M - Criterion Collection

Starring:Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos, Gustaf GrÃ¼ndgens, Friedrich GnaÃŸ, Fritz Odemar, Paul Kemp, Theo Lingen, Rudolf BlÃ¼mner, Georg John, Franz Stein, Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur, Gerhard Bienert, Karl Platen, Rosa Valetti, Hertha von Walther, Paul Mederow, Karl Elzer
Director: Fritz Lang
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Peter Lorre made film history with his startling performance as a psychotic murderer of children. Too elusive for the Berlin police, the killer is sought and marked by underworld criminals who are feeling the official fallout for his crimes. This riveting, 1931 German drama by Fritz Lang--an early talkie--unfolds against a breathtakingly expressionistic backdrop of shadows and clutter, an atmosphere of predestination that seems to be closing in on Lorre's terrified villain. M is an important piece of cinema's past along with a number of Lang's early German works, including Metropolis and Spies. (Lang eventually brought his influence directly to the American cinema in such films as Fury, They Clash by Night, and The Big Heat.) M shouldn't be missed. This original 111-minute version is a little different from what most people have seen in theaters. --Tom Keogh

Description

On moratorium since the end of March, Fritz Lang's serial killer thriller starring Peter Lorre returns to DVD in a fully restored, special edition double-disc set. A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled off-screen tells us that a young girl will be killed. "Who is the murderer?" pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert (Lorre) closes in on little Elsie Beckmann... In his harrowing masterwork, Lang merged trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller. The Criterion Collection is proud to present a new restoration of this landmark film in an all-new two-disc set, also including audio commentary by two German film scholars; an interview film Conversation with Fritz Lang, directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection); a short film inspired by M by director Claude Chabrol (La Ceremonie, Les Biches); classroom tapes of M's editor discussing the film and its history; and much more.

Customer Reviews:

5-star film, 4-star DVD.......2007-05-16

M is an essential film. But this DVD was a little disappointing, I felt. The picture and sound were better than other versions I've seen, but still not as pristine as I would have liked. Special features were so-so. Price was as high as Criterion usually likes it. All in all, I've seen better adaptations of similarly legendary films to DVD.

But if you are at all interested in the great films of the past, this is a must-have, and Criterion MUST be kept in business at all costs (wince). So this is a good buy overall.

Essential.......2007-05-12

"M" is one the rare films where viewing it is compulsory. Director Fritz Lang has you in his grip from first frame to last. This is essentially two films. A child murderer is on the loose in Weimar Germany. Panic and paranoia is rampant among the populace. The police are using state-of-the-art(for the time) techniques to track the killer. The underworld is in a lather. Their efforts to nab the killer are not so much altruistic. Rather he's bad for business. The killer's identity is no secret. As the public speculates as to who the murderer could be Lang reveals pudgy, fey Hans Beckert(Peter Lorre). The second half of the film is a treatise on vigilanteism. It is here that Lang demonstrates his belief in civil justice even in the face of the worst atrocity. Beckert, pleaing for his life, manages to rend your heart while admitting to his monstrosity. There are many powerful images on display here none the least the statement that closes the film by the mother of one of Beckert's victims. This film would be a good pairing with another Lang film that concerns itself with mob rule, "Fury".

A modern film, made in the 1930's........2007-01-22

"Who knows what it's like to be me?''
An anguished cry from a tortured man, one that can't help elicit sympathy, despite the fact that the man in question in a serial killer.

"M" is a revolutionary, incredible movie in many ways. It began the career of Peter Lorre. It was the last gasp of German Expressionism before the Nazi takeover. It is, in many ways, Frtiz Lang's best film. It's haunting, moving and memorable like few other movies ever are.

Many people today forget what a major impact German cinema had on the development of movies. Starting with "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" in 1920, and moving up through movies by greats like F W Murnau ("Nosferatu", "Faust", "Sunrise") and Fritz Lang ("Metropolis"), Germany manged to put forth some of the best, most amazing images ever projected up onto a screen. Who can forget the arrival of the plague ship in "Nosferatu", or Rotwang's robot in "Metropolis"? These images are iconic in our society, a fact made all the more interesting when you consider that not long after "M" another German would make the Swastika a very memorable and iconic image.

"M" tells the story of a serial killer who preys on children. We see him meeting a young girl as she goes home from school. We see him buying her a balloon. We see her mother wondering why she isn't home and calling out her name as the camera focuses on the pathetic place setting for a lunch the girl will never eat. We see her ball rolling away into the dirt near some bushes. We see her balloon rise up into the telephone wires.

As the populace gets more and more concerned about these killings, the Berlin police get more and more frustrated, as does the criminal element. Sales of their various wares are down. Business is hurting. They resent being lumped in together with this child murder and even consider taking out an add in the papers to say that he isn't one of them.

Eventually the criminals decide to act and begin to hunt for the killer themselves. What happens after they catch him is something that needs to be seen to be believed, as a kangaroo court of crimal masterminds puts the killer on trial, saying that many of them are quite well informed of the way the legal system works.

"M" can be viewed as the start of two major genres; film noir and police procedural. Much like in "Silence of the Lambs" and "The Fugitive", you see the slow, steady process the police use as they try to track down a killer before he strikes again. And the film's status as the earliest form of noir is obvious to anyone who has ever seen any movie in that particular genre.

"M" is at times a hard movie to watch. You will find yourself feeling sympathy for Peter Lorre's character, vile though he is. His performance occupies maybe 20 minutes of screen time, but was so memorable that it resulted in him being typecast for the rest of his career. Given how good he was in those roles, maybe we should be thankful for that.

"M" was released on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection. The two-disc set can be bought for a surprisingly reasonable price on Amazon.com and is well worth purchasing, if for no other reason than the fact that you're not likely to find it in your local Blockbuster (though you can get a basic copy from Netflix). It includes many extras. The German dialogue with English subtitles may turn off some poeple, but it frankly adds an air to the film that dubbing would miss.

To conclude: If you're a fan of movies like this, or just enjoy a good film, I highly recommend you make time for "M".

M- The Murderer Among Us.......2007-01-22

Filmed in 1931 this is the first serial killer movie...

M is the story of a serial killer who terrorizes a German town. As you follow the story you get to see the city going mad, the hunt for the killer, the killer at work and then eventually Lorre fleeing for his life.. Before the killer strikes hes always whistling this haunting tune, very eerie. A blind man who sells balloons ends up using his keen observances and hearing of the whistling and putting 2 and 2 together...eventually aiding in his capture and bringing the killer to justice.

The imagery is haunting,the whistling is creepy and really grates on your nerves, the scariness is more of a what you dont see kind of deal ... Ive also have heard this film somewhat models the story of German serial killer Peter Kurten aka the Vampire of Dusseldorf who in 1929 was commiting assaults and murders of children. Fritz denied the movie having anything to do with Kurten yet there is a similiarity between the film and the murders that occurred... though this could have been a coincidence.

This is definitely an acquired taste.. Not for everyone

But I have to say this...If you have a short attention span, dont buy this film.

Moments of menace..........2007-01-08

The economy, austerity and directness of the films of Fritz Lang made him one of the most profound, and precise filmmakers...

Lang, a master of the German expressionist film, shot his first talkie, a crime drama considered a landmark in the story of suspense movies... It was a shocking idea for its time, based on the real-life killer Peter Kurten, headlined as the Vampire of Düsseldorf...

'M' is about a terrorized city, and a plump little man with wide eyes (often chewing candy) who is a pathological child-killer, unable to control his urge for killing...

The film embodies several Lang themes: the duality between justice and revenge, mob hysteria, the menacing anticipation of watching a helplessly trapped individual trying fruitlessly to escape as greater forces move inexorably in, and, for probably the first time in the cinema, it adds a new dimension to suspense: pity... For the killer is clearly mentally sick... He cannot overcome the overwhelming compulsion of his murderous disease, and yet, we see him hunted down and almost lynched as a criminal, rather than treated as a sick man...

Early in the film, the killer is heard whistling the Grieg theme from 'In the Hall of the Mountain King'. This theme inexorably becomes imbued with menace... And when we see no more than a girl looking in a shop window, the melody on the sound-track told us chillingly that the murderer is there, just out of sight...

The Murderer is played by Peter Lorre in a virtuoso performance that has barely been matched in all the thrillers he has made since 'Casablanca,' 'The Maltese Falcon,' and 'The Mask of Dimitrios.' When the photographs of his victims, all little girls, are shown to him, he jumps back and twitches with horror...

With powerful visuals, Lang's motion picture is Lorre's first film... His performance as the corpulent, hunted psychopath is a masterpiece of mime and suggestion... Lorre is the archetypal outsider-outside the law and society because of his compulsive crimes, outside the balancing society of the underworld because he is not a professional criminal... He had only twelve lines of dialog...

In the most famous of all about a pathological killer - Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' - Anthony Perkins lacked not only the threat of the tortured Peter Lorre, but also the dimension of invoking our incredulous sympathy...

'Psycho' reeked with blood and horror, whereas the suspense of 'M' is subtle... A child's balloon without an owner, a rolling ball, are enough to tell us that another murder had been committed... The audience, trapped in its seats, torn by ambivalent feelings towards the killer, watched him trapped as the net is pulled tight...

M. Hulot's Holiday - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Jacques Tati at his absolute best
great film! I am so glad that they released this on DVD.
I just love Mr. Hulot
One of my favorite movies of all time.
Still hilarious after all these years

M. Hulot's Holiday - Criterion Collection
Starring: Georges Adlin , Michèle Brabo , Valentine Camax , Raymond Carl , and André Dubois
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005A8TV
Release Date: 2004-01-06

Amazon.com essential video

Forefather of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean, Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot--a recurring character in several of his movies--is a blithely clumsy troublemaker, an insouciant twit who leaves uproar in his wake without being aware of it. Trying to describe this 1953 comedy is next to impossible except to say it is a series of vignettes at a vacation resort, with the distracted Hulot providing a lot of laughs. Tati directs, and in a way what that really means is that he composes this movie with a perfect eye and ear for the comic possibilities in everything: composition, lighting, minimal marble-mouth dialogue, certain sounds (a duck call, a door repeatedly opening and shutting). This is a superior work that ranks among all-time classic comedies. --Tom Keogh

Description

Pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati's endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati's wildly funny satire of vacationers determined to enjoy themselves includes a series of precisely choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats and firecrackers. The first entry in the Hulot series is a masterpiece of gentle slapstick.

Customer Reviews:

Jacques Tati at his absolute best.......2007-05-12

This is the funniest film I know. It is sly, witty, wistful, gentle and almost entirely free from dialogue! And it is as good-natured as a 1950s summer holiday at the sea side in France could be. The characters are caricatures, indeed they are, but the situations and the brilliant comic timing of that genius, Jacques Tati, take this film far far beyond heavy-handed slapstick farce. My father's judgement was that having characters shout and shriek at each other, do crass double takes and fall down does not amount to comedy (test this criterion against almost any modern American "humor"). In M.Hulot's Holiday, the characters do all their acting with the subtle or not-so-subtle expressions of their faces, a raised eyebrow, a Gallic shrug.
Are people often funny? Yes. You only have to observe them, best of all when they are trying to relax at the beach, to see that. Well-observed children, waiters, tycoons, old couples, youths...all stumble around the incomparable Jacques Tati. And, if you ever needed convincing that black-and-white photography is best for portraiture, this film will do that. Are there films which really are "must see". Yes. This one.

great film! I am so glad that they released this on DVD. .......2007-05-07

Mr. HULOT'S HOLIDAY is a great addition to the Criterion Collection film family. I honestly don't know why they waited so long! Jacques Tati (as the title character) was a marvelous physical comedian, from France, and this film showcases him at his loopy best. As a note, there is much more to Hulot's clumsiness than meets the eye. Under that bumbling lies the heart of a romantic and a rather suave gentleman. The gist of this film basically centers on Hulot's holiday, at sea, complete with catchy, low-key incidental music (I doubt you will get the song out of your head), plenty of misunderstandings and mishaps that really don't need translation. That's perfect because the dialogue in this film is minimal. Basically, it feels like the director just stepped back and let Mr. Hulot take over on the film. It's very entertaining. They should show this film more often. In fact, I propose that there be a Jacquest Tati revival. Lord knows we need something to laugh about, during these turbulent times in the world.

I just love Mr. Hulot.......2007-04-12

First time I saw this movie, was in the 70's in a movieteater in Denmark, Bellevue Teater. Now I'm in USA and just got all my old movie's on DVD. This on is, what Mr. Hulot is about. A lot of fun. But then again, you have to like Jacques Tati and the way he plays and moves, the cutting -Jacques Tati's way.
You can only get into a good mode.

One of my favorite movies of all time........2007-03-24

This movie will not be everyone's cup of tea, and if you are looking for excitement, you won't find it here, but this is a movie that I enjoy watching over and over. It is a great de-stressing feel-better movie. It is the closest thing I know of to a relaxing vacation at the seashore. The location, characters, and comedy all combine to make it an excellent movie.

Still hilarious after all these years.......2007-01-10

The DVD of Mr. Hulot's Holiday will have you chortling, snickering and flat-out laughing all by yourself. Although it is in French, with English subtitles, no knowledge of French is necessary because humor transcends language. Mr. Hulot is quite oblivious to the quirky situations he creates at the seaside resort hotel where he is spending his holiday, always maintaining his cheery spirit in the face of the catastrophes of others.

It's a must-have for anyone who appreciates the art of sight gags and old-time silent movie humor.

I Know Where I'm Going! - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

I Know Where I'm Going
I Know where I am Going
Primo chick-flick ... that a guy can enjoy, too
A Magical Masterpiece
One of the best movies of all time

I Know Where I'm Going! - Criterion Collection
Starring: Wendy Hiller , Roger Livesey , George Carney , Pamela Brown , and Walter Hudd
Director: Emeric Pressburger , and Michael Powell
Manufacturer: Criterion
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ASIN: B00004XQMY
Release Date: 2001-02-20

Amazon.com

Assured, headstrong Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) knows exactly what she wants and how to get it, until she's stranded in a rough, windswept Scottish village--in sight but out of reach of an island where a rich fiancée, a lavish wedding, and a loveless marriage await. While a raging storm prevents her crossing, a quiet, modest, and penniless Scottish laird named Torquil (Roger Livesey) slowly wins her cheerfully mercenary heart and upsets her carefully arranged plans with messy emotions. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-loved romantic drama is a handsome work full of vivid, offbeat characters (Pamela Brown is especially striking as an earthy villager always accompanied by a pack of bloodhounds) living in a world that's part tradition and part myth. Villagers work and celebrate with the simple spirit of common folk ("We're not poor, we just haven't any money," Torquil admonishes the materialist Joan). Powell brings his lively manner and bold visual invention to the creation of his beautiful but harsh primal paradise, culminating in the awesome spectacle of a massive whirlpool that could be the work of the "legend of Corryvreckan" or the stormy embodiment of Joan's hysterical heart. Awash in mystic power of ancient castles and chanted legends, I Know Where I'm Going is one of the most romantic visions of Britain's most magical director. --Sean Axmaker

Description

In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's stunningly photographed comedy, romance flourishes in an unlikely place-the bleak and moody Scottish Hebrides. Wendy Hiller stars as a headstrong young woman who travels to these remote isles to marry a rich lord. Stranded by stormy weather, she meets a handsome naval officer (Roger Livesey) who threatens to thwart her carefully laid-out life plans.

Customer Reviews:

I Know Where I'm Going.......2007-05-14

Fantastic! I watched the film and immediately began it again. The casting is perfection. Being quite familiar the Western Isles and having a bagpiper for a husband, the film contained everything that I could wish for: Scottish deerhounds, pipers, castles, conversations in the Gaelic, a marvelous ceilidh, and of course the main star ... the Isles themselves! Emeric Pressburger's photography is a cinematic masterpiece ... so evocative and captivating ... it acts as a parallel script ... telling its own story. Don't overlook the Special Features bits!!

I Know where I am Going.......2007-02-18

I wanted to see this movie as my father was one of the pipers in it.I thought it was a nice romantic movie for its time bearing in mind it was made in 1944!!!

Primo chick-flick ... that a guy can enjoy, too.......2007-02-09

Except to one or two outright dismissals, the previous 44 Amazon reviews consist pretty much of raves.

Let me be a contrarian and point out a few things that are less than stellar about this film.

--The opening credits are cutesy enough to send some people into sugar shock.

--The soundtrack is a disgrace. Enrico Caruso warbling into large metal cones in 1905 was captured in higher fidelity than anything on this Criterion edition. If the problem was in the original, Powell and Pressburger were using disgracefully sub-standard technology even for wartime Britain. If the problem is with Criterion, then that outfit should have lived up to its prestigious reputation by either seeking out a better source or using the sort of technology that is routinely used to reveal remarkable fidelity in opera recordings made more than 80 years ago.

--The musical score has been flattened to match the blandest English taste. This is particularly apparent in the folk song that gives the movie its title. The piece is sung at a dirge-like pace by a young girl of little talent who has obviously been told to make it as sweet sounding as possible. The effect is something like Guy Lombardo playing "Satisfaction." An actual Scottish choral group appears briefly in the big party scene. For about five bars they are given a chance to let us know what decently trained voices singing at tempo can do with the music of the islands. It is a pleasing but too brief respite.

--There is a sub-plot, or rather a diversion involving a country twit of the huntin' and shootin' type and his hunting eagle. This is so pointless that I suspect that Powell and Pressburger simply stumbled over a man at the shooting location who happened to have an eagle, so they wrote a part for the bird to display the landscape.

--The central drama of a woman torn between two courses and two men is never established because the man Hiller's character has come to marry never appears. He is heard only as a pompous voice on a radio receiver. Hiller's dramatic conflict must simply be taken on faith.

--The acting style is pure London West End stage stand-and-deliver. Roger Livesey's acting technique consists of standing up very straight, remembering all his lines and delivering them in a relentless, affectless monotone. (How much better the film would have been with an actor such as Robert Donat, who could actually act and offer a convincing Scottish accent, too!) Wendy Hiller, more often than not demonstrates exactly how it was that she could be heard in the most distant seat in any theater.

--The Hebridean scenery and weather are offered as things of romance and grandeur. And I suppose they are, if you live in London or Nebraska. I, on the other hand, live in a part of the world where the scenery is quite similar, except that the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska have mountains that are a LOT taller, the weather can be much worse, and we have trees. I happen to agree with Dr. Johnson and Boswell who famously visited the very sites shown in the movie during the 18th Century. They regarded them as cold, wet and gloomy.

That said, I must now declare my nitpicking to be beside the point. For all its many faults "I Know Where I'm Going" works. I don't for a moment believe in Wendy Hiller's character but I still care for her. Livesey is an absolute stick, but he's a curiously likeable stick. I want to see them form a bond. The gloomy scenery is more than the sum of its parts. There is magic here, that inexpressible but unmistakable something that makes watching a film two hours well spent. Down at the level of basic truth and underlying quality, all those uncritical rave reviews were perfectly right.

This is a film well worth watching.

ONE ADDITIONAL TRIFLING POINT: From time to time previous reviewers have referred to this as a film from 1947. One of the additional features involves an interview with the woman who drove Wendy Hiller to the shooting sites every morning in the dark pre-dawn hours. The trip down the narrow road was more than a little frightening because she could not turn on her headlights in the wartime blackout. In point of fact, the film was shot in 1944 and released in December 1945, something that is specifically stated in the supporting material.

A Magical Masterpiece.......2007-01-18

This is the Powell - Pressburger duo at their finest, a mystical and romantic film unlike anything being produced by Hollywood at the same time. Wendy Hiller gives the performance of her film career (and that's saying something) as the enchanting heroine who trades mercenary good fortune for true love. While that observation sounds trite, there is nothing trite or even ordinary about this deeply leveled accomplishment. The stirring setting is a coastal village where the vicious weather prevents Hiller from traversing the sea to an island where her intended lives. During that time she lives and grows as the very "human" being she already is, and falls in love for the real thing. Hiller communicates the complexities of this character on so many levels it's astonishing, and the development of her romantic entanglements are enchanting.

This Criterion Collection transfer is absolute perfection, and it makes this very old film seem brand new (in content and visuals). As usual, Criterion outdoes itself in the presentation of this classic and the extras offered. Magnificent.

One of the best movies of all time.......2007-01-10

I first saw this movie on TV many years ago, and loved it. So when it came out on DVD, I eagerly bought it and found it just as good as ever. This is a "Chick Flick" that the entire family can enjoy. Of course the plot is an old one(girl wants to marry a old rich man but eventually fall in love with a younger man) but it is superbly done. Unlike the TV version, the DVD has much additional information about the making of the film, a story in itself. Needless to say, my wife also loved this movie(and she does not always agree with me).

Eisenstein - The Sound Years (Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2, Alexander Nevsky) - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Eisenstein The Sound Years
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
Eisenstein - The Sound Years (Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2, Alexander Nevsky) - Criterion Collection
The film itself was a work of indisputable genius, its every frame a combination of the architectonic and the purely theatrical.
Nevsky: Great Film? Maybe. Great Propaganda Film? Absolutely

Eisenstein - The Sound Years (Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2, Alexander Nevsky) - Criterion Collection
Starring: Nikolai Cherkasov , Lyudmila Tselikovskaya , Serafima Birman , Mikhail Nazvanov , and Mikhail Zharov
Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein , and Dmitri Vasilyev
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The Conformist (Extended Edition)

ASIN: B00004XQN5
Release Date: 2001-04-24

Amazon.com essential video

A biography of the first czar of Russia was the final movie project of the great Sergei Eisenstein's life. It would be his undoing, as Stalin was not pleased with part II of this epic. But Ivan the Terrible, Part I still stands as a magnificent, rich, and strange achievement. This is a "composed" film to make Hitchcock look slapdash; every frame is arranged with the eye of a painter or choreographer, the mise-en-scène so deliberately artificial that even the actors' bodies become elements of style. (They complained about contorting themselves to fit Eisenstein's designs.) If you don't believe movies can be art, this could be (and has been) dismissed as ludicrous. But Eisenstein's command of light and shadow becomes its own justification, as the fascinating court intrigue plays out in a series of dynamic, eye-filling scenes. This is not a political theorist, but a director drunk on pure cinema.

Part II continues with the struggle for power and the use of secret police, a controversial segment that caused the film to be banned by Stalin in 1946 (the film was not released until 1958). The predominantly black-and-white film features a banquet dance sequence in color. Obviously the two parts must be viewed as a whole to be fully appreciated. Many film historians consider this period in Eisenstein's career less interesting than his silent period because of a sentimental return to archaic forms (characteristic of Soviet society in the '30s and '40s). Perhaps it was just part of his maturity.

Alexander Nevsky (1939), Eisenstein's landmark tale of Russia thwarting the German invasion of the 13th century, was wildly popular and quite intentional, given the prevailing Nazi geopolitical advancement and destruction at the time. It can still be viewed as a masterful use of imagery and music, with the Battle on the Ice sequence as the obvious highlight. Unfortunately, the rest of the film pales in comparison. A great score by Prokofiev was effectively integrated by the Russian filmmaker, but stands on its own merit as well.

Description

Sergei Eisenstein, long regarded as a pioneer of film art, changed cinematic strategies halfway through his career. Upon returning from Hollywood and Mexico in the late 1930s, he left behind the densely edited style of celebrated silents like Battleship Potemkin and October, turning instead to historical sources, contradictory audiovisuals, and theatrical sets for his grandiose yet subversive sound-era work. This trio of rousing action epics reveals a deeply unsettling portrait of the Soviet Union under Stalin, and provided battle-scene blueprints for filmmaking giants from Laurence Olivier in Henry V to Akira Kurosawa in Seven Samurai.

Customer Reviews:

Eisenstein The Sound Years.......2007-06-22

From the cinematography to the set design, costumes to character detail, Eisenstein's operatic sound epics are world-class examples of film as high art, with vigorous storytelling adding to the dazzling, still unparalleled craftsmanship of his historic handiwork. "Nevsky," made in 1938, revived the director's flagging career, and earned him a spot as head of Mosfilm Studios. Stalin was less pleased with Part II of "Ivan," especially with its allusions to his use of secret police and unflattering portrayal of a leader in distress. Both "Nevsky" and "Ivan" star the chiseled, charismatic Cherkasov (a sort of Russian Gary Cooper), and boast magnificent set pieces: a battle on a frozen lake involving thousands of extras in "Nevsky," and an orgiastic feast (rendered in color) in "Ivan." You'd never expect cinema this lavish or lively outside classic Hollywood, but here it is, courtesy of an idealistic Communist in full command of his actors and material.

IVAN THE TERRIBLE.......2007-03-09

Sergei Eisenstien is a genius. This film remains, along with Riefenstahl, Hitchcock, DeMille, and Coppola, one of the best examples of film genre ever produced.

Eisenstein - The Sound Years (Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2, Alexander Nevsky) - Criterion Collection.......2007-01-04

As always, Criterion gives the works a splendid treatment, beautiful transfer. Supplemental materials are excellent, seperate short documentaries on the three films, done by top film scholars (like David Bordwell of the University of Wisconsin). One thing it lacks is an accompanying commentary track for the films themselves, done by those same scholars. That I would have liked, as they serve as a film school lecture on the work, and am always a little disappointed whenever Criterion leaves them out.

The film itself was a work of indisputable genius, its every frame a combination of the architectonic and the purely theatrical........2007-01-02

Reportedly filmed it Stalin's personal suggestion, Part I glorified the 16th century prince who overcame the power of Russia's feudal lords and the treachery of his own friends and family to forge the Russian nation... Although Ivan resorted to cruel and often repugnant means to achieve his goals, the end results, at least in Eisenstein's eyes, made the means acceptable...

Condemned by some critics as unbearably slow and ponderous, Part I of "Ivan the Terrible" is regarded by others as a towering work of genius... It is easy to understand why Stalin, one of the most ruthless of leaders, approved the first half of the epic; it is equally easy to see why Part II, completed in 1946, was banned by an irate government...

Far less effective than Part I, it shows Peter becoming increasingly insane, overwhelmed by hate, bitterness, and doubt as to the legitimacy of his mission... Eisenstein suffered a heart attack on the day he completed editing the film, and he died in 1948... For a decade thereafter his completed masterwork remained under official proscription; it received its first screening in 1958, five years after Stalin's death...

Nevsky: Great Film? Maybe. Great Propaganda Film? Absolutely.......2004-12-08

I'll let others debate just how great a film Alexander Nevsky is; I don't know. But it certainly is one great propaganda film. It was made in 1938 when Stalin and Hitler were thinking about dancing on each other's grave. The story is how the Order of the Teutonic Knights invaded Russia in the 13th century and were defeated by the bravery of the Russian people under the inspired leadership of Prince Alexander Nevsky. The heart of the movie is the great battle to defeat the Germans; everything before the battle really is prologue, and everything after is a quick tidying up.

The knights are menacing and scary: armored men on big armored horses, wearing white, flowing robes with crosses and featureless helmets. They look like merciless automatons. The Russians are brave people of the soil, determined to protect Mother Russia and wanting only inspired leadership. They find this in Prince Nevsky.

The great battle between these two forces, held in the depth of winter, is the movie. The battle goes on and on, but you never get lost and never get bored. Eisenstein moves from masses of hacking, slashing soldiers to the actions of individuals in the melees, individuals whom we've come to know. He sets up the battle by having Nevsky explain clearly to his commanders (and to us) exactly what he wants them to do...let the charging wedge of knights penetrate his main force, then hold them at whatever cost, while he attacks from both flanks. At the start of the battle the Russians are massed with long pikes awaiting the knights. In the distance across the snow we see a long line of mounted knights, all with their white robes flowing in the wind. They gradually move faster and faster, growing larger and larger on the screen, until they crash into the pikes. The Russians give way in places creating corridors within their ranks where the knights are forced, and then all hell breaks loose.

The fighting is brutal, and not just with pikes, swords and arrows. Long hooks are used to yank the knights from their horses, then foot soldiers attack with heavy axes to smash through the armor. There are no great gouts of blood and spilled intestines, and this is long before Computer Generated Overkill, but there is no doubt about how brutal the fighting is.

At one point Prince Nevsky engages in one-to-one sword combat with the Master of the Teutonic Knights, humiliating him with his skill and then defeating and capturing him. The priests who accompanied the knights are all shown as venal opportunists, and all are slaughtered by the Russian fighters when the knights' camp is overrun. The Germans retreat, the Russians break through, and the remains of the German knights gather for a last stand on the ice. This is one of the great scenes in movies. As the Germans gather, the ice begins to break. The knights and their foot soldiers slip and crash into the water, some try to hold onto the ice and are overturned, some try to flee but the cracking ice catches them. We see helmeted men sinking below the surface, and then just their flowing white robes trailing behind them out of sight. It's something to see.

Throughout the movie Eisentstein creates great visual images. Some are vistas of snow and mountains, some gatherings of soldiers around a camp, some corpses strewn on a battlefield, some just two or three people talking. By modern standards this might sound arty, but I quickly became immersed in this style. It gave a kind of dignity and weight to the movie.

Eisenstein had Sergei Prokovief, one of the great composers of the 20th century, write the score for the movie. It is hugely effective, in my view.

Is this a great movie? I really don't know. But I'll bet Goebbels hated it.

The DVD is from Criterion's Eisenstein: The Sound Years which includes Ivan the Terrible parts I and II. The transfer looked great. There are several extras which I haven't listen to yet.

Loves of a Blonde - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Loves of a Blonde
Simple and Touching Story,
Classic Czech film about young love
One for filmmakers
Milos Forman enters the spotlight.

Loves of a Blonde - Criterion Collection
Starring: Hana Brejchová , Vladimír Pucholt , Vladimír Mensík , Ivan Kheil , and Jirí Hrubý
Director: Milos Forman
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Conformist (Extended Edition)

ASIN: B00005UQ7R
Release Date: 2002-02-12

Description

With sixteen women to each man, the odds are against Andula in her desperate search for love-that is, until a rakish piano player visits her small factory town and temporarily eases her longings. A tender and humorous look at Andula's journey, from the first pangs of romance to its inevitable disappointments, Loves of a Blonde (Lásky jedné plavovlásky) immediately became a classic of the Czech New Wave and earned Milos Forman the first of his Academy Award® nominations.

Customer Reviews:

Loves of a Blonde.......2007-06-28

Director Forman's breakthrough feature in his native country portrays a warm, affecting humanity even as it lampoons the inherent awkwardness and mystery of relations between the sexes. In all, this deceptively simple, charming story tackles the complex question of how love can function in a dysfunctional world. Both young leads are enormously appealing, particularly Brejchova, and those parents of Milda's are also worth the wait. All in all, this is one blonde that's easy to love.

Simple and Touching Story,.......2007-04-15

Milos Forman's "Loves of a Blonde" which he made in Czechoslovakia in 1965 way before "Cuckoo Nest" and "Amadeus" tells a very simple bitter-sweet tale about a teenaged girl who works in a shoe factory in a small town. With sixteen girls to one man - her chances to find a man of her dreams were not very high. One evening, she meets an attractive and young piano player who tells her about Prague and compares her to a guitar that could've been painted by Picasso. After they spend the night together, he leaves and she travels to Prague to find him. The film has been one of my favorites for many years and my opinion did not change after I saw it again recently - funny, sad, tender, and realistic film about searching for love, broken promises, shattered hearts, and universality of hope.

4.5/5

Classic Czech film about young love.......2005-11-27

A comedy of sorts about first love, though ultimately a sad movie, too, as befitting the subject. A factory town outside of Prague has a mismatch of 16 girls for every boy, so a group of army recruits are sent to liven things up. Only they're a wash-out, and the scene with the girls trying to get out of having to go with these duds and vice-versa is pretty funny.

At a dance, Andula (Hana Brejchova) falls for the piano player Milda (Vladimir Pucholt) and spends the night with him. He is just interested in a one-night stand and uses all the come-on lines he can think of to get her to spend the night with him, including his wish for her to come visit him in Prague and meet his parents. Andula naively falls for all this and goes to his house in Prague, where Milda's parents bully her for being there (they bully Milda, too). He does nothing to defend her and she leaves - but tells all her friends back home what a great time she had.

The movie is very comical in spots and very honest, but Andula is so naive and used, and so accepting of the abuse dished out to her, that we feel sad watching her and pity her greatly. It's this mixture of humor and pity that makes the movie so remarkable. We also pity Czechoslovakia, which appears utterly depressing a place as depicted here. An excellent movie, the one that made Milos Forman a highly respected director.

One for filmmakers.......2005-11-22

This Criterion edition includes an interveiw with Forman that sheds a lot of light on how this film was constructed. The use of long singles, especially when the pianist's mother and father are in dialogue, was undoubtedly influenced by budget constraints, but Forman makes an aesthetic choice to linger on the mother while she wears down all around her with her world-weary nagging. The effect is that you get to share what the husband, son and protagonist are going through; "Get me away from this woman, please!" The expressions on the faces of both the professionals and amateurs in the cast tell the story not only of drudgery under an oppressive political regime, but the hopes and despairs that people suffer in the kind of fraught romantic episodes the story is woven around. Andula's story is not quite compelling enough to justify the price tag on this DVD - there is a whole episode involving a missing ring and an enraged suitor that pops up and disappears without much relevance. Modern cinema-goers expect more meat to a story, I think. However, budding filmmakers will learn a lot about pacing, reaction from actors, not moving the camera, and the difference between directing professional and non-professional actors (in the Extras interview).

Milos Forman enters the spotlight........2004-09-21

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

Loves of a Blonde, with the original Czech language title of "Lásky jedné plavovlásky" is another important film of the 1960's Czech new wave movement. The film gave director Milos Forman his first Academy Award® nomination. The Criterion edition is also fully approved by the director.

The film is about a young woman desperate for a boyfriend. when a pianist comes to town she thinks she found the man of her dreams, but will the relationship last?

The Criterion edition contains only two special features which are a deleted scene and an interview with Milos Forman.

Average customer rating:

5-star film, 4-star DVD
Essential
A modern film, made in the 1930's.
M- The Murderer Among Us
Moments of menace...

M - Criterion Collection
Starring: Peter Lorre , Ellen Widmann , Inge Landgut , Otto Wernicke , and Theodor Loos
Director: Fritz Lang
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0780021150
Release Date: 1998-11-03

Amazon.com essential video

Description

Behind every great suspense thriller lurks the shadow of M. In this, Fritz Lang's first sound film, Peter Lorre delivers a haunting performance as the cinema's first serial killer, a whistling pedophile hunted by the police and brought to trial by the forces of the Berlin underworld. Greig's "Peer Gynt Suite" will never sound the same. Criterion is proud to present Lang's seminal film in a new transfer.

Customer Reviews:

5-star film, 4-star DVD.......2007-05-16

Essential.......2007-05-12

A modern film, made in the 1930's........2007-01-22

M- The Murderer Among Us.......2007-01-22

Moments of menace..........2007-01-08

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