The Archers (Powell & Pressburger): S/D

Nope, never seen it. Think that's my evening sorted.

also, early Jean Simmons role

Yr in for a treat - would be interested to hear your thoughts once you've seen it. Timely viewing as well given Jean Simmons's passing last week (you got there before me Morbs!). She's captivating in it.

I'll report back!

Black Narcissus: Wow. Going to have to collect my thoughts on it a bit, but wow.

Kathleen Byron died just over a week ago too, strangely.

Or rather, no she didn't. That was last year. Me and my speedy wikipedia scans.

Apparently Esmond Knight is no longer with us as well.

Jesus christ that Red Shoes restoration!

July:

http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2764/44_BD_box_348x490.jpg http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2758/93_BD_box_348x490.jpg

BN cover is superb

as always thank god for criterion or i'd only be buying action films on blu-ray

both covers, but especially r.s., are awful

both covers, but especially r.s., are terrific

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_Our_Aircraft_Is_Missing

on film four tomorrow at 15:10. it isn't, for some reason, in the big box set of archers films that is available (but is on film4 every couple of months and is only £4 on dvd anyway)

both covers, but especially r.s., are awful

― by another name (amateurist), Friday, April 16, 2010 1:43 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

both covers, but especially r.s., are terrific

― Ward Fowler, Friday, April 16, 2010 2:02 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

Amazing covers: wish I could get prints of them.

Trying to remember what Jack Cardiff said was the thing he shot that he loved for the ending of Black Narcissus that ended up on the cutting room floor.

This reminds me: I have been curious about this book http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QQ0B1MX1L._SS500_.jpg for a while, but it seems crazy expensive on Amazon. Is it worth shelling out for, anyone?

Don't know that book. Here is the info on the lost scene: http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/47_BN/LostScene.html.

more criterion covers here: http://grainedit.com/2009/12/08/criterion-collection-dvd-covers/

£18 here: http://www.faber.co.uk/work/arrows-of-desire/9780571162710/

the ian christie book is great.

watched A Canterbury Tale again, also watched the extras on the second disc. Both Sheila Sim and John Sweet come across as lovely people - Sim being very regretful about the treatment of the Village Idiot character, and Sweet talking about his realization that he wasn't cut out to be an actor, and his return to teaching. At the end he says that he feels like his main contribution was that he made his students like themselves a bit more.

o hi black narcissus and red shoes blu rays

how r u today

JEALOUS

just watched 'i know where i'm going!' last night, i love that 12-year-old petula clark has a bit part in it

saw Edge of the World fairly recently--surprisingly good! fun to see Powell and his wife on screen, though that frame story is a bit pointless.

I've been planning on watching "I know where I'm going" this week, donna. Is it as terrific as I've heard it is?

The story in Edge of the World is nicely sparse and mythical, gives the movie drive and structure and you can't have a ghost town without having ghosts.

cant wait to see i know wher eim going again sometime

kinda want to go blu for these new ones...

go blu or go home imo

still rocking a CRT tv tho... does that work?

no point

i like the crt... more authentic graininess

you can't have a ghost town without having ghosts.

Yes, you're right: it's not pointless, though it kind of spoils the suspense of John Laurie's final scenes. That probably doesn't matter since thematically he can't leave the island anyway, but the frame story has an stiffness to it. Anyway, I really just wanted to say that if you're a P&P fan and haven't seen it, it's very good. And it anticipates the awesome IKWIG in many ways.

I know what you're saying - Powell could have done it as a straight documentary, almost. But like I say I'm a sucker for his myth-making - like all myths, it doesn't quite make sense in the end.

Discuss: The prpriety of seeing an iteration of a film that looks different from the way its makers could've ever seen it.

aka shd we read joyce on a kindle?

michael powell did laserdisc commentaries. reckon he'd be chill with blu-ray.

I'm just asking, as I've never seen a BluRay.

also I don't remember ppl saying "It's never looked like this" re laserdisc the way they do with BR.

Similar to Jeffrey Wells' vote for scrubbing ALL grain from old movies on video?

i've seen it in shops. looks better than dvd, but not *that* better. when my dvd breaks i'll get one, now that the cost has come down.

i haven't heard people say blu-ray falsifies the movie, but do see a lot of debate out there. everyone says 'the red shoes' looks amazing and they can;t all be shills.

Most film-makers I think probably want/ed their films to look as well as they possibly could. As long as technology doesn't fuck with what's meant to be in the frame then I don't have much issue with it.

Can't imagine P&P not wanting e.g. The Red Shoes to look as luminous and vivid as technology wd allow.

Part of the point of these blu-ray reissues is that they are better able to recreate the experience of watching a film (ie. better resolution, colour depth, contrast, visible film grain etc etc) than any previous home video system. Def. a sight closer to the original intent than some shitty VHS or TV viewing.

yeah, they look MORE like the original film, not less

VHS on the other hand was a travesty

the question is more valid, kinda, when it comes to TV on bluray, like the recent star treks that look SO much more spotless and gleaming than anyone could have ever experienced them, save for maybe the editor, back in tha day

xpost to Noodle Vague
oh wait, I think we're talking about totally different things! By "frame story" I simply meant the prologue with Andrew Gray piloting a yacht with two English people on it (played by Powell and his wife, Frankie) to the island. I didn't mean the story Powell wrote to flesh out the original evacuation of the island story---is that what you thought I meant? At any rate, I totally agree about myth-making and almost totally agree with Powell's own extremely negative stance on documentaries.

All that said, there's actually a bit in the prologue that I love. Powell's character asks Andrew what Hirta (the island's name) means. Andrew says very portentously "it means...death." Cut to an ominous shot of an eagle hunting a lamb. Just before it can kill the lamb, the eagle is shot by Powell.