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Posted: |
Apr 13, 2015 - 7:40 AM
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By: |
trevanian
(Member)
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CHIMES is nearly the only thing I still bother to keep on VHS, though I used to have the Welles AFI tribute on laser just to be able to see the battle, which has got to be one of the most impressive things in any Welles pic, and something Branaugh must have watched an awful lot of prior to HENRY V.
Falstaff's rejection by Hal at the end still works like gangbusters on me, it seems like more than just technique on actorWelles' part, but maybe I'm reading into it?
I actually wrote a pretty good Star Trek TNG spec treatment riffing on the Prince Hal/Falstaff/Henry IV deal, with Wesley Crusher in the Hal role, Picard (of course) as stiffass Daddy/King, and imagining Brian Blessed as the Falstaffian figure who causes Wes to be found in the teaser drunk off his ass instead of doing due diligence at the summer school version of the Academy. But that was just before Wheaton left the show, so I had to turn it (unsuccessfully) into a different thing altogether when I had my less-than-ideal pitch session. Found out later HENRY IV Pt2 was Stewart's favorite Shakes play, so may have been onto something there.
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Posted: |
Apr 29, 2015 - 6:34 AM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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**Update**
British distributors Mr. Bongo have dated and detailed their upcoming Blu-ray release of Orson Welles' Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight (1965), Too Much Johnson (1938), and The Stranger (1946).
Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
For the 50th anniversary edition of Chimes At Midnight, Mr. Bongo worked with Luciano Berriatúa at Filmoteca in Madrid. The restoration has been undertaken with utmost respect for Welles' original vision of the movie, and is not based on providing a quality of picture and sound according to the standard of current technologies (attempting to better what Welles filmed in the sixties), but to recover the film so that the viewer can experience the movie the same way they could watch it at the time.
On the brink of Civil War, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) attempts to consolidate his reign while fretting with unease over his sons seeming neglect of his royal duties. Hal (Keith Baxter), the young Prince, openly consorts with Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and his company of Diana's foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon . Hal's friendship with the fat knight substitutes for his estrangement from his father. Both Falstaff and the King are old and tired; both rely on Hal for comfort in their final years, while the young Prince, the future Henry V, nurtures his own ambitions.
Orson Welles considered Chimes at Midnight his personal favorite of all his films. Perhaps the most radical and ground-breaking of all Shakespeare adaptations, the film condenses the Bard's Henriad cycle into a single focused narrative. Its international cast comprises of Jeanne Moreau, Fernando Rey, Margaret Rutherford, and Ralph Richardson as the narrator, in addition to Welles and Gielgud. The film's harrowing war scenes have proven especially influential, cited in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V as well as Mel Gibson's Braveheart.
STREET DATE: JUNE 29.
Too Much Johnson
Shot in 1938 Too Much Johnson was Welles first feature, the film that helped him hone his craft and led him to create to the masterpiece that is Citizen Kane. The footage was presumed destroyed in a fire in Welles home in 1971 but was recently rediscovered in Italy and the restored 66 mins version makes its UK Blu-ray/DVD debut.
Too Much Johnson is an elaborate 1890s farce of mistaken identity. Cuckolded husband Dathis (Edgar Barrier) is on the tale of a man named Billings (Joseph Cotten), who has been having an affair with Dathiss wife (Arlene Francis). Billings flees by ship to Cuba, where now also hiding from his own wife (Ruth Ford) and mother-in-law (Mary), he adopts the identity of a plantation owner named Johnson, who is expecting a mail-order bride. Orson Welles plays a Keystone Kop.
STREET DATE: JUNE 29.
The Stranger
Based on Victor Travias Oscar nominated original story, The Stranger earned Orson Welles a nomination at the Venice Film Festival. The first film after World War II to show footage of concentration camps, this restored classic noir stars Edward G Robinson, Orson Welles and Loretta Young.
Mr Wilson (Edward G Robinson) of the War Crimes Commission is seeking Nazi war criminal and architect of the Holocaust Franz Kindler (Orson Welles). Erasing all evidence of his past, Kindler is now Charles Rankin, a high school teacher married to the headmasters daughter Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young). In order to entrap Kindler, Wilson releases his former comrade Meinike (Konstantin Shayne) from prison and follows him to Connecticut. With the arrival of his ex-Nazi comrade and his wifes growing suspicion, Kindler knows that his past is catching up with him and will go to any lengths to prevent his identity being revealed.
Special Features:
Original Theatrical Trailer
Image Gallery
Orson Welles Wartime radio. Four complete programmes exemplify Welles blending of propaganda and entertainment: Alameda (Nazi eyes on Canada 1942), War workers: (Ceiling Unlimited 1942), Brazil (Hello Americans 1942), Bikini Atomic test (Orson Welles Commentaries 1946).
STREET DATE: JUNE 29.
The Immortal Story
Orson Welles' second-to-last feature, The Immortal Story is an adaptation of a book by Danish author Isak Dinesen and stars Jeanne Moreau.
The year is 1860 in the Portuguese colony of Macao, Mr. Clay (Welles) is an aging, rich merchant, who is the subject of town gossip. He likes his clerk Levinsky (Roger Coggio), to read to him to help him relax in the evenings and one night he recounts a tale about a rich man who paid a poor sailor five guineas to father a child with his beautiful young wife. Mr. Clay has no wife and no heir to his fortune and resolves to make the story true... Levinsky approaches Virginie Ducrot (Moreau), another clerk's mistress, and strikes a bargain for 300 guineas. Now to find the sailor... DVD ONLY.
STREET DATE: JUNE 29.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=16661
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I just sampled Criterion's feast of film and featureS>
you will not be disappointed!
bruce
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I just sampled Criterion's feast of film and featureS>
you will not be disappointed!
bruce
But kind of a cheeky rip-off of My Own Private Idaho, didn't you think?
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I just sampled Criterion's feast of film and featureS>
you will not be disappointed!
bruce
But kind of a cheeky rip-off of My Own Private Idaho, didn't you think?
Yeah, I was thinkin' the same thing whilst watching.
But CHIMES is much better so I let it slide
brm
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This looks great. I've never seen it, but can't wait to.
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