The Archers (Powell & Pressburger): S/D

My order for blu-ray of The Red Shoes just shipped from hmv.com - hopefully will be here before the weekend...

is it the new cleaned up version?

Yes, it's the restored version as shown at Cannes this year. According to the press blurb it's exclusively available from HMV, I don't know if this will remain the case.

bizarre!

ah. found it on the hmv.com site, which completely crashed firefox. apparently it comes out on monday, so you won't have it in time for the weekend i'm 'fraid.

Lots of things crashing firefox lately.

ya, this is supposedly the hot new 3.5 too

Well, I got their confirmation that it has shipped - hopefully, this is the same as Amazon and means it's actually in the post so there's a chance (assumming teh Royal Mail do their thing properly).

Hmm, firefox ok on mine on that site (3.0.10 on XP). Weird.

i'm your biggest fan i'll follow you until you love me - Roger Roger Livesey
Baby there's no other superstar you know that i'll be - Roger Roger Livesey

Don't believe I waited this long to watch A Matter of Life and Death. What a gorgeous movie. Think I'll watch another one later, Black Narcissus maybe?

AMoLAD is stupendous, I've been yearning for it to get released on blu-ray.

Have you seen Black Narcissus before? Beautiful and very unsettling at the same time.

Nope, never seen it. Think that's my evening sorted.

also, early Jean Simmons role

Yr in for a treat - would be interested to hear your thoughts once you've seen it. Timely viewing as well given Jean Simmons's passing last week (you got there before me Morbs!). She's captivating in it.

I'll report back!

Black Narcissus: Wow. Going to have to collect my thoughts on it a bit, but wow.

Kathleen Byron died just over a week ago too, strangely.

Or rather, no she didn't. That was last year. Me and my speedy wikipedia scans.

Apparently Esmond Knight is no longer with us as well.

Jesus christ that Red Shoes restoration!

July:

http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2764/44_BD_box_348x490.jpg http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2758/93_BD_box_348x490.jpg

BN cover is superb

as always thank god for criterion or i'd only be buying action films on blu-ray

both covers, but especially r.s., are awful

both covers, but especially r.s., are terrific

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_Our_Aircraft_Is_Missing

on film four tomorrow at 15:10. it isn't, for some reason, in the big box set of archers films that is available (but is on film4 every couple of months and is only £4 on dvd anyway)

both covers, but especially r.s., are awful

― by another name (amateurist), Friday, April 16, 2010 1:43 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

both covers, but especially r.s., are terrific

― Ward Fowler, Friday, April 16, 2010 2:02 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

Amazing covers: wish I could get prints of them.

Trying to remember what Jack Cardiff said was the thing he shot that he loved for the ending of Black Narcissus that ended up on the cutting room floor.

This reminds me: I have been curious about this book http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QQ0B1MX1L._SS500_.jpg for a while, but it seems crazy expensive on Amazon. Is it worth shelling out for, anyone?

Don't know that book. Here is the info on the lost scene: http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/47_BN/LostScene.html.

more criterion covers here: http://grainedit.com/2009/12/08/criterion-collection-dvd-covers/

£18 here: http://www.faber.co.uk/work/arrows-of-desire/9780571162710/

the ian christie book is great.

watched A Canterbury Tale again, also watched the extras on the second disc. Both Sheila Sim and John Sweet come across as lovely people - Sim being very regretful about the treatment of the Village Idiot character, and Sweet talking about his realization that he wasn't cut out to be an actor, and his return to teaching. At the end he says that he feels like his main contribution was that he made his students like themselves a bit more.

o hi black narcissus and red shoes blu rays

how r u today

JEALOUS

just watched 'i know where i'm going!' last night, i love that 12-year-old petula clark has a bit part in it

saw Edge of the World fairly recently--surprisingly good! fun to see Powell and his wife on screen, though that frame story is a bit pointless.

I've been planning on watching "I know where I'm going" this week, donna. Is it as terrific as I've heard it is?

The story in Edge of the World is nicely sparse and mythical, gives the movie drive and structure and you can't have a ghost town without having ghosts.

cant wait to see i know wher eim going again sometime

kinda want to go blu for these new ones...

go blu or go home imo

still rocking a CRT tv tho... does that work?

no point

i like the crt... more authentic graininess

you can't have a ghost town without having ghosts.

Yes, you're right: it's not pointless, though it kind of spoils the suspense of John Laurie's final scenes. That probably doesn't matter since thematically he can't leave the island anyway, but the frame story has an stiffness to it. Anyway, I really just wanted to say that if you're a P&P fan and haven't seen it, it's very good. And it anticipates the awesome IKWIG in many ways.

I know what you're saying - Powell could have done it as a straight documentary, almost. But like I say I'm a sucker for his myth-making - like all myths, it doesn't quite make sense in the end.

Discuss: The prpriety of seeing an iteration of a film that looks different from the way its makers could've ever seen it.

aka shd we read joyce on a kindle?