Buys
Bargain bin DVD buys this week include John Carpenter's Starman, Children of Men and Charlie Wilson's War. In the geekier, normally priced corner, we have Hong Kong cinema's 14 Amazons, Doctor Who's The Gunfighters and The Awakening, and Spooks Season 9 (see below).
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: Last week, I compared two versions of Romeo & Juliet. This week, I watched two versions of True Grit (I'm gonna make it a weekly thing this July). Now, I saw the 2010 Cohen Bros. version last Christmas, but I admit I'd never seen the John Wayne original. Though I prefer the new one, it's damn close. Kim Darby makes an excellent Mattie Ross, and the dialog is rich an interesting (as per the novel). The choice of which scenes to render is slightly different, so the two movies make good companions, and John Wayne is charismatic and sympathetic. Well, he would be. His presence really makes the story about him more than about Mattie, though Darby does hold her own. There are two weaknesses in my opinion: One is that the DVD transfer is rather soft in places, which is not something I usually comment on, but the lack of crispness did distract from the beautiful Colorado vistas (standing in for Arkansas, of all places). The other is Glen Campbell as LeBoeuf. Wow, what a wooden performance, and he's unfortunately much more present than Matt Damon's LeBoeuf in the 2010 version. The DVD includes a loving commentary track with a handful of experts, and strong featurettes on the script, the locations and working with the Duke, and a slightly flighty one on the heroes and villains of the true West.
Revisiting the Cohens' True Grit with the 1969 original just before it at times made me wonder if they weren't inspired to make it by the original rather than the novel. Why? Because you can see the seeds of the, say, LeBoeuf's dullness in Glen Campbell. In fact, the things that seem odd in 1969's adaptation, like the sort of awkwardness of the language, are heightened in 2010's. It's like the Cohens saw the original and found a lot of their obsessions in there: Sincerely unintelligent characters, awkwardness, a sense of never knowing what genre you're in. Of course, that might all be in the book too. It's not like we'd ever get a straight answer from the Cohens anyway (but when I notice that both scenes with Mattie running a horse through a river have her emerging bone dry, I have to wonder). The DVD has some good extras focusing on Mattie's casting, assembling the cast, costumes and locations (this time, Texas subs in for Arkansas - will the state never catch a break?).
I'm a big fan of The Prisoner, but I had up to this point neglected to watch the last boxed set (I got into it too early, and those damn A&E DVDs were split into large separate boxes with only 3-4 episodes each). Well, having seen the last three episodes, I can understand why - as the liner notes reveal - people were knocking at McGoohan's door to throw insults and fists at him. The last three are some of the most BIZARRE and surreal episodes of the whole series, indeed very strongly suggesting a psychological basis for the entire thing (I was reminded of Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cube, for example). Let's just say that while I can intellectually appreciate surrealism, it doesn't really turn my crank, and I much prefer the Orwellian "played for straight" installments. This package also includes commentary over behind the scenes footage (interesting), the usual photos and trivia tests, and a very badly written one-hour "Prisoner Video Companion" that acts as an introduction for Prisoner virgins, then promptly spoils all the surprises as if for hardcore fans. The second half does point out things to watch out for, as a Video Companion should do, but the over-long extended clips make this a painfully padded experience.
Spooks, or as we have to call it in North America, MI-5 (so that people don't think it's anything like Ghostbusters) just released its 9th series. The cast remains fluid, with two new additions, but Richard Armitage is thankfully charismatic as Lucas North and manages to hold the boat afloat despite having only one prior season under his belt. And of course, the main arc is all about him (with Harry and Ruth of course providing the series' anchor, as usual). The newbies are Sophia Myles (which SBG readers probably know as Doctor Who's Madame de Pompadour) and Max Brown. Neither are given much depth - Spooks is a primarily a plot-driven show - but they are both pleasant action heroes. So 8 taut action thrillers in the usual style, worthy of the series as a whole. I was especially interested in the new Home Secretary, member of a Coalition government, who, as if thematically motivated, seems ever reader to kow-tow to other countries. A weaker United Kingdom, so a slightly different dynamic controlling the action. No extras, which is too bad because we should be allowed to get to know new cast members, no?
Bastille Day was last Thursday, so I thought it would be nice to watch some French language films. It's my mother tongue, after all, but I've never been much into French cinema. And considering my choice was the Three Colors trilogy from Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, I guess I'm still not. I'd seen the trilogy when it was first released on video in the early 90s, and not since, but wow, I found them even more beautiful today and it makes me want to seek out Kieślowski other work. The three films, all made the same year (Kieślowski died of exhaustion a couple years later), each feature a different color of the French flag (as palette and theme) and a corresponding part of the French motto (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), each stars a well-known and wonderful French actress, each takes place in a different country of the recently unified Europe, and each is visually (and musically) gorgeous, elliptical, inventive and thematically intricate. In Bleu, Juliette Binoche plays the wife of a composer who loses her entire family in an accident. She cuts herself off from life, but do events conspire to bring her back into the fold? It's a subtle and intriguing performance in a film filled with silences and editorial flair. Sad but hopeful. Just wonderful. The DVD extras surprised me. The DVD box doesn't mention anything, but it's actually filled to the gills. All three films have the same impressive package, in fact. A film expert (and friend of Kieślowski's) takes us through the various images and themes of the film in the commentary track, and the many English-language features on the film and Kieślowski's career take a scholarly point of view on the material. Interviews in French supplement the extras (with subtitles), so French collaborators aren't cut off. Each film also features an editorial "lesson" with Kieślowski himself (in Polish with French and English subtitles) which are just a treasure. In addition, Bleu presents a 15-minute student film of Kieślowski's that is primitive in comparison to his mature work, but in which you can see certain seeds being sewn.
I remember Blanc being a disappointment back in the day, and perhaps that's because Julie Delpy doesn't feature a heck of a lot. The protagonist is her ex-husband, a Polish hairdresser played by Zbigniew Zamachowski who pathetically continues to love her, but is forced to return to newly-capitalistic Poland. He wants revenge for his many humiliations, but will he get it and does he even really want it? Zamachowski is actually quite wonderful, supplying a comic performance filled with pathos. In fact, I fell in love with all the Polish actors here. As in Bleu, Kieślowski is driving a story that feels completely fresh and unpredictable to an ambiguous, lyrical ending. The color white doesn't quite provide the same powerful palette as either blue or red, but the director concentrates instead on its thematic properties - a man and a country that are "blanks". Again, a strong battery of interviews, insightful commentary and Kieślowski's editorial lessons. Kieślowski has even more to say here, thanks to some behind the scenes footage intercut with a vintage interview. Three short student films complete the package, but these are very early, and largely uninteresting works.
R
ouge reunites Kieślowski with Irène Jacob, with whom he worked with on The Double Life of Veronique (the film that made her a star), and takes place in her native Geneva. She plays a storm-tossed, kind-hearted model who, through chance (and chance is a huge theme in Red), meets a bitter retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who spies on his neighbors and has a strange prescience. Through their stories we discover a thick web of coincidence and mirror images that makes this last part of the trilogy the most mysterious and intriguing. If Blue was a subverted tragedy, and White a dark, dry comedy, Red is less easy to classify. To me, it is a fable, one of pure movie making, that uses images in a way that would, to most readers of this blog, be reminiscent of the way Moore and Gibbon do in Watchmen. The ironic intricacies of the film make it my favorite of the three. Irène Jacob simply breaks my heart in every frame. The DVD package includes, in addition to the usual material, behind the scenes footage and interviews conducted in Cannes (the Festival - outrageously - snubbed the film). All three films are interconnected, not just due to character cameos, but thematically as well, through recurring patterns. I see Three Colors as a single oeuvre, a wonderful (there's that word again, I've exhausted it) triptych that's artful rather than "artsy" (i.e. it is still quite accessible even though poetic).
1985's Hong Kong Godfather looks like the Shaw Brothers' attempt to remake Golden Harvest's Police Story: It has a Jackie Chan lookalike, a hanging-from-a-bus sequence, and a fight finale in the same glassy shopping mall. Instead of a stunt-filled cop thriller, however, it's a bloody, exploitative Triad war picture. Does it work? Yes, but mostly if you're heckling the screen (which is a perfectly fine way to enjoy some of these movies). The main draw is the Godfather himself played by Bruce Lee's Dr. No-ish nemesis in Enter the Dragon, Shih Chien. There'a also a dog called Stallone that has to be seen to be believed. But it's not for the faint-hearted. There's gratuitous nudity throughout and a LOT of (magenta and orange) blood splatter. And of course, it ends in tragedy because crime cannot pay in Chinese cinema. Dark, but accidentally darkly comical. Hey, that's a recommendation for you grindhouse fans out there.
Books: Julian Barnes' Arthur & George (2005) is a wonderful novel, I think of interest to Sherlock Holmes fans. The novel is told from the points of view of both Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, the half-Indian solicitor who was wrongfully convicted of the "Great Wyrley Outrages", a series of animal mutilations in a rural area. The lives of both men are contrasted, Barnes using a different style for each (Doyle's is literary, while the simpler George is all present tense) and they in fact do not meet until late in the book. Awesomely researched, lightly comic and a real page turner when you get to the trial and Doyle's later investigations, Barnes produces here tw superb character studies based on available sources. I haven't enjoyed one of his novels this much since, oh, my very first touch of Barnes (and I've nearly read them all), A History of the World in 10½ Chapters.
Audio: Another Bastille Day-relevant media intake. The Reign of Terror is Doctor Who narrated audio of a 1st Doctor adventure set in the French Revolution. The narration is done by Carole Ann Ford (Susan) and she does it well. Now, it shows here that the audios aren't really coordinated with the DVD releases, because The Reign of Terror will come out some time next year on DVD. Of its 6 episodes, only 2 are missing, and these will be remade with animation. The audio boxed sets cover all missing stories, whether parts of it exist or not, and so Reign is included (it also has The Crusade, for example). No real problem, as the narration gives it a book-on-tape quality that makes it more than listening to tv with your eyes closed. As for the story itself, it's a thing of many parts. There are some playful scenes in which the Doctor manipulates the hell out of French officials, vicious and violent turns from the revolutionaries, and comparatively disappointing appearances by historical figures who can't be deviated from history (of course). Also, plenty of padding. You know the kind I mean. Captured, escape, captured again. It'll still be an interesting one to revisit on DVD.
New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: Kept working on templates this week, and just about happy with them. Should start churning out new cards soon.
Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Hamlet 2000
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Fodor (2007)
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Tennant (2009)
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Slings & Arrows
Bargain bin DVD buys this week include John Carpenter's Starman, Children of Men and Charlie Wilson's War. In the geekier, normally priced corner, we have Hong Kong cinema's 14 Amazons, Doctor Who's The Gunfighters and The Awakening, and Spooks Season 9 (see below).
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: Last week, I compared two versions of Romeo & Juliet. This week, I watched two versions of True Grit (I'm gonna make it a weekly thing this July). Now, I saw the 2010 Cohen Bros. version last Christmas, but I admit I'd never seen the John Wayne original. Though I prefer the new one, it's damn close. Kim Darby makes an excellent Mattie Ross, and the dialog is rich an interesting (as per the novel). The choice of which scenes to render is slightly different, so the two movies make good companions, and John Wayne is charismatic and sympathetic. Well, he would be. His presence really makes the story about him more than about Mattie, though Darby does hold her own. There are two weaknesses in my opinion: One is that the DVD transfer is rather soft in places, which is not something I usually comment on, but the lack of crispness did distract from the beautiful Colorado vistas (standing in for Arkansas, of all places). The other is Glen Campbell as LeBoeuf. Wow, what a wooden performance, and he's unfortunately much more present than Matt Damon's LeBoeuf in the 2010 version. The DVD includes a loving commentary track with a handful of experts, and strong featurettes on the script, the locations and working with the Duke, and a slightly flighty one on the heroes and villains of the true West.
Revisiting the Cohens' True Grit with the 1969 original just before it at times made me wonder if they weren't inspired to make it by the original rather than the novel. Why? Because you can see the seeds of the, say, LeBoeuf's dullness in Glen Campbell. In fact, the things that seem odd in 1969's adaptation, like the sort of awkwardness of the language, are heightened in 2010's. It's like the Cohens saw the original and found a lot of their obsessions in there: Sincerely unintelligent characters, awkwardness, a sense of never knowing what genre you're in. Of course, that might all be in the book too. It's not like we'd ever get a straight answer from the Cohens anyway (but when I notice that both scenes with Mattie running a horse through a river have her emerging bone dry, I have to wonder). The DVD has some good extras focusing on Mattie's casting, assembling the cast, costumes and locations (this time, Texas subs in for Arkansas - will the state never catch a break?).
I'm a big fan of The Prisoner, but I had up to this point neglected to watch the last boxed set (I got into it too early, and those damn A&E DVDs were split into large separate boxes with only 3-4 episodes each). Well, having seen the last three episodes, I can understand why - as the liner notes reveal - people were knocking at McGoohan's door to throw insults and fists at him. The last three are some of the most BIZARRE and surreal episodes of the whole series, indeed very strongly suggesting a psychological basis for the entire thing (I was reminded of Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cube, for example). Let's just say that while I can intellectually appreciate surrealism, it doesn't really turn my crank, and I much prefer the Orwellian "played for straight" installments. This package also includes commentary over behind the scenes footage (interesting), the usual photos and trivia tests, and a very badly written one-hour "Prisoner Video Companion" that acts as an introduction for Prisoner virgins, then promptly spoils all the surprises as if for hardcore fans. The second half does point out things to watch out for, as a Video Companion should do, but the over-long extended clips make this a painfully padded experience.
Spooks, or as we have to call it in North America, MI-5 (so that people don't think it's anything like Ghostbusters) just released its 9th series. The cast remains fluid, with two new additions, but Richard Armitage is thankfully charismatic as Lucas North and manages to hold the boat afloat despite having only one prior season under his belt. And of course, the main arc is all about him (with Harry and Ruth of course providing the series' anchor, as usual). The newbies are Sophia Myles (which SBG readers probably know as Doctor Who's Madame de Pompadour) and Max Brown. Neither are given much depth - Spooks is a primarily a plot-driven show - but they are both pleasant action heroes. So 8 taut action thrillers in the usual style, worthy of the series as a whole. I was especially interested in the new Home Secretary, member of a Coalition government, who, as if thematically motivated, seems ever reader to kow-tow to other countries. A weaker United Kingdom, so a slightly different dynamic controlling the action. No extras, which is too bad because we should be allowed to get to know new cast members, no?
Bastille Day was last Thursday, so I thought it would be nice to watch some French language films. It's my mother tongue, after all, but I've never been much into French cinema. And considering my choice was the Three Colors trilogy from Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski, I guess I'm still not. I'd seen the trilogy when it was first released on video in the early 90s, and not since, but wow, I found them even more beautiful today and it makes me want to seek out Kieślowski other work. The three films, all made the same year (Kieślowski died of exhaustion a couple years later), each feature a different color of the French flag (as palette and theme) and a corresponding part of the French motto (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), each stars a well-known and wonderful French actress, each takes place in a different country of the recently unified Europe, and each is visually (and musically) gorgeous, elliptical, inventive and thematically intricate. In Bleu, Juliette Binoche plays the wife of a composer who loses her entire family in an accident. She cuts herself off from life, but do events conspire to bring her back into the fold? It's a subtle and intriguing performance in a film filled with silences and editorial flair. Sad but hopeful. Just wonderful. The DVD extras surprised me. The DVD box doesn't mention anything, but it's actually filled to the gills. All three films have the same impressive package, in fact. A film expert (and friend of Kieślowski's) takes us through the various images and themes of the film in the commentary track, and the many English-language features on the film and Kieślowski's career take a scholarly point of view on the material. Interviews in French supplement the extras (with subtitles), so French collaborators aren't cut off. Each film also features an editorial "lesson" with Kieślowski himself (in Polish with French and English subtitles) which are just a treasure. In addition, Bleu presents a 15-minute student film of Kieślowski's that is primitive in comparison to his mature work, but in which you can see certain seeds being sewn.
I remember Blanc being a disappointment back in the day, and perhaps that's because Julie Delpy doesn't feature a heck of a lot. The protagonist is her ex-husband, a Polish hairdresser played by Zbigniew Zamachowski who pathetically continues to love her, but is forced to return to newly-capitalistic Poland. He wants revenge for his many humiliations, but will he get it and does he even really want it? Zamachowski is actually quite wonderful, supplying a comic performance filled with pathos. In fact, I fell in love with all the Polish actors here. As in Bleu, Kieślowski is driving a story that feels completely fresh and unpredictable to an ambiguous, lyrical ending. The color white doesn't quite provide the same powerful palette as either blue or red, but the director concentrates instead on its thematic properties - a man and a country that are "blanks". Again, a strong battery of interviews, insightful commentary and Kieślowski's editorial lessons. Kieślowski has even more to say here, thanks to some behind the scenes footage intercut with a vintage interview. Three short student films complete the package, but these are very early, and largely uninteresting works.R
ouge reunites Kieślowski with Irène Jacob, with whom he worked with on The Double Life of Veronique (the film that made her a star), and takes place in her native Geneva. She plays a storm-tossed, kind-hearted model who, through chance (and chance is a huge theme in Red), meets a bitter retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who spies on his neighbors and has a strange prescience. Through their stories we discover a thick web of coincidence and mirror images that makes this last part of the trilogy the most mysterious and intriguing. If Blue was a subverted tragedy, and White a dark, dry comedy, Red is less easy to classify. To me, it is a fable, one of pure movie making, that uses images in a way that would, to most readers of this blog, be reminiscent of the way Moore and Gibbon do in Watchmen. The ironic intricacies of the film make it my favorite of the three. Irène Jacob simply breaks my heart in every frame. The DVD package includes, in addition to the usual material, behind the scenes footage and interviews conducted in Cannes (the Festival - outrageously - snubbed the film). All three films are interconnected, not just due to character cameos, but thematically as well, through recurring patterns. I see Three Colors as a single oeuvre, a wonderful (there's that word again, I've exhausted it) triptych that's artful rather than "artsy" (i.e. it is still quite accessible even though poetic).
1985's Hong Kong Godfather looks like the Shaw Brothers' attempt to remake Golden Harvest's Police Story: It has a Jackie Chan lookalike, a hanging-from-a-bus sequence, and a fight finale in the same glassy shopping mall. Instead of a stunt-filled cop thriller, however, it's a bloody, exploitative Triad war picture. Does it work? Yes, but mostly if you're heckling the screen (which is a perfectly fine way to enjoy some of these movies). The main draw is the Godfather himself played by Bruce Lee's Dr. No-ish nemesis in Enter the Dragon, Shih Chien. There'a also a dog called Stallone that has to be seen to be believed. But it's not for the faint-hearted. There's gratuitous nudity throughout and a LOT of (magenta and orange) blood splatter. And of course, it ends in tragedy because crime cannot pay in Chinese cinema. Dark, but accidentally darkly comical. Hey, that's a recommendation for you grindhouse fans out there.
Books: Julian Barnes' Arthur & George (2005) is a wonderful novel, I think of interest to Sherlock Holmes fans. The novel is told from the points of view of both Arthur Conan Doyle and George Edalji, the half-Indian solicitor who was wrongfully convicted of the "Great Wyrley Outrages", a series of animal mutilations in a rural area. The lives of both men are contrasted, Barnes using a different style for each (Doyle's is literary, while the simpler George is all present tense) and they in fact do not meet until late in the book. Awesomely researched, lightly comic and a real page turner when you get to the trial and Doyle's later investigations, Barnes produces here tw superb character studies based on available sources. I haven't enjoyed one of his novels this much since, oh, my very first touch of Barnes (and I've nearly read them all), A History of the World in 10½ Chapters.
Audio: Another Bastille Day-relevant media intake. The Reign of Terror is Doctor Who narrated audio of a 1st Doctor adventure set in the French Revolution. The narration is done by Carole Ann Ford (Susan) and she does it well. Now, it shows here that the audios aren't really coordinated with the DVD releases, because The Reign of Terror will come out some time next year on DVD. Of its 6 episodes, only 2 are missing, and these will be remade with animation. The audio boxed sets cover all missing stories, whether parts of it exist or not, and so Reign is included (it also has The Crusade, for example). No real problem, as the narration gives it a book-on-tape quality that makes it more than listening to tv with your eyes closed. As for the story itself, it's a thing of many parts. There are some playful scenes in which the Doctor manipulates the hell out of French officials, vicious and violent turns from the revolutionaries, and comparatively disappointing appearances by historical figures who can't be deviated from history (of course). Also, plenty of padding. You know the kind I mean. Captured, escape, captured again. It'll still be an interesting one to revisit on DVD.New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: Kept working on templates this week, and just about happy with them. Should start churning out new cards soon.
Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Hamlet 2000
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Fodor (2007)
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Tennant (2009)
II.ii. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I - Slings & Arrows
Comments
I still advocate for them to be remade in Super-Marionation...
P&R eh? I'll try to sample it!
Also, I know you're kind of tired of those but I can't wait for another installment of the "What If.." reviews. I kind of hope you'll continue doing them and get to the mid/late '90s ones eventually.
Great blog!
What If will return, don't worry.