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With its subtle mixture of wartime hardship, comedic interludes, and a hallucinatory hint of Italian magic realism, The Night of the Shooting Stars was named the best film of 1982 by the prestigious National Society of Film Critics. Drawing inspiration from their own experiences in Nazi-occupied Italy, the codirecting Taviani brothers (Paolo and Vittorio) remade this feature from their 1954 debut short "San Miniato, July 1944," framing its touching yet occasionally vague tale of wartime survival as a bedtime story, told by a loving mother from her memories as a 6-year-old, fleeing her Tuscan village in the closing days of World War II. American liberation is promised within days, but the Nazis have rigged village houses with mines, so the residents of San Martino flee to the countryside, where encounters with fascists are common and deadly. The film's dreamy nostalgia isn't as satisfying as, say, Cinema Paradiso, but it's still a lovely film, filled with quintessentially Italian vitality while proving, as one character observes, that "even true stories can end well." --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Tuscany's war.
Quite simply the best movie produced by Italy in the post-Fellini/Antonioni era. (And never mind *Cinema Paradiso*, the movie of choice for those who drink cappuccinos after lunch.) *The Night of the Shooting Stars*, written and directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, is a semi-autobiographical account of World War II shuddering to a close in the Tuscan countryside. The movie begins with the disembodied voice of a young woman, who proceeds to relate her childhood memories of war to her own child. We hear this as the camera stays glued on a static shot of an open window looking out into the dreamy blue evening. A typically fairy-tale-like Italian village is visible. This sets the stage for the impressionistic narrative that follows. Everything seems exaggerated in this movie, which is to be expected when the incidents are viewed primarily (though not exclusively) through the eyes of an impressionable six-year-old girl. The plot is simple: "San Martino (based on the real town of San Miniato between Pisa and Florence) is earmarked for destruction by the Germans. The villagers must decide whether to stay or leave. Rumors abound that the Americans are in the vicinity -- will they reach San Martino first? Or should the villagers hit the dusty roads in the countryside and find the Americans before their town is destroyed? About half stay, and half go: we follow the half that goes. There are dozens of characters who embark on the journey, so not much time can be expended on characterization. But the Tavianis cast actors of such unique physiognomy that we feel we know them at a glance. Quite often, they're presented as heroic archetypes. The camera seems to glow around the young couple freshly married with a child on the way; it closes in on the village priest so that we can see every pore of guilty conscience in his face. Larger-than-life gestures help carry the characterization along. But it's the set-pieces that astonish with their comic and/or dramatic intensity and their hyper-realism. There's a marvelous bit when the girl, watching a small-scale battle that has erupted around her, associates the combatants with the heroes from Homer that her grandfather used to tell tales about. In fact, there are so many marvelous bits that to describe more of them will ruin the movie for you, but I can't end this review without mentioning the brilliant scene involving skirmishes in a wheat field between our villagers and the local contingent of hold-out Fascists. This, more than almost any sequence in cinema, captures the horror, pity, and sadness of war, and what it can do to a community. (The San Martinians and the Fascists mostly know each other, calling out behind the rows of wheat, "I know you -- you're Carlo from Pistoia, Alfredo's cousin!" It's like the Italian version of the American Civil War.) Finally, the movie serves to remind Americans just how much we meant to other peoples on the earth, and how much they loved us. This is bittersweet for us; perhaps educational for today's crop of young Italians who almost uniformly have "PACE" flags hanging out their windows these days. Anyway, *The Night of the Shooting Stars* is a must-own masterwork, without flaw. Highest recommendation.

The Night of the Shooting Stars
I saw this movie in the theater when it was first released. It was a wonderful story with suspense, tenderness, betrayal, misconceptions. It seemed to be a straightforward wartime movie, but took off in unconventional ways. Movies like this stay with me a long, long time. I have aged considerably since first seeing Night of the Shooting Stars. When I was 20 years younger, I loved the humanity of the elderly couple. Now I'm pushing up in years, and I still love the handling of that story line!

Best foreign film
I really can't think of any other non-english film I like better than this one. I suppose "Ran" and "Crouching Tiger" are more skillfull, but this is the one I keep shoving back into the VCR over and over again. It's just extraordinary and one to own.

Failed attempt to explain fratricide
The Italians of San Martino had a hard time crushed between retreating Germans and advancing Americans, with fascists and partisans, even in the same family, killing each other. The movie lacks substance and conviction.The story of Italian 'resistance' it is not,but it could have been.It missed.

The best Italian film ever made
I first saw this film in the theaters when it was released. I thought it was better than "Seven Beauties" back then and I still think it's the finest movie ever to come out of Italy -- yes, even better than "Life Is Beatiful"! ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Its not about love for an Officer
Isabelle Adjani plays an obsessed woman who will go to any length to get the attention of Officer Pinson in the story of Adele H. However, what becomes apparent is it's not he who she is taken with but rather the idea of love and the sacrifice. Truffaut wrote Officer Pinson as an unworthy character to show Adele as a woman who wanted to proclaim the purity of her love. And as the film moves on you begin to feel for the bothered Officer because it becomes a joke really, that she chose him; it could have been anybody, by proving the purity of her heart she can prove her moral superiority to her father Victor Hugo, the most famous man in the world. I enjoyed this film and think its the funniest of Truffauts' films at times because Adele goes all out; there is nothing she will not stoop to and she is extremely devious. The real Adele Hugo was much older when she made this trip across the ocean to Halifax and lived to be 85 years old spending 40 years in an asylum writing in her diary in a secret code, later the diary was discovered in a New York historical library and with much struggle Truffaut brought her story to film. The film has great depth and if you like history and great cinematography you wont be disappointed. The story of Adele H relies on the point of view of one character who is completely strung out and it is a tribute to Truffauts' genius that he was able to pull it off. The film is haunting because it is a conversion narrative about a woman realizing herself in self-destruction. This is a frighteningly intelligent film.

Flawed Truffaut, Flawless Adjani.
Being a fan of Truffaut and having seen such great movies of his as THE BRIDE WORE BLACK, THE 400 BLOWS, and THE WILD CHILD i expected this film to be as great but unfortunatly it was not as great as the ones i have mentioned but it is not one of Truffaut's worst either. It manages to make the cut because of great direction, cinematography, costumes, sets, locations, and most of all because of Isabelle Adjani's great and haunting performance, a performance for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for best actress and an award she should have won but which she lost to Louise Fletcher for ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. She portrays the daughter of Victor Hugo, Adele Hugo (hence the H in the title). The story is based on true events which were recorded in a diary the real Adele kept. Adele falls in love with a soldier she met in France and soon after he leaves her and goes to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The movie begins by showing us Adele arriving in Nova Scotia and from then on we see her try to win her love back but he reveals he had no serious intentions with her and she becomes obsessed with getting him back. She has little pride and dignity and she does what she has to do to get him back and we see her suffer and through journal entries and letters we understand what she is going through psychologically. But for some reason the movie never becomes totally emotioanlly involving which is the problem. If it had it would have been a masterpiece. I think this might be due to the script in some way. But if not for Adjani this might have been a mediocre movie. You can't take your eyes off her delicate beauty. As Truffaut once said "you could make a movie about just her face." Also look for a cameo by Truffaut as a soldier who runs into Adjani on the street.

One of the major achievements of Truffaut!
This is a must in your collection. The charismatic and sideral beauty of Isabelle Adjani enriches itself for her gifted talent as actress .
I don't think in any other actress in that age (with the exception of Shygulla or Jill Claybourgh ) who were capable to win the this defiant performance . This role is hyper difficult and Adjani carries to cosmical levels.
The story turns around the hopeless relation between Adele and a french officer. She leaves everything in France for join him : but the result is useless.
The slow of the progressive madness of Adele is told with such richeness of creative talent , that you wonder why Adjani didn't win the Academy Award with this one.
The picture is perfect in every little detail. A winner and one of the most perfect french films in the seventies.

Wow
This movie is a life story of Adele Hugo, the daughter of the famous Victor Hugo.
You must watch this movie and learn what True Love really is!

I'd give my both arms for a wife like Adele yet the man she was obsessed with didn't care at all about her!

A must see movie!

A wonderful French movie with a beautiful actress!
Isabelle Adjani again takes on a role of the rejected lover. This is the true story of Victor Hugo's daughter Adele, who enamoured of a military man, follows him to Halifax and refuses to accept his rejection. She does a fine job of depicting a young lady who has gone off the edge. The story is reminiscent of her portrayal of Camille Claudel, another excellent movie. Isabelle Adjani is beautiful to look at and does a fine job of portraying Adele. I enjoyed this film very much. For those who do not understand French, there are moments when English is used throughout the film. The subtitles do justice to the French. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Two Great Horror Spoofs
This DVD contains two movies with similar casts and similar black humor.

In Comedy Of Terrors, Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone team up in a tragi-comedy of an undertaker who decides to increase business through murder. Many wonderful scenes and plenty of Shakespearian references (not just the title), my favorite being Karloff enacting the poison scene from Romeo and Juliet with Price. Well done.

In the Raven, Price, Karloff and Lorre are joined by Jack Nicholson. The film opens with Price reading a tome of forgotten lore when there is a rapping at his chamber door. The rapping is a raven at the window. It enters and lands on a bust. Price asks it if he shall ever again see Lenore (his dead wife) and the raven responds, "How the hell should I know!" And thus the tone is set.

Price is a wizard and must confront an evil wizard (Karloff) which, after many plot turns, results in one of the finest magic battles ever filmed.

Dark comedy and excellent acting abound in both of these films. A wonderful disk.

You'll scream... with laughter!!
THE RAVEN (USA 1963): During the 15th century, an evil sorceror (Boris Karloff) lures his arch rival (Vincent Price) to a lonely castle where they fight a magical duel to the death...

Handsomely mounted on some of the most lavish sets ever created for AIP's Poe series, THE RAVEN toplines Price, Karloff and Peter Lorre for the first time in their careers, alongside a very young Jack Nicholson (making the most of a juvenile supporting role). Richard Matheson's clever script turns the faux seriousness of earlier Poe pictures on its head, countering Price's overwrought histrionics with a series of rude rejoinders from Lorre, who relishes his role as a cowardly magician whose divided loyalties place everyone around him in danger. The movie's visual impact is inevitably diminished on TV, but Price and Karloff are worthy adversaries, and their climactic duel is one of the most celebrated set-pieces in horror movie history, despite some fairly obvious trick-work. Floyd Crosby's expansive cinematography and Daniel Haller's 'olde worlde' set designs conspire to render a suitably Gothic atmosphere, though the movie derives most of its strength from the quality of its dialogue and performances. Directed by Roger Corman.

THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (USA 1963): The proprietor of a debt-ridden funeral parlor (Price) seeks to drum up a little business by resorting to murder, but one of his 'victims' (Basil Rathbone) turns out to be cataleptic and refuses to lie down and die...

Eager to re-team their 'triumverate of terror' following the unexpected commercial success of THE RAVEN, AIP assembled Price, Lorre and Karloff for this second helping of macabre black comedy, adding Rathbone to an already potent brew and hiring much of the same creative personnel behind the camera, including Crosby and future director Haller (THE DUNWICH HORROR). In fact, Rathbone - who must have been insulted by his 'also starring' credit way down the cast list (behind even fleeting guest star Joe E. Brown and 'Rhubarb' the cat!) in the opening titles - steals the picture from his high-profile co-stars, playing the dotty, Shakespeare-spouting owner of Price's funeral parlor whose verbal gymnastics alone are worth the price of admission (he warns Price and his cohorts they "face the incommodious prospect of taking up residence in the street" if they don't pay their hefty rent arrears!). In fact, Richard Matheson's tongue-in-cheek script is a marvel of wordplay, though the comedy is fairly bleak in places: Price plays a sarcastic, bad-tempered drunk who lords it over his hapless assistant (Lorre) and treats his untalented, opera-loving wife (Joyce Jameson) with open contempt, whilst also relishing the various murders he's committed over the years in order to sustain his fortunes. Karloff sits on the sidelines for the most part, consigned to a chair due to ill health, but he makes the most of what he's given, and he plays a crucial role in the climactic sequence, which closes proceedings on a note of pitch black humor. Fans of lowbrow comedy will be especially amused by the devastation wrought whenever Jameson launches into one of her operatic arias! An ultra-professional production team - under the direction of Val Lewton protege Jacques Tourneur - performs minor miracles on a clearly impoverished budget, and Crosby's gleaming cinematography makes a virtue of Haller's minimalist production design. Watch out for Rathbone's scene-stealing catch-phrase: "What place... is this?!"

The movies are placed on either side of MGM's double-sided DVD, a region 1 release. Both were filmed in widescreen Panavision, and they're letterboxed at approx. 2.35:1 (anamorphically enhanced), which will be a revelation to anyone who's only ever seen the pan-scan TV versions. However, there appears to be some evidence of cropping on both films, with tops of heads constantly cut off by the upper matte, and a disclaimer on the packaging also suggests THE RAVEN has been 'musically edited', though this appears to be untrue (MGM has made similar claims on several other discs which have been completely intact, such as DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN). However, part of THE RAVEN's soundtrack is muffled by an audible hissing sound, beginning about fifteen minutes into the picture and lasting for some time afterward. Also, THE COMEDY OF TERRORS has lost a crucial shot at 49:17 - accidentally omitted during the DVD mastering process - which spoils the climax of a gag involving Price, Lorre and the indignant occupant of a coffin! Sound format on both movies is 2.0 mono, and English captions and subtitles have been provided. Extras include brief interviews with Matheson and Corman (both of which go a long way toward explaining some of the artistic decisions which made these films what they are), lighthearted trailers, and a promotional recording - originally issued on vinyl - for THE RAVEN, featuring fresh material recorded by Lorre and Karloff. THE COMEDY OF TERRORS runs 82m 41s on disc, and THE RAVEN runs 85m 43s, not including the MGM logos which open and close the video prints and weren't part of the original films.

A pair of Richard Matheson written comedy thrillers
Director Roger Corman figured that the Poe adaptations he had been making at American International starting with "House of Usher" had pretty much run its course, so in a final masterstroke he decided to start playing up the humor. The result might be more like "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" than "The Pit and the Pendulum," but you have to admit "The Raven" is one of the best comedy-thrillers ever made. Even though Corman did not do "The Comedy of Terrors," it is a fitting counterpart to "The Raven" because not only do you have the same veteran horror actors in both films, but because writer Richard Matheson wrote both scripts. Matheson wrote the best of the AI films and deserves to be considered one of the best scripters of horror films of all time.

"The Comedy of Terrors" has a very simple premise. Vincent Price plays Waldo Trumbull, an undertaker who has not been getting any business so he decides to make some for himself by bumping off rich people. Also along for the fun are Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone, who tend to throw in a lot of Shakespeare quotes in the proceedings (Matheson wrote the whole script in blank verse). Lorre is Price's assistant and Karloff plays the senile father of Price's wife (Joyce Jameson). Joe E. Brown shows up to play the cemetery keeper as well (anybody remember when he played Shakespeare in 1935's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?).

The film, also known as "The Graveyard Story," is directed by Jacques Tourneur, who first made a name for himself with "Cat People" when he headed the horror unit at RKO. Still, many viewers will be surprised that this was not a Corman film and, indeed, he seems to be the only one of the usual cast of suspects not involved in the film. The end result is pretty funny, especially when the boys are trying to keep Rathbone's "MacBeth" quoting John F. Black in his coffin. Some people will be grossly offended by these comic hijinxs, but those people should already know that going in and can just avoid this DVD.

"The Raven" begins "straight" with Dr. Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price) intoning Poe's poem, to an actual raven. But then the raven responds on cue...with Peter Lorre's voice! It turns out the raven is really another magician, Dr. Bedlo, who has been victimized by Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff). Craven turns Bedlo back into a human, and Bedlo agrees to help Craven find his beloved Lenore (Hazel Court). Going along on the journey are Craven's daughter (Olive Sturgess) and Bedlo's son (Jack Nicholson--this explains a lot, huh?). The film's climax is an epic magical duel between Price and Karloff (why even bother with the characters' names anymore?), where the two sorcerers keep trying to top each other.

Ultimately the credit for this one goes mainly to the script from Matheson. This is another one of those early films with Nicholson that must have been a great source of embarrassment to him once upon a time, but Price, Karloff and Lorre are having so much fun hamming it up in this one that you have little choice but to enjoy the indignities heaped upon the future Oscar winner. This 1963 film, which came out a year before "The Comedy of Terrors," should not be confused with the film with the same name Karloff made in 1935, although they would certainly make a rather obvious double-bill for a Saturday night.

Horror veterans show their campy style!
I once knew an undertaker, and he was the funniest guy (he said his way of handling the pressures of the job was through humour). Maybe the same can be said of actors playing undertakers. In this case some of the horror legends, getting a chance to step out of their usual persona and campy their way through riotous fun. This movie had such a powerhouse of talent, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, and Boris Karloff, each a true film legend, but also with horror great director Jacques Tourneur and screenplay from Richard Matheson. They gang together to make one of the funniest tales.

Price is Waldo Trumbull, husband to buxom Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson) and son-in-law to Amos Hinchley (Karloff). Waldo married Amaryllis to get his hands on the family undertaking business - but business has been pretty thin. The owner of the building John F. Black (Rathbone) is planning on evicting him. So Waldo decides to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak - do in Rathbone and collect for his funeral. Only, the Shakespeare quoting, cataleptic Rathbone is not so easily killed. Father in-law is losing it, and Waldo goes around trying to get him to take his "medicine" which is poison. Lorre is Felix Gillie, Waldo's sidekick - and Waldo the grouch really takes the term too literal. Poor Felix is really in love with Amaryllis, who wanted to be an opera singer (maybe in another life?) but married Waldo. Waldo cannot stand her singing, but then no one except Felix likes her singing.

It is great to see the Horror Legends having such great fun. Toss in Joe E. Brown as the graveyard attendant and one nutty cat, it is a black comedy at it's best.

Karloff eulogy is a howl!

A must for any fan of these great actors!

_________________________

The second romp has Karloff and Price playing rival wizards that are headed for a showdown. Directed by horror quickie Roger Corman and once again scripted by Richard Matheson, it is a riot as the two wizards play a game of one upmanship. This film was so funny, because Price and Corman had been working their way through Poe's tales, so it was great to see one done with tongue firmly through cheek. What for a very young Jack Nicholson in the cast.

A great double feature!

PRICE IS RIGHT
Vincent Price is one of the most underappreciated actors of our time. The late horror superstar used his wonderful voice, his chameleonic face, and fluid body movements to grace so many of our favorite "thrillers." As many fans of Carol Burnett remember, Price is also a wonderful comedic actor and in "Comedy of Terrors", he is marvelous. Joining him are the equally excellent Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, and Boris Karloff. This movie seems to have been made with such love and affection for the genre they were spoofing. The inimitable Richard Matheson wrote the great script; "Curse of the Demon's" Jacque Tourneur directs superbly. Long before AIRPLANE, NAKED GUN and SCARY MOVIE started spoofing and cracking our funny bones, this movie set a standard for that physical "punny" comedy. Joyce Jameson is wonderful as the buxom opera wannabe Amaryllis, and her singing scenes are priceless. (No pun intended). Lorre plays against type as the hero and his scenes with Jameson are just perfect. My favorite line: "ooo..what did you step in?" and of course, when Lorre complains about Jameson singing "He is not dead but sleeping" at the funeral of the catileptic Rathbone. A minor gem, and well worth viewing again and again. ( I didn't get this as a dual package, so I'll save Raven for later!) ... Read more

Reviews (32)

ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF THE SIXTIES
Five or six years before the " Peace and Love " movement that erupted in the United States and shocked a prude nation, French director François Truffaut, in his third movie, JULES & JIM, dared to film a love story between one woman and two men. And there was no guilt in sight ! Jeanne Moreau's love for Oskar Werner and Henri Serre was as innocent as the beautiful song she sang in the movie.

Fançois Truffaut must absolutely be rediscovered one of these days because all the fuss made about his New Wave companion, Jean-Luc Godard, has hidden the fact that his filmography is one of the more personal and interesting of the second part of the XXth century.

For once, Winstar has put a lot of goodies in this DVD. A commentary, a dozen trailers of other Truffaut's movies, filmographies and a tribute to Jeanne Moreau (in fact, a few scenes put one after the other while Jeanne is singing the well-known song of JULES & JIM).

Images and sound are average (there is alas ! only one Criterion...) but imperfections disappear behind the fulgurant modernity of this 1961 movie.

A DVD for your library.

Truffaut's best?
This film, The Man Who Loved Women, and Stolen Kisses rank as my three favorite Truffaut movies, and I have seen them all except for Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me. Poor audio and poor image quality may make any other film a waste to purchase on DVD, but not this one. Breathtakingly filmed, acted, and directed, this is one of the best films in movie history. Simply THE best French New Wave film. One aspect of Truffaut's movie direction that is truly his own, is the way the camera will stay on a scene long after the main actors are out of the shot. Most often the camera stays on some other minor characters who have nothing to do with the movie. Little things such as these late cuts are what sets Truffaut above the rest (high above Godard in my opinion). Without Jeanne Moreau, the film would be good but not great. The two male leads are exceptional as well. Films like this one are perfect reasons why all movies should be seen in their widescreen aspect. The scene with Bassiak, Moreau, Werner, and Serre, all on screen at the same time in the cottage is magnificent. It doesn't get much better than this in movie making.

THIS PURE TRIANGULAR LOVE
"She is the greatest sweetheart in French cinema. While gangsters and gangs kill each other, she dances in a tutu in a circus, is tortured by a sadist and makes her way through bursts of submachine-gun fire, with thoughts only of love. With trembling lips, wild hair, she ignores what others call 'morals' and lives by and for love. Messieurs, producers and directors, give her a real part and we will have a great film."

Francois Truffaut wrote this of Jeanne Moreau in 1957. Shortly afterwards, when fascination turned to friendship, the burgeoning director's greatest ambition would be to make a film with the woman who had become the most important person in his life.

In JULES ET JIM, Jeanne Moreau's is a performance of touching beauty and lucidity that is unparalleled in cinema. She is Catherine, the woman in love with life, who in turn falls in love with both Jules and Jim (superb performances from Oskar Werner and Henri Serre), amateur scholars, dandies, and the closest of friends. Over the following years, through joy, disillusionment, a world-war and parenthood, the three share a relationship that defines love itself; as Catherine alternates her pledge of devotion from Jules to Jim, and even to other men, our heroes explore a friendship that has been touched by a soul who is "not a woman" but rather "...an apparition".

But Catherine is not "fatale"- rather the very essence of woman, whose divine right it is to live as she pleases, when she pleases, where any potentially ruinous consequences are the unfortunate fruits of an unmitigated love of love itself. Truffaut's art is one that invokes the Goddess, embodied here by an enigma of extraordinary grace and power. His camera laughs with her, cries with her, and encapsulates with amazing dexterity the flow of movement - the whirlwind of life. The theme of JULES ET JIM- a triangular love affair that questions monogamy - is unhindered by any sensuality or sexual intimations. Instead it is a love that is pure, chaste and eternally resonant. The remarkable tact of Truffaut's direction, the refutation of showiness, conveys a cinema of charm and elegance, as the film's mood undulates in accordance with the whims of our great love Jeanne Moreau - from untold joy to the heavy burden that is the awful truth.

JULES ET JIM is a film of harmony and genius, a hymn to life that asks the audience not to judge, but rather to experience and to love. We can relate to the film Truffaut's own words, when, speaking of Nicholas Ray's JOHNNY GUITAR and Howard Hawks' BIG SKY he said: "Anyone who rejects either should never go to the movies again, never see any more films. Such people will never recognize inspiration, poetic intuition, or a framed picture, a shot, an idea, a good film, or even cinema itself."

Overrated
I got Jules et Jim because I saw 400 Blows, thought it was the best movie, and wanted to see more Truffaut. Unfortunately, Jules and Jim did not have nearly the same greatness of 400 Blows.
Jules and Jim is a love triangle, about two best friends who fall in love with the same woman (Jeanne Moreau) and have a 20-odd year menage a trois. Of course, none of the principles age at all, there is a child whos introduced and then pretty much ignored, and one wonders how three people pay rent when all they seem to do for years and years is sit around in a huge chalet sipping beer, smoking cigarettes and having sex. This is the movies, I can understand these things.
However, what "killed" this movie for me was that underneath the cool cinematography and clever, chic narration, was at heart a very silly love story. Sure, there are famous images, like Therese the kept girl "steam engining" a cigarette. The menage a trois is really just a cheap soap, and thus the "tragedy" seems tacked on and hollow. Jeanne Moreau plays Catherine is a sulky, quite possibly manic-depressive siren, but she's so irresponsible and annoying one can't even sympathize with Jules and Jim for their obsession. Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) are ciphers, and their friendship never quite understandable. In the end, the only way a kind of unconventional love story like this can work is if the characters are either likeable or interesting. Jules, Jim, Catherine, as well as Albert (who seems to criss-cross country lines in pursuit of Catherine -- how did these people get visas?) are neither. The movie's early scenes have a narrator with droll commentary, but this is largely lost in the later, more melodramatic parts of the movie. Catherine finally becomes so unbearable that I literally couldnt stand to see her onscreen anymore.
Basically I think this is a movie that makes the Top Ten lists because "everyone" thinks they should like it. I wonder why. The whole thing reeks of artificiality -- there's screaming and crying aplenty, but the total effect is numbing. For instance, why does Catherine nearly have a nervous breakdown when she can't conceive with Jim? She already has a daughter with Jules. I would gather that in 1961 the film was avant-garde, with a frank storyline of adultery without any moralizing. But I admit that in this case a little moralizing might have done some good: the characters are all so self-absorbed and selfish that glorification of this movie as a great romantic drama seems not only inappropriate but obscene.

A meditation on freedom
It doesn't suprise me that at least a 1/4 of the reviews here are from people who cannot understand why this movie is so beloved. Most people these days watch movies as spectacle. This film will give back whatever you invest in it. If you invest nothing, you get nothing.

As I've gotten older, this movie has become more and more emotional for me. The characters briefly live out a kind of reckless and carefree nirvana. They then spend the rest of the film trying to recreate the feeling. But as time goes on, entanglements creep in. Children are born. Wedding vows are taken. Friendships are tested. Which of us over 30 cannot relate to this?

The last line of the film, a seemingly tacked on detail about a request made to a civil servant, sums all that has come before with pure poetry. A final plea for freedom is made, but..."it was not to be permitted". ... Read more

Amazon.com

This is another haunting film by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky--hisfirst made outside of the Soviet Union. Like all of his films, Nostalghia has a mystical quality, as it follows the spiritual journey of a poet on a research mission in Italy. While traveling with his beautiful Italian interpreter in a Tuscan village, the poet suddenly becomes transfixed by memories of Russia and his family. A local mystic helps him see the right path in his life. Once again, Tarkovsky's imagery is gorgeous, and the narrative insightful. The past and the present collide in existential angst. Truly a cinematic feast for those interested in exploring life's deepest concerns. --Bill Desowitz ... Read more

Reviews (30)

"The most important movie?"
With his sixth movie, Tarkovsky finally did it. He indeed had filmed dreams in "The Mirror", and personally I find "Nostalghia" the summum of his concerns. I have not seen it again, perhaps for some matters of religion that had fallen out of interest for me for a long time (spirituality or lack of it is the recurrent theme in Tarkovsky's beautiful work). What I mean is that, never before with any other film, not even with Kubrick's final sequence in "2001..." I felt that a movie could portray with such subtlety a dilemma of faith. Not through the dialogs, or through the almost non existent plot, but, at some point, I can assure that I had what some people would call a glimpse of faith. I find it hard to communicate these thoughts because I may sound pretentious or hilarious. Anyway, because of what I was going through at that point of my life, the dream sequences seemed more real than anything I had ever seen, in dreams and in cinema: I was truly inspired and deffinitely I would have given the film then a rating of "non plus ultra" for what I consider true artistic and religious commitment. (And the reason that I give it now a full five stars rating is because of a strange lasting impression that other "masterpieces" lack for me.) It's rare, when "Nostalghia" is not a thesis film nor an artistic formulation of self indulgent "revolution" or inspiration. I could sound hypocritical when, as I said before, the "matters of the faith" have fallen out of importance for me, and probably a worthy film as "Leaving Las Vegas" could turn out more fulfilling or entertaining in some form. Fortunately, throughout the nineties, films from exotic locations (China, most notably) have turned out as a learning experience of spirituality for the occidental moviegoer who falls out for such pitiful works as "The Fight Club", and recent shameful Academy Awards pics. "The most important movie?" Nobody can give a fair answer, and I'm not a spiritual person, but honestly I think that with "Nostalghia", Tarkovsky should gain a fair place among Welles, Eiseinstein and Ingmar Bergman, who without hesitation, had called the russian filmmaker, if not the most important, simply "the greatest". Even if it's not my favourite film of all, I can't forget what I felt when I watched "Nostalghia" for the first time as an important cinematographic experience; personally, more valuable than "Citizen Kane" and "Un chien andalou".

Transcendent
Watching Tarkovsky's films is analogous to reading James Joyce,It takes a lot of time, a lot of thought, and a puzzle enthusiast whobelieves in puzzles for their own sake, regardless of whether the completed whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nostalghia is full of oblique and blatant metaphor and piecing together the meditations on faith vs.(statuesque)imprisonment, self vs. other, and God's relationship with the lost is worth however many viewings it takes. Tarkovsky's masterful visuals, as always, are a given, so the mental challenge of the film is tempered with gorgeous compositions. The final shot surpasses even the shocking final frame of "Solaris", not only in metaphorical significance, but in beauty as well. Yet these images are neither "for their own sake", nor self indulgent; each and every slowly unfolding sequence and lingering shot has layers of significance. I have learned, there is no "filler" in Tarkovsky's films, each image is a line in the greater poem, and like Joyce's writing, as terse and sometimes as difficult as this master director deems fit to carry the wieght of his brilliance. Nostalghia, like the seemingly incoherent proverbs of Zen Buddhism, can simply befuddle, or, as is their true intent for the prepared, bring Enlightenment. Nostalghia, is capable of both. END

The redemption
Domenico is the key , he's a man who lives (out of reality?) ; but his speech given in the apex sequence is the fundamental nucleus of this monumental work.
Tarkovsky had to leave his birthplace , after making Stalker , and this fact (as the Nuremberg judgement in Fürtwangler case) obviously will affect deeply this film maker. Tarkovsky decided to establish himself in Italy ; and the first work will be that one; loaded of Nosthalgia ; notice that Tarkovsky always insisted in the importance given to this word ; in the russian mood Nosthlagia would have similarities with a brasilian word saudade but with major landscape.
The concerns this film deals about are a real tour de force for all the viewers ; the reflectins about the human condition , the abscence of center in our way of living , will let you in shock state and you'll be watch it over and over because the powerful ideas are endless in their meanings and deepness.
An artistic masterpiece of this cosmical director.!

Simply stunning
A good friend advised me to see the film "Nostalghia" by Andrei Tarkovsky. Although not familiar with Tarkovsky or his works and somewhat leery of subtitled movies, I was finally persuaded out of respect for his eclectic tastes to borrow his copy on DVD and bring it home. As I expected, the film started in the continental fashion of dialogue with interminable pauses and long held scene shots. However, these irksome qualities were soon transformed into something quietly beautiful and cinematically poetic. I am not just saying that the film bears a likeness to poetry; it is a hybrid, which reaches not for postmodern excesses or gimmicks, but rather back to the nut, i.e. take abstract thought, emotion, contemplation to the reader in a form they recognize, slip it into their eye subtly, and let it become more, something of their own. Andrei Tarkovsky did this in film by deftly driving the versatile plot and characters with discreet surreal imagery and sound effects whose intricacies burrow deep and blossom in the imagination. Truly, this film weaves the genres of poetry and cinema into a rich, seamless, and haunting tapestry.

Remembering one's life and saying goodbye . . .
At least that's what the film conveyed to me. Your guess is as good as mine. For a lark, invite the most die-hard Tarkovsky fan who has not yet seen it, play it on your DVD, pretend you have an urgent phone call, leave the room and come in half an hour later and ask: " Sorry about that. So, tell me, what's going on? "

Er........

Tarkovsky dedicated this film to his mother. As usual there are wonderfully composed shots worthy of Vermeer or El Greco ( No, not Van Gogh, he's too bright, colorful and explosive. ) The camera dollies slowly from left to right, and sometimes, for the sake of a slower pace, back along the same track from right to left. Often we get gothic archways, raindrops and mist. There are also actors but they appear secondary to the camera. The color goes from black and white to twilight blue to full color and back again to black and white. Did I mention slowly?

But what's the heck's the story?

There is one, really. But Tarkovsky's style is a knockout punch in the final round. The rest is a set up, albeit a sumptuosly photographed one. Don't even try to anticipate the conflict or what's coming next. Just groove on the 'paintings' on film and let him take you for a ride.

I've said what it meant to me and will only add that the climax---which sounds absurd if you try to explain it----kept me in great suspense. Damn! Will he or won't he manage to take the lighted candle across the pool on the third try?

I felt as if the fate of all humanity depended on it. Or perhaps it was a futile but noble gesture, Or an allegory on all art. I don't know but I wish I did, it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Better than Rublev and far, far better that The Sacrifice.

One can't help but wonder what would have happenned to many great offbeat novels turned into American 'art' films that were shot in a straightforward manner--presumably to appeal to the mainstream audience---which predictably bombed, such as "Fearless" (Peter Weir!) or "Slaughterhouse Five" ( George Roy Hill) had they had been filmed by Andrei instead.

Ah, Tarkovsky! The outpouring of the Slavic poet's soul. Once again, pass the Vodka. . . ... Read more

Description

Episodes: "Time Enough at Last" (Ep. 8, November 20, 1959) - A bookworm (Burgess Meredith) yearns for more time to read--then a nuclear holocaust leaves him alone in the world with lots of time, plenty to read, and one ironic twist! "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" (Ep. 22, March 4, 1960) - Inexplicable events cause the residents of quiet Maple Street to erupt into rioting. The residents suspect an alien invasion has occurred. If so, where are the alien monsters? "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (Ep. 123, October 11, 1963) - A salesman (William Shatner) recovering from a nervous breakdown spots a gremlin on the wing of his plane. When he attempts to alert the others, his nightmare truly begins! "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (Ep. 54, February 24, 1961) - Flight 33 picks up a peculiar tailwind and is blown off course. After apparently correcting the problem, the flight arrives at its destination--a billion years ahead of schedule! ... Read more

Reviews (17)

This is definitely the BEST volume in the DVD collection
No matter how many DVDs they put out with episodes of "The Twilight Zone," they cannot put out one with better episodes that Volume 2. "Time Enougth at Last" is THE quintessential Zone episode, adapted by Rod Serling from Lynn Venable's short story. Burgess Meredith, in what was surely his most recognizable role, plays Henry Bemis, a mild-mannered, myopic bank teller who only wants to read, but can never get away from this shrewish wife and demanding boss. But then Henry has the fortune of being in the bank vault reading a book when the world is destroyed by a nuclear war. Directed by John Brahm, no "Twilight Zone" episode ever backed a more unforgettable ending. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" finds neighbors turning on each other as unexplained events fuel their fear that human-looking aliens have infiltrated Maple Street (filed on MGM's "Andy Hardy" street). Claude Atkins and Jack Weston head a strong cast in this classic written by Rod Serling and directed by Ron Winston. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" stars William Shatner as poor Bob Wilson, who has left a sanatorium only to take a plane flight where a gremlin keeps trying to sabotage the engine. Written by Richard Matheson, who wrote the original short story, "Nightmare" was directed by Richard Donner, who went on to be a film director of some note. "The Odyssey of Flight 33" is the only sub-classic episode on this disc. The story by Serling, directed by Justus Addiss, is of a plane that picks up a freak tail wind that sends it back in time. John Anderson as Captain Farver leads the excellent cast that makes this rather far-fetched idea utterly believable.

There's a man on the wing!
This is a superb compilation of some of the best Twilight Zone episodes ever made.

This DVD includes the following episodes: "Time Enough at Last", "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", and "The Odyssey of Flight 33".

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is my favorite episode. William Shatner is a passenger on an airplane who sees an alien on the plane's wing every time he looks out the window. However, he's the only one who sees the alien - every time he yells to the stewardess or other people, the alien disappears. Everytime he sees the alien, he yells "there's a man on the wing! " It is such a great episode - it made William Shatner the star he is today!

Also, be sure to look for Burgess Meredith in "Time Enough At Last" before he was known as "Mickey" from the Rocky movies.

My only complaint is that there are not more episodes on this disk. I don't understand why CBS didn't release the episodes on a season-by-season basis.

One of the Best Twilight Zone DVDs
This second volume of Collection One might be the best of the entire Collection. "Time Enough at Last" and "Oddyssey of Flight 33" features two excellent stories with amazing and unforgettable endings. Another classic is "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," featuring William Shatner, who plays a man recovering from a nervous break down. His flight with his wife proves to be horrific. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" is a classic exploration into social psychology and mob mentality when a gang of residents on a quiet street are convinced that an alien invasion has occurred.

This second volume is well written with wonderful acting by Burgess Meredith and William Shatner. Highly recommended!

another great DVD
Vol 2 had even better episodes that Vol 1.

Time Enough At Last- Loved it! One of my favorite episodes actually. I felt very sorry for the guy. (*****)

Monsters are Due on Maple Street- Another great episode. Very surprising on who the monsters were. (****)

Terror at 20,000 feet- Uh, didn't care too much for this one. I got a little bored watching it actually. A lot of people seem to like this one though. (**)

The Odessy of Flight 33- another great and entertaining one. (***)

Your Next Stop is¿
Besides the TV Plays that you will buy this for, there are some DVD goodies (extras.):
Special "Inside the Twilight Zone" Section Written by Marc Scott Zicree
Biographical info on Rod Sterling
History of the Twilight Zone
Cast information
A season-by Season commentary
They claim to be digitally re-mastered yet there are still a few glitches and snow.
Episode 8 "Time Enough at Last" November 20, 1960

Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) has a healthy interest in reading; he is surrounded by people that underestimate its worth. He is conspired against by the bank president and even his wife. He works in a bank and spends his afternoons in the vault catching up on his reading. I will say no more as you and Mr. Bemis are about to enter the Twilight Zone.

Burgess Meredith will be found in several of the Twilight Zone episodes and again as the narrator of the 1983 Twilight Zone movie.

Episode 22 "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" March 4, 1960

The typical neighbors, like Claude Atkins and Jack Weston, are out doing neighbor things like mowing their lawn. They stop to hear a weird sound and see a strange light. It is assumed to be a weird meteor. All of a sudden the power goes out and nothing works no phones, no cars, nothing. This is the last moment before the real monsters came out.

Episode 123 "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" October 11, 1963

Mr. Wilson (William Shatner) is a salesman that is recovering from a nervous breakdown he had in an airplane. He is on his way down in a propeller commuter plane. You know something is amiss with him as he realizes he is next to the emergency window, over the wing. Of course his psychiatrist, Dr. Martin, would not let him fly home unless he was well. In the middle of an electrical storm, he looks out the window and I will say no more as you are about to enter the darkest part of the Twilight Zone.

This episode will be included in the 1983 movie with John Lithgow playing Mr. Wilson.

Episode 54 "The Odyssey of Flight 33" February 24, 1961

An international Jet flight, Global 33, is heading for Idawiled airport. On the way they get a sensation of great speed and go through some unknown barrier. Captain Farver (John Anderson) looses all external electronic guidance. He goes down for a closer look. I will not say anything more as you have now entered the Twilight Zone.

I wonder if we have a current remake, would Global 33 lose global positioning. ... Read more

Amazon.com

François Truffaut's third feature, though it's named for the twobest friends who become virtually inseparable in pre-World War I Paris, iscentered on Jeanne Moreau's Catherine, the most mysterious, enigmatic woman in his career-long gallery of rich female portraits. Adapted from the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché, Truffaut's picture explores the 30-year friendship between Austrian biologist Jules (Oskar Werner) and Parisian writer Jim (Henri Serre) and the love triangle formed when the alluring Catherine makes the duo a trio. Spontaneous and lively, a woman of intense but dynamic emotions, she becomes the axle on which their friendship turns as Jules woos her and they marry, only to find that no one man can hold her. Directed in bursts of concentrated scenes interspersed with montage sequences and pulled together by the commentary of an omniscient narrator, Truffaut layers his tragic drama with a wealth of detail. He draws on his bag of New Wave tricks for the carefree days of youth--zooms, flash cuts, freeze frames--that disappear as the marriage disintegrates during the gloom of the postwar years. Werner is excellent as Jules, a vibrant young man whose slow, melancholy slide into emotional compromise is charted in his increasingly sad eyes and resigned face, while Serre plays Jim as more of an enigma, guarded and introspective. But both are eclipsed in the glare of Moreau's radiant Catherine: impulsive, demanding, sensual, passionate, destructive, and ultimately unknowable. A masterpiece of the French New Wave and one of Truffaut's most confident and accomplished films. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (37)

Just watch it already
I love film, plain and simple. I'm 16 and if there's one thing i'm sure about in my life, it's that. I had heard things about this film here and there, calling it one of the finest works of art ever. Well, I recently started viewing old film, and stubborn as I am, I don't like to listen to pretentious "film lovers" who say this crap, I like to formulate my own opinion. So what is my opinion? Just watch it already. I don't care if you know who Francois Truffaut is or if you've seen any of his other work, because in a film like this, it doesn't matter. It's fast paced and hard to follow at times, and at other times it just moves a bit too slow, but it does it with style and with grace that other movies could only dream of having. So just go ahead and watch this thing already, it's worth it no matter what you think in the end.

The BEST French New Wave film!Truffaut's best?
There are so many great Truffaut films, it's very hard for me to decide in what order they rank, but certainly, this film wouldn't be out of place being labeled as his best.Breathtakingly filmed, acted, and directed, this is simply one of the best films in movie history. Simply, it's THE best French New Wave film.It's also the best love triangle ever captured on film.

Without Jeanne Moreau, the film would be good but not great.She's the reason why viewers should have no trouble believing that the two leads spend a lifetime loving this far from perfect character.Oskar Werner and Henri Serre are exceptional as well.

One aspect of Truffaut's movie direction that is truly his own, is the way the camera will stay on a scene long after the main actors are out of the shot. Most often the camera stays on some other minor characters who have nothing to do with the movie. Little things such as these late cuts are what sets Truffaut above the rest (high above Godard in my opinion).

Poor audio and image quality on the previous US release make this Criterion DVD a must!Films like this one are perfect reasons why all movies should be seen in their widescreen aspect.The scene with Bassiak, Moreau, Werner, and Serre, all on screen at the same time in the cottage is magnificent.This scene, with Moreau singing Le Tourbillion La Vie with Bassiak on guitar, is my favorite in the film.It doesn't get much better than this.

The youth's frenzy!
This landmark film is one the best personal achievements of Truffaut and somehow is the second part of The 400 blows in which the dramatic structure narrative concerns. The wonderfulstorytelling pulse is one of its undeniable virtues.

The idealized world of the golden age and the visible contradictions between the youth surrounding and the oppressive real world are shown with this admirable genius touch that Truffaut owned. Jules and Jim live their own codes and explores everything they want whether is forbidden or not. It is the pleasure and delight of experiencing by itself, his freedom expectations and hallucinating dreams.

Something inside in my mind tells me that the final sequence in Jules and Jim must have influenced the extremely similar ending of Thelma and Louise of Riddley Scott thirty years after.

Coincidence or simple random involuntary manifestations?

One of the quintessential films of the French Wave Cinema!

Screen Sparkle
So much has been said already about this jewel of the French New Wave. This is my second time around with Jules and Jim, and this time I listened to the commentary. Apparently François Truffaut was a film critic and then he put his ideas onto film.His style resembled the romantic fashion of French novelists. "He filmed with a pen" was the commentator's suggestion. If this movie told a linear story line of a lovers triangle as in so many inferior movies, it would not intrigue, but Truffaut attempts nothing less than to explain the nature of romantic desire or the meaning of life, whichever comes first.

Jeanne Moreauis the queen of all women in this film and the men love her, idealize her, and acknowledge her superiority over all womanhood.The boys meet this young coquette and she dresses as a boy.Jim paints a mustache on her lip and Jules and Jim chase here across a platform bridge. This is filmed from behind and along side of Moreau. These are signature takes of French Cinema, unique, original, and never to be forgotten. Moreau is indeed lifted up in youthful splendor.She is not the most beautiful woman ever says Jules, but she is the woman.I'm paraphrasing, but as the three grow older, they are trapped in Katherine's insane web of female art.

The ticket purchasing public has rejected black and white cinematography late in the 20th Century.Once, the silver screen glowed with light and shadow. Black and White makes bad actors seem competent and great actors and actresses magnificent. Truffaut borrowed the cinematographer from Goddard, I can't recall his name, but this fellow makes the screen sparkle.There were two fog scenes towards the end of the movie, which are incredible mood enhancers. In truth, this film is a sad story, but it is beautiful sadness, a plate of light cuisine that is remembered fondly forever.

What the............
I pride myself with a good appreciation of fine cinema. My collection consists mainly with the works of directors like Bergman, Tarkovsky, Kurasawa, Angelopoulos, Antonioni, Rosellini and Egoyan. Wishing to broaden my appreciation of great cinema I decided to read the reviews written by critics and viewers in the hope of tracking down more great films. "Jules and Jim" had excellent reviews so I decided to buy it. What a dissapointment. I kept saying to myself "am I seeing the same film?" I persisted viewing the film till its conclussion. To give the film a chance I decided to view the film again the next day before writing this review. The only part of the film that was brilliant was the great acting performance of the lead actress. Unfortunately that was not enough to save the film. I found the camera style amateurish, performances by the two male actors boring and the story disjointed. I am sure that at the time the movie was released it received rave reviews but seen today it qualifies as a B grade movie. Don't waste your money. The only reason the film has a great reputation is because of the famous director. Had anyone else been the director, the film would have been a non event. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A Funny and Emotional Ride
Truffaut's "Shoot The Piano Player" is a remarkable thing: a funny and light-on-its-feet movie about despair. The director combines the grittiness of David Goodis' noir novel "Down There" with his own more optimistic humanism and the full stylistic arsenal of the French "New Wave" to create a film that manages to say as much about Art and Life as any really good, satisfying book. Charles Aznavour plays the timid Edouard, aka Charlie, a piano player in a cheap bar who is really a classical concert pianist hiding from a catastrophic, tragic history. A pretty new waitress knows who he is and encourages him to live again. But as in most American gangster movies, you can't run away from your past. Truffaut includes an amazing amount of philosophy about women, Fate, success, failure, marriage; all couched in a runaway style that is familiar to us today, but must have been shocking and exhilirating back in 1960. (The famous cut to the "old woman dropping dead" could have come directly from MAD magazine.) And who hasn't sometimes felt bedeviled by fortune and shyness: we greatly identify with Charlie. The comically incompetent yet sinister villains are also a great touch. This movie feels as fresh as it must have 40 years ago.

Sometimes the book is just better!
Maybe one shouldn't compare the movie and book versions of a story. But sometimes that's inevetibable. And sometimes the movie actually improves on the book, ie. "In a Lonely Place." However, in the case of "Shoot the Piano Player," based on the book "Down There," by David Goodis, I can't say this is so. The look of the movie has that gritty noir feel, but all the time one feels as if they're watching the characters in a goldfish bowl ? from a great remove. You don't really get to know the characters or their motivations. In the book, this is much more clear and makes for a much more involving experience. Also, the addition of the character Fido (the piano player's younger brother) adds little to the story. In novel and movie we don't really get a great feel for why the waitress does what she does, but in the novel we get more of a feel for it and that does make a difference. It also makes a difference that we know more of the piano player's background, that he served with Merrill's Marauders in World War II, that, after losing his first wife, he went on a binge of anger and hate and fighting that finally led him to be the "docile" person he is when we meet him. This is little explained in the movie. Some of it's there, but much of it isn't and without it the character just seems a cypher. Read the book, watch the movie and decide for yourself.

MR CHARLIE
This luminous little movie contains 2 of the greatest scenes ever put on film. Charlie, a piano player in a seedy Paris bar, has locked away his heart so even he can't get to it. A young woman who works at the same bar is determined to crash through the wall he has constructed around himself. Through her, his painful past is discovered and the promise of the present ends in the disolution of hope. Truffaut is constantly surprising us with the unexpected. There are car chases & kidnappings & excapes and even oaths acted out; and all with an air of the inevitable. There's never been another film like it. The scene where the barmaid takes him home & they sleep together consists of 360 degree pans around the room with cuts of the couple settling into each others' arms as they sleep. It is one of the most poignant & beautiful scenes ever filmed. (The pans with goldfish feeding at the top of their aquarium are expecially touching.) And there is a scene of the hero Charlie, going to his piano audition, that is done with such economy of style that the mixture of clashing feelings comes flooding out. 'Don't shoot the piano player; he's doing the best he can.' Not to be missed.

NOSTALGHIA
At first, just two or three thoughts about the quality of the Fox Lorber DVD. Poor is the word. Subtitles one can not remove, six trailers of Truffaut movies, so so filmographies and that's all. If one considers that the DVD treatment of the images is average at the best, awful during the first five minutes of the movie in a nightly Paris, you will have to be a genuine Truffaut fan to buy this DVD. I am, so I bought it.

Why does I like this movie ? Well, I presume I'm touched by the so praised Truffaut touch for a beginning. But, above all, I always feel an intense nostalgy when I'm watching SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER. To hear Charles Aznavour play his sad melodies at the piano and the late Boby Lapointe sing "Framboise" move me a lot. To admire once again this fantastic actor Albert Rémy - the father in the 400 BLOWS -, Michèle Mercier before her ANGELIQUE serie, the screenwriter Daniel Boulanger in the role of a comic gangster or the director Alex Joffé as the passerby philosopher is an always renewed pleasure for me.

A DVD zone give it a chance.

I use the word 'emotional' a lot. It means everything to me
Truffaut said he realised, when filming 'Shoot the Pianist', a gangster film, that he hated gangster films. He shows his contempt most by consistently emphasising human truth over generic convention, but finally allowing generic convention to win brutally through. For Truffaut, genre is incompatible with humanity and its messiness.

Like many of my favourite films (and it is my favourite), 'Shoot' is a reworking of 'Vertigo', the story of a man who lets two women die because of his own emotional cowardice, leaving him in emotional shellshock. Aznavour's performance - and this isn't sufficiently realised - is one of the towering achievements of cinema, a complete, physical embodiment of diffidence, guilt, solitude and emotional paralysis, a man more lethal in his dithering passivity than murderous gangsters are in their violence.

Like all the best art, 'Shoot' is a tragicomedy, moving bewilderingly between the two moods, creating a devastating emotional texture - the hilarious scene where Charlie debates the best way to hold Lena only to tragically realise she's gone, or the frightening abduction scene that sees captor and juvenile captive argue comically over scarves.

As the title suggests, music is this film's soul, the only thing that can transcend genre for Charlie, the only way an emotionally dead man can feel.

Truffaut's restlessly inventive mise-en-scene, switching between studied artifice and breathless open air filming, is full of Hitchcock, Godard, Ophuls, Ray, Renoir - all the best of cinema; but in truth, there is no other film like it. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Since audiences are inclined to F/X spectacle, it was easy to understand the 1998 box-office battle between Armageddon and Deep Impact, which shared almost exactly the same premise. But two films about the now-obscure long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine? Without Limits and Prefontaine were in production at the same time, with the cheaper Prefontaine rushed into theaters in 1997 while Without Limits was held back until the fall of '98. As it turned out, neither movie scored a deep impact at the box office, but Without Limits is much more satisfying as a competent, heartfelt slice of sports history. Billy Crudup (a rising star who strongly resembles the film's producer, Tom Cruise, in both looks and intensity) plays Prefontaine, or "Pre," the mustachioed runner who blazed out of Coos Bay, Oregon, in the late 1960s. The movie grazes across the major events of Pre's career at the University of Oregon, where he blew away the competition and positioned himself as the leading American runner (and a charismatic hunk) going into the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich--that star-crossed competition at which Arab terrorists kidnapped and killed members of the Israeli team. Though the film suffers from some of the built-in problems of the true-life biopic, director Robert Towne (who earlier made a remarkable track-and-field picture, Personal Best) captures the texture of the athletes' world. Acting honors go to Donald Sutherland, turning in an emotional performance as coach Bill Bowerman; while tutoring Pre, Bowerman was tinkering with some waffle-soled running shoes, a hobby that later became a little company called Nike. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (75)

I wished this had better Box Office

It's a shame this movie didn't have wider exposure. It didn't even come to a theatre close to us...I think it played in Dallas, but that's 120 miles one way.

I am a fan of middle distance running...and I'm from the 60's so I remember the impact Steve Prefontaine had on the sport...and I mourned his passing like many others.

This movie is worth watching even if you're not really into track and field...it's a story about a man with a gift. He was talented, difficult, and most of all, true to himself at all times. I wish I had know Pre...I know I would have liked him a lot!

Hat off to Tom Cruise, who produced this tribute to the elusive "Pre."

I am going to purchase this movie and put it up there with my copy of "Running Brave." It's that good. Enjoy!

Take two, a little smoother
I give this movie four stars for general moviegoers, most of whom did not bother to see either this version or the earlier "Prefontaine" the first time in theaters -- probably for reasons sufficient to them.

People who run long distance, who love Steve Prefontaine and/or what he stood for, are throwing stars at both of these movies for those reasons, I suspect, not for the movies as artifacts in themselves. Since I attended Prefontaine's high school a number of years later, I met him my first week of school, I ran long distance and even posted faster two-mile times then Pre as a freshman and sophomore, and I was in the Marshfield stadium when his running colleagues carried the coffin onto the field for a memorial service before the body was taken to its final resting place south of town, I fight to retain some objectivity myself.

"Without Limits" is coach Bill Bowerman's, fellow runner Kenny Moore's, and a particular Pre girlfriend's version of the story, gussied up by screenwriter Robert Towne. Towne has done incredible work in the past ("Chinatown," for instance), but I thought his other Eugene, Oregon/distance running story, "Personal Best," stunk. This one is better.

Crudup does a good job of playing Pre; I think "Prefontaine"'s Leto barely edges him for looks. "Without Limits" does a slicker, big screen presentation compared to the earlier film's home movie/documentary style, which is why I think it might appeal more to the average moviegoer who doesn't know anything about Pre or doesn't care about distance running. They're just different approaches to the same basic story ... and probably equally wrong in many of the details. (Prefontaine's parents were in on the earlier film, and supplied the makers with actual home movie footage of Pre as a child.)

I'm delighted that any film got made about this man, let alone two; I'm gratified if either movie has served to inspire younger runners; but I think it's ridiculous to argue that one or the other "really" captures the man. Just enjoy them for what they are, and cherish the memory of an incredible athlete.

Stupendous movie, uninspired DVD
"Without Limits" does indeed go beyond a typical sports movie by being both an inspirational story and a character study. All of the acting is superb, especially Crudup and Sutherland. The scene in which Pre blatantly ignores Bowerman's mandate to sit back during most of the race and let the front runner wear himself out is especially good. It's funny, revealing of both characters, and just has that right level of inspiration (you can ignore the rules and win out of sheer guts) without being sappy.

I've seen "Prefontaine," the other movie about Pre's life, and I can't say that I was impressed. Some reviewers claim that it is more factual. Perhaps that is the case, but "Prefontaine" is not a well made movie. It also takes on extra baggage that distracts from the story. For example, in one scene they show Pre making snide comments about anti-war protesters. Was Pre a hawk? Did he ever express an opinion about war? I have no idea. But as a college athlete it would have been exceptionally hypocritical to have such an opinion when his status as an athlete allowed him to stay out of the military.

"Without LImits" doesn't get bogged down in these unimportant side issues. Instead, it focuses on Pre's fight against the AAU, the governing track and field organization which was so obviously taking advantage of athletes at the time.

Prefontaine once said, "Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts." That about sums up the spirit of this movie.

While the movie is great, the DVD is nothing special. I can't figure out why movie studios make great movies like this and then slap them on a DVD with "extras" that include sub-titles at that's it. If there was ever a DVD that should have had extras this one was it - short documentaries on the real Prefontaine, how the movie was filmed, interviews with people who knew Pre, those who were fans at the time, archival footage. This could have been a stupendous DVD with lots of entertaining, educational and inspirational extras. Maybe they'll release an updated version - because this movie deserves it.

THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIES EVER
I think that is the greatest movies ever the actor looks almost the same as Pre i would have never became such a big Pre fan as i am now i watch this movie before all of my running races and it really motvates me to do my best and because of this movie i ran my hardest and my team on the Championship and i got fourth nothing compared to Pre but it is a start i have to say he is my biggest role model and I give this movies millions of thumbs up

Sean McClory
#1 Steve Prefontaine fan

Without Limits
This is a must-have movie for all middle and long-distance runners. It's history of a legend that every runner should know about. Absolutely and sublimely awe-inspiring.
After the ordinary person has seen this film it WILL make then want to go out and and start running!
And after a runner has seen this movie they will want to be like 'Pre' and win the Olympics!!!
It also shows us the origins of the sports brand Nike and the superb knowledge and class of a legendary coach in Bill Bowerman.

BUY IT! ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Elvis at his best
Elvis came of age as a dramatic character actor in his third film, utilising his innate animalism as the primary character's motivation. As Vince Everett, a violent young man imprisoned for man-slaughter, Elvis plays the character with ease, at once tender, surly, arrogant and humble. The film studio's motivation may have been to exploit the rock'n'roll bandwagon for all it was worth (this was 1957 after all - rock was just a "passing fad") but Elvis rose to a greater challenge - to prove that he could pass muster as a big-screen actor, AND fly the rock'n'roll flag. He succeeded - brilliantly.

Even if the direction is a little staid at times, and the storyline was an old one even then, the film brought rock'n'roll squarely into the adult marketplace, where it stayed.
Alex Romero's imaginative choreography of the title number(with not a little help from Elvis himself), risque dialogue ("that ain't tactics honey, it's just the beast in me") and the bleak, anti-social central character (the Hollywood stereotype of youth during the 50s - see "The Wild One" and "Blackboard Jungle") combined to create an iconic portrayal of the "Rock Rebel".
"Jailhouse Rock" remains the template for the cinematic fusion of rock music and drama.

The King at his cinematic best
A dynamic presentation of Elvis' true acting skills and some great songs. In an ironic reflection of real life, Vince Everett's [Elvis' character] cellmate plays a manipulative con, taking control of Elvis' talent - much like Elvis' real manager - "Colonel" Tom Parker.
Best seen in widescreen mode, the DVD offers both that opportunity, plus the standard full-screen pan & scan version.
A must-see movie, whether or not you are a fan of the King.

kick ass
elvis is the best musician ever im only 19 and i think hes awesome my role model

dodi
Purchased the tape recently and have enjoyed watching it several times. I haven't been a real fan of Elvis until recently and now I can't get enough. So far this is the first movie of him that I have seen. I think his acting was fine and I loved the songs in the movie. Looking foeward to the other movies I have also purchased. I prefer him in his younger years than in the seventies. I think it was a tragedy for him to have died so young. I wish I had paid more attention to him in the seventies while I was younger and he was still alive.

a very hot rock and roll movie
elvis at his very best, before his army days....
the sound track recordings for the movie and the
r.c.a. record are very good...

see this, and elvis will win you over..!! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Lots of Silly Fun!
The whole premise behind the 570 musketeer films that have been released thus far (Dec. 2003) is pretty flimsy, and the premise behind this one is among the flimsiest. BUT--for people who like to watch adventure-comedies in which beautiful women kick butt, this belongs on your shelf beside the CHARLIE'S ANGELS films. The chief advantage this film has over other members of this genre is that it stars the ever-adorable Sophie Marceau. We get to see her fence with evil-doers and have a tender moment or two with her aging father, the famous D'Artagnan. The script is better than average, and the film contains many other scenes that are enjoyable in various ways. Finally, if you happen to like "musketeer films," this one is far better than the half dozen big-budget productions that have come out of Hollywood in the past few years. (Sorry, Leonardo. Yours stank, despite its high-powered cast.)

Revenge of the Musketeers
The comic tone of the film disappointed me. I adore Sophie Marceau, but her talent was unnecessary for this piece. And the needless breast-bearing was insulting. Comedy should be used to tell the story in period films - not be the story. I should have suspected something foul from a film francais with an English title.

Marceau Carries The Day
The spirit of Dumas is alive and well as D'Artagnan and his three legendary companions regroup and once again go forth in defense of the Crown in "Revenge of the Musketeers," directed by Bertrand Tavernier. This time around, however, it's D'Artagnan's daughter, Eloise (Sophie Marceau), who sounds the alarm after witnessing a cold-blooded murder at the convent she has called home these many years, having been raised there while her father was off on one adventure after another in service to the King. And it's the King for whom Eloise is concerned; in the wake of the murder, she has uncovered a conspiracy to assassinate the about-to-be-crowned Louis XIV during his coronation. Her evidence is a cryptic message discovered among the personal effects of the recently deceased resident of the convent. So throwing caution to the wind, Eloise takes to horseback, alone, to seek out her father and inform him of this threat to France and the King. What she doesn't know is that D'Artagnan (Philippe Noiret) has recently withdrawn from the service of the King, and not by his own choosing. It seems that the King-to-be is something of an upstart, the fact of which D'Artagnan conveyed to him personally-- in no uncertain terms-- after which the now former Musketeer retired to private life to give lessons in the art of swordsmanship. All of which is about to change with the arrival of the daughter he hasn't seen for many years, and who to his knowledge is still safely ensconced in the convent.

To successfully present yet another episode of "The Three Musketeers," it must have that certain sense of bold carelessness born of confidence and larger-than-life adventure, and Tavernier's film has it. Though it takes a couple of scenes to find it's legs after an intense opening that makes you sit up and take notice, when it finally kicks in (which it does fairly quickly) it becomes a rousing adventure steeped in the tradition of it's predecessors. And, as in the best of the "Musketeer" movies, it's laced with subtle humor and intrigue. Tavernier sets a pace that is at times inconsistent, but he provides enough action and fun that it can be easily overlooked; it may threaten to stall occasionally, but never actually does.

Philippe Noiret cuts a striking figure as the aging D'Artagnan, who though slowed somewhat by the years, is still one of the best swords around. He successfully embodies that spirit and sense of "legend" that makes his D'Artagnan believable, and delivers it all with the confidence befitting his character.

The highlight of the film, however, is the lovely Marceau, who as Eloise proves that she can cross swords with the best of them. Her technique with a blade may be a bit awkward at times, but it gives credibility to the character; a young woman raised in a convent-- even the daughter of a famed Musketeer-- wouldn't necessarily be a master swordsman. And Marceau gives a lively performance as Eloise, diving into the action with a reckless abandon that makes her endearing, as well as fun to watch. She has a radiant screen presence that draws the eye to her, even in a crowded scene. But what really puts this character across-- and again, the entire film, for that matter-- is that unabashed spirit of adventure, which Marceau manifests in Eloise.

The supporting cast includes Claude Rich (Crassac), Sami Frey (Aramis), Jean-Luc Bideau (Athos), Raoul Billerey (Porthos), Charlotte Kady (Eglantine de Rochefort), Nils Tavernier (Quentin), Luigi Proietti (Mazarin) and Jean-Paul Roussillon (Planchet). Proving that even Musketeers beyond their prime can be engaging, especially when combined with a spirited beauty like Marceau, "Revenge of the Musketeers" is a welcome cinematic chapter in the saga Dumas began so many years ago. In the end, it's a satisfying experience that will transport you to another place and another