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mteller wrote:Mister Lime confirmed on HTF it's the Selznick butcher job. A shame.

Although I would not rank Gone to Earth very high among The Archers' output, it has a special significance for me because I grew up near its filming locations in the Shropshire countryside. As a child, I knew about the film many years before eventually seeing it, when it was restored in the 1980s.

There really isn't anything to recommend in the Selznick US version over the UK original, despite Rouben Mamoulian's involvement as director of some reshot scenes. The only positive I can point to is that Selznick at least had the decency (or perhaps it was a contractual requirement) to rename the butchered product. Since the forthcoming release appears to be under that US title, The Wild Heart, it tells us what to expect. I presume the roadshow overture will be new to home video though.

In exceptional cases, I might defend a producer's wishes taking precedence over the director's, if the producer is risking his or her own money whilst the director is not. However, Powell & Pressburger always did have a financial stake as co-producers, so they were entitled to object when Selznick's interference became unreasonable.

I feel sorry for contemporary US audiences who were denied a chance to see the original film, but at least that still exists and perhaps one day we can look forward to it on Blu.

Mill Creek is releasing Powell's Age of Consent as a double feature with Cactus Flower.
Pretty awful cover, though.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Age-of-Co ... ay/207017/

Great news, thanks. I wonder if this will include the commentary by Kent Jones.

Werewolf by Night wrote: Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:23 am

nolanoe wrote:Really, all I care about is when a BD of "Down to Earth" comes out.

Good news! It’s coming, thanks to Kino Lorber. A restored “roadshow” version, apparently, though I’m not quite sure what that means. The uncut UK version, one would hope.

I missed this - I'm very happy to see this is indeed being released this September!!

Full specs for Indicator’s region-free Blu-ray of Age of Consent, which also includes Powell’s 1972 fiction swansong The Boy Who Turned Yellow (making its HD debut) and over three hours of archival audio interviews (one solo from 1971, one jointly with Emeric Pressburger from 1985).

Out of curiosity, are there rights issues preventing some of Powell's later work (by which I mean after Hoffmann I suppose) from release or is it simply lack of interest? I'm thinking in particular of Oh... Rosalinda and Bluebeard's Castle, but there are a few others that are quite hard to see (in decent versions anyhow).

Oh... Rosalinda!! is with StudioCanal, and I suspect it’s pretty low priority for them. The Bartók was recently restored by the BFI and the Film Foundation, so I’m hoping that this means some kind of release, but I haven’t heard of any concrete plans.

Colpeper wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:55 am

mteller wrote:Mister Lime confirmed on HTF it's the Selznick butcher job. A shame.

Although I would not rank Gone to Earth very high among The Archers' output, it has a special significance for me because I grew up near its filming locations in the Shropshire countryside. As a child, I knew about the film many years before eventually seeing it, when it was restored in the 1980s.

There really isn't anything to recommend in the Selznick US version over the UK original, despite Rouben Mamoulian's involvement as director of some reshot scenes. The only positive I can point to is that Selznick at least had the decency (or perhaps it was a contractual requirement) to rename the butchered product. Since the forthcoming release appears to be under that US title, The Wild Heart, it tells us what to expect. I presume the roadshow overture will be new to home video though.

In exceptional cases, I might defend a producer's wishes taking precedence over the director's, if the producer is risking his or her own money whilst the director is not. However, Powell & Pressburger always did have a financial stake as co-producers, so they were entitled to object when Selznick's interference became unreasonable.

I feel sorry for contemporary US audiences who were denied a chance to see the original film, but at least that still exists and perhaps one day we can look forward to it on Blu.

Yeah, this is greatly disheartening. I have no clue why this would be favored over the original cut.

KL delayed the release to include both cuts, though

domino harvey wrote: Tue Dec 18, 2018 3:22 pm KL delayed the release to include both cuts, though

Well, that's wonderful to hear. \:D/

At this weekend's Nitrate Picture show in Rochester, NY, Gone To Earth was the surprise final title. The festival lineup is not announced until the first day, and they leave one final screening at the end unannounced until the film literally starts playing.

This was my first film festival, I have ADHD, and I had a 5 hour drive ahead of me, so even though I was viewing a P&P on Nitrate, I was a bit restless at first. I felt the film had sort of a weird opening that was a bit hard to follow. In most of the P&P's I've seen, the story seems to be established pretty early on, but not here. The film felt more concerned with atmosphere and establishing the protagonist as 'one with nature'. But the film takes some really interesting turns, bringing in a sacred vs. secular plot, and ultimately the ending was the kind of surprise that I didn't realize was coming but made me jump out of my seat. The colors are beautiful as ever, and fans of Kate Bush will find a lot to love about the Jennifer Jones performance.

Apparently Powell wasn't too fond of the film, I could see how it doesn't have the grandeur of the 40s films but I would honestly rank this as my second favorite P&P film behind Red Shoes that I've seen. I can't imagine what the American cut would be like, but I would think not having the UK cut would be a major disappointment, so kudos to Kino for waiting to ensure they could release both!

I'm not a P+P fanatic like most here but I found Gone to Earth to be unbearably trite and hoary in its plot mechanics. It does look beautiful, and you can tell Selznick's initial interest in the production was pretty much making sure Jennifer Jones is lit with the grandeur he felt she was due (I've read claims that the Selznick cut includes extra close-ups, but I don't think there's any real difference between the two in this regards-- P+P were already on it). But while I don't think Gone to Earth is even remotely an overlooked masterpiece, there's no doubt that the Selznick cut, the Wild Heart, is far worse. Watching them back to back resulted in several unintentional laugh out loud moments, my favorite being a new shot of the deadly hole in the ground, now helpfully labeled with a giant sign reading "DANGER: MINE SHAFT!" And thankfully Selznick provided an overdub to the scene where Jones hoots at an owl in which we learn her feathered friend is another Foxy-type animal pal named Winky. I'm not making that up. While the oppressive Christian townsfolk being un-Christian in their actions towards Jones was so old hat by the late 40s that you can't even believe anyone would attempt to film it, cutting all of it out and also making the Squire into a generally good guy until he feeds Jones' pet rabbit to his dog (WTF) in the Selznick cut is some next level "I give up" shit with regards to recutting this. Recommended to those who want to see the Reverend introduced via fixing a child's pinwheel toy only.

Not sure whether it has been mentioned elsewhere already, but "Oh... Rosalinda!" is finally getting an official release on Blu and DVD in the UK in August.

Tommaso wrote: Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:48 am Not sure whether it has been mentioned elsewhere already, but "Oh... Rosalinda!" is finally getting an official release on Blu and DVD in the UK in August.

Indeed, we discussed it 6 weeks ago here. My disc just shipped, and I'm very excited to see it after reading about the film for years. With this summer's Kino double-bill Gone To Earth / The Wild Heart and last year's magnificent CC A Matter of Life and Death, it's a wonderful time for P&P fans.

While not quite the disaster its reputation alleges, I thought Oh...Rosalinda! was nevertheless pretty bad, like someone making a Hollywood musical after having seen a few without understanding how they work beyond basic mechanics. I held out hope for maybe five minutes thanks to the direct address opening (which, like everything here, wasn’t funny, but showed promise at least) and a pair of matching military escort shots. But then hoo boy, Walbrook is called upon to dance just a little and it’s so terrible that the realization sinks in: they didn’t hire actors who could do any this, did they? Despite some talented heavy hitters and Mel Ferrer in the cast, I think Anthony Quayle by a mile is the only one not to embarrass himself here, prob because he gets the role that fits a muted refinement and bombast. On the other end of the spectrum, Ferrer’s endlessly mugging perf is worse than Michael Redgrave’s but I know to not expect much from him so it isn’t as bad as Redgrave doing... whatever it is he thinks he is doing here. None of the female cast leave any impression whatsoever, including the titular temptress who apparently divided then joined multiple nations in celebration of her alleged charms— sure, Jan. The updated lyrical treatment of the source material is negligible though not insurmountable had it been staged well (which it has not).

Network is releasing Honeymoon (Luna de Miel) on blu-ray end of March.

Good news. Even though the plot is entirely forgettable and the director seems not all too interested in doing something about it, the dancing is very fine (and directed to Powell's usual high standards) so at least the admirers of Ludmilla Tcherina should be delighted.

Beaver review for Network’s new Blu-ray of Honeymoon.

A 4K restoration of The Edge of the World is being released on blu-ray this October, by Milestone.

Martin Scorsese confirms in this interview that he is working with Thelma Schoonmaker on a new documentary about Powell & Pressburger. He also confirms that Gone to Earth (and seemingly A Canterbury Tale) have been restored.

yoloswegmaster wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 6:27 pm Martin Scorsese confirms in this interview that he is working with Thelma Schoonmaker on a new documentary about Powell & Pressburger. He also confirms that Gone to Earth (and seemingly A Canterbury Tale) have been restored.

I didn’t see anything in that interview that implied that Gone to Earth or A Canterbury Tale had been restored. All I saw was that he was editing the Powell/Pressburger documentary and editing the length of the clips he was using. What did I miss?

DeprongMori wrote: Tue Sep 26, 2023 12:49 am

yoloswegmaster wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 6:27 pm Martin Scorsese confirms in this interview that he is working with Thelma Schoonmaker on a new documentary about Powell & Pressburger. He also confirms that Gone to Earth (and seemingly A Canterbury Tale) have been restored.

I didn’t see anything in that interview that implied that Gone to Earth or A Canterbury Tale had been restored. All I saw was that he was editing the Powell/Pressburger documentary and editing the length of the clips he was using. What did I miss?

Good catch. My sleepy eyes read "revise" as saying "restore."

Thelma Schoonmaker on Powell, Scorsese and various The Archers films:
https://lwlies.com/interviews/thelma-sc ... ide-of-me/

Stefan Andersson wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2023 4:40 pm Thelma Schoonmaker on Powell, Scorsese and various The Archers films:
https://lwlies.com/interviews/thelma-sc ... ide-of-me/

I guess that's something:

What film would you like to restore next?

Gone to Earth, but there’s all kinds of problems with that. Selznick cut into the original version so we’re missing frames and things, so that’s going to be a really hard one. But it’s beautiful. The evocation of that part of the border between England and Wales where Michael’s father grew up. And she’s wonderful, Jennifer Jones. I think it’s probably the best thing she ever did! The BFI will continue to be instrumental to that, as they have been throughout the resurrection of Powell and Pressburger’s legacy. It’s their vault with all the negatives and prints, it’s critical what they’ve done, and I hope they’ll be allowed to go on doing it!

The Small Back Room on UHD, plus Oh... Rosalinda!!, both from Studio Canal in 2024:
http://www.cineoutsider.com/news/storie ... 40103.html