369-373 Paul Robeson: Portraits of an Artist

[Gregory]

Two reviews so far, DVD Talk and DVD Beaver, both with very high recommendations.

[Tribe]

New York Times review:

[quote]February 13, 2007
Critic's Choice
New DVDs: Paul Robeson
By DAVE KEHR

PAUL ROBESON:

Portraits of the Artist

It is not easy to fit Paul Robeson in a box, but the Criterion Collection has done its best with “Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist,â€

[Tribe]

Pete Seeger's handwritten note is a poignant touch to a very, very nice booklet.

Tribe

[tryavna]

[quote="Tribe"]New York Times review:

[quote]Robeson does not appear in “Native Landâ€

[souvenir]

Isn't Native Land also present in the Unseen Cinema boxset? Seems Image/David Shepard beat Criterion to the punch on this "major discovery."

Only 12 minutes are in the Unseen Cinema set and the whole thing is listed at 88 minutes on the Criterion package.

[tryavna]

Isn't Native Land also present in the Unseen Cinema boxset? Seems Image/David Shepard beat Criterion to the punch on this "major discovery."

Only 12 minutes are in the Unseen Cinema set and the whole thing is listed at 88 minutes on the Criterion package.

Ah, I had not realized that so much had been cut from the Unseen Cinema set. (I still await my Robeson set.) Then cool for Criterion!

[swimminghorses]

I was surprised by the "film restoration" of this film. I would have expected that a film in a box set of this importance would have been digitally cleaned up - instead I saw the most white specks and dirt on a Criterion than I have ever seen. Seems that every film even from the thirties, if they are released by CC or WB are in great shape. It bothered me enough that it detracted from what I thought was an excellent film. What happened here?

[HerrSchreck]

Those are old standard def Library of Congress transfers, no different than what's on the Kino Robeson discs & vhs'. Apparently they didn't think going with new telecine in hi-def would keep the box in the zone of Profitable.. so they made a painful choice. One could see that these were the old transfers in the beev screengrabs.

[mbalson]

Those are old standard def Library of Congress transfers, no different than what's on the Kino Robeson discs & vhs'. Apparently they didn't think going with new telecine in hi-def would keep the box in the zone of Profitable.. so they made a painful choice. One could see that these were the old transfers in the beev screengrabs.

Well the included booklet mentions that all of the films in the set have "new high-definition digital transfer"s except for Emperor Jones which is just a "digital transfer". One would assume then that the Emperor Jones transfer is the only pre-existing transfer in this set.

[HerrSchreck]

Whoops, I stand corrected. I recall seeing the screengrabs on some of this stuff, and must've attributed the SD look to what I'd read about JONES.

[jbeall]

Just finished watching Disc 1.

The Emperor Jones is definitely adapted from a play; the entire time I was watching it, I kept thinking that it would have worked better on stage, esp. the last 20 minutes or so. Overall, it wasn't bad, just nothing special, although the extras do a nice job of situating this film in its historical context (in which it *is* an important film).

But I really enjoyed Saul Turell's documentary Portrait of the Artist. If you don't buy the boxset, disc 1 is worth a netflix rental for the documentary alone. You get snippets of the numerous variations of Robeson singing "Ol' Man River" (the song has been stuck in my head for two days as a result) and a lot more detail on the effort to blacklist him in this country, although the specifics of Robeson's political activity are somewhat glossed over. Based on the documentary, you'd think the worst thing he did was speak out against racism and sing "Ching Lai" in Warsaw.

One issue of accuracy I had with the doc: during the Warsaw concert Robeson sings the lines "I'll keep on fightin' / until I'm dyin'", but the narrator (Poitier) says these lines are new when he gives a concert in Australia over ten years later.

Nevertheless, it's a really good documentary, and since I'm teaching at Rutgers, I'll probably show it to my undergrads, most of whom have absolutely no clue who Paul Robeson was.

[tryavna]

The Emperor Jones is definitely adapted from a play; the entire time I was watching it, I kept thinking that it would have worked better on stage, esp. the last 20 minutes or so.

The last 20 minutes is the play. Everything that precedes it is new material designed to open it up -- though the new material is suggested in O'Neill's original.

[jbeall]

You know, I registered that when watching the extras, but forgot it when I was watching the actual film. But that absolutely makes sense, even if (like me), you've never seen the play.

The earlier parts of the film are more visually interesting, but I did enjoy Jones' breakdown toward the end. Visually, however, it was just a continuous straight-ahead camera angle that was a bit tiresome after awhile.

[Gropius]

Just saw this thread. For people asking about Borderline earlier on, it is of major historical interest as a document of the very meagre traces of an avant-garde in Britain ('still born / In those days', to paraphrase Pound).

Kenneth Macpherson edited the film journal Close Up in the 20s/30s, which included contributions from the imagist poet H.D. (in a ménage à trois with Macpherson's lesbian wife), who also appears in Borderline alongside Robeson. There is a book anthology of articles from Close Up which goes into the film in some detail. I've long been curious to see it.

[Gregory]

Based on the documentary, you'd think the worst thing he did was speak out against racism and sing "Ching Lai" in Warsaw.

To me, the point was not that those were the "worst" things he did but that he was effectively blacklisted because of his overall beliefs and his consistent activism. Refusing to take a loyalty oath before HUAC was important too, and it's a shame that wasn't included. I can think of quite a few other things about Robeson that would have merited inclusion. Some of these things were incorporated into the much longer documentary Paul Robeson: Here I Stand.

One issue of accuracy I had with the doc: during the Warsaw concert Robeson sings the lines "I'll keep on fightin' / until I'm dyin'", but the narrator (Poitier) says these lines are new when he gives a concert in Australia over ten years later.

I noted the same thing on the previous page. It seems odd that no one caught that. Nonetheless, it is a very good documentary, as you said.

[Tribe]

I have a pdf of Robeson's obit from the NY Times. If anyone has somewhere to host to share it with the Forum, I'll be happy to email it.

Tribe

[jbeall]

To me, the point was not that those were the "worst" things he did but that he was effectively blacklisted because of his overall beliefs and his consistent activism. Refusing to take a loyalty oath before HUAC was important too, and it's a shame that wasn't included. I can think of quite a few other things about Robeson that would have merited inclusion. Some of these things were incorporated into the much longer documentary Paul Robeson: Here I Stand.

Oops--I should have phrased my post more carefully. As someone with strong Marxist and social-democratic sympathies, I'm not trying to condemn Robeson in any way. He may have been unaware of some of the nastier abuses in China and the USSR, but that hardly makes him unique. When I say "the worst things he did", I mean in the eyes of his detractors, not in my personal opinion.

What I was trying to say about the doc was that, like you, I would have liked more specifics on the activity that got him blacklisted, his refusal of the loyalty oath being one of those. I just felt like the documentary made it seem as if the anti-Robeson protestors in Peekskill were just pissed b/c he sang "Ching Lai", when in fact it was a bit more than that.

[Gregory]

Yes, I was pretty sure that was what you meant. It would be interesting to show your students Here I Stand and then get them to talk about what they think of the man's politics. People who grew up in the '90s tend not to have a clear sense of Cold War politics, though I've had quite a few students express horror or dismay over the very fact that Helen Keller was a socialist, upon finding that out.
Back to the film, I do agree that it might have been possible to work in a little more context, but overall it seems Turrell did a good job scratching the surface which is all one can hope for in a historical/biographical film of this length.

[French completist]

Just watched Borderline... this is one of the most difficult to understand Criterion movie I have watched so far...

Felt like a complete idiot.

[Anonymous]

By the way, the Alpha DVD of God's Stepchildren that has been mentioned above looks horrible. It doesn't simply seem to be VHS-sourced, but is so dark and murky that one doesn't see anything in some scenes. It's really sad that these great Micheaux films are treated so badly by the DVD industry. They should either get released by Criterion, MoC or the Micheaux foundation itself.

[jbeall]

I just watched Proud Valley and Native Land last night. The former is a bit predictable, with the usual plot contrivances to get Robeson singing, but it's not bad. One thing I did like about it was that it dealt with race for all of 30 seconds, and then was done with that angle. It's much more about the miners, and their desire to find work, contribute to society, and be self-sufficient.

As for Native Land, I was pleasantly surprised. As the NY Times review states, it's a great use of montage. The scene where the deputy is hunting two sharecroppers was riveting, and there were some marvelous shots. The film betrays the fact that it took five years to make--it runs about 15 minutes too long, IMO, and needs a bit more narrative discipline. Nevertheless, if the discs in this set were available separately, I'd purchase Native Land.

[MichaelB]

I wonder if this is the print that will be used as the source material for Criterion's DVD, as the article also indicates "a DVD release of the film [is scheduled for] late 2006."

Yes - Criterion licensed the BFI's HD remastering of Borderline for their Robeson set, which is why it also has the same Courtney Pine score.

The BFI will be releasing Borderline in Region 2 PAL next month, in a two-disc set whose extras almost exclusively cover the avant-garde/Close-Up/Pool context, as opposed to the Robeson one - very sensibly, as Criterion has the Robeson side of things pretty much sewn up.

[Gregory]

I finally managed to sit through Sanders of the River (again?) last night. I think I may have only seen clips of it before. It's interesting to hear P.R. Jr. talk about why Robeson was urged by his peers to do the film: even if the film was inherently racist it was better for him to play the part than someone who would do it with less strength and dignity. Plus he was securing work for large numbers of black actors in London.

I don't think this little tidbit was mentioned in any of the special features on this set, but the actor that the writer of Sanders on the River wanted for the part of Bosambo was not Robeson but Charles Laughton in blackface! I can't even fathom what kind of film that would have been.

[denti alligator]

I've watched the first two disc in this set and am very impressed. The documentary is wonderful, as others have noted. Body and Soul is an odd film (Micheaux definitely has some Ed Wood moments, as someone mentioned earlier in the thread, but thoroughly enjoyable. I liked the score a lot, too. The score (by the same composer) on Borderline, however, was totally inappropriate, I felt. As soon as I turned it off the film opened up to me in incredible ways. I think this is a mini masterpiece. A remarkable film that, along with the documentary, is worth the price of this set.

Just watched Borderline... this is one of the most difficult to understand Criterion movie I have watched so far...

Felt like a complete idiot.

I don't understand this comment. I found the film to be perfectly comprehensible as a narrative. It has some daring editing, and peculiar montages, but these don't interrupt the story, which remains pretty straightforward.

[Polybius]

Anyone interested in deeper exploration of Paul's life would do well to pick up Martin Bauml Duberman's classic Paul Robeson: A Biography.