criterionforum.org

myrnaloyisdope wrote:Ooh You & Me is an odd one indeed. It's worth watching for the scene Sylvia Sidney lectures a bunch of cons on how crime truly doesn't pay. She's so frickin' adorable.

That scene kills me. George Raft seems so out of place throughout the whole film (a Lang... comedy?). The one and only Virginia Van Upp wrote the screenplay.

You can find You & Me on all the usual DVD-R selling sites.

Any news on how While the City Sleeps may look? Didn't know anything about this release until I saw it in the Moviemail e-mail newsletter.

Human Desire is getting a UK release in August from Cornerstone Media. It would be interesting to see where they get their print from.

TCM featured a great Fritz Lang night this past Sunday with the premier of METROPOLIS, the hour doc on the rediscovery of the lost footage and showings of SPIES, M and WOMAN IN THE WINDOW.

I had never seen SPIES before, but was amazed at how engaging this follow-up to METROPOLIS is. I was taken aback that Lang spends the first half-hour creating, for the most part, a screwball comedy send-up of the spy genre. The film has great fun playing around with the expected cliches, but how many of these ideas were really cliches in 1928 cinema? I was then surprised that by an hour in I really started to care for these characters as Lang slowly begins to take their situation more seriously without losing sight of the fun. Fritz Rasp (the "Thin Man" from METROPOLIS) was hilarious as Col. Jellusic, but the pitiful look in his eyes during his final scene is what stays with me. I also smiled when seeing the numerous posters advertising METROPOLIS on the sides of buildings during a handful of shots. While perhaps a tad too long at 143 min., SPIES is a consistently inventive work that confirms for me that Lang was head-and-shoulders above his fellow German expressionist contemporaries.

Short series of Fritz Lang films on BBC2 in the UK next week, starts late night Monday (ie. the early hours of Tuesday).

01:00 Tuesday 20 December - 'The Big Heat' (1953)
01:00 Wednesday 21 December - 'The Secret Beyond the Door' (1948)
01:10 Thursday 22 December - 'Scarlet Street' (1945)
00:40 Friday 23 December - 'While the City Sleeps' (1956)

Judging by the visual quality of the other films the BBC has recently shown from this period, I wouldn't expect them to look great. They'd do better just to show the UK DVDs of this lot.

Happy to report that in today's DVD Savant Glenn Erickson reports that Gary Teetzle reports a May Blu-ray Big Heat from Twilight Time.

Roger Ryan wrote:TCM featured a great Fritz Lang night this past Sunday with the premier of METROPOLIS, the hour doc on the rediscovery of the lost footage and showings of SPIES, M and WOMAN IN THE WINDOW.

I had never seen SPIES before, but was amazed at how engaging this follow-up to METROPOLIS is. I was taken aback that Lang spends the first half-hour creating, for the most part, a screwball comedy send-up of the spy genre. The film has great fun playing around with the expected cliches, but how many of these ideas were really cliches in 1928 cinema? I was then surprised that by an hour in I really started to care for these characters as Lang slowly begins to take their situation more seriously without losing sight of the fun. Fritz Rasp (the "Thin Man" from METROPOLIS) was hilarious as Col. Jellusic, but the pitiful look in his eyes during his final scene is what stays with me. I also smiled when seeing the numerous posters advertising METROPOLIS on the sides of buildings during a handful of shots. While perhaps a tad too long at 143 min., SPIES is a consistently inventive work that confirms for me that Lang was head-and-shoulders above his fellow German expressionist contemporaries.

Based on that last statement I suspect you may have a treasure trove of Weimar cinema ahead of you, a boundless kaleidescope of discovery! Or, if not, one could certainly do worse than Lang as a Weimar alltime fave.

One of the images from SPIONE that stays with me is, curiously, the fact that the cigarette smoke from Rudolph Klein-Rogge's nose only comes out of one nostril. Excessive cocaine, or deviated septum? Ah, those.heady Weimar days! I wish I could say I remember them well but I fried my brains in my previous life.

HerrSchreck wrote:...Based on that last statement I suspect you may have a treasure trove of Weimar cinema ahead of you, a boundless kaleidescope of discovery! Or, if not, one could certainly do worse than Lang as a Weimar alltime fave...

Upon reflection, I suppose calling Lang "head-and-shoulders above" his contemporaries is misleading as I don't mean to denigrate the superb work of Murnau, Pabst, Sternberg, et al; in fact, the Weimar cinema is a favorite of mine. Having just seen a couple of Paul Leni films prior to seeing SPIES, Lang's film stood out in strong relief as being remarkably inspired and technically cutting-edge. Lang's keen ability at inter-cutting narrative threads and his technical proficiencies dazzle me and this is what I was responding to. But it's true that his work during this period doesn't quite obtain the all-enveloping mood of, say, a Sternberg film nor does it deliver the emotional impact of something like PANDORA'S BOX. So, no need to pit these filmmakers against one another; I'll just enjoy them all!

Excellent career overview of Lang's filmography from The Dissolve.

matrixschmatrix wrote:Excellent career overview of Lang's filmography from The Dissolve.

Written by the first human being alive to ever consider American Guerrilla in the Philippines an equal to the Woman in the Window or the Blue Gardenia!

Is that in star rating terms? If so American Guerrilla was only given 2 1/2 stars, putting it on a par with Moonfleet, Liliom and The Indian Epic!

He also rated Beyond a Reasonable Doubt as being on par with Hangmen Also Die!, but what are you gonna do. It's not more idiosyncratic than Lotte Eisner's implicit rankings.

Hangmen Also Die essay, part 1.

Hangmen, Part Two.

Lest we're tempted to forget...

FWMS has uploaded four clips of the Der müde Tod / Destiny restoration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBa2PTO88LU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-rHCSf3mXk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDHMV0TNmlg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDk4GBo64Q4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm getting ready for the Lang Auteur List project by acquiring a few films left that I haven't seen yet (You and Me, Moonfleet, American Guerrilla in the Philippines and Western Union, now all available in respectable DVD or BR format), and a few BR upgrades.

For the latter, I'm wondering about Hangmen Also Die!. I wasn't initially that impressed with it and these were my viewing notes:

A complex narrative involving the actions of underground resistance fighters against the Nazis in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. Donlevy and Anna Lee “star” but it’s really an ensemble film with different characters having the focus on the narrative on them for parts of the film. An independent production for United Artists, Lang has more freedom here, collaborating (unhappily for both, reportedly) with Bertolt Brecht. People have complained about the one-dimension characterization of the Nazis, but the overall problem is that the whole thing doesn’t really lift, it’s a bit flat even if some sequences are good, and perhaps a bit too complex for its own good. We’re left not really caring for any of the characters in a picture that aesthetics-wise doesn’t have any of the cinematographic qualities of Man Hunt, for instance. B-

But I'm ready to revise my opinion, especially given that I saw it on the relatively poor-quality Kino DVD. Can anyone convince me that I failed to see its qualities and to give it another shot on BR? (Also, if there are any preferences for the Arrow vs. the Cohen - the Arrow isn't reviewed on beaver or blu-ray.com.)

I think it and Man Hunt are similar in being okay, one and done viewing experiences. An American Guerilla in the Philippines is probably better left as a none and done, though! Funnily enough, several if the films you acquired are on my short list for revisiting, mainly because I have trouble remembering my impressions of them

domino harvey wrote:I think it and Man Hunt are similar in being okay, one and done viewing experiences. An American Guerilla in the Philippines is probably better left as a none and done, though! Funnily enough, several if the films you acquired are on my short list for revisiting, mainly because I have trouble remembering my impressions of them

I like Man Hunt quite a lot, though. Yeah, re: Guerrilla, it's the lowest rated Lang film on IMDB after Harakiri (another film I haven't seen but don't plan to) and I bought a bootleg dvd once and started it but stopped because of the low quality. But now it's out on the Fox Cinema Archives and I'm curious enough to see what Lang does with a combat (?) war film - even though my expectations will be very low!

Rayon Vert wrote:For the latter, I'm wondering about Hangmen Also Die!.

I looked at the essay posted in this thread, and some comments on the film's own dedicated thread and decided to go for it. The extras and image quality seem almost identical for the Cohen and Arrow (slightly higher bitrate for the Arrow), but even though I'm in North America I went with Arrow because it came out cheaper.

Based on the unseen films mentioned, what I haven't rewatched recently among those I consider keepers, and on exclusions due to having rewatched them very recently (Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, Die Nibelungen, M, Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Fury), this is what I've got set up to watch this summer for the project:

Metropolis
Spies
You Only Live Once (coming out on BR July 11)
You and Me
Western Union
Man Hunt
Hangmen Also Die!
Ministry of Fear
The Woman in the Window
Scarlet Street
House by the River
American Guerrilla in the Philippines
The Blue Gardenia
The Big Heat
Human Desire
Moonfleet
While the City Sleeps
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

When are we doing the list project? I've never truly participated, but given the size of my Lang collection there's no reason for me not to here.

I just ordered the recent blu rays of Destiny and Man Hunt yesterday. Going to pick up You Only Live Once as soon as it's released. Also will make sure to get the Olive Cloak and Daggar and Kino version of Western Union. The Return of Frank James is available to rent on Amazon, and considering the quality of the blu based on screencaps that'll be enough for me.

What's the best way to see You and Me? Is the Koch DVD available anywhere?

It starts July 2nd. I will post the link to the List Project thread in this thread when it starts, discussion will not be held in this thread-- Rayon Vert is just getting ahead of himself. You and Me is in Universal's second Dark Crimes set from TCM and the larger retail set

EDIT Sorry, looks like You and Me is not in the 10 film Universal Noir box, only the TCM set or solo as the DVD-R Rayon Vert linked to below

You and Me is now available on its own as a TCM DVD - that's the one I purchased.