BD 206 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

[swo17]

22 July

[Apperson]

Beaver

I'm slightly worried that I can now recognize b/w restorations from Fox even when they're not bad (for instance I knew that they were the studio that produced Cluny Brown by clip included under Criterion's listing and the way it looked).

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

I actually did pick up the Kazan at Fox boxsets a few years ago (primarily for this, one of my favorite films and one of my favorite books), and while I haven't performed a comparison, from memory and from what I see on Beaver, I suspect that they're based on the same materials. The old transfer had all the same flaws that Gary points out in his review.

[dustybooks]

The transfer looks quite lovely to me in motion, though I did notice a bit of the waxiness Gary mentions, particularly when looking at the details of some of the wardrobes. I’m pleased overall with how the film looks... and disappointed with the extras, which seem to be the material from the cancelled Fox DVD (which may also be on the Kazan set?) and are overrun with Richard Schickel; and with the booklet essays which seemed to have needed a few more editorial passes. Strangely I’m enjoying the commentary, maybe because my expectations were low, and also because Fox (I guess?) fills the dead air with extracts of interviews with Kazan et al.

It’s a worthy package for the price but I just feel like there’s a little bit of a thrown-together feeling about it. (It’s a small thing, but after noticing the “Normal Lloyd” typo on the website several weeks ago, I’m surprised it made it to the actual back cover.) Being my first MOC purchase in a good while, and the first one I found at all underwhelming, I don’t know if maybe I’m just being unrealistic, and again, I’m very glad they saw fit to release this beautiful film.

[domino harvey]

Finally got around to this via the Fox Kazan Blu-ray set after putting it off for years and thought it turned out to be one of Kazan's best. Everything I dreaded this would be it wasn't-- there's nothing maudlin or nauseatingly sentimental here in this authentic-feeling portrayal of a year or so in the life of a family in Williamsburg (back when that was NOT the place to be). Rather the film doesn't pull its punches and gives us a wonderfully complex mother figure embodied by Dorothy McGuire in what is surely her best work. McGuire is not a favorite of mine but I was blown away by how willing she was to embody so many unlikable traits and still maintain a balance of understanding and audience sympathy for her character. The scene where she shuts down James Dunn's increasingly-aggrandizing promises of reforming with surprising cruelty is stunning and deeply sad, especially since like her and the kids, we want to believe Dunn but just can't. Dunn's win as Best Supporting Actor makes complete sense, as it fulfills two of the award's biggest prerequisites: he plays a sympathetic victim AND his perf is wonderful, the film coming alive every time he materializes from his benders. He's also responsible for a series of effective and organic tear-jerking scenes (some of which he's not even on screen for) that never feel manipulative even though of course they are. I'm not sure I could trust anyone who could sit through this film without crying at least once. Would make a great double bill with the similar but sunnier tenement living nostalgia piece I Remember Mama.