Reviews of The Elephant Man (R1) and Amélie (R2) on line (1 Viewer)

[Pierre Gagne]

Paramount is issuing on December 11th the Elephant Man and www.dvdenfrancais.com has the review (it's in french). According to this site, the picture is gorgeous (blacks are deep and the different shades of grey are rich). Paramount is offering an english track in DD5.1 which delivers a very accurate, spacial and ambient sound. You'll also find an alternate english track in DD2.0 and a french track in mono sound. Rounding up this disc is a 30 minutes documentary containing interviews with actor John Hurt, make-up artist Christopher Tucker and also Mel Brook. Of course, David Lynch is nowhere to be seen or heard (there is no commentary track). There is also a short featurette (2:35 min.) on the make-up process of the elephant man and a still galery commented by Mr. Tucker. There are no chapter stops on the disc, as instructed by Mr. Lynch, it seems.
Next is Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain from Jean-Pierre Jeunet which I encourage every american movie fans (who can dig films produced outside their country to go and see it. An important box office rent on this movie would put pressure on the studio (???) to deliver a great and loaded DVD. Speaking of the DVD, www.dvdrama.com has a review of the DVD that will be out in France on December 19th. Unfortunately for us in R1, the disc is in PAL and R2. This is a two-disc set loaded with extras that I hope we will see on a future R1 release. I won't list all the extras because there are plenty. But, for now, go watch it at a theater near you and, I garantee that you'll come out feeling good.
Bon cinéma!
Pierre

 

[GregoryP]

Sounds like Elephant Man is a winner. Thanks for letting us know about the review!
Gregory

 

[Chuck L]

Can't wait! Elephant Man is one my favorite's from Lynch! Glad to see another great transfer coming from Paramount! Keep up the great work!

 

[Craig S]

Pierre, thanks for the info on Elephant Man - it's been a long time since I've seen this and I'm looking forward to it.
And yes, EVERYONE should go see Amelie!!

 

[Kelly W]

I just want to chime in and say that my wife and I saw Amélie (as it's called in the U.S.) a few weeks ago and REALLY liked it. This is one of my most favorite movies of the year (and maybe even the last few years).

Pierre is right-- You can't help but leave this movie in high spirits.

I really hope that we see a 2-disc SE DVD on this side of the Atlantic. It seems to be doing well over here, so maybe there's a chance.

From The Dallas Morning News 11/30/01:

Don't despair art-house fans! Deep in Harry Potter's shadow lies a budding sleeper hit. The romance Amélie- in French with subtitles, no less- is knocking on the Top 10's door. On just 217 screens, it's made $7.8 million so far, averaging $8,500 per screen.

It's a great movie. Go see it if you get a chance.

-Kelly

 

[SteveGon]

Guess I know what I'll be picking up Dec. 11th!

 

[Kyle Milligan]

Now here's something out of the ordinary... Elephant Man only has one chapter for the whole film.
Excellent retrospective, with particular detail to the make-up work. Very well done.
Here's my review.

 

[BrianB]

Now here's something out of the ordinary... Elephant Man only has one chapter for the whole film.

"The Straight Story" was like that as well. David Lynch has said before he's not a fan of chapter stops - he wants people to sit down & view the film in one sitting as they would in the cinema.

 

[Kyle Milligan]

Hey Brian,

That must be on the U.S. version of "The Straight Story" because the decidedly inferior Canadian version from Alliance Atlantis has 24 chapters.

It's too bad that David Lynch would be involved enough to insist on 1 chapter, but not be available for any commentary or interviews. Oh well. It's still very good.

 

[Pierre Gagne]

There is supposed to be a new release of The Straight Story by Alliance/Atlantis on December 4th, including, this time, english and french DD5.1. I read this announcement on www.dvdenfrancais.com a while back, but they didn't mention if it would be widescreen this time.
Pierre

 

[Jacob_St]

The Straight Story" was like that as well. David Lynch has said before he's not a fan of chapter stops - he wants people to sit down & view the film in one sitting as they would in the cinema.

I'd don't have this DVD but as long as you leave the DVD in the player can't someone just push stop and then come back later and watch from where they left off? Does it set the counter back to zero when you push the stop button? If it does then I think that is pushing director countrol a bit too far.

 

[John CW]

Excellent. I just can't wait for the Eraserhead and Blue Velvet Special Editions that Lynch is putting together himself for when his website opens... It's going to be great!
www.davidlynch.com

 

[Peter Yee]

Just saw Amelie last night. What a truly inventive and delightful film. It played to a fairly full house in San Francisco. I would love to have Amelie on R1 DVD. The audience was howling with laughter through much of the film, and you really did have to root for our heroine.

Which studio in the US holds the video rights?

-Peter

 

[Kelley_B]

Peter,

Miramax: ZOE holds the rights to Amelie here in the US.

 

[Carlo_M]

Doh! Dupe post...

 

[Carlo_M]

Dear Miramax: please do not cut Amelie for R1 release like you did Malena! :frowning:

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

I'd don't have this DVD but as long as you leave the DVD in the player can't someone just push stop and then come back later and watch from where they left off?

Yes, I have The Straight Story and you still have the ability to not only do what you say but you can also go directly to a particular point in time in the movie. Therefore, the absence of chapter stops is really just a minor annoyance.
Link Removed

 

[Pierre Gagne]

TVA International will be releasing in the province of Quebec (Alliance Atlantis will handle the rest of Canada) Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulin in june 2002. The studio is aware of the full loaded edition coming out in France in December. Intentions are that they will be trying to get all the material to replicate the same edition. Let's cross our toes and fingers.
Pierre

 

[Brad_W]

Eraserhead and Blue Velvet Special Editions

When will these be released? Any date, even unofficial?

 

[Patrick Larkin]

As far as I know, only Eraserhead and the short films prior will be sold through the Lynch website. I would assume they will be available once the site opens. It was supposed to open several times. The last I heard was Dec 4 but its still not open yet. there is a countdown now at least. Its at "8" which I assume means 8 days. So look for the launch on Dec 14.