Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

Discuss releases in the Janus Contemporaries, Eclipse, and Essential Art House lines and the films on them.
Message
Author
User avatar
Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#26 Post by Tommaso » Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:07 am

Well, Gary's tastes seem to be rather idiosyncratic... On the other hand, he apparently thinks "Rembrandt" to be a good film, with which I agree, of course. Perhaps there is something about Bergner that others might see and I just cannot (apart from "Fräulein Else"). After all, she was originally cast to play the Glynis Johns part in Powell's "49th Parallel".

The caps look quite good to me, so I think anyone interested in these films can safely buy this set and make up their mind themselves.

User avatar
cdnchris
Site Admin
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:45 pm
Location: Washington
Contact:

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#27 Post by cdnchris » Sun May 03, 2009 4:14 am


User avatar
lubitsch
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:20 pm

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#28 Post by lubitsch » Sat May 23, 2009 6:38 pm

Tommaso wrote: "Catherine the Great", on the other hand, is truly awful. Elisabeth Bergner, who was cute and convincing in a silent like "Fräulein Else", probably only got the job to play Catherine because her husband Paul Czinner was directing (in other words, to the best of my knowledge, this was only produced by Korda, and not directed by him). She simply can't speak, delivers a dry performance, and the film itself is as stiff and wooden as you could possibly imagine. Sets are nice, but the film as a whole is clearly forgettable.
somehow it escapes why you think the film is badly directed. The sleeve notes praise Czinner's superior direction compared to Korda's and there's something to it. he knows how to hold close-ups, intercut objects, compose some shots or play a bit Lubitsch with the take on the bed being prepared by the French gentlemen while we hear Catherine and Peter reconciling.

Bergner however ... good grief. I've seen her in the brilliant NJU, the rather unfocused and superficial FRÄULEIN ELSE and the reasonable well made talking film DER TRÄUMENDE MUND. She's not exactly a beauty, has an unpleasant smile, but can be a really good actress, so I almost dropped on the floor when I watched this abysmal accent and her theatrical performance full of empty gestures and strange inflections. Together with Harvey Keitel's Judas that's the worst performance in 20th century film history.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#29 Post by knives » Sat May 23, 2009 8:06 pm

What's wrong with Kietel's Judas? He was one of my favorite parts of that movie.

User avatar
Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#30 Post by Tommaso » Sun May 24, 2009 6:51 am

lubitsch wrote:somehow it escapes why you think the film is badly directed. The sleeve notes praise Czinner's superior direction compared to Korda's and there's something to it. he knows how to hold close-ups, intercut objects, compose some shots or play a bit Lubitsch with the take on the bed being prepared by the French gentlemen while we hear Catherine and Peter reconciling.
I don't think I wrote that the film is "badly directed", at least not in the sense of those technicalities you mention. It's obvious that the film isn't amateurish. What I said was that I find the direction wooden and uninspired and that I do object to the theatricality the film exudes (David Hare also mentioned the full-frontal, proscenium set-up of many shots). I don't remember the bed-preparing scene at the moment, but the way you describe it it doesn't sound as if it was so unique and extraordinary. A good idea, sure, but all within what I'd call the realm of 'solid', 'respectable' filmmaking.

Perhaps it's all a combination of technically well-made (but nothing more) direction, an uninspired script and indeed Bergner's acting that made me cringe when I first saw it. I really don't feel the need to re-visit it.

User avatar
HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#31 Post by HerrSchreck » Sun May 24, 2009 9:37 am

lubitsch wrote:
Tommaso wrote:Bergner however ... good grief. I've seen her in the brilliant NJU, the rather unfocused and superficial FRÄULEIN ELSE and the reasonable well made talking film DER TRÄUMENDE MUND. She's not exactly a beauty, has an unpleasant smile, but can be a really good actress, so I almost dropped on the floor when I watched this abysmal accent and her theatrical performance full of empty gestures and strange inflections. Together with Harvey Keitel's Judas that's the worst performance in 20th century film history.
Have you seen her in the Shakespeare w a young Olivier? She's brain poison.

TIVOLI
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:58 pm

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#32 Post by TIVOLI » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:03 pm

Has anyone been able to compare the image quality of Rembrandt with the old Region 1 release?

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#33 Post by knives » Sat Jul 09, 2011 11:19 pm

I'm really appreciative of Hulu right now because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten such a great laugh out of Henry VIII. The Lanchester scenes are just perfect with a perfect sense of comedy. The dinner scene worked extremely well too, but for drama rather than farce. It's not a great movie, but it sure is a lot of fun and much better than the forum has given credit so far..

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#34 Post by movielocke » Wed Feb 25, 2015 8:12 pm

I watched Private Lives and Rembrandt a dozen or so years ago on VHS and thoroughly enjoyed both. So imagine my shock and dismay when I put in Rise to Power of Catherine the Great a few nights ago. My entire reaction was probably made worse by having just recently watched Taking of Power by Louis XIV, but that aside, the whole experience was truly execrable.

The script is terrible, at best a Disney version of events, but usually worse than that. Most of the film has no resemblence to the source story other than the names of the characters. The dialogue scenes plod ceaselessly on for so long, and so ponderously, at times I wondered if they were ever going to end. The film has beautiful sets and costuming, but little else to recommend it.

Fairbanks give a bugeyed performance that is unfortunately all-to-sincere in its commitment to his awful pantomime. By contrast Bergner is 'better' but her character makes no sense because the screenwriters managed to take a story with a natural dramatic arc and eliminate all vestiges of that arc. The screen stops dead for most of her scenes, and even though she's acting, she's a vortex of negative charisma most of the time, as a petulant pout is not really well suited to the character beyond her first scene, but seems to be her weapon of choice in her acting arsenal.


The film ceaselessly dragged on, determined to make every scene interminable. I had to break the viewing into two parts, and nearly into three, but was grimly determined to reach the end the second night. Awful.

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#35 Post by movielocke » Thu Feb 26, 2015 6:15 pm

The private life of Don Juan is a perfectly fine wry and knowing little comedy. Fairbanks is wonderful in the role and I dug his speaking voice, surprisingly the American accent was surprisingly a great match for the role. Rather than being out of step with the rest of the cast it feels right which may just be a reflective of Hollywood norms of filmmaking I'm used to...

I had to look up the screenwriter after because it's a funny sex filled script skewering celebrity and I half expected to see Billy wilder or Charles Brackett credited. But if they had written this Ala midnight or ninotchka it would be better known and respected. And the film lacks some of the honed sharpness and lean plotting they would bring to the screenplay. In spirit this is a doppelganger to their work a sort of lesser echo of a great film (like merrily we live), but it is still fine enough to be worthwhile on its own terms. Unfortunately it's not quite a great film but it is still very good.

User avatar
DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#36 Post by DeprongMori » Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:44 pm

david hare wrote:
Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:17 pm
Speaking of the Von I am really disappointed Eclipse didn't think to include the old BBC doco Epic that Never was in which the 20 odd minutes of edited rushes from Cluadius glow with the genius of Stenrberg, in very sharp contrast to the Korda directed plodders.
I just finished watching The Epic That Never Was on YouTube, and was poking around to see if there were an appropriate release on which to include this documentary. It turns out that there was a new digital restoration of Alexander Korda’s The Private Life of Henry VIII by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, in association with ITV and Park Circus, with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation. As both Henry and I, Claudius were prestige pictures on famous emperors, produced by Korda, starring Charles Laughton, and featuring Merle Oberon, it would seem the perfect home. Let’s hope BFI can and does license it for inclusion in an eventual Henry home video release, perhaps with restoration of the von Sternberg footage that survives.

User avatar
antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda's Private Lives

#37 Post by antnield » Sun Feb 02, 2020 5:26 pm

The Epic That Never Was has been included as an extra on various international DVD sets of the BBC's I, Claudius.

Post Reply