haineshisway
Senior HTF Member
Watched all these over the last few days. My thoughts:
78/52 - I was really looking forward to seeing this based on what I'd read and the good reactions at festivals. I should know better than to take any of that seriously. For me, this is a severe disappointment, and there is no bigger Hitchcock fan than I. It's so filled with pretentious, artsy, and pointless "direction" and over half the interviewees are simply annoying. There's some academic professor (from something called Sonoma College I think) who actually gives Dr. Drew Casper a run for his money in the completely irritating department. There's Elijah Wood and two of his geek pals doing heaven knows what - it certainly isn't fun or illuminating in any way. There are a few interesting comments, but it's all very surface and interestingly, the entire point of this thing, which is the shower scene, is actually never shown in its entirety as filmed. Nor are the fifty-two edits and seventy-eight set-ups shown to us, which is what I wanted - show me these 78 set-ups, one by one, and these 58 edits one by one - that's the title of your damn movie, guys. I'm guessing these filmmakers just took those numbers for the Truffaut book and never actually figured out where those seventy-eight set-ups actually begins and ends - same with the edits. There's an annoying score for string quartet. Since lots of clips were licensed it's a bit surprising how little of Mr. Herrmann's iconic score is actually in this thing. As you can tell, this just wasn't up to snuff for me and I cannot recommend it, even to die-hard fans. There is not an iota of new information here, save for a fun interview with Ms. Renfro, who was the nude stand-in for Janet Leigh, and the entire thing plays like a long Blu-ray special feature.
Harper - Okay I read Mr. Harris's rave and this will be one of those odd times when I simply do not agree with his assessment in terms of the color. I saw this film about twenty times when it was released, and owned an IB Tech print of it. The color here is flat and brownish and I have no idea why, really. It's not terrible or anything, it just doesn't look like the dye transfer prints did. The transfer itself seems very clean, but for a Conrad Hall film, it all looks very soft to my eyeballs. Know that I have been VERY pleased with all the Warner Archive transfers of late - this one not so much. The film itself is still fun - not as much fun as it was back when it came out - back then it was VERY fresh and hip. But Goldman's dialogue is stellar (his first produced screenplay), and most of it still works. For those who can only see things through "current" eyes, there are probably things that will annoy here, but context is everything and it was a different time back then. I enjoyed seeing it again, just wish the color were more accurate and that it was a bit sharper.
Finally, the double bill of Farewell, My Lovely and The Big Sleep from Shout Factory. I really love the remake of Farewell, My Lovely and much prefer it to Murder, My Sweet. The period atmosphere is rendered beautifully in sets and photography, David Shire's score is perfect, and the cast is just tops. Mitchum especially is a terrific Marlowe. The transfer looks like the release prints did, albeit better. The Big Sleep is a Big Misfire. Resetting the quintessential Chandler LA story to England is ridiculous and doesn't work at all. Mitchum just seems tired here, Michael Winner's work is pedestrian and nowhere near as classy as Dick Richard's in Farewell, and the whole thing just kind of lays there and frankly everyone but Candy Clark just seems really bored - for the perfect example of that just look at Joan Collins. The transfer of Big Sleep is fine, too. Recommended for Farewell, My Lovely.
78/52 - I was really looking forward to seeing this based on what I'd read and the good reactions at festivals. I should know better than to take any of that seriously. For me, this is a severe disappointment, and there is no bigger Hitchcock fan than I. It's so filled with pretentious, artsy, and pointless "direction" and over half the interviewees are simply annoying. There's some academic professor (from something called Sonoma College I think) who actually gives Dr. Drew Casper a run for his money in the completely irritating department. There's Elijah Wood and two of his geek pals doing heaven knows what - it certainly isn't fun or illuminating in any way. There are a few interesting comments, but it's all very surface and interestingly, the entire point of this thing, which is the shower scene, is actually never shown in its entirety as filmed. Nor are the fifty-two edits and seventy-eight set-ups shown to us, which is what I wanted - show me these 78 set-ups, one by one, and these 58 edits one by one - that's the title of your damn movie, guys. I'm guessing these filmmakers just took those numbers for the Truffaut book and never actually figured out where those seventy-eight set-ups actually begins and ends - same with the edits. There's an annoying score for string quartet. Since lots of clips were licensed it's a bit surprising how little of Mr. Herrmann's iconic score is actually in this thing. As you can tell, this just wasn't up to snuff for me and I cannot recommend it, even to die-hard fans. There is not an iota of new information here, save for a fun interview with Ms. Renfro, who was the nude stand-in for Janet Leigh, and the entire thing plays like a long Blu-ray special feature.
Harper - Okay I read Mr. Harris's rave and this will be one of those odd times when I simply do not agree with his assessment in terms of the color. I saw this film about twenty times when it was released, and owned an IB Tech print of it. The color here is flat and brownish and I have no idea why, really. It's not terrible or anything, it just doesn't look like the dye transfer prints did. The transfer itself seems very clean, but for a Conrad Hall film, it all looks very soft to my eyeballs. Know that I have been VERY pleased with all the Warner Archive transfers of late - this one not so much. The film itself is still fun - not as much fun as it was back when it came out - back then it was VERY fresh and hip. But Goldman's dialogue is stellar (his first produced screenplay), and most of it still works. For those who can only see things through "current" eyes, there are probably things that will annoy here, but context is everything and it was a different time back then. I enjoyed seeing it again, just wish the color were more accurate and that it was a bit sharper.
Finally, the double bill of Farewell, My Lovely and The Big Sleep from Shout Factory. I really love the remake of Farewell, My Lovely and much prefer it to Murder, My Sweet. The period atmosphere is rendered beautifully in sets and photography, David Shire's score is perfect, and the cast is just tops. Mitchum especially is a terrific Marlowe. The transfer looks like the release prints did, albeit better. The Big Sleep is a Big Misfire. Resetting the quintessential Chandler LA story to England is ridiculous and doesn't work at all. Mitchum just seems tired here, Michael Winner's work is pedestrian and nowhere near as classy as Dick Richard's in Farewell, and the whole thing just kind of lays there and frankly everyone but Candy Clark just seems really bored - for the perfect example of that just look at Joan Collins. The transfer of Big Sleep is fine, too. Recommended for Farewell, My Lovely.
