oscar_merkx
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Messages
- 7,626
that is absolutely cool
When folks of Brownlow's care and precision put serious money and time behind bringing a nearly lost film back to something closely approaching its original beauty, they've restored to us a part of our civilization's soul, which is so deeply comprised of art. We gain an entertainment, but we also gain an indispensable piece of the human puzzle. Restoring films, paintings, sculpture ... we restore both the history of our world and the history of our humanity, and that enriches the potential of our future immeasurably. I felt like a child the first time I saw the Sistine Chapel in person, and the statue of David, and the (finished) Pieta and Moses (all Michaelangelo), and Rembrandt's Night Watch (well, I was twelve when I saw all of these, but I felt five! ), and so many other great works of various disciplines (my first Mozart concert! In Vienna! My goodness ... the first time I read Frankenstein, or Wuthering Heights ... such things can change lives), and a great film moves me in the same way to this day. It's something I always try to approach with humility and yet also advocacy, because it overwhelms me and, at the same time, ennobles and energizes me. The art wrought from the great creative minds of human history is an amazing treasury, a testament to our potential, and to all who continue to make that treasury sparkle and shine and then set it out before new generations, that they too might take from it an energy and vitality that can be found nowhere else, that their futures might enjoy the robust foundation that treasure provides ... my thanks, and my admiration. Art preservationists, restorers, and historians are the curators of civilization's soul, and film of course remains that most extraordinary of modern age artistic disciplines, now thankfully finding its way into the hands of those who bring to it the care and love other arts have so rightly enjoyed before it*. * My heart now jumps from my sleeve back into my chest. I could bore the Phantom right out of the Opera, given half a chance, I'm sure. But hey, when a grown man sits down in 2003 to watch Sunrise, made more than 75 years before, and finds himself in tears before it's half over, tears because he's moved by its sheer beauty ... either he's a sap or there's something very special about what he's watching, something timeless, something everyone should have a chance to see, something captured by the great artists of ages past in the music, literature, paintings, sculpture ... art that so enthralls all who find themselves before it. I won't claim to know which is to blame (sap or great art). It's probably both.Bill, that needs to be printed on a plaque and displayed in the lobby of every movie theater in the world (and more importantly, in the foyer of every film executive's office in Hollywood). It reminds me of Walt Disney's words of welcome on opening day at Disneyland. I had to print that out and I intend to share that with all my friends and loved ones. That's just a stellar piece of writing.
I swear, you are SUCH an awesome writer! I'm getting the Milestone Phantom DVD just because of you! I thought I was verbose (people over on the Yahoo message boards are constantly telling me to shut up because I post "too much" and I hit the message size limits all the time), but dude, you are not only the King of Verbosity (and I mean that in a GOOD way! ), you are THE REAL MCCOY, a writer truly worth his salt. The minute you get published, let me know. I will be first in line to pay good money to read whatever magnificent tome you've written (preferably about films).
Hey, who knows, maybe you and Stuart Galbraith can hook up on some nifty film book project or series and win a Pulitzer! (Seriously, you're THAT good, man.)
speaking of which, does anyone know of any plans for a dvd release of Beloved Rouge?DVDEmpire:
Order Page
The Beloved Rogue (1927)
Back Cover Scan
The Beloved Rogue (1927)
I haven't seen this disc*, so I can't comment on quality, but it's out there! I'd only caution that it was released the same day as The Eagle and Tumbleweeds. I haven't seen any of these on disc, but the print used for The Eagle on TCM is rather ugly (lacking in contrast range and fine detail, and possibly rather tightly cropped -- my memory's fuzzy on that point). If that's the Killiam print, buyer beware. Tumbleweeds is a sound reissue that may run a bit fast, according to Mark Zimmer's comments at Digitally Obsessed (at the end of the "DVD Review" section, not the "Image" section), but he doesn't seem to find it all that objectionable in a western (it'd be fine for chases and shootouts, but you don't want to hurry through swaggers or "I done got the gal!" kisses, which are common in westerns -- I haven't seen this film, so I can't comment on its specific content). In the "Image" section, he comments on very tight framing and poor intertitle replacements.
These problems, I find, are common among the Killiams on disc. They are also found in other silent releases, of course (many films only survive in mediocre shape, and you take what you can get, naturally), but speed, and usually matting, should be fixable in most cases, so it's to these I often look for clues to the care behind a disc. Intertitles are, I imagine, often a cost issue, but vintage titles or the recreation of same is always more pleasing than simple white on black generic font inserts. It sounds as if the Tumbleweeds disc is simply a transfer of Killiam's television print from the late 1960's (as Mark, too, suggests), and I'd suspect the same of his other properties on DVD. I don't know if these prints are the only surviving film materials (if the materials from which he made them no longer survive, in other words), but that's always possible.
* There's a silent website that has reviewed this disc, and calls it mediocre but "acceptable," but I'm not sure if I should link their review, as the site reviews DVD-Rs that may be bootlegs (they may also be PDs; I'm unsure). I won't name them or link them in the event the DVD-R reviews are the former.
people over on the Yahoo message boards are constantly telling me to shut up because I post "too much" and I hit the message size limits all the timeDon't let very small minded people like that deter you from exercising the power of your mind. Go for it.
A nasty thought occurred to me. Since Brownlow is in the UK are these going to be transferred from PAL masters? I.e., will there be the motion blur artifacts that afflict the Chaplin discs and The Adventures of Prince Achmed (also from Milestone)? If so, I shall be justifiably furious.It's probably going to be NTSC from SMP.
(SMP is 24fps)