Powell's Gone to Earth & Age of Consent restored?

[tryavna]

(Wasn't sure exactly where to post this, so mods can move as they see fit.)

A friend passed along this link to a story from the Seattle Times about showings of Michael Powell's Gone to Earth and Age of Consent earlier this week at Seatte's Art Museum. Both were introduced by Thelma Schoonmaker. The most important passage appears in the fourth paragraph:

"Gone to Earth" and "Age of Consent" will both screen in Seattle on newly restored 35mm prints, created at her behest. Scott McQueen, of Disney, restored "Gone to Earth" — "which is just beautiful," said Schoonmaker. "Age of Consent" was cut by its distributor, Columbia Pictures, when it was released in 1969. The current version, restored for Powell's centenary in 2005, contains the missing scenes, reassembled by Columbia's Grover Crisp.

Not sure exactly what, if anything, this means. But with McQueen's and Crisp's involvement and the "newly restored 35mm prints," one hopes that decent R1 releases won't be too far off.

[Matt]

Gone to Earth would have been a natural for Criterion except I believe it's part of the package of Selznick films owned by ABC Films (Disney) but currently licensed to MGM (along with Notorious, The Paradine Case, and Duel in the Sun, among others). And considering Sony have been sitting on restorations of A Matter of Life and Death and several Boetticher westerns for years, I'd be shocked if Age of Consent got a home video release within this decade.

[David Ehrenstein]

Well that would be great if they were both restored. As Age of Consent is Helen Mirren's debut there should be considerable interest in it.

[MichaelB]

Well that would be great if they were both restored. As Age of Consent is Helen Mirren's debut there should be considerable interest in it.

I bet she'd prefer Age of Consent to have been her debut, but it was actually her fourth film.

But I don't think anyone's going to be digging up The Extravaganza of Golgotha Smuts and Herostratus (both 1967) any time soon!

(Her third was an adaptation of Peter Hall's RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but it was released in cinemas)

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I am assuming it was matted to 1.66 (here we go again) if ony because Helen's first nude scene in the surf shows the surf gently lapping and unlapping to reveal her pubic hair. This could be lost with 1.78 framing needless to say! An enitrely different kettle of fish to her subsequent (and magnificent) naked stride down the staircase in Savage Messiah!

Sometimes even the Queen of England has to stand naked

from 'It's alright Ma'am I'm only bleeding"

[MichaelB]

I love the way over at a_f_b more than one of the American posters now keeps referring to Brenda as "Her Majesty", or "Their Majesties" or something equally ludicrous! As though anyone cares. (Sorry D! It''s too much for us Colonial trash.)

I was at one of the first British press shows for The Queen - in fact, it may have been the first press show for it anywhere in the world - and the universally-held advance opinion was that it would be dreadful. Let's face it, the subject matter was hardly appealing (and until now there has never, ever been even a halfway decent film about the present British royal family), and Frears' previous film, Mrs Henderson Presents, had been a critical catastrophe.

Hence our surprise.

I should add a propos Powell and his DP Hans Staudinger (plus now grown up Powell Jnr of two, but uncredited assistant) VERY clearly they did (masked or framed for various regions) the Helen Nude shot in the surf to specifically get it thru the various censors in those days based on the clever projectionists' rakings. And Helen - may the Buddha Bless her - is the greatest co-conspirator imagineable.

Derek Jarman pulled off a similar trick with Sebastiane - he asked the BBFC to screen it at 1.85:1, but it was shot in 16mm and intended to be shown at the original 1.33:1. As a result, the censors completely missed a rather blatant erection at the bottom of the frame and let it through.

(Though the stiffy in question did cause a problem later on, when Jarman popped up in a Channel Four programme called 'Sex and the Censors' to explain how he pulled off this little scam. Unfortunately, the programme makers chose to illustrate it with clips, and C4 got their knuckles rapped for screening obscenity during peak hours - the programme went out at 9pm, so the erection would have been visible at about 9.30. This was as much of a surprise to the people who made it as anyone else, as they were assuming a late-night post-midnight slot!)

[Tommaso]

Thanks, Tryavna, this is excellent news! I'm not sure whether this would indeed be a new restoration of "Gone to Earth" or just a brand new print, as it had been restored already in the 90s (?) and released on dvd (which looks excellent), but the thought of finally getting an uncut version of "Age of Consent" (or, in my case, seeing the film for the first time at all) is thrilling. Hope it will play in Europe or the US, too, if perhaps only on TV.

You didn't quote another bit of news from that article which I find almost as good:

"Schoonmaker, whose current projects include editing her husbands' diaries for publication (along with a series of "extraordinary correspondence" between Powell and his mother)".

That should be definitely an exciting read, given Powell's writing abilities. Perhaps we can get more 'undigested' thoughts from these than from Powell's autobiography.

[Gordon]

The UK disc of Gone to Earth (reviewed here by DVD Beaver) is of fairly high quality. Currently £5.99 at Amazon UK.

[ellipsis7]

This disc is restored digitally re-mastered for its 2001 release, so it's fine but there is room for improvement... It's the full director's cut 110 minute 1950 version of the film, GONE TO EARTH, rather than the mangled 82 minute Selznick version, of which only 35 minutes was P & P footage, the remainder reshot by Rouben Mamoulian... This was what was released in 1952 by Selznick as WILD AT HEART... The disc has some nice behind the scenes footage provided by Thelma Schoonmaker, and an interview with P & P scholar Ian Christie... So all in all it's the genuine package, worth picking up at that price...

Of course Jennifer Jones and Selznick had a decade long relationship at this stage, but they only had married the year before (1949), Selznick having obtained a divorce from his first wife in 1945... Selznick obsessively controlled her every career move, and GONE TO EARTH was no different in being subject to his overwhelming influence, interference and intrusion over her and the film... In his own mind he probably hoped for a sort of English GONE WITH THE WIND...

That said, Powell does extract a lovely performance out of her and the photography by Christopher Challis with Freddie Francis operating is simply magnificent... Cyril Cusack also does a nice turn as the ineffectual vicar...

[Greathinker]

Not quite relevant but do you guys know where A Matter of Life and Death stands? Is a Criterion in the cards? All that's available is the murky Carlton release.

[ellipsis7]

Absolutely not to be on CC - JM confirmed awhile back... They'd love to release it but Sony or someone has it for R1, and there's been something in the works endlessly...

[David Ehrenstein]

But I don't think anyone's going to be digging up The Extravaganza of Golgotha Smuts and Herostratus (both 1967) any time soon!

Whoops, forgotten about that. And Herostratus is terrific. Very worthy of revival as a true 60's artifact along with Chappaqua.

[ellipsis7]

RE; Selznick and Jennifer Jones and GONE TO EARTH... Selznick similarly interfered with De Sica's JJ starrer TERMINAL STATION, hacking it into INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE - both versions on CC release... So the treatment wasn't specific to P & P...

[Awesome Welles]

I saw a lovely print of Gone to Earth about two years ago, and I was told that the restoration was paid for by Martin Scorsese. I saw it at a class I had at the BFI I don't know who owned the print but I know it wasn't released theatrically. I didn't bode well for a new DVD in the UK I think we got a cheapo DVD release here, I didn't buy it I am not fond of the film.

[jbeall]

For those of you in New Jersey, Gone to Earth is playing this summer at the NJ Film Festival on June 14 at Rutgers.

[Cinetwist]

Actually, the UK dvd of Gone to Earth is very good indeed. It also has some astonishing behind the scenes footage, something extremely rare for a film of the period.