Purchase Stage Beauty Dvd And Blu-ray At Amazon!
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Product: Stage Beauty
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Perhaps understanding patterns are changing and prejudices against tickled characters are indeed abating. At least hearing the audience delight after viewing STAGE BEAUTY makes a case for more mainstream male actors to shed the dismay of taking on roles that feature gender and sexuality variations: Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem, Rodrigo Santoro, Gael Garcia Bernal, et al have all performed sensitively as delighted men despite their macho image – the once miniature list is now respectably stout. And now add Billy Crudup and Ben Chaplin to that ever-growing list. Bravo to that change.
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STAGE BEAUTY (in the screenplay version of his maintain play ‘The Compleat Female Stage Beauty’ by Jeffrey Hatcher) is situation in the mid 17th century with all the frills and foibles of British dandies and ladies visually intact. This is the time when female roles were assumed by male actors (the theater was simply no set for ladies to participate) and we are introduced to Mr. Kynaston (in a shining, multifaceted performance by Billy Crudup!) as he portrays Desdemona in Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. He is attended by a dresser Maria Hughes (Claire Danes, another superlative acting achievement) who longs to act and steals away after performances in the theater speed by actor Betterton (Tom Wilkinson) to a tavern where she assumes the memorized roles Kynaston performs on the royally common stage.
Kynaston has been raised to narrate women on stage (and indeed in life) and responds to men as a woman (his lover is the Duke of Buckingham – Ben Chaplin) . King Charles II (a thorough-going hilarious amble for the gifted Rupert Everett) is convinced by his tart du jour to allow women to play women’s roles on the stage, thus dethroning Kynaston as the actress of the time, driving him into tawdry masquerades in pubs after a severe beating from thugs beckoned by the bloated Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths) . Maria Hughes thus becomes the first ‘compleat female actress’ and this transition between Kynaston and Maria results in desperate tutoring lessons before Maria can play Desdemona for the King. For the first time in his life Kynaston must interrogate his gain sexuality and his successful final curtain after playing Othello to Maria’s Desdemona gratefully leaves that choice up in the air.
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The script is a delight, the actors are all first rate, especially the wholly immersed Crudup and Danes who could well be fragment of the Royal Shakespeare Company, so dazzling is their British sound, demeanor, and Shakespeare! The supporting cast is a kaleidoscope of jewel-like performances from Everett, Wilkinson, Edward Fox, Hugh Bonneville among others. The mood is appropriately British – all shaded, candlelit stagecraft and foggy marsh vistas – and the music matches the overall record. Richard Eyre has directed a film that deserves many kudos, but the main glory should shine on his ability to study the spectrum of gender and sexuality with dignity, intelligence, and mammoth sensitivity. A welcome delight!
I saw this film the evening after seeing Being Julia and thoroughly enjoyed both. Great of Stage Beauty is based on historical material which Helen Wilcox examines in Women in Literature in Britain, 1500-1700. Jeffrey Hatcher’s screenplay is based on his fill Compleat Female Stage Beauty, a play first performed in 1999. We know that Edward (Ned) Kynaston (1640-1706) was among the last and reputedly the best of the male actors of female parts in dramas performed prior to the Restoration period. Following his coronation, King Charles II decreed that females would be permitted to appear on stage in roles previously performed only by males. For many male actors, the subsequent transition was very, very difficult. There are positive parallels with the difficulties that stars such as John Gilbert had during the transition from mute films to “the talkies.”
What we have in Stage Beauty is a delectable presentation of that age and, more specifically, of Kynaston’s struggles (brilliantly presented by Billy Crudup) to score his career in juxtaposition with those of his dresser Maria (Claire Danes), an unskilled but aspiring actress, who seeks Ned’s tutelage to come her bear career. Frankly, I did not immediately observe the always-superb Rupert Everett in the role of Charles II. Others in the supporting cast include Ben Chaplin (as George Villars, Duke of Buckingham) and Tom Wilkinson (as Thomas Betterton) . Historically, Betterton was once highly praised for his performance in Shakespeare’s Othello…in the role of Ophelia. In Stage Beauty, Kynaston plays Ophelia to Betterton’s Moor of Venice. After Kynaston rejects the advances of the lecherous Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths), Sedley hires thugs to beat Kynaston so severely that he can no longer produce until his wounds have healed. Maria sees an opportunity, organizes what I guess could be called an “underground” performance of the play, and assumes the role of Ophelia herself. After seeing her performance, Charles II issues his proclamation and then….
Credit director Richard Eyre with obtaining estimable results from his talented cast and crew. Simulating London in the 1660’s was indeed a major task, achieved brilliantly by cinematographer Andrew Dunn, production designer Jim Play, and art directors Keith Slote and Jan Spoczynski. Of course, many of the comical devices in both Hatcher’s play and in this film can be traced help to classical Greek and Roman comedies, with the female roles in all of which performed by males. For example, all manner of mischief is achieved through wrong identity, role and gender reversals, double entrendres, clarify disguises, no sequitors, etc. The highly literate screenplay invests the nimble yarn with style and grace as Ned and Maria move to the inevitable, indeed obligatory resolution. Sizable fun! Those who allotment my high regard for this film are urged to check out Victor/Victoria and Tootsie (in 1982) as well as Shakespeare in Worship (1998) .
Purchase Return to Me Video At Amazon!
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Product: Return to Me
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Director and co-writer Bonnie Hunt delivers the goods in “Return To Me,” a touching epic of two deserving people who are afforded a second chance at savor and happiness. When we meet Grace (Minnie Driver), she is suffering with heart disease and awaiting a donor for a transplant. Architect-builder Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) is happily married to Elizabeth (Joely Richardson), they are deeply in care for, and Hunt mercurial establishes honest how perfect their lives are together; so perfect, in fact, it becomes somewhat unsettling because you know that tragedy of some kind or other is imminent. When it comes, the transition is handled succinctly and with the skill of a seasoned professional. When Elizabeth dies, Grace receives her heart. A year later, Bob, tranquil mourning the loss of his wife, meets Grace at the Irish-Italian restaurant owned by her grandfather (Carroll O’Connor), where she works as a waitress. Neither are aware of the intimate link they piece to the heart that has given Grace her life. In the hands of a less savvy director, the tale at this point could easily go astray and become mired in coincidence and cliche. Hunt never comes discontinuance to allowing this to happen, however, and instead hits every effect squarely on the head so that the residence fairly resonates with precision and timing. A obsolete character actress herself (she plays Grace’s closest friend, Meg, here), she seems to know instinctively impartial when to add the honest light touch to offset the drama, then fleshes it all out with an array of broad characters,especially Robert Loggia, as Angelo, the “Greatest Italian chef in Chicago,” and James Belushi as Meg’s husband, Joe. There are no wasted moments in this film; the tale moves upright along and takes you with it. The dialogue is often witty and always real; in a scene between Grace and Meg that takes location in the hospital (prior to their notification that a donor has been located), in which Grace can barely design a breath, she looks up at Meg and says one word, “Rosebud.” After Elizabeth dies, when Bob finds himself alone at home and finally breaks down, Hunt gives the scene time to do and play out, so that it rings lawful instead of being glossed over and simply former as a tool to proceed the tale along. When it happens we, as an audience, are also afforded that time to realize the suffering he’s experiencing, and it allows us to feel it as well. The scene in which Grace, Meg and Joe are at home awaiting a dinner guest (a weak priest), is beyond hilarious. Highlighting an exceptional cast, David Duchovny and Minnie Driver are unforgettable as Bob and Grace; and the multi-talented Bonnie Hunt rises to a whole recent level of artistic merit for giving us a truly memorable and heart-warming movie that is a joy to experience. Written by Hunt and Don Lake, “Return To Me” is a delight from beginning to waste, the kind of film one waits for to reach along. Hopefully, in the future Hunt will treat us to even more movies of this caliber.
“Return To Me” is a very likeable romantic comedy starring David Duchovny, breaking away from X-Files mold, and the always lively Minnie Driver. While we wait for kismet to bring these two characters together, we are treated to a stunning (and impressive) supporting cast of characters head by Carroll O’Connor, Robert Loggia, David Alan Grier, James Belushi, and writer-director Bonnie Hunt. There is dinky suspense that the two main characters will pick up each other and in the ruin get unique life and savor — but this is the movies after all!
For DVD buyers and renters, the correct gem is the audio commentary by Bonnie Hunt and co-writer Don Lake. This highly recommended bonus to the DVD version is at least worth another “star.” Hunt, who is one of the best interviewees on talk shows, engages in a informative and a very laughable dialogue with Lake throughout the movie. By all means, after watching the movie go relieve and perceive the movie again with Hunt and Lake. Hunt’s dry humor will gain you laugh out loud at times as she speaks of her unpleasant make-up job in her first scene to the seemingly dozens of family members that she placed throughout the film. You will also come by a right appreciation for the art of film-making. “Return To Me” was Hunt’s directorial debut and it is consuming to listen to the care and meticulous detail that she placed into this film (music selections, editing, etc.) . It is definitely one of the best audio-commentary tracks that I have heard to date and almost makes you even like the film more.
Bowtrol
Purchase Is Paris Burning? Dvd And Blu-ray At Amazon!
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Product: Is Paris Burning?
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Who would have idea that Paris would be saved by the German general that Hitler sent to burn it to the ground? This gem of a film from the 1960’s tells the epic.
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The film was a astronomical failure in its initial realease; it’s often called a ‘turkey’. I’d have to disagree aesthetic strongly with that assessment. It’s biggest pickle, at least for American audiences, is that it’s–well, so French. Even though the screenplay was written by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, the cast is nearly all French–some of the biggest French stars of the 1960s. Americans are relegated to cameo roles.
Americans also disliked the film because it claims that the French, not the Americans, liberated Paris. That idea has never gone down well on this side of the pond. But if you read the book (and unbiased about any other chronicle of the incident), it’s distinct that the Americans and British wanted to bypass Paris. They had edifying reason for doing so–Patton argued that he would do enough gasoline to create the Rhine by the extinguish of August and destroy the war by Christmas.
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The Parisian insurrection in mid-August made those plans dazzling questionable, but it was DeGaulle’s threat to withdraw his forces and march on Paris, together with alarm at the destruction of Warsaw (which Stalin was ‘bypassing’ at the same time), that changed things. Even so, the Allies let French Gen. LeClerc acquire the city, because they mild had hopes of maintaining the momentum of their main thrust toward the Rhine.
If you are a Freedom-Fry lover, you probably won’t like this film. If you are alive to in this period of history, read the book first, but definitely peruse the movie. Some reviews criticize this movie for dubbing it’s French actors (many of whom dubbed their possess lines into English) . I certainly would have preferred the movie that plot, and I dearly wish someone would restore it with French dialog. But, had that been done, about 85% of the movie would have been in French. That’s a hard sell in America, whether the year is 1966 or 2006.
Finally the movie is in dusky and white, except, oddly enough, for the raze credits. Many capture that’s because of the amount of archive footage incorporated into the movie. But the exact reason is that the French government refused to allow the Nazi flag to hover over any Parisian buildings for the exterior shots. A compromise was worked out where miniature point to of the swastika was permitted, but only on a gray flag (rather than a red one) . During filming, one elderly Parisian stumbled across a couple of extras in German uniforms and ran off screaming “They’re benefit!”
But in 1966. the era of dusky and white was over, and the exercise of B&W was the third strike against this film for American audiences. It’s a shame, because this film really does a immense job of showing how German Gen. Von Choltitz saved the city, at noteworthy risk to himself and, ultimately, his family. His reason? He concluded that Hitler was insane, and that the destruction of Paris would do nothing to improve the German military dwelling. “If I concept that destroying Paris would support our war exertion,” he said, “then I would not hesitate to burn it to the ground. But that is not the case.”
Recommended for WW II buffs and those who like Paris.
I loved watching this movie. It deftly splices documentary and fictional scenes to design an emotional, uplifting sage of the individuals interested in the liberation of Paris (the greater emphasis is on the Parisian resistance) . It is very noteworthy in the tradition of The Longest Day – many stars in cameos, a hundred short stories of bravery and resistance – among the French, Americans and Germans; it’s often amusing. The music is wonderful (I have it going through my head now – 2 years after renting the movie) . It’s also fun to gape virtually all the French male stars of the 1950s and 1960s in one movie – Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Jean Louis Trintignant, Yves Montand, Alain Delon – the French casting for the movie pulled out all the stops.
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The astounding emotional impact aside, the movie is actually difficult to follow. The valuable reason is that the filmmakers apparently didn’t want to offend anyone (except Nazis) so were not explicit on the Communist/Gaullist rivalry that is at the heart of the book (bottom line – the Gaullists elbowed out the Communists) . Instead, the movie viewer watches a titanic resistance group that seems to fissure, but has no thought why, sees jealousies and rivalries without explanation. You’ll watch some French resistance members upset that others have captured the Police Headquarters, but have no plan why. The book gives you a sense of DeGaulle’s concept of the French, amounting to genius (and of why any American or Englishman in snort would have found him inferior to deal with) .
So, I’d suggest a truly CAREFUL read of the short, improbable and animated book on which the movie is based – THEN study the movie, which is shapely in its emotional impact.
Total Gym 3000
Purchase Warner Gangsters Collection, Vol. 1 Blu-ray At Amazon!
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Product: Warner Gangsters Collection, Vol. 1
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It’s absorbing to compare the three stars of these movies – Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart – and their styles in each of these movies. “Diminutive Caesar” and “Public Enemy” were made when prohibition was peaceful in execute and gangland crime was composed a gargantuan scrape. Thus Robinson and Cagney each play remorseless criminals with no redeeming values whatsoever. Robinson’s Rico is less physical than Cagney’s Tom Powers, though. You acquire that either one of them would shoot you without a second conception. However, Cagney’s Powers is scarier because the right scare is that he would beat you to a pulp for the fun of it and THEN shoot you.
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“The Scared Forest” is not your typical gangster film, with Leslie Howard’s vagabond being the true star in what amounts to an fantastic romance space against the backdrop of the desperation of the Spacious Depression which the desert setting seems to signify. This 1936 film has Bogart as Duke Mantee, a gangster on the accelerate, in what amounts to a supporting role. However, you do derive to recognize all of the traits that made Bogart huge when he got the opportunity to recall the lead in later roles. And to contemplate they almost cast him as the filling site attendant in this one!
In 1938’s “Angels with Dirty Faces” and 1939’s “The Roaring Twenties” Cagney is again playing the lead gangster and Humphrey Bogart plays a supporting role in both films. With prohibition long over, though, these movies effect Cagney’s gangster more three-dimensional, showing him to even be a self-sacrificing character at times as well as a killer. Both movies bother to point to that had circumstances been a minute different, he might not have even become a criminal in the first set.
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1949’s “White Heat” shows the influence of film noir that was so well-liked in the 40’s an 50’s. Here, Cagney’s gangster persona has near fleshy circle succor to the viciousness of Tom Powers in “Public Enemy”. The tremendous contrast is that in this film Cagney’s mother is no cream puff. She is, in fact, probably a bigger criminal in plan if not in deed than Cagney’s Cody Jarrett. This final gangster film of the six shows technology and thus the law gaining on the criminal, with electronic gadgets and undercover lawmen with college degrees in psychology replacing the sure hard-boiled detectives and beat cops of the past. It very powerful looks forward to the Dragnet series that is to emerge in the 50’s.
In summary, this is objective a terrific package and basically acts as a complete course on the gangster film as genre. All studios should stand up and consume perceive of how Warner Home Video save this location together. Highly recommended. The following are the extra features:
The Public Enemy (1931)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1931 with Newsreel, Comedy Short: The Eyes Have It, Cartoon: Smile, Darn Ya, Smile, and 1931 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette – Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public
Commentary by Film Historian Robert Sklar
1954 Re-release Foreword
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
White Heat (1949)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1949 with Newsreel, Comedy Short: So You Mediate You’re Not Guilty, Cartoon: Homeless Hare, and 1949 Trailer Gallery .
Featurette – White Heat: Top of the World
Commentary by Film Historian Drew Casper
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1938 with Newsreel, Musical Short: Out Where the Stars Inaugurate, Cartoon: Porky and Daffy, and 1938 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette – Angels with Dirty Faces: Whaddya Hear? Whaddya Say?
Commentary by Film Historian Dana Polan
Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Production with the Film’s 2 Stars
Languages: English & French
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Little Caesar (1930)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1930 with Newsreel, Spencer Tracy Short: The Hard Guy, Cartoon: Lady Play Your Mandolin, and 1930/31 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette – Slight Caesar: Extinguish of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero
Commentary by Film Historian Richard B. Jewell
1954 Re-release Foreword
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
The Troubled Forest (1936)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1936 with Newsreel, Musical Short: Rhythmitis, Cartoon: The Coo Coo Nut Grove, and 1936 Trailer Gallery .
Featurette – The Alarmed Forest: Menace in the Desert
Commentary by Bogart Biographer Eric Lax
Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Adaptation Starring Bogart, Tyrone Power and Joan Bennett
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1939 with Newsreel, Musical Short: All Girl Revue, Comedy Short: The Huge Library Misery, Cartoon: Thugs with Dirty Mugs, and 1939 Trailer Gallery.
Featurette – The Roaring Twenties: The World Moves on
Commentary by Film Historian Lincoln Hurst
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
This status was previously impartial called “The Warner Gangsters”. This is that same dwelling objective retitled as Volume 1 to correspond with “Warner Tough Guys” being renamed “Warner Gangsters Volume 2″, and a unusual place, “Warner Gangsters Volume 3″, to be released in the first piece of 2008.
Warners has set aside six of its’ best gangster flicks into this first volume of “Gangsters”,and many detached pack a mean wallop.
“The Public Enemy”(4 stars),referred unruffled mistakenly by many today as unprejudiced “Public Enemy”,stars James Cagney as Tom Powers,his two girlfriends Mae Clarke as Kitty and Jean Harlow as Gwen,Ed Woods as his buddy Matt Doyle,his girlfriend Joan Blondell as Mamie,and others.The movie involves the epic of Tom and Matt as two boys growing up on the mean streets of the substantial city and their first brushes as young kids with petty criminals and crime.As they grow up we gaze their graduation into the broad time and their climb to success during prohibition as two of its’ biggest hustlers in the illegal distribution of homemade booze.Of course crime doesn’t pay and Tom gets his,in the destroy.Skillfully directed by William Wellman(Wings),this was Cagneys’ breakthrough fragment and do him solidly on the path to major stardom in short order.Originally Woods had the Cagney role but they were reversed due to Cagney’s worthy presence.This version has two minutes of restored footage re-inserted into it.It is definitely pre-code(/34) and is violent,with(collected) quite terrifying overt sexual moments and has the illustrious grapefruit in the kisser scene.
“Slight Ceasar”(4 1/2 stars) released in August of /31,was Edward G.Robinson’s breakthrough role also.Robsinson gives a rivetting performance as Enricco Bondello who as a petty thief longs to be the number one man and one day starts on the path to become so.It is a monotonous climb up the ladder as he steps on many toes,displaces bosses and makes many enemies.When you’re at the top there is only one map to go and down and out Bondello goes in a hail of bullets;the only fitting kill.Director Mervyn LeRoy(Wizard of Oz,Mister Roberts) nicely directs this taut gangster flick and Robinson gives an Oscar-caliber performance.It is absolute lunacy that Robsinson was never nominated for an Oscar in his entire career.He received an honourary one in /73 but died before getting it.
“Fearful Forest”(4 stars),released in Feb/36,stars unbelievable British Actor Leslie Howard as Alan Squier who is hitchiking westward through Arizona when his bolt brings him to a cramped cafe.Bette Davis as Gabrielle works as a waitress for her father,who dreams and longs to go to her mothers’ homeland of France.The two strike up a expeditiously bond,grand to the chagrin of her boyfriend Dick Foran(Boze) .Enter Duke Mantee(Humphrey Bogart) as an arch criminal on the hurry trying to glean to Mexico,who decides to exhaust the cafe as a temporary lay over.In the ruin the law gets its’ man and Gabrielle gets her wish,with the benefit of Alan;in spirit.The film was originally a successful play starring Howard and Bogart.Howard retained the rights to the property and when Warners wanted Edward G. Robinson in the Mantee role he stubbornly balked and in the kill won the day for Bogie.The mise en scene for the most piece revolves around the cafe and a improbable tension and atmosphere prevails the entire film.This was Bogies’ breaktrough film who literally dominates every scene he is in.
“Angels with Dirty Faces”(3 1/2 stars),released in Nov/38,stars James Cagney as Rocky Sullivan and Pat O’Brien as his buddy Jerry Connelly.We again perceive the rise of two friends during lean times as petty thieves.As Rocky continues on the path of crime doing major jail time over the years,his friend Jerry pursues a different course and becomes a priest in their broken-down neighbourhood.Rocky returns to his outmoded haunt and is looked up to by a local gang of youths(The Unimaginative Waste Kids with Huntz Hall,Leo Gorcy,Gabriel Dell,et al) .In the destroy Rocky gets caught and is sentenced to death in the chair.Jerry asks Rocky to act a coward in his final moments to turn the lives around of the admiring local kids.He does so and the final scene shows Jerry leading the boys off to Church.The film has top acting throughout and is well directed by Michael Curtiz(Casablanca) .I have always had a major jam with this films ending.I unbiased cannot sight any justification in the script for anything that would remotely suggest in Rocky’s personality, that he’d turn yellow at the kill unbiased for the kids sake.Gape what you consider.
“The Roaring Twenties”(4 stars),released in Oct/39,stars James Cagney as Eddie Bartlett,an out of work WW1 vet.Unable to net his outmoded job help or ANY employment he eventually turns a burgeoning cab business into hauling bootleg booze.He hires his WW1 buddy Jeff(Lloyd Hart) as his lawyer.Along the scheme he meets up with another WW1 pal George( Humphrey Bogart),who comes into business as a partner.George gets other ideas along the plan and double deals Eddie.Priscilla Lane stars as Jeannie,the girl who can never return Eddies’love and Gladys George as Panama Smith,who loves Eddie but again never in turns receives the care for she wants from him.In the kill,Eddie goes out in a blaze of glory.The movie almost runs like a documentary and is a telling comment on the times and how such behaviour amongst other wise great people could have developed.Skillfully directed by Raoul Walsh(Sadie Thompson) the movie really packs a distinguished punch in its’ portrayals and Gladys George is an especial stand out.
Finally “White Heat”(4 stars),released in Sept/49,stars James Cagney as Cody Jarrett.He leads a rag trace bunch of criminals who loyalties are suspect to say the least.Cody is married to Verna(Virginia Mayo) who doesn’t adore him and is coddled by his dominant mother(Margaret Wycherly) .The gang opens the film by pulling a instruct heist and spends the rest of the movie fleeing from the law.The law is persistant and when they threaten to assume Cody he gives himself in in another status on a lesser(time) indictment.While in the pen a plant by the name of Eddie(Edmond O’Brien) befriends Cody.Suspicious at first Cody finally comes to trust him.In the slay Cody is surrounded on top of a gas storage tank,now completely out of his mind, with his mother stupid and the truth about Eddie now revealed.Raoul Walsh again directs this gangster flick and Cagney plays a wide range of character personality quirks to a tee.His last gangster flick had been ten years before and it was “The Roaring 20s”.
Technically, although many of these films do present their age,they have been transferred very well by Warners.All the DVDs acquire the same general line up of extras which include things like the trailers,snippets of vintage newsreels,featurettes,commentaries and of course those incredible vintage cartoons.
All in all this is a collection worth owning.It helps,but you do not have to be a gangster fan to savor the offerings here.The acting is all first rate and historically speaking they are indispensable for it shows three of Hollywood’s biggest names,Cagney,Bogart and Robinson in their breakthrough roles.A stunning collection on anybody’s shelf.
master cleanse
Purchase The Complete Mr. Arkadin Video At Amazon!
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
Product: The Complete Mr. Arkadin
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Orson Welles wrote and directed “Mr. Arkadin” based on 3 episodes of “The Lives of Harry Lime” (1951-1952) radio expose, in which Welles starred as antihero adventurer Harry Lime, reprising his role from the 1949 film “The Third Man”. Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) -con artist, “petty adventurer”, and, according to himself, “the world’s greatest sucker”- was smuggling cigarettes with girlfriend Mily (Patricia Medina) in Naples harbor when a man named Bracco (Gregoire Aslan) was stabbed on the dock. Bracco whispered 2 names to Mily with his dying breath. One name was Gregory Arkadin (Orson Welles), a fabulously wealthy international financier. Thinking that Bracco’s dying words might be worth something to Arkadin, Guy tries to ingratiate himself with Arkadin’s daughter Raina (Paola Mori), while Mily uses her charms to gather cessation to him. Disapproving of Guy’s relationship with Raina and realizing his ambitions, Mr. Arkadin proposes to pay Guy to investigate his past in exchange for Guy abandoning Raina. Arkadin claims to suffer from amnesia, incandescent nothing before he found himself in Zurich in 1927 with 200,000 Swiss francs in his pocket. With this information, Guy criss-crosses Europe trying to reconstruct Arkadin’s past. (4 stars)
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“Mr. Arkadin” has been called a burlesque and a pastiche of Orson Welles’ earlier films. It’s not distinct whether to seize it literally, figuratively, or as satire -although the film’s outrightly comical scenes are its best. Robert Arden’s performance is often considered the outmoded dwelling in the film, because he doesn’t manufacture Guy Van Stratten sympathetic. I reflect Arden portrays Guy’s clumsy, wicked ambition rather well actually. He’s not a sympathetic character, but a junior Mr. Arkadin. There are many amazing supporting performances. The weakness is Mr. Arkadin himself, who is a caricature rather than a character. Called “the ogre” by his daughter and a “phenomenon of an age of disillusion and crisis” by his enemies, Mr. Arkadin has a ridiculous appearance and manner, and his actions rarely invent sense. A tremendous man with a conspicuously coiffed hair and beard, he is simply absurd. Welles’ enthusiastic sense of the absurd comes through in canted camera angles and lavish, chaotic art direction. The seemingly novel myth is station before an fascinating medieval backdrop of castles, peasants, and religious ritual. The Goya-inspired masquerade ball adds a touch of grotesque to the already unsettling tone.
Adding to the absurdity, Welles often changed his mind about structure and dialogue, forcing some scenes to be dubbed later. Welles himself dubbed several parts, including Bracco and The Professor. That was probably for technical reasons, but it’s discouraged. Scenes dubbed out of artistic whim are recognizable for speech that doesn’t match the actors’ lips. Welles lost control of the film in the editing process, as usual, ultimately resulting in several different versions of “Mr. Arkadin”. Producer Louis Dolivet, a stealthy character himself, took the film away from Welles, because he was editing only 2 minutes of final product per week. Louis Dolivet was a communist who had been Welles’ political mentor for a few years in the 1940s. Dolivet later had knowing career as a Soviet espionage agent, but insofar as “Mr. Arkadin” was concerned, he did the capitalist thing and sued Welles. The Criterion Collection offers 3 versions of the film in this “The Complete Mr. Arkadin” site (5 stars) . Optional English subtitles are available.
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DISC 1: The “Corinth Version” (99 minutes), discovered by Peter Bogdanovich in the early 1960s, is concept to be the last extant version to be under Orson Welles’ control. Welles stated that the editing within scenes is apt to his intentions. This version isn’t unpleasant, bu it cuts to Guy and Zouk in the Berlin apartment repeatedly in such a manner as to disrupt the bound of the film. Arkadin’s rendition of the scorpion-crossing-the-river tale is the worst that I have seen, and it spoils his entrance. Bonus features on Disc 1: There is a nice audio commentary by Welles scholars Jonathan Rosenbaum and James Naremore. They discuss the film’s origins, visual style, themes, performances, and Welles’ directing methods. “The Lives of Harry Lime” (90 min) includes the 3 radio note episodes (audio) on which the film was based, for play on a computer, DVD or MP3 player. The sound quality is not very satisfactory. “Reviving Harry Lime” (20 min) is an interview with Harry Alan Towers, who created and produced the radio point to. He recalls how Orson Welles came to work on the expose, putting the indicate together, and who may have actually written the 6 episodes credited to Welles, namely Ernest Borneman. There is also a “Stills Gallery” of production stills and behind-the-scenes photos.
DISC 2: The “Confidential Record” version (98 minutes), or the Louis Dolivet edit, which was released in 1955 in Sizable Britain. This version has the best represent quality, but it’s the worst edit. It assumes that the audience will not be able to follow the fable unless it is spelled out. The flashback structure is simplified, which at least eliminates choppiness. But the audience is guided by an overburdened voiceover narration. Extraneous scenes are included, particularly in the first 15 minutes, while more piquant material was cleave. The introductions to both women, Mily and Riana, manufacture them out to be weaker characters than they are. The scene on the dock with Bracco is longer, contains more explication, and a different intent. The bonus feature on Disc 2 is “Men of Mystery” (25 min), an interview with Welles biographer Simon Callow, who talks about Orson Welles, Louis Dolivet, actor Michael Redgrave, and includes some interview tapes with Robert Arden.
DISC 3: This “Comprehensive Version” (105 minutes) has recently been assembled by film historians/archivists Stefan Drossler and Claude Bertemes from 5 different versions of the film based on comments that Welles made in the years following the film’s novel release. It is an attempt to execute a Welles edit, not the best edit. Although we may know Welles’ intentions, it is impossible to know what he would have done had he had the footage in front of him. This version is advantageous to the others, because the justify flashback structure has been restored to working order. But it errs on the side of including too grand. For example: Additional footage of Guy approaching Zouk’s apartment house gives that scene an inappropriately gradual scurry. In one scene, Mily’s dialogue is interrupted then resumed, apparently a mistake. A clip of the plane crashing makes exiguous sense, because it is a subjective camera in an empty plane. Bonus features on Disc 3: “On the Comprehensive Version” (20 min) in which Drossler, Bertemes, and Peter Bogdanovich elaborate some of the decisions in the original edit. “Outtakes and Rushes” (30 min) are from footage found at the Cinematheque de Luxembourg. “The Spanish Actresses” are alternative scenes with the Baroness Nagel (4 min) and Sophie (7 min) shot specially for the Spanish language version with Spanish actresses Amparo Rivelles and Irene Lopez Heredia.
Orson Welles more than any film director understood that film is a mosaic of tiles, and that it is in the act of piecing them together that a film is made. He also failed to do so about half the time, in section due to his nature, in piece due to the nature of the business. He wrote, acted, directed in this manner, creating puzzle pieces powerful in the blueprint Brian Wilson created “Smile” musically, and with similar results on “Mr. Arkadin”. Wilson finally finished “Smile” two years ago; Welles has “Arkadin” finished for him with this box spot.
Welles deliberately filmed “Arkadin” so that only he could fuse the fragments together properly to protect himself from interference. Then the producers took it away from him and over time arranged and released five different versions of it, none of which had the structure or record line Welles intended, one or two of which literally do not manufacture sense. Working that map, juggling it all in his head, Welles did let some balls fall – in particular the opening part seems to have missing shots or even scenes (scenes which appear in the new version included here, begun by Welles and finished by his secretary) . This box site includes the two best previously released versions, both inviting but flawed, and then a recent version crafting together in beautifully remastered image and sound something mighty closer to what Welles would have done if he could have. It’s level-headed rather like the Old-fashioned Roman unusual (the first surviving) “Satyricon”, unbelievable stout fragments of a expansive work in ruins. But what ruins. The flea circus scene, Michael Redgrave’s pawnbroker, the Christmas orgy, the German ghetto, are all among the best stuff Welles ever filmed. Holes in the space – holes that could have been explained or worked out but weren’t – remain, but if you’re alive to in Welles you will like the novel version a lot.
It would rate a four if not for the extras, which include footage of Welles doing takes as an actor and even better Welles directing the very ordinary actor in the lead (the film would be another level higher with someone like Richard Basehart instead) and his non-actress wife, who plays Arkadin’s daughter. Five minutes only, the later is priceless for anyone alive to in the craft of acting on film. If you have only seen the English versions, you’ll be thrilled with the lost ending, the kill credits, whole scenes that were only in the Spanish version. Except for the young leads, the actors are improbable. Welles neophytes should begin elsewhere, but anyone who has digested “Citizen Kane” will regain “Arkadin” compelling, for all the flaws in makeup, post-dubbing, the music which was written without cue lengths so the audio cuts are clumsy, even the botched initial set-up for the flashback structure (‘We’re about to be murdered so let me yell you the whole record…’) .
Perfect is only possible when you work in shrimp.
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