoes ballet is still among the cinema's greatest visual achievements. And what a restoration!
My personal favorite Powell & Pressburger is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp but they we're seemingly unstoppable during the 1940s. Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes - all among the most unique and extraordinary films of the time/all time. The very peak of British cinema.
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Underrated: Opening Night by John Cassavetes
Overrated: The Sting by George Roy Hill
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When Encore shows Touch of Evil, they show the open matte version which looks more appropriate than the 1.85:1 release on DVD. Hopefully when Universal gives it the eventual Blu-ray it's kept open matte.
I didn't know AMC ever showed films letterboxed. I never got to experience the old AMC, my interest in movies started to grow the year AMC changed, 2002, or so I've read. I only watched one film on the channel and it made me swear off movies with commercial interruption for life.
Bless you, TCM, for showing "The Bishop's Wife" this holiday season
in General Discussions
Posted
> {quote:title=misswonderly wrote:}{quote}
> I know I'm going to get into big trouble for this, but anyway... Why must everyone now refer to "Christmas" as "holiday" ? I know, I know, it's supposed to be politically correct to call it anything other than "Christmas", what about all the non-Christians who might feel left out and offended, etc.
I use both and I've never met anyone who used "Holiday" with any intent other than it being a part of the traditional parlance: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, etc. I've definitely never met anyone who has referred to a Christmas Tree as a Holiday Tree.
I don't doubt that it does happen but those PC instances aren't nearly as widespread as certain people make them out to be (there's certainly no "War Against Christmas" to use Bill O'Reilly's term.) I still hear all of the old Christmas songs at the supermarket, I still see all of the Christmas specials on TV, and movies about Christmas and with Christmas in the title are all over TV already. I always read and hear "Christmas Shopping" in the news and on TV. I've seen Christmas mentioned at many a mall and department store. The mall Santas still say "Merry Christmas!"