Edmund Gwenn, Donald Crisp, a wooden Tom Drake, Janet Leigh.
Ph. Charles Shoenbaum
Lassie doesn't like water, gets chloroformed in very washed out Channel 4 print.
Emotional. Not sure if we'd seen it before.
Thursday 16 December 2010
Sunday 12 December 2010
Tristana (1970 Luis Buñuel)
Hitchcock apparently loved Tristana and told Buñuel as much over dinner at Cukor's. I bet he coveted Catherine Deneuve's cool blondness and I think he probably relished the protagonist losing her leg. An intriguing beginning (a silent football match) and ending (fast rewind to the start), both to the sound of the sea; a quick dream sequence; even as a teenager I was underwhelmed by Buñuel's 'surrealism'. I find him more of a sardonic observer of people's strange behaviour. Still, Powell ('I defer only to Buñuel'). So probably one to watch again a few times. Filmed in Buñuel's beloved Toledo.
Friday 10 December 2010
Gone With the Wind (1939 Victor Fleming)
Also directed by Sam Wood and George Cukor. Amongst many Oscars were film and screenplay (Sidney Howard, from Margaret Mitchell's bestseller), for Vivian Leigh and Hattie McDaniel, and an honorary award to William Cameron Menzies 'for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood' - an odd award considering he was the production designer extraordinaire.
It is Hattie's finest achievement - she was the first black person to be invited to the Oscars, let alone to win one. Her character is actually the strongest in the story.
Noted Harry Davenport as the doctor and Ona Munson as Belle.
According to the ASC, Lee Garmes 'shot a considerable portion...Many consider the famous railyard scene amongst his finest efforts'. At least an hour of the film is his including setting up the tracking shot of the wounded, the Twelve Trees barbecue, the introduction of Rhett, and Scarlett killing the soldier. He was using a new type of film giving a softer look but Selznick wanted 'primary colours' and sacked him, thus credit is given to Ernie Haller and Ray Rennahan.
Despite the enormous budget and attention to detail, we noticed a wonky banister outside one of the houses!
The first Blu-Ray we watched - it was amazing, especially stuff like the burning of Atlanta.
It is Hattie's finest achievement - she was the first black person to be invited to the Oscars, let alone to win one. Her character is actually the strongest in the story.
Noted Harry Davenport as the doctor and Ona Munson as Belle.
According to the ASC, Lee Garmes 'shot a considerable portion...Many consider the famous railyard scene amongst his finest efforts'. At least an hour of the film is his including setting up the tracking shot of the wounded, the Twelve Trees barbecue, the introduction of Rhett, and Scarlett killing the soldier. He was using a new type of film giving a softer look but Selznick wanted 'primary colours' and sacked him, thus credit is given to Ernie Haller and Ray Rennahan.
Despite the enormous budget and attention to detail, we noticed a wonky banister outside one of the houses!
The first Blu-Ray we watched - it was amazing, especially stuff like the burning of Atlanta.
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| Scenes like this must acknowledge the amazing work of special effects genius Jack Cosgrove |
Sunday 5 December 2010
Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931 Erich Engels & Fyodor Otsep)
Not quite what Dave Godin had led me to expect but for its year was a remarkably agile sound film rather contradicting Powell's lament that sound killed the art of the motion picture. I personally couldn't see the influences it might have had on Citizen Kane, which for me is a marvellous box of tricks, and its style seems very Soviet, particularly the dazzling horse chase sequence. Directed by a German and a Russian and featuring Anna Sten. According to Mr. Godin, Bernard Herrmann most admired the film for its creative music score.
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