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 Posted:   Jul 10, 2024 - 1:30 PM   
 By:   roadshowfan   (Member)

I've managed to isolate this stunningly gorgeous and dynamic sequence from Saraband For Dead Lovers. It's quite unlike any other set piece in British cinema at the time, and arguably even more striking than anything from Powell & Pressburger. Natalie Kalmus must have loved it!

https://mega.nz/file/ZXpkVCjI#lfzvrLyaWByiBAm94b8KQxAwGuIdw8xV9S0M9U2NLSU

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 10, 2024 - 4:05 PM   
 By:   Rozsaphile   (Member)

I've managed to isolate this stunningly gorgeous and dynamic sequence from Saraband For Dead Lovers. It's quite unlike any other set piece in British cinema at the time, and arguably even more striking than anything from Powell & Pressburger. Natalie Kalmus must have loved it!

https://mega.nz/file/ZXpkVCjI#lfzvrLyaWByiBAm94b8KQxAwGuIdw8xV9S0M9U2NLSU


Impressive. One would imagine the influence of The Red Shoes, but that film was released only a few months prior. How interesting to see Joan Greenwood without her purring voice and Stewart Granger without much of anything but his movie star looks.

Sarabande for Dead Lovers -- one of the greatest movie titles ever. Basil Dearden had some some fancy editing for the climax of Dead of Night (1945), but this is in another league.

Composer was Alan Rawsthorne.

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 11, 2024 - 4:30 AM   
 By:   Graham Watt   (Member)

That was amazing. I love how Granger closes the windows at the end, effectively shutting out the score.

Kids - DON'T take drugs before watching this.

 
 Posted:   Jul 11, 2024 - 8:43 AM   
 By:   George Komar   (Member)

The music, as arranged by Gerard Schurmann, is the final selection on this fine Chandos album, one of over two dozen amazing British film music compilations in the Chandos catalogue:

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%209749

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 12, 2024 - 2:21 PM   
 By:   roadshowfan   (Member)

Delighted this sequence has found a little love, though I don't suppose it will mean anything to anyone under the age of 60! But it really is a magnificently executed piece of film-making. There is so much going on! Love the swooping camera, the bobbing masked heads, the almost 3-D flame throwing, the swirling skirts and the coloured gloves banging on the door. It's unfortunate that nothing else in the film matches the visual virtuosity of this scene, but the lavish production design and beautiful Technicolor certainly compensate for the rather dour narrative. The restored print must look even more gorgeous on blu-ray.

I'm not a huge fan of Alan Rawsthorne, but his music works well here, despite that awfully corny chord as Joan bumps into Stuey!

 
 
 Posted:   Jul 12, 2024 - 7:41 PM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Yes, the color is indeed stunning in such a frenzied stream-of-consciousness sequence with underscoring that heightens her delerium.

 
 Posted:   Aug 20, 2024 - 6:38 AM   
 By:   finder4545   (Member)

Thank you for resurrecting the memory of this film, roadshowfan. Some cinematographies are going into oblivion, and with them the memory of their composers. I consider Alan Rawsthorne one of the most prestigious of English cinema, despite his limited number of works he wrote in this field. His nature is classical and many of his compositions have been recorded on disc, including Concertos, Studies, Symphonies, etc. I was struck first by the soundtrack of PANDORA, but I was unable to find the beautiful music, which gave metaphysical sensations, simply because it had not been recorded on disc. But this led me to search for his classical music, on famous Lyrita vinyl. Later I heard the "Rawsthorne sound" again in Gerhard Schurman's compositions, and I discovered that he was the pupil who was inspired by the master. This SARABANDE is amazing on Blu Ray and I wonder how a normal 35 mm "pre wide formats" can still give this image quality, in detail and color. Even more, I am fascinated by the frenetic editing that transmits to the viewer the anxiety and the physical and spiritual dizziness of Greenwood with very short cuts that have become a bad norm in modern cinema. I would be curious to know more about the preparation of this unparalleled sequence, which surely inspired the ballet passages in THE RED SHOES. Maybe our Manderley, the Great Master of Memory, can say something, if he is reading...!

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 21, 2024 - 2:36 PM   
 By:   roadshowfan   (Member)

Very pleased to hear from another fan of this terrific sequence! I never tire of replaying it. The overall effect is really quite psychedelic!

I too would love to know more about how this was conceived. I wonder if it was simply an inspired collaboration between Basil Dearden and Michael Truman (the editor), or whether someone rather famous made an uncredited contribution?

 
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