Dirk Bogarde

[Maureen Whittaker]

.....

MacKay isn't one of my favourite characters, but Dirk is always good and will look even better in a restored print.

Barbara

On watching THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM on Sunday I noticed how my response to MacKay was changing. Yes he does whine and even fails in his duty to light the flare, but he has so many good points concerning his care for the other members of the crew, even sacrificing his boots for the Skipper. But once again it shows how very good Dirk is at creating disagreeable characters, so that we must find sympathy for them and even like them; even someone like Barrett
I am also looking forward to watching DAMN THE DEFIANT tomorrow as this is one extremely disagreeable man who is given some respect for his skills on board. Incidentally, I am reading MUTINY at the moment and it is very good at providing background and revealing motivations.

[Elaine]

Mckay turns out to be quite a nice person as the film goes on, as you say Maureen. What a situation to be in. Sitting in freezing cold water for all those hours in very rough seas with just a thin sheet of rubber between you and fathoms of water under you. How cold could you be? Not my idea of how to spend 48 hours. I would whine and grumble like hell. Dirk, Michael, Bonar and Jack finished up with boils on their bottoms just to add to their misery during filming.

[Maureen Whittaker]

Mckay turns out to be quite a nice person as the film goes on, as you say Maureen. What a situation to be in. Sitting in freezing cold water for all those hours in very rough seas with just a thin sheet of rubber between you and fathoms of water under you. How cold could you be? Not my idea of how to spend 48 hours. I would whine and grumble like hell. Dirk, Michael, Bonar and Jack finished up with boils on their bottoms just to add to their misery during filming.

Now there's a detail I had missed. You are quite right about the misery of filming one such as this, especially as the time spent in that dinghy would be much more than 48 hours.

[Maureen Whittaker]

I can recommend this posting with Mahler's 5th Symphony conducted by Herbert von Karajan, surely one of our best, and 11 mins of film extracts from Death in Venice. Very enjoyable.

http://youtu.be/wwyYyfP0b0w

[CLARA]

Maybe what I am going to say will not please everybody, but yesterday I watched on de BelgianTV THE WILD ONE with "the greatest movie star of all time (?!?)" i.e. Marlon Brando. I must say I fell a bit angry remembering all the fuss around this actor. At the same moment (about 1953) Dirk was a much better and versatile actor than that "one expression mumbling Brando". Alas, he never attained the stardon of Brando (but HE was American of course !!) and its a great shame. Sorry for those who love Brando, I never did.

[Elaine]

Maybe what I am going to say will not please everybody, but yesterday I watched on de BelgianTV THE WILD ONE with "the greatest movie star of all time (?!?)" i.e. Marlon Brando. I must say I fell a bit angry remembering all the fuss around this actor. At the same moment (about 1953) Dirk was a much better and versatile actor than that "one expression mumbling Brando". Alas, he never attained the stardon of Brando (but HE was American of course !!) and its a great shame. Sorry for those who love Brando, I never did.

Bravo for standing up for Dirk, Claire. I never liked Brando either. He has been built up over the years as someone to look up to, all I remember about him is On The waterfront, and Mutiny on The bounty. Oh..and The Godfather, none of which I thought remarkable. I hate tough guy kind of men. I love the sensitive, educated, thinking man. Anyone this remind you of?

[Maureen Whittaker]

Maybe what I am going to say will not please everybody, but yesterday I watched on de BelgianTV THE WILD ONE with "the greatest movie star of all time (?!?)" i.e. Marlon Brando. I must say I fell a bit angry remembering all the fuss around this actor. At the same moment (about 1953) Dirk was a much better and versatile actor than that "one expression mumbling Brando". Alas, he never attained the stardon of Brando (but HE was American of course !!) and its a great shame. Sorry for those who love Brando, I never did.

And a bravo from me too, Claire.
I remember the fuss about Brando which has gone on for so long, through disappointing performances or the the Star's reluctance to appear at all. A true prima dona if ever there was one. True he may have shown talent and represented a new style of acting, but he lacked Dirk's commitment, hard work and true professionalism throughout the years.
For me Dirk is simply the best.

[CLARA]

Thanks for your support Elaine and Maureen. As you say, Dirk is the best

[Maureen Whittaker]

There is a re-issue of the COMPLETE DOCTOR COLLECTION (7 discs) advertised for pre-order for August 13th at £37.49 on PAL. Rather expensive and on the face of it, there is no difference from the version we already have. However it is encouraging to see the continual attention to DB's films and this may attract new fans.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Doctor-Collection-DVD/dp/B008GSGLUG/ref=sr_1_67?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1343930686&sr=1-67

[Rosamond Tifft]

I agree with you all that Dirk is the best thumbs up. However, I also believe that Brando was a great actor but so was Dirk, just two very different types. Still they had something in common, the desire to go for the absolute maximum in showing mankind it's face. Nice to be back here for a bit and see all of you.

Thanks for your support Elaine and Maureen. As you say, Dirk is the best

[theuofc]

SEBASTIAN (1968), reg. l, ModCinema: We've done positive business with this company, but we can't vouch for every DVD... as we all know, a DVD is only as good as the print it's taken from. Still, we're glad to see this Bogarde gem available.

All best,

Barbara

http://www.modcinema.com/search-prod...vd?s=sebastian

[Maureen Whittaker]

SEBASTIAN (1968), reg. l, ModCinema: We've done positive business with this company, but we can't vouch for every DVD... as we all know, a DVD is only as good as the print it's taken from. Still, we're glad to see this Bogarde gem available.

All best,

Barbara

http://www.modcinema.com/search-prod...vd?s=sebastian

Thank you for the link and the good news, Barbara. More films to add to our collection is always good news and this one, in particular, is a favourite. The quality of the print looks good on the Youtube extract, so maybe it is worth investing in another copy.

[Elaine]

Thanks for the tip, Barbara. Certainly one to think about, although both my dvd's of this film are great quality. Then again, it would be great to have the disc in a nice jazzy case.

[theuofc]

Thank you for the link and the good news, Barbara. More films to add to our collection is always good news and this one, in particular, is a favourite. The quality of the print looks good on the Youtube extract, so maybe it is worth investing in another copy.

Hi, Maureen,

I'd have to go back and check but if memory serves, your screencaps (or Elaine's) look okay so this region 1 may not be worth it to you. It's a perk for region1 admirers who can't easily get the film nor play the reg. 2 pirated copies.

One consideration concerning clarity: any pirated PAL copy has probably gone through the filtering of a conversion from an NTSC, reg. 1 copy since SEBASTIAN was first aired in the U.S. on NBC and has been aired since then. There were U.S. and UK theatrical reel copies, but it's highly unlikely that pirated copies would come from those original reels. I don't know if it has ever been aired on UK television and if so, what copy the station used for someone who might have recorded it.

Best,

Barbara

[Maureen Whittaker]

Hi, Maureen,

I'd have to go back and check but if memory serves, your screencaps (or Elaine's) look okay so this region 1 may not be worth it to you. It's a perk for region1 admirers who can't easily get the film nor play the reg. 2 pirated copies.

One consideration concerning clarity: any pirated PAL copy has probably gone through the filtering of a conversion from an NTSC, reg. 1 copy since SEBASTIAN was first aired in the U.S. on NBC and has been aired since then. There were U.S. and UK theatrical reel copies, but it's highly unlikely that pirated copies would come from those original reels. I don't know if it has ever been aired on UK television and if so, what copy the station used for someone who might have recorded it.

Best,

Barbara

Dear Barbara
The origin of the print had not occurred to me before but that explains why some prints are disappointing. In the case of SEBASTIAN you are quite right in that my copy is acceptable. And I do have an excellent VHS.
I thought it might be a good idea to list some of the copies which have not been satisfactory as a warning to others who may consider buying it. We may have mentioned them before in relation to the picture quality but this is not always the only consideration.

CAST A DARK SHADOW VHS 1994 Madacy Music Group - the print is quite good, if rather dark but there is a 10 minute scene omitted between Monica and Teddy before the murder scene
SIMBA DVD 2005 AmCo Group Germany - several scenes are omitted which help to make sense of the storyline
SONG WITHOUT END DVD Castaways Import - very poor picture quality and a copy to avoid at all costs
THE FIXER DVD 2010 IDA Films Spain - poor picture quality in distance shots.
THE NIGHT PORTER DVD 2006 Anchor Bay - picture quality in the darker scenes is very poor

I wondered if anyone else had a warning to offer.

[Maureen Whittaker]

MOVIE WATCH this week is a replay of last week's films. For those who may have missed them:

TODAY Saturday 13.25 ITV4 The Sea Shall Not Have Them
Monday 11 am Film 4 Damn the Defiant!
Thursday 8.45 am and 1 am Friday Sky Classics Oh! What a Lovely War

It is good to see 3 films in one week.

[Maureen Whittaker]

DB's next film was a very different film from DEATH IN VENICE and could not possibly compare with what he thought had been his best work. THE SERPENT (1973) is a spy film based on the Philby, Burgess and MacLean scandal and Dirk was clearly involved.









An enjoyable film without the emotional entanglements,

[CLARA]

Very good pictures of THE SERPENT. A good spy movie I enjoyed very much when I saw it in Brussels in 1973. Henri Verneuil was a very good director who made a lot of interesting movies. Would like to see it again (perhaps on TV ). Thanks for the pictures.

[Pat_06]

Very good pictures of Sir as the mysterious and dangerous MI6 Agent Phillip Boyle .

[Maureen Whittaker]

Very good pictures of THE SERPENT. A good spy movie I enjoyed very much when I saw it in Brussels in 1973. Henri Verneuil was a very good director who made a lot of interesting movies. Would like to see it again (perhaps on TV ). Thanks for the pictures.

I enjoy this movie too, Claire. He looks so 'innocent' and 'honest' with that open-eyed stare that the denouement caught me by surprise on first viewing. I should have been aware of the very distinctive hands in this shot but I wasn't looking at the time.



I think he conveyed the man and the situation very well although I did miss the emotional involvement as that is always DB's strength.