34 Eyes of Laura Mars

[MichaelB]

EYES OF LAURA MARS - LE
(Irvin Kershner, 1978)
Release date: 220 November 2017
Limited Blu-ray Edition (World Blu-ray premiere)

Irvin Kershner’s stylish, violent cult thriller – from an original screenplay by John Carpenter – stars iconic star Faye Dunaway as glamorous fashion photographer Laura Mars, who begins to experience horrific visions when she ‘sees’ a series of brutal murders as they happen.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES:
• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with director Irvin Kershner
• Making of documentary (1978, 7 mins)
• Eyes on Laura Mars (1999, 8 mins): on-set photography with commentary
• Original theatrical trailer
• David DeCoteau trailer commentary (2013, 4 mins): a short critical appreciation
• Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Rebecca Nicole Williams, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and historic articles on the film
• World premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited Blu-ray Edition of 3,000 copies
• More TBC

#PHILTD034
BBFC cert: 15
REGION FREE
EAN: 5037899071137

Preorder here.

[Aunt Peg]

I can't wait to get Eyes of Laura Mars. I haven't seen it since it's first release and it's one of my most guiltiest movie pleasures. I still own the Vinyl LP soundtrack.

[Lost Highway]

I'm hugely excited about Eyes of Laura Mars, I've been desperately hoping for a Blu-ray release. The film isn't that highly regarded but my girl Pauline has my back on this one. It's the NYC 70s movie I want to live in from Faye Dunaway's Manhattan carpet and mirrors Manhattan apartment to her warehouse studio, it catches the mixture of grime and Studio 54 dazzle of the time.

I'm a sucker for late 70s Helmut Newton glamour and of course Faye Dunaway herself. It's also a proper American giallo, from the glamorous victims to the black gloved killer to the murder witness who can't quite interpret what she sees. The revelation of the killer is a let down and the fact that Laura Mars has second sight is never really dealt with (apparently these were changes to John Carpenters screenplay) but otherwise this is my favourite high style 70s US thriller outside of De Palma.

[domino harvey]

The revelation of the killer happens the moment they appear on screen

[Lost Highway]

The revelation of the killer happens the moment they appear on screen

Which is the let down I referred to.

[domino harvey]

I must confess I'm no fan of the film, but I wonder if it wouldn't have been better served by taking a page from Columbo and just admitting whodunnit immediately instead of playing coy to an audience that could not possibly be surprised by their reveal

[Lost Highway]

I must confess I'm no fan of the film, but I wonder if it wouldn't have been better served by taking a page from Columbo and just admitting whodunnit immediately instead of playing coy to an audience that could not possibly be surprised by their reveal

That would only be possible had

Spoiler

Columbo ever killed anybody

. It's no more or less obvious than many other murder mysteries. When I first saw the film at its release I wasn't sure, there were enough red herrings to fool a 15 year old. It's become more obvious since

Spoiler

Tommy Lee Jones

got famous, this must have been one of his first movie roles ? His motive is rather trite though.

In the end I'm not that bothered by the whodunnit element, which becomes irrelevant once you've seen the film. I come back for the grimy glamour of 70s New York, Faye Dunaway and the disco music and I think Irvin Kershner did a stylish job with the film. I even like the Barbra Streisand theme song.

[knives]

There were a couple of other notable roles before it.

[colinr0380]

Spoiler

Yes, his first role was as the roommate to one of the insipid pair of lovers in Love Story (his is probably the most interesting character in the whole of that film! Though the two dads of the film, played by John Marley and Ray Milland, representing working and upper class backgrounds respectively, are good too). Just before Eyes of Laura Mars he'd been in a couple of interesting edge-of-exploitation movies - Jackson County Jail and Rolling Thunder.

I mostly think the psychic link stuff here is to provide the unique twist on the chase sequence at the end. I often wonder whether the killer in Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days film, who forces their victims to wear the experience sharing device as they get killed, took any influence from Eyes of Laura Mars. (Off on a tangent, it is also pretty interesting to revisit Strange Days at the moment and be reminded of all of its Rodney King tape, racial discrimination allusions in the wake of Detroit's recent release and bluntly biographical take on similar issues)

[Lost Highway]

My point was that

Spoiler

Tommy Lee Jones wasn't a well known actor who specialist in villainous roles when he was cast in Eyes of Laura Mars. In retrospect that makes it more obvious that he is the killer. Of course in the Agatha Christie playbook he was an obvious suspect by being the least obvious, as he was the investigating detective. And he has a sinister edge which then often got him typecast as heavies and psychos.

[What A Disgrace]

Indicator should really have their own section on this site.

[Lost Highway]

Indicator should really have their own section on this site.

Agreed, they certainly do some great work.

[domino harvey]

They are doing good work, but their releases are not yet generating the overall level of discussion that would necessitate giving them a dedicated subforum

[Lost Highway]

They are doing good work, but their releases are not yet generating the overall level of discussion that would necessitate giving them a dedicated subforum

Try me, I can talk about Laura Mars till the cows come home !

[Lost Highway]

As mentioned, Pauline Kael loved the film and I can see how its up her street, there is something De Palma about it in its mixture of sex, gloss and violence, even if it isn't as baroque as De Palma. Kael described Kershner's directions as having a "scabrous elegance and a surprising amount of humor" and she seemed quite taken by Dunaways physicality in the role.

I once read an interview with John Carpenter where he talked about how his draft of the script was quite different, with a reason for Laura's psychic ability and I think a different reveal or at least motive for the killer. It also didn't take place in the art and fashion scene, but that's probably what I like most about the film.

[R0lf]

If you like this don't forget that PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD has a very nice english friendly blu ray from Carlotta in France.

[Lost Highway]

If you like this don't forget that PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD has a very nice english friendly blu ray from Carlotta in France.

I have it and that was the first time I saw the film. I wasn't a huge fan on a first watch but I should give it another try. Dunaway playing a fashion model going mad sounds far more enticing than what ended up on screen. The film wants to be taken seriously, but it lacks substance and apart from one scene the acting fireworks never materialise. And considering it's rather pretentious, it's not even much fun as a piece of camp.

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital on Eyes of Laura Mars.

[MichaelB]

Beaver on Eyes of Laura Mars.

[Lost Highway]

I watched my Blu-ray of Eyes of Laura Mars last evening and on the whole I'm very happy with it. It looks a little soft at times, but that's probably down to the way it was shot. Of course I would have liked a few more new extras. The only major addition, an appreciation by critic Kat Ellinger, was quite good though. It puts the film in context of the giallo and how Carpenter was influenced by the genre and in turn then kicked off the slasher film cycle with Halloween, which was an evolution of the giallo. There is a brief extra ported from the DVD about the different versions of the screenplay and its major failing is not to go into any detail what the original Carpenter screenplay was like.

I only recently read that a remake was planned in 2009, which then fell apart because the director wanted to stay close to the original Carpenter version of the screenplay while the studio wanted a remake of the film as is. That's a shame because that would have actually offered something new and I would have been interested to see that. What I like the most about the film is exactly what can't be replicated. A snapshot of Manhattan in the late 70s between high-fashion disco glamour and urban decay, a high strung diva performance by Faye Dunaway and a supporting cast of great character actors at the start of their careers.

I still love the film and I still think its underrated. It came out at a formative time for me, when I was in my mid-teens and when I got into grown-up films and it resonated on several levels for me, so may affection for it certainly has a sentimental quality. For me it's one of those films I can revisit again and again, because it takes me back to a time that was important to me.

I also like thrillers with a sense of place and this is a great New York film and I like films to take me into the world of a particular profession and unlike other films of the time (Mahogany!) this is quite accurate about the fashion and advertising industry. I also like how casual the film is about its gay character/s. Rene Auberjonois as Laura's agent takes no homophobic crap from the cops and is loved and respected by his circle of friends and colleagues. He is camp but he is no caricature. That was still quite rare then and I remember reviews at the time which were quite homophobic just because of his character and the supposedly decadent scene Laura Mars surrounded herself with, when mostly, it is actually a very professional environment.

[Drucker]

Sat on this release for years, and didn't really research what this would be like. I uh, really didn't care for this film! I was really intrigued early on with the set-pieces, the framing the film around voyeurism and the morality of depicting the art Laura Mars is making. I didn't feel like any of the questions posed in the opening of the film are ever really addressed. Some beautiful stylistic exercises are never really explained, and I also felt Dunaway's portrayal was kind of one dimensional.

Reading the booklet, I see the spiritual connection to Giallo films. But I'm not a huge fan of those, and definitely felt this one falls quite short of those. A rare miss from Indicator, for me.

[The Curious Sofa]

They discussed Eyes of Laura Mars on Quentin Tarrantino and Roger Avery's The Video Archives podcast. Their guest was Eli Roth and while they all liked the film, like most people they thought it's ending is its biggest flaw. Speculating what Carpenter would have done, Roth comes up with a great ending.

https://videoarchivespodcast.com/episod ... h-eli-roth

It's a 1 hour, 52:30 minutes

[Drucker]

How timely, I will take a listen! I enjoyed the Ellinger extra, which really does help make it more clear in my head that the film is a Giallo, and perhaps what really turned me off was going into it not expecting that. Will keep it around and revisit during Halloween.