A Few Words About While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in 4k/UHD Blu-ray (4 Viewers)

[Robert Harris]

https://www.loc.gov/programs/static.../documents/pub158.final_version_sept_2013.pdf

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Are there organizations active in these endeavors, or that issue grants, that would be affected if the NEA budget is in fact eviscerated?

 

[Robert Harris]

Are there organizations active in these endeavors, or that issue grants, that would be affected if the NEA budget is in fact eviscerated?

Horrifically...

 

[Dave B Ferris]

Horrifically...

That's a shame, then. I'll bet most people would assume an affect on PBS, NPR, museums, dance companies, etc., and not necessarily assume an affect on film preservation endeavors.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Just an aside.

To be clear, I have no problem with the last four posts.

But I warn anyone who might read them and think about making a political statement in a post (about federal budget decisions or what-have-you) that such posts will not be permitted and they would put their forum status at risk.

Thanks.

Back to our regularly-scheduled program...

 

[PMF]

Looking forward to a 4K of "Lawrence"; whenever the planets of technology and marketing become aligned.

 

[dpippel]

While a 4k UHD release of Lawrence would be something, I've got to say that the current Blu-ray looks absolutely AMAZING upscaled to 4K on my 65" LG OLED panel. It literally knocks my socks off. It would be interesting to see the film with the wider color gamut of 4K UHD, but I hope that they do NOT try to apply HDR if they do eventually release it.

 

[cinemiracle]

"Any attempt to find a print of Porgy and Bess turns into an epic exercise in bafflement and frustration. The movie is coveted by aficionados even though few see outstanding artistic merit in it ... The history of Porgy is a tangled tale of good artistic intentions gone awry and lasting recriminations among the Gershwin and Goldwyn factions ... Still, that does not explain why prints of the film have all but vanished. It turns out finding the rarest studio movie of all time is easier than unraveling that mystery..."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fe...grail-missing-movies-977567?facebook_20170223

Unfortunately PORGY AND BESS was a flop when it was first released. (I did see it then, and in 70mm). It did have a stunning cast and it is worth seeing for that reason. The film was a shortened version of the opera and it was cut even further for general release. I found that the film dragged a lot but you would be unlikely to ever find another musical film with such a stunning cast - CARMEN JONES excepted. Some films that flopped , do deserve being saved for future generations. PORGY AND BESS is such a film. Otto Preminger was a brilliant director. At least we can be thankful that we have hisCARMEN JONES on bluray. It was after seeing this film ,when it was first released where I worked, that it gave me a huge interest in opera. Filmed operas were and still are a rarity. Otto Preminger helped, more than anyone else, to bring opera to the masses with his cinematic versions of Porgy and Carmen. Joseph Losey's brilliant film of DON GIOVANNI is available on bluray. Sadly Frederic Mitterrano's stunning MADAME BUTTERFLY is only on DVD and deserves a bluray release. Both DG and MB were very successful at the box office. Why don't more Directors make a film of an opera? It is time AIDA had a cinematic remake. The last time we saw AIDA on film was more than half a century ago. It also starred a very young Sophie Loren.

 

[Robert Harris]

And original stage production was directed by...

 

[bujaki]

If you're talking about Porgy and Bess, then the director was Rouben Mamoulian.

 

[Robert Harris]

This posting is not politically motivated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...r-145pm:homepage/story&utm_term=.5ae2d0b25bdc

 

[Dave B Ferris]

If you're a sports/baseball fan, you'll understand why this reminds me of the time when researchers unearthed a trove of color baseball footage, which become the basis of the original "When It Was a Game" special and then a series of follow-ups (although the footage became less eye-opening as the follow-ups moved closer to the modern era). In the original special, it was great to see never-before-seen color footage of all-time greats, but I remember being most amazed by the footage of how fans used to exit the stadium. The fans walked across the field to exit the stadium! In today's times with security concerns and so forth, imagine the surprise upon seeing thousands of fans, immediately after the last out, spill onto the field (simply to exit the stadium).

 

[Charles Smith]

It's remarkable how compelling early color footage of just about anything is. Love it.

 

[Robert Harris]

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2017/04/eyes-have-it-2/

 

[Steve...O]

Thanks for the link to the color Hoover footage. It brought a big smile to my face to see this. Charles is right, this is compelling stuff.

I've always admired Hoover fo his humanitarianism and his fondness of the medicine ball is legendary, but to see him do it in action and in color no less really brings history to life.

 

[KeithDA]

I've been reading Adrian Turner's biography of Robert Bolt (sorry if this is mentioned earlier in this thread) which I picked up 'used' very cheaply on Amazon.

It doesn't pull many punches and the chapter on Robert being drawn in to work on the script of LOA is like a Faustian pact. Mr Turner's style is very readable and based on what I've read so far, I can definitely recommend it as a companion piece to Mr Brownlow's biography of Lean.

(I note that Mr Turner edited Brownlow's book, so no wonder there is much congruency between the two)

 

[Michel_Hafner]

Ridley Scott references LOA in "Prometheus". In the sequel "Alien Covenant" he does it again but less obviously. Took me some seconds figure it out after it happened. And he references his own "Blade Runner" too in the same way.

 

[Stephen PI]

This article appeared in the March, 1961 UK edition of Photoplay magazine, about two months before the start of production..........

 

[Mike Frezon]

I meant to post here two days ago that it was the anniversary of Lawrence's death: May 19, 1935. 46 years old.

Saw it mentioned on a TV news broadcast.

 

[Paul Penna]

This posting is not politically motivated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/experts-find-what-may-be-the-earliest-color-film-of-the-white-house-grounds/2017/03/21/0e96a284-0e3d-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_hoover-145pm:homepage/story&utm_term=.5ae2d0b25bdc

Looks like lenticular Kodacolor, which came out in 16mm in 1928. No wonder they'd been thinking it was just ordinary black and white.

Oh. I hadn't gotten to the part of the article where they identify it as Kodacolor.