Billy Liar

About bloody time!

Here.

Special Features
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New, restored high-definition digital transfer
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Audio commentary by director Martin Scorsese and film-music historian Bruce Eder
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New video interview with director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead)
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The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1956), a short musical film directed by Michael Powell, based on the Goethe story
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Rare collection of production designer Hein Heckroth’s design sketches and paintings
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Gallery of archival production and publicity photographs
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Original theatrical trailer
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A new essay by opera and film historian Ken Wlaschin
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Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Steve Crook

Agreed, although it wasn't (as I understand it) Criterion's fault that caused the delay.

Now all we need is some word on when Columbia might eventually release A Matter of Life and Death on DVD (Region 1) as they've been promising since at least April 2003)

Steve

Billy Liar

True, sorry about the cock-up I didn't see the DVD thread at the top. It's a shame that it takes and American company to treat one of Britains greatest treasures with this kind of respect.

Steve Crook

We don't have any production/distribution companies like Criterion
- but neither do the Americans. There is only one Criterion. They're a bit special.

Steve

Billy Liar

What about the new Masters of Cinema series in conjunction with Eureka, they are looking very good at the moment with some great releases.

Steve Crook

They're not bad, but they don't specialise in Powell & Pressburger like Criterion do

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Clinton Morgan

Let's hope MoC include some early Emeric Pressburger films on their list. Interestingly enough one of the DVDs is a film by Dr. Arnold Franck called 'The Holy Mountain'. I've never seen it but apparently it is part of a short-lived movie genre called 'bergfilm' or 'mountain film'. And what was Emeric's first British film about?......

I like 'Tales of Hoffman' but I'll have to watch it over and over again to fully appreciate it. The springs turning into ripples and wax turning into jewellery aside, much of the movie (to my eyes) has the appearance of a ballet in a television studio shot with a multi-camera set up. Especially the first tale. It should have gone a bit further. The filmmakers should have taken a leaf from Busby Berkeley's book. I don't mean have all the dancers form pretty flower-shapes but for the camera to shoot them from points of view that the audience don't usually get to have. For me 18 minutes in 'The Red Shoes' was more succesful that two hours of 'The Tales of Hoffman'. I always wonder what would have happened if Powell and Pressburger decided to have used 'The Small Back Room' as a new starting point.

I really need to go to America, buy a gun and kidnap Martin Scorsese and George Romero. That's the only way I'll be able to understand and appreciate 'The Tales of Hoffman'. My copy is one 'Exclusive To WHSmith'. Beat that Criterion!

Steve Crook

A few other of Emeric's early films are available from Nostalgia Family Video.
Look for:
One Rainy Afternoon (1936)
Atlantic Ferry (1941) - they have it under the US title Sons of the Sea
Breach of Promise (1942) - under the US title Adventure in Blackmail
The others are also good but I really like Breach of Promise.

You can also get a few where he helped with the script like:
Emil und die Detektive (1931) - auf Deutsch on a dual DVD with the 1954 version from Amazon.de
Abdul the Damned (1935)
The Great Barrier (1937)


The Tales of Hoffmann is really a full-on opera, but in a form that could never be performed on stage. Making use of all the changes of vantage point available to the camera and many of the special effects available at the time. It's not just the dancing. There's not really a lot of dancing but having ballet stars in the lead roles meant they walked with more purpose. It's the full effect of the dance, music and decor. But available in a close up that can never be seen on stage.

There's a piece about why George A. Romero likes it so much at movieforum.com and another at the PaPAS site where he spoke about it at the Toronto Film Festival in 1999.

Scorsese has usually quoted the intensity of the gaze of Schlemil (Massine) during the duel. That and the simplicity of the wax-to-jewels transformation.

Me? I mainly like it because of Ludmilla's "Giulietta" in that slinky cat-suit

Steve

Clinton Morgan

Error on this page http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/...ann/Hoff00.html of your website Steve. The stamp reads 'Made In England' not 'Made In Britain'

Steve Crook

Thanks. Fixed

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Wetherby Pond

The main problem is that the UK rights to the vast majority of "classic" (i.e. 1930s-70s) British films are in the hands of two companies - Granada and Studio Canal - and neither has shown a huge amount of interest in either doing them justice or sub-licensing them to labels that are more motivated.

So it's paradoxically much easier if you're operating outside the UK (or Europe, given that Studio Canal usually administers pan-European rights), because there's a greater chance that you'll be able to get your hands on the title you're after. To underline this general principle, a major reason why Criterion is so strong on the independent and world cinema front is that they find it hard to licence mainstream US titles - for pretty much exactly the same reason!

What I'd love to see, though, is more collaborations between Criterion and UK labels - I know they worked alongside the BFI on The Leopard (sub-licenced from Fox), and each DVD is sourced from the same high-definition transfer, though the extras were developed separately (annoyingly, both packages have their virtues: the BFI's commentary is reputedly vastly superior, but Criterion also throws in the English-language cut of the film and a few more goodies).

JamesM

I was underdtand that Studio Canal are no longer exclusively releasing titles they own on DVD through Warners. Granada are licensing product in the UK to other companies. Is the climate not much improved?

If the BFI have been able to deal with Fox for "The Leopard", how about some other Fox titles that were made in the UK such as Michael Powell's "The Love Test" (1935), Carol Reed's "Night Train To Munich" (1940), Jack Cardiff's "Sons and Lovers" (1960), Jack Clayton's "The Innocents", Alexander Mackendrick's "A High Wind in Jamica" (1965) or Joseph Losey's "Modesty Blaise" (1966). I would have also suggested JUles Dassin's "The Night and the City" (1950) but The Cinema Club have this tilte and have released a vanilla version, despite the Criterion version's existance.

What are the other studios like? It would be great to see a BFI release of Columbia's "Night of the Demon" (1957, dir.Jacques Tourneur) with a commentary with Peggy Cummins and Ken Adam.

Clinton Morgan

Well I watched 'Tales of Hoffman' late on Friday night and enjoyed it. In terms of cinematic language the best sequence is the second one. I'm slowly doing a U-turn in terms of opinion on this film. Though I wish the creators of this film analysed closely the film 'Faust' in terms of creating a believable environment based on atmosphere rather than reality.

On Saturday I rounded off my Michael Powell festival with 'Peeping Tom' and 'Return To The Edge of The World'. So on Sunday I was free to watch any film I liked. Hmmm. I feel like 'Tales of Hoffman'. So I watched it, enjoyed it so much and because I got so much joy out of it I watched it again an hour and a half later. It was that or 'A Canterbury Tale'. I hope to have some colourful dreams tonight.


Taken from TIFF: Romero & Me (September 16, 1999) - FESTIVALS

If I watch this damn movie ever again I might end up being a convert! But at the same time I wouldn't call this the perfect 'composed film'. Or does this become apparent after multiple viewings?

Steve Crook

Oh, nothing's ever quite "perfect", but they get pretty close to it.

Given the technology available at the time it was about as close as they could get. The music and singing was recorded beforehand and they filmed it on a "silent stage" at Shepperton. (One that was meant for silent films and wasn't soundproofed but that meant that they could make as much noise as they liked including shouted direction and leaving the soundproofing blimp off of the Technicolor camera which allowed it to move a lot more freely than usual.)

A lot of the "special effects" were done "in the camera" by stopping it and starting it again at the appropriate time. By modern standards, the effects are quite crudely done, like Dapertutto (Helpmann) walking out of the mirror. But in the context of the film they're perfectly adequate - and I do like the dissolve from the pattern on the curtain to the drunken students.

I agree with you that the 2nd act is the best one. Ludmilla as Giulietta is wonderful and everything about that act from her singing a duet with her reflection, to Dapertutto transformations, the orgy, the duel and the tricks with the jewellry & the mirror. It all works really well.

The last act is more full-on opera and gets to be too much for some people (including me sometimes). But I do like a lot of the rest of it as well. The Dragonfly ballet, Fred Ashton's clowing & those eyebrows on Coppelius.

Steve