335 Elevator to the Gallows
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- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:27 pm
- Location: London, UK
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.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
- Matango
- Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:19 am
- Location: Hong Kong
- arsonfilms
- Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:53 pm
- Location: Philadelphia, PA
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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...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?
- arsonfilms
- Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:53 pm
- Location: Philadelphia, PA
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- gubbelsj
- Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:44 pm
- Location: San Diego
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.
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.
- Gregory
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 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.
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
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?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.
- Matango
- Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:19 am
- Location: Hong Kong
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.arsonfilms wrote:Word on the street is Mulvaney will replace that kind of thing...
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- Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:04 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.
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.
- Matango
- Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2005 1:19 am
- Location: Hong Kong
Yes it is. I finally got a reply from them. Apparently its beyond their means to send an envelope outside the USA:bkimball wrote:So wait, it is supposed to come with a booklet?
"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.
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- Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:26 pm
- Location: Somewhere in England
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)."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.
- tryavna
- Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:38 pm
- Location: North Carolina
- souvenir
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:20 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.
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.
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
- Location: SLC, UT
- movielocke
- Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am
Re: 335 Elevator to the Gallows
probably a typo, but they're listing the new DVD issue as becoming a 1 disc release.