57 / BD 54 Larks on a String

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#76 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Mon May 30, 2011 10:10 am

MichaelB wrote:He obviously took English lessons from Michael Curtiz, who made exactly the same linguistic slip-up when shooting The Charge of the Light Brigade - at least according to David Niven, who named the second volume of his memoirs 'Bring on the Empty Horses' after the Curtiz instruction that triggered led directly to the "fuck nothing/fuck all" outburst.
That may well be the case or either the author of this tale, one David Tringham,recently immortalised by BFI on a recent Platt-Mills DVD, recycled it for his own purposes.
MichaelB wrote:By contrast, Menzel's recent Q&A appearances in London were through an interpreter, though I'm pretty sure he speaks (or at least understands) more English than he lets on.
Your recent nudge about Jancso's Curzon appearance reminded me also of that interpreter that instantaneously translated Hungarian into fluid and very suave english. He was phenomenal wasn't he?
Last edited by NABOB OF NOWHERE on Mon May 30, 2011 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MichaelB
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#77 Post by MichaelB » Mon May 30, 2011 4:45 pm

He was indeed - hands down the best live interpreter I've ever seen. I found out later that his name is László Heckenast - he also hosts the Hungarian Cultural Centre's film screenings (or at least the ones I've attended).

artfilmfan
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:11 pm

Re: 57 Larks on a String

#78 Post by artfilmfan » Sun Jun 05, 2011 10:31 pm

I finally watched this. I didn't enjoy it as much as Closely Watched Trains (which I think is great).

The picture does look zoomed in.

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jbeall
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#79 Post by jbeall » Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:30 pm

Watched Larks... again last night, for the fourth time in the past couple of months. I haven't enjoyed re-watching a film this much in years. I'd put Menzel's warm humanism up there against anybody's (Renoir, for example), but at the same time, Menzel never drops his ironic sensibility. And I think that maintaining a balance between ironic clarity and a humanism that runs right up against the border of sentimentality is an extremely difficult thing to do, and yet Menzel pulls it off beautifully. For this reason, the film has something of an idyllic feel despite the scrapyard location and the political context. The scene where the female prisoners help the men by forming a chain is one of the most profoundly touching sequences I've ever seen.

I don't want to get back into the whole picture-quality debate, especially when the excellence of the film dwarfs that discussion, but I certainly had no problems with the image. If someone wants to pay for a restoration, I'll gladly double-dip, but I'm more than happy with SR's version.

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swo17
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#80 Post by swo17 » Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:50 pm

I'm finally getting around to watching my (brand new) disc, and about an hour in it keeps freezing up on me. Anyone else have this problem?

EDIT: Try watching, for instance, right at 59:45 in.
Last edited by swo17 on Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

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

Re: 57 Larks on a String

#81 Post by knives » Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:52 pm

Nope.

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MichaelB
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#82 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:36 am

Worked fine for me, and still does. It sounds as though you have a dodgy disc.

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swo17
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#83 Post by swo17 » Thu Jan 10, 2013 11:47 am

Strangely, the problem is on my Oppo (which hasn't had any other problems) while the disc appears to play fine on my nearly bricked Momitsu.

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jbeall
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#84 Post by jbeall » Sat Jan 12, 2013 9:46 pm

It's worked fine the half-dozen times I've watched it. (Good thing, too, since I'm showing it to my students this semester and showing a brief clip at a conf. presentation.)

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Bikey
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:09 am

Re: 57 Larks on a String

#85 Post by Bikey » Sat Nov 09, 2013 9:12 am

TONIGHT at Riverside Studios - Made in Prague: Czech-O-Slovak Film Festival's Homage to Jiří Menzel with CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS at 6pm and UK premiere of his latest film THE DON JUANS at 8:30pm. Mr Menzel will be present to discuss both films!

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AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#86 Post by AlexHansen » Fri Feb 06, 2015 10:36 pm

swo17 wrote:Strangely, the problem is on my Oppo (which hasn't had any other problems) while the disc appears to play fine on my nearly bricked Momitsu.
I'm finally getting around to watching my copy and it's sent my Sony into fits. Chapter 10 seem to be the culprit.

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DDillaman
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#87 Post by DDillaman » Mon May 03, 2021 10:36 pm

Any possibility of this getting a Blu bump? I'm wanting to fill in some gaps in my collection (and was fortunate enough to have seen this theatrically once, albeit twenty years or so ago), but the mention of playback issues here plus the possibility of an HD version has meant holding back. (I don't know if there's a general thread of what will/won't get upgraded, so apologies if I've missed that!)

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What A Disgrace
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#88 Post by What A Disgrace » Fri May 20, 2022 10:00 am

Blu-ray upgrade in the works.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#89 Post by What A Disgrace » Tue Jun 07, 2022 11:08 am

July 18.

• Larks on a String (Skřivánci na niti, 1969) presented from an HD transfer of the new 4K restoration by the Czech National Film Archive.
• Jiří Menzel: 7 Questions: an idiosyncratic reflection on the film and its history, shot by the late director in 2011 specially for Second Run.
• Menzel in discussion with filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
• A newly-recorded Projection Booth audio commentary with Mike White and Jonathan Owen.
• Our Dear Mister Foerster Died (1963): a restored early short film by Jiří Menzel.
• Trailer
• 20-page booklet featuring an essay by author Peter Hames and an introduction by cinematographer Jaromír Šofr.
• New and improved English subtitle translation.
• World premiere on Blu-ray.

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ryannichols7
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Re: 57 Larks on a String

#90 Post by ryannichols7 » Tue Jun 07, 2022 1:50 pm

another phenomenal cover

Image

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Bikey
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Re: 57 / BD 54 Larks on a String

#91 Post by Bikey » Wed Jun 29, 2022 2:06 pm


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Bikey
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Re: 57 / BD 54 Larks on a String

#92 Post by Bikey » Tue Jul 26, 2022 6:26 am

"LARKS ON A STRING [...] is here given the sort of makeover that it has for so long deserved. A terrific restoration and some excellent special features make this a must-have for all world cinema devotees. Highly recommended."
Cine Outsider

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Bikey
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Re: 57 / BD 54 Larks on a String

#93 Post by Bikey » Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:08 am


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Bikey
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Re: 57 / BD 54 Larks on a String

#94 Post by Bikey » Mon Aug 15, 2022 5:09 am

"It's like seeing the film anew. One of the bigger upgrades we have seen in quite a long time. [...]
It's an important masterpiece now on Second Run's, World premiere, Blu-ray with significantly improved a/v, commentary and new extras, including booklet. It is very strongly recommended!"
DVD Beaver

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therewillbeblus
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Re: 57 / BD 54 Larks on a String

#95 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jan 08, 2023 1:22 am

I've been able to acclimate pretty well to each Menzel I've seen, but this is a strange one. For much of the time, I found myself thinking that the material would be better served as a series of short films rather than a feature comprising a set of ideas externalized in narrative strands under its satirically experimental central conceit. Instead we get a curious kind of not-quite omnibus anti-narrative, which -while obviously containing the sociopolitical lampooning of satire- never quite manages to locate a coherent tone. There are moments presented as clear vehicles and they have a decent-enough batting average of landing, but I admittedly couldn't place the intention of many bits, even some that worked for me. For example, my favorite part of the film is in an early scene with the newlyweds in their apartment. I was moved by the detail where the wife lights and plays with the stove fire before they go into the bathroom and chase each other around the apartment, but I also felt slightly alienated by the composite scene in its entirety. I self-consciously wondered: Did I miss a gag? Was the intimacy felt in that oven-lighting (reminiscent of the spiritual experience Desplechin's brother has watching Marion Cotillard dance naked in Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle)) purposeful, or was that just how I experienced it? I suppose it doesn't really matter if it's my experience, but in general the meditative instants of drama, or not-comedy, just didn't gel with the rest of what we get- and that comes to feel exhausting by the last act, especially as narrative throughlines seem to expect to carry some weight when the uneven-by-design playfulness rendered them numb. It's a semi-interesting film, but also a mystery of temperament.

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