Thursday, December 04, 2008

I tracked down a copy of Powell And Pressburger's A Matter Of Life And Death. I love a handful of Michael Powell movies, and got really obsessed with seeing more of them earlier this year, and this was the one classic that was unavailable on DVD. Sammy Harkham loves it, and his post about it is fairly exciting. I am really grateful for that blog entry I linked to, because I feel like it gave me some reference point and grounding about what, specifically, was good and compelling about the film. I kind of feel like it falls apart as it goes on. The ending trial in heaven is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen, in a way that I can only feel really conflicted about at this time of my life.

I also saw Orson Welles' Chimes At Midnight at the Baltimore library fairly recently, shown on rare VHS because the film print was too damaged. That was also fairly disappointing: The bad audio, along with the fast-paced Shakespeare dialogue, made for a tricky combination, and I am not that familiar with the plays in question to know exactly what Welles was doing here.

And yet, both of these films are worth seeing, should they come your way. Until then, why not watch the Orson Welles movies The Trial and F For Fake, and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and Black Narcissus?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, did my dvd ever show up in your mail?

sorry for the non-comment

bryan elfboy said...

i still havent seen Peeping Tom!! Man I love A Matter of Life and Death. The conversation between the pilot and the woman at the beginning is something I can watch over and over and over. Was it some kind of purgatory that the other soldiers find themselves in? It felt like some kind of extraterrestrial resort hotel. I love that.

Brian said...

Erin: I did get that DVD. I haven't watched it yet. Very nice packaging though.

Bryan:Yeah, that opening is pretty awesome. Have you seen Jean Renoir's Rules Of The Game, which also has an awesome romantic opening that the rest of the movie doesn't really share a tone with, even though it has it's own charms?