Julia
(1977/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Night
Will Fall (2014/Warner
Archive DVD)/Paris Belongs
To Us (1961/Criterion
Blu-ray)/Remember
(2015/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Roots:
The Complete Original Series
(1977 TV Mini-Series/Warner Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
B/C+/B/B/B- Sound: B-/C+/B-/B/B- Extras: B/B-/B-/B-/B
Main Programs: B-/B/C+/C+/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Julia
Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is
limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last,
while the Night
Will Fall
DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.
Here
are a new set of releases dealing with serious issues of genocide,
oppression, murder and terror you should absolutely be aware of and
see...
Fred
Zinneman's Julia
(1977) is the fictionalized-but-palpable tale from a book by Lilian
Hellman on how Hellman (played terrifically by Jane Fonda as an adult
here; we get flashbacks) is staying with her good friend Dashiell
Hammett (Jason Robards) trying to write a great play, when she finds
out her childhood friend (aka the title character, played as an adult
by Vanessa Redgrave) is in trouble in Europe as the darkness of WWII
and Hitler start to set in. Despite being Jewish, Hellman agrees to
travel to Europe via Germany to deliver money to help the resistance
against the Axis Powers and their blatant invasion of country after
country, something Julia is more involved with than Lilian first
realizes.
A
contact (Maximilian Schell) starts the ball rolling and the film that
started smart gets more interesting and suspenseful all the way. I
had not seen the film in a while, but it was always interesting and
now, despite the downside that it is fiction, holds up very well and
has aged very, very well. Add the great acting, fine supporting cast
and solid locales to the smart screenplay and here's yet another gem
worthy of rediscovery that Twilight Time has delivered a very special
limited edition of. This ones definitely worth going out of your way
for!
Andre
Singer's Night
Will Fall
(2014) is a documentary about how to capture the ugliest side of the
genocide of the Holocaust without anyone forgetting. Two films
resulted, one of which was made by Alfred Hitchcock and was never
released due to the needs of the Cold War, but had it footage used in
endless other works after John Ford came up with his own documentary
while the Soviets came up with theirs. Before all that however, was
dealing with the ugly, horrific shock of the torture and murder, its
extent and the unprecedented ways the Nazis went out to get rid of
everyone they wanted to disappear forever, especially aimed at world
Jewry.
Running
a too-short 113 minutes, it is an amazing look at the artists and
brave people who had to deal with how ugly this nightmare was, then
had to keep looking at it by making a record of it and that many,
many untold stories of this awful period remain. Needless to say
Hitchcock's ideas and calls on all of it were vital, amazing and what
I should have expected from one of the greatest filmmakers ever. Put
this down on your list as a must see!!!
Jacques
Rivette's Paris
Belongs To Us
(1961) may not seem immediately related to the rest of the works
here, but its semi-French New Wave film at a longish 141 minutes
about the empty lives of the would-be friends who may not be part of
then-current Paris as much as they think or should be. Despite
modernism and a modernist rebuilding of Europe after WWII, so much
emptiness remained and the various cinematic movements worldwide
after the war reflect that. The French New Wave usually sees this as
a new rebirth and time for freedom, but this film has emptiness
worthy of some Italian Neo-Realist films and Antonioni's original
monochrome trilogy on that subject (starting with L'avventura),
yet this film is not always involving and intriguing, the characters
a mixed bag and I was not a fan of it when I first saw it years ago.
Now, nothing much has changed. Even with this fine restoration, it
is the same film for me, though worth a look just the same.
Criterion has done a fine job fixing it up.
Atom
Egoyan's Remember
(2015) is a revenge tale that begins in an 'old folks home' with a
very ill Martin Landau getting a relatively more mobile Christopher
Plummer to find a now-old Nazi who tortured and killed at Auschwitz
and bring him to justice... or just kill him. Needless to say there
are a few darkly humorous moments, but the film tries to be serious
when it needs to be in this darkest and oddest of road trip films.
However, I was not convinced by the conclusion, any twists or some
scenes that come across as Falling
Down-llte,
yet the actors are good including turns by Henry Cznery, Bruno Ganz
and Jurgen Prochnow. Not awful, but another mixed bag, albeit an
ambitious one, from Egoyan.
Roots:
The Complete Original Series
is the original 1977 TV Mini-Series now on Blu-ray, the first major
classic Mini-Series to hit high definition, based on the late Alex
Haley's huge-selling book dubbed non-fiction, but that did (had to?)
take liberties to tell the story of all his descendants from Kunte
Kinte (the stunning acting debut of the ever underrated LeVar Burton)
to a whole family tree barely surviving the old slave trade in the
United States. ABC-TV (with producer David L. Wolper) were taking
advantage of the commercial and critical smash that Rich
Man, Poor Man
had been for the network, but ABC was not certain it would work, be
watched or be liked. Instead of showing episodes every few nights or
weekly, they scheduled each show back to back to back to back in case
it failed. Instead, it set more ratings records and was a massive
watershed of of critical and commercial success that kept the network
#1 for the first time ever.
Looking
back on it now, some things might not hold up as well as others,
while network standards stopped the program from being as violent as
things really would have been. However, the amazing teleplay is able
to communicate the torture, imprisonment, hate, evil, anger,
oppression and perpetual terror the U.S. slave business and culture
entailed (more graphically and honestly than the recent remake for
that matter) in a way only outdone a few years ago by Spielberg's
Amistad
and had been more graphic a few years ago in the underrated Mandingo.
Yet, the heart and soul of the piece (now a time capsule of a better
time in some ways) also communicates good people in Africa who should
have just been left alone and the Africans who sold out and betrayed
other Africans to get a little wealth from colonialists and
exploiters for the U.S., et al. The scene when Kinte is chained
after being chased by several other black men speaks volumes of what
was lost and like the best parts of the mini-series, hit a nerve at
the time that was profoundly honest and grown up. Too bad the 1980s
wanted to forget all this (Ronald Reagan publicly put down the series
just before becoming the next U.S. President).
But
the cleverness of the series does not end there. The way the family
tree is constructed is very thorough, the wide-ranging cast
(including having actors known for playing happy, friendly TV dads in
various dramas and sitcoms be slave owners) is terrific throughout,
with turns by Ben Vereen, John Amos, Georg Stanford Brown, Scatman
Crothers, Leslie Uggams, Raymond St. Jacques, Louis Gossett Jr.,
Lynne Moody, Moses Gunn, Maya Angelou, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Lawrence Hilton
Jacobs, Cicely Tyson, Madge Sinclair and an unfortunate early turn by
O.J. Simpson. Note the sequel series covers the rest of the book, so
some actors were not here. Supporting them are Ian McShane, Sandy
Duncan, Ed Asner, Gary Collins, Chuck Connors, Ralph Waite, Lloyd
Bridges, MacDonald Carey, Brad Davis, Linda Day George, George
Hamilton, Carolyn Jones, Doug McClure, John Schuck, Robert Reed and
so many others in separated segments that somehow cohere (this is the
real reason the show works) in a way that makes it feel like a long
feature film and not just episodic segments. Themes and spirit
combine to deliver a synthesis of impact, for a sometimes very hard
to watch (and rewatch) program. But it is the basic truth of an ugly
past laid bare and that is the reason it holds up today. It got it
all right from beginning to end. If you've never seen it, it is a
must-see. If you've only seen the remake or not this original in a
long time, one revisit is a great idea!
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Julia
was lensed by the great Director of Photography Douglas Slocombe,
B.S.C., and is an amazing shoot, makes for an amazing-looking film
often and this fine transfer rarely shows its age. You also get a
few stunning demo shots and that makes watching the film all the more
compelling.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Night
is the only DVD here and has the expected rough footage considering
the age of much of it, but this looks really good for the format and
is a fine transfer under that circumstance.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Paris
can show the age of the materials used in spots, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and is a 2K
scan from an ARRISCAN from the original camera negative. That makes
this one look really good throughout, we get a few demo shots as well
and once again, Criterion gives us top rate work.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Remember
can look good, but there's nothing too outstanding about this digital
HD shoot otherwise, save it is simply consistent and just fine for
what it is.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the various
episodes of Roots
can subtly show the age of the materials used, and though this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the series, it lacks
fine detail and depth we have seen on other 35mm-shot TV programs on
Blu-ray. I don't know why this is a problem, but this might be a set
of slightly older HD masters and the result is a bit disappointing,
leading to the poorest of the Blu-ray releases here. Color is
consistent and this still looks better overall than the remake
series.
As
for sound, Remember
is the sonic champ as expected with the only DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
5.1 lossless mix on the list, showing Egoyan knows how to handle
sound, including subtly as he always has. Nice mix overall, if not
always bombastic. Julia
and Roots
are here with DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) Mono lossless mixes (1.0 on
Julia,
2.0 on Roots)
and sound pretty good as expected for productions form the 1970s.
Paris
is over a decade older, but its PCM 2.0 Mono sound comes from a 35mm
magnetic soundmaster at 24 bits, so it can more than compete.
That
leaves the
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Night,
which still has plenty of vintage monophonic audio that can even be
rough, but this sounds good, what could be cleaned up was and this is
also well edited, so a fine job for a very important work.
Extras
in Julia
and Roots
include nicely illustrated booklet on the releases, including
informative text and another essays on the releases. Julia
offers another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar
Julie Kirgo, while Roots
offers a fancy episode guide I wish more TV on Blu-ray releases would
try out. Paris
has a paper pullout that serves the same function as the other two
releases' booklets, but adds tech info on the restoration with its
Luc Sante essay on the film and filmmaker.
Julia
also adds a feature length audio commentary track by Nick Redman with
no less than Jane Fonda that is an excellent listen throughout, plus
Original Theatrical Trailer and Isolated Music Score by Georges
Delerue with some sound effects. Night
adds the Soviet Holocaust film Oswlecim
(their spelling of Auschwitz), the U.S. Death
Mills
documentary on the same and on-camera interview with Professor Rainer
Schulze on the British (and Hitchcock's) filming of the liberation in
the film. Paris
also adds an on camera interview with French New Wave scholar Richard
Neupert and Rivette's important to that New Wave 1956 short film Le
coup du Berger,
including appearances by many figures of that movement.
Remember
and Roots
also offer Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-rays add Behind The
Scenes/Making Of featurettes (two for Remember
(one of which has rare color footage of a camp liberation!), seven
for Roots)
and Remember
adds a feature length audio commentary track by Egoyan, Producer
Robert Lantods & Writer Benjamin August.
To
order the Julia
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and many other great exclusives while
supplies last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
...and
to order the Night
Must Fall
Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
