Twilight Time / Redwind

[CantelopeSkiz]

Does www.twilighttimemovies.com ship outside of the US?

They do! I just ordered a package to Canada

[therewillbeblus]

I absolutely did not understand Melvin and Howard, which I thought was intensely, almost acutely annoying. Even the typically wonderful Mary Steenburgen was almost unbearable. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but fair warning to those who might bounce off it as hard as I did!

I was puzzled at its acclaim when I saw it for the first time back in high school I think, but over the years it's grown on me as an 'adventure film' for the humble townies that usually don't get a narrative arc or attentive camera. Demme has made a career out of effortless sensitivity in fleshing out people, often the unknowns, and while sometimes they don't land with expected action, there is an aura of warmth that exists where the predictable beats are absent. Anyways, not a favorite either but one that interests me in a very strange way, which I can best describe as finding complexity in simplicity strictly because it forces me to meet it on a wavelength unfamiliar in familiar structures and archetypes in movies. I'm also down with Mary Steenburgen getting the Oscar for it!

[The Narrator Returns]

I watched it for the first time last year when going through the Demme filmography for the Blank Check podcast and was blown away. It's unassuming in its construction (it really feels more like a life lived on film than it does a narrative) but I find it quite profound in how it depicts the pleasures, both big and small, that humans seek as a way of making it through life. I'd put it as my second favorite Demme only behind Stop Making Sense, and maybe the best demonstration of what an empathetic filmmaker Demme was.

[therewillbeblus]

I haven't seen Beloved, but aside from his early-aughts remakes, I've enjoyed most of his work. Stop Making Sense is hard to beat, not just as a film but as a devoted TH fan, though I'm partial to Something Wild and Rachel Getting Married. His early stuff had that gentle kind touch that's unparalleled in that era of indie filmmaking though, with Citizen's Band (aka Handle with Care) being most similar to Melvin and Howard in temperament. I also remember liking Caged Heat a lot, though I always get it mixed up with The Big Doll House when it comes to the ending, where one is much crazier than the other, and I suspect it's not the Demme.

[dustybooks]

I panic-bought a bunch of Woody Allen discs. There are a few left I should really get that are at Arrow, but I've overspent already. I missed out on Crimes and Misdemeanors from both places but I feel like that has a decent chance of being licensed to somebody else, which isn't quite as fathomable for a movie like Shadows and Fog. (Alice has already sold out since I placed my order.) I really shouldn't have dragged my feet so long on upgrading these to blu but my finances were shaky enough for a while that I hesitated on buying anything I already owned on DVD. Oh well.

[The Narrator Returns]

I haven't seen Beloved, but aside from his early-aughts remakes, I've enjoyed most of his work. Stop Making Sense is hard to beat, not just as a film but as a devoted TH fan, though I'm partial to Something Wild and Rachel Getting Married. His early stuff had that gentle kind touch that's unparalleled in that era of indie filmmaking though, with Citizen's Band (aka Handle with Care) being most similar to Melvin and Howard in temperament. I also remember liking Caged Heat a lot, though I always get it mixed up with The Big Doll House when it comes to the ending, where one is much crazier than the other, and I suspect it's not the Demme.

See, I adore his 2000s remakes, which I think have some of the most electric filmmaking of Demme's career and of any studio films this century (Beloved as well, though I don't like it quite as much as Manchurian or Truth About Charlie). I'll take Demme's Manchurian over the original any day of the week, and I find Charlie incredibly moving as his tribute to the fallen and aged figures of the French New Wave; the Feelies needledrop at the end gets me emotional just thinking about it.

[therewillbeblus]

I don't hate either film, but don't love them either, especially since I hold the originals in much higher regard than most people I've come across. Neither are as bad as the rap they get in some places though, and you're making me curious to revisit Charlie

[tenia]

I've been pondering for weeks whether or not doing a final TT order, but the shipping fees are killing me. They're a bit better on TT's website than on SAE, but still, they're going to account for 40% of the total.

Seems like this was the trigger for a lot of folks — stuff’s dropping like flies already. Two of the three titles I ordered are now out of stock.

Many (most ?) TT titles only sold out once in sale. I've seen on blu-ray.com many people past weeks wondering if they should wait the next sale since these kept dropping the prices progressively. I guess this was the signal "that's the one !" many were waiting for. I might cave in too, though in a limited fashion (7 titles in total - mostly Fox). I've been burnt too many times in buying TTs that ended up released elsewhere in better/cheaper releases and for me, they're still $15 apiece once pondering the shipping fees (fingers crossed I don't get customs fees too).

[Apperson]

Well this is nice 3 pages to wake up to!

I've already put in one order of Broken Lance, Warlock, The Tall Men and Captain from Castile on the TT website, and I have a basket over on SAE containing The Bravados, The Hot Rock, Inferno and Pretty Poison that I'll pull the trigger on once I work up the courage.

[Ribs]

Despite swearing off ever supporting TT again, now that their doors are shut I can feel like I'm at least not sending the message that their model works (though both retailers having crazy high shipping charges with seemingly no threshold to cross over to free is definitely in spirit with their brand). Mostly bought out of Fox panic, though I also got the two Sony Woody movies that seem perfectly possible to disappear without ever appearing again on a disc in the English-speaking world.

I'm curious how the Fox thing will pan out across the other labels - do we think they're not going to renew their agreements with Criterion, etc whenever they come do and therefore we'll start to see Night and the City or Young Mr. Lincoln or whatever start to just go OOP? There's no indication that any panic buying is necessary from the other labels just yet, right?

[hearthesilence]

Did Gloria (the Cassavetes film) sell out fast? Wish I grabbed that.

That leaves only one title I'd want, Melvin and Howard - I'd rather hold out for a UK reissue from someone like Indicator, but is there anything about the overseas rights that may preclude that from happening?

[Ribs]

Gloria is still available from Screen Archives Though I think more than most titles it's very likely to get picked up by someone else for another release relatively quickly.

I believe there's no particular rights hold-up with Melvin and Howard so it getting a UK release should happen in the fullness of time.

[Apperson]

I could've sworn Gloria was a Fox title, very comforting to find out it's a Columbia title (imagine saying that 5 years ago!)

[hearthesilence]

Gloria is still available from Screen Archives Though I think more than most titles it's very likely to get picked up by someone else for another release relatively quickly.

I believe there's no particular rights hold-up with Melvin and Howard so it getting a UK release should happen in the fullness of time.

Cool, thanks man. I more or less stopped buying Twilight Time reissues after my first purchase of The Last Detail, The Big Heat, Fat City, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and a handful of Woody Allen titles all got reissued in (marginally or substantially) better editions in the UK. Since then, the one title I did pick up was Cutter's Way. It may be one of their most celebrated titles, but it's never done well financially, and it doesn't seem like any other label out there has an interest in issuing it on BD as well.

[beamish14]

I was gonna finally pull the trigger on Walter Hill's superb Geronimo, but I guess it's already gone! Hope Indicator gives it a stacked releasee eventually. I know how averse to commentaries Hill is, but it deserved way more than just the isolated score.

[swo17]

Still available from Screen Archives for just a few dollars more

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

Unless you're purchasing quite a number of titles, there's very little savings going on between buying from TT or SAE––especially if you want some of the titles that TT is no longer listing––Bound for Glory, Forever Amber, and Peyton Place among others––and plan on purchasing from both sites. The shipping truly is ridiculous.

[L.A.]

Honestly, are Blue Denim and No Down Payment worth investing?

[domino harvey]

No Down Payment is a big yes, Blue Denim is just okay but interesting from a contextual perspective. Neither of these will ever, ever be released by another label even if Fox starts licensing again

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

I second the big yes for No Down Payment. A great, great film.

[beamish14]

I've never seen either of the Ken Loach films they've been trying to unload for a long time. Worth $10 together?

Also, I really recommend Neil Jordan's Angel, especially at this price.

[knives]

No Down Payment is a big yes, Blue Denim is just okay but interesting from a contextual perspective. Neither of these will ever, ever be released by another label even if Fox starts licensing again

I could see an Olive or Kino tackling them though I agree we can assume them dead for now.

[Apperson]

Has anyone here seen either 10 North Fredrick or Anastasia and have thoughts for someone on the fence?

[knives]

Anastasia is okay. One of those pleasant enough prestige films that are common enough.

[domino harvey]

Here’s my thoughts on the Litvak

Anastasia (Anatole Litvak 1956) Ingrid Bergman returns from her Hollywood exile and gets her second (and first of two undeserved) Oscar for playing the is she or isn't she titular heir to the Tsar. Bergman beat, among others, Caroll Baker in Baby Doll, in which actual and memorable acting in a still-relevant film occurs, so I guess that was an easy decision for voters trying to ensure the question-mark reputation of the awards survives and thrives 4ever. On that note, this film is so stagebound and dull that it's kind of amazing in how misguided it is-- after opening with a promising glimpse at the Russian Orthodox celebration of Easter, we then are shoved inside a cellar for like twenty minutes for a seemingly endless scene of talk talk talk in the drabbest locale imaginable, despite the best efforts of the 'Scope frame to show us more indistinguishable gray slate wall than ever before! Eventually Yul Brenner, as the military leader who's organized the scam to pass Bergman off as Anastasia, falls in love, which is barely indicated until the cop-out ending, where the movie just sort of fizzles out and ends. One of the biggest "How did this movie get so far with so many talented people without someone pointing out all of the obvious problems in the material" head-scratchers of the studio era.