335 Elevator to the Gallows

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
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Schkura
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:48 pm
Location: Mississippi

#51 Post by Schkura » Sun Apr 09, 2006 2:42 am

I'm unfamiliar with Malle's work, but I'm buying this blind because I heart Miles. If I'm introduced to a a great new (to me) director in the process, all the better.

lull
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#52 Post by lull » Sun Apr 09, 2006 6:37 pm

i was gonna still on the fence about buying this right away but making it a two-disc set seals it for me.
also, check out the wonderful trailer for Rialto's re-release last year.
now, just based on that, you'd be stupid not to get it :)

Narshty
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#53 Post by Narshty » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:27 pm

lull wrote:also, check out the wonderful trailer for Rialto's re-release last year.
now, just based on that, you'd be stupid not to get it :)
Rialto's trailer is some kind of masterpiece in the "silk purse/sow's ear" category. Honestly, it made me seek out the film almost immediately, but there's a reason it sticks only to brief, iconic shots with no dialogue or plot information.

Narshty
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#54 Post by Narshty » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:15 pm


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Matango
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#55 Post by Matango » Tue Apr 18, 2006 3:00 am

Got mine today, but no booklet inside. And the case is unusual for CC. It's a double thickness case but the kind where the two discs overlap on on the same side of the interior. Now I'm thinking bootleg, already, but it came from my usual supplier and has a catalogue. Anyone else got the same?

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arsonfilms
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#56 Post by arsonfilms » Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:53 am

Got mine today, but no booklet inside. And the case is unusual for CC. It's a double thickness case but the kind where the two discs overlap on on the same side of the interior. Now I'm thinking bootleg, already, but it came from my usual supplier and has a catalogue. Anyone else got the same?
The new double width cases are exactly as you've described them. It started with Young Mr. Lincoln and Kind Hearts and Coronets. You didn't get a bootleg, but you got cheated out of that great booklet. The essays are pretty wonderful. Word on the street is Mulvaney will replace that kind of thing...

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Matango
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#57 Post by Matango » Tue Apr 18, 2006 7:56 am

Thanks. The way those new cases hold the discs (almost snapped disc 1 trying to get it out), a single-width case would be sufficient, I reckon.

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arsonfilms
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#58 Post by arsonfilms » Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:54 am

Yeah, I hate 'em too. The upside though is that they can fit thicker booklets... but you have to actually recieve a booklet in the case for this to count as an "upside."

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Gigi M.
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#59 Post by Gigi M. » Tue Apr 18, 2006 10:58 am

Great review over at DVDTalk

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gubbelsj
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#60 Post by gubbelsj » Thu Apr 27, 2006 6:50 pm

What a fantastic set. I caught the theatrical rerelease here in San Diego this past year, and while Narshty and others are quite right that it's no masterpiece, I'm a sucker for noir, Jeanne Moreau and Miles Davis. But this release is really great. The extras are some of the best Criterion has pulled together in some time, in-depth and informative and full of enthusiasm. Some have expressed skepticism at the Faddis-Giddins discussion, but I can't imagine a more eloquent commentator than Giddins (check out his book Visions of Jazz or his recent compilation Weather Bird for warm yet erudite musings on the music). Seeing how he's also penned more than a few Criterion liner notes, it would have been surprising had he not been tapped for a jazz-centered release such as this. As for Faddis, the Miles connection is strong - at the 2000 JVC Festival, he was the leader in a set devoted exclusively to new workings of Miles' "Porgy and Bess" and "Sketches of Spain". Also, he helmed the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band for years before being kicked to the curb by a new director. Giddins wrote several articles decrying this turn of events, and has been a large booster of Faddis' efforts to keep a functioning jazz orchestra in the nation's improv capital. The pairing seems quite appropriate.

While the new two-disc format is actually aesthetically pleasing, it's also a pain in the ass. I assumed this new design would phase out the old double-width cases, but that doesn't seem to be the case. That, at least, would have made some sense - but what's the point?

All grumbling aside, one of the finest releases this year. Thank God they've got some jazz fans over at Criterion - all the Miles-worship really made my day.

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Gregory
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#61 Post by Gregory » Thu Apr 27, 2006 11:58 pm

Speaking of Miles, I wonder about the likelihood of a DVD release of William Cayton's Jack Johnson. Between the blistering score by Davis (and Hancock, McLaughlin, Henderson, Grossman, Cobham, and Sharrock) and the interest in Johnson generated by last year's Unforgivable Blackness, whoever is sitting on this is not only doing the public a disservice but also missing out on some definite profits, it seems to me.

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zedz
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#62 Post by zedz » Fri Apr 28, 2006 12:03 am

Gregory wrote:Speaking of Miles, I wonder about the likelihood of a DVD release of William Cayton's Jack Johnson. Between the blistering score by Davis (and Hancock, McLaughlin, Henderson, Grossman, Cobham, and Sharrock) and the interest in Johnson generated by last year's Unforgivable Blackness, whoever is sitting on this is not only doing the public a disservice but also missing out on some definite profits, it seems to me.
Yes please. I've always wondered how that amazing music would have worked in the context of a biopic. (The noirish Ascenseur score, on the other hand, always seemed self-explanatorily cinematic to me, long before I saw the movie, and part of the charm of Malle's film lay in how perfectly those shots of Jeanne slinking around Paris matched the mental images already evoked by Miles.) Can anybody who has actually seen Jack Johnson comment on its use of the music?

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Matango
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#63 Post by Matango » Fri Apr 28, 2006 2:38 am

arsonfilms wrote:
Word on the street is Mulvaney will replace that kind of thing...
Well, I've emailed him twice in the last ten days and received no reply at all. The second time I even offered to pay for a new booklet, and mentioned that as a 10-year CC collector I have bought hundreds of CC laserdiscs and DVDs. :?

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bkimball
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#64 Post by bkimball » Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:39 pm

So wait, it is supposed to come with a booklet?

scotty
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#65 Post by scotty » Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:58 pm

What I love about the Jack Johnson music is that Davis doesn't go for the period thing at all--instead he amps up the rock quotient. The music has incredible swagger. There was a piece in the NYT recently comparing Marsalis and Davis and their approaches to Jack Johnson--very revealing about the different aesthetic agendas of the two men.

Davis, an amateur pugilist, used to go to Bill Cayton's offices (The Big Fights) to watch old fight films. He had seen Johnson fight footage before he was asked to do the score, but he didn't approach it the way he did the Malle film--he basically just did his thing and the director worked with the music from there.

It is hard for me to judge how the Davis music works with Cayton's film because I would love the music no matter what. The remakable boxing footage is great fun, though, and the film is certainly worth the time if you can find it. I actually got a vhs copy from the director a few years back, but not a sniff of a DVD.

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Matango
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#66 Post by Matango » Sat Apr 29, 2006 1:09 am

bkimball wrote:So wait, it is supposed to come with a booklet?
Yes it is. I finally got a reply from them. Apparently its beyond their means to send an envelope outside the USA:

"Unfortunately, we are only able to provide sales support to customers residing in North America," they say.

Unfortunately? What did they do? Draw straws about it? This is really disappointing, not so much because of the booklet, but because my illusions about CC being a class outfit are now out the window.

kieslowski
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:26 pm
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#67 Post by kieslowski » Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:06 am

"Unfortunately, we are only able to provide sales support to customers residing in North America," they say.

Unfortunately? What did they do? Draw straws about it? This is really disappointing, not so much because of the booklet, but because my illusions about CC being a class outfit are now out the window.
They can't do it because they'd be breaking the terms of their license agreement if they did (they normally only have distribution rights for North America).

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tryavna
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:38 pm
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#68 Post by tryavna » Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:16 pm

You could ask a friend who lives in the U.S. to request a booklet for you and then ask him/her to forward it on to you. I've known of other international CC-buyers who have gone that route, and it seems to have worked in the past.

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Matango
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#69 Post by Matango » Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:18 pm

Good idea, thanks, but sadly all my American friends live abroad.

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daniel p
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:01 pm
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#70 Post by daniel p » Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:54 pm

Matango wrote:Good idea, thanks, but sadly all my American friends live abroad.
Me too mate.
I'll be really pissed if mine doesn't have a booklet too, being in Australia. I won't find out until my birthday, May 9th...

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Matango
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#71 Post by Matango » Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:26 pm

Well, fortunately one of our fine members has come to my aid in this matter. =D>

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Schkura
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:48 pm
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#72 Post by Schkura » Sun Apr 30, 2006 12:07 am

There's that community spirit we've been missing of late.

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souvenir
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:20 pm

#73 Post by souvenir » Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:47 pm

I re-watched this while trying to compile my 1950s list and was surprised to discover that the actor who played Louis also played the young boy in Forbidden Games (Georges Poujouly). I always feel so stupid when I don't recognize an actor from another movie I've seen.

My opinion of the film changed only a little. I still think it would be lost without the Miles Davis score. It elevates the movie just beyond being an awkward debut for Malle. My favorite parts are the wordless, jazz-infused scenes, especially of Moreau wandering the streets. I did like the complete lack of any attempt to establish sympathy for the characters, all of whom are basically worthless and inept.

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swo17
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Re: 335 Elevator to the Gallows

#74 Post by swo17 » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:07 pm


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

Re: 335 Elevator to the Gallows

#75 Post by movielocke » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:40 pm

probably a typo, but they're listing the new DVD issue as becoming a 1 disc release.

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