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Call it Boss in a Box. This two-disc set of music videos and concertperformances is a must for any Springsteen fan. While the 1989 VHS version contained just 18 songs, the expanded DVD set has 33 performances dating through2000, including "The Ghost of Tom Joad," performed in 1995 on The TonightShow, and an acoustic "Born in the U.S.A." from a 1998 appearance on TheCharlie Rose Show. Most of the highlights are, not surprisingly, fromSpringsteen's electrifying concerts, including raw versions of "Rosalita" and"Thunder Road" from early in his career with the E Street Band. Also not to bemissed: the 1987 performance of the harrowing "Tougher Than the Rest," shot withpoignant close-ups of wife Patti Scialfa singing backup; the raspy, gospel- tinged "Leap of Faith"; and the barely contained smolder of "Fire." Most fanswill find themselves wishing that this was strictly a concert DVD; the MTVvideos from the Born in theU.S.A. years (the John Sayles-directed trilogy "Born in the U.S.A.,""I'm on Fire," and "Glory Days") seem too canned and glossy sandwiched in withthe rougher, more exhilarating live performances. And Springsteen's tendency toget preachy in the late '90s ("Murder Incorporated," "Dead Man Walkin'") cangrate as well. But until there's a full-length performance DVD, the VideoAnthology will keep fans on their feet. --Anne Hurley ... Read more

Reviews (39)

Like having 57 Channels with somethin' on.1978-2000-2 DVDs!
Track rundown-Disc 1:Rosalita, The River, Thunder Road, Atlantic City, Dancing In The Dark, Born In The USA, I'm On Fire, Glory Days, My Hometown, War, Fire, Born To Run, Brilliant Disguise, Tunnel Of Love, One Step Up, Tougher Than the Rest, Spare Parts, Born To Run(acoustic) Disc 2:Human Touch, Better Days, 57 Channels (and Nothin' On), Leap Of Faith, Streets Of Philadelphia, Murder Incorporated, Secret Garden, Hungry Heart, Dead Man Walkin, The Ghost Of Tom Joad (video and from The Tonight Show), Highway Patrolman, If I Should Fall Behind, Born In The USA (from Charlie Rose Show), Secret Garden (Alternate version with strings). I love the music of THE BOSS and this should be a welcome addition to any collection. I've watched the original video 1978-1988 until it broke, so I was so happy to get this awesome DVD set!

Sringsteen's video are cinematic
Springsteen's songs are so cinematic in nature, that on some levels, videos seem a good match. Sure enough, that is reflected in the titles here. We have no less than 3 videos here with film clips, all stellar films. We have John Sales directing a short story version of I'm on Fire. Brian DePalma, Jonathan Demme, Tim Robbins, & Sean Penn also make appearences in the credits.

This is a fine collection of videos, like the music, that is basic, non-flashy, and direct. It also contains many live concert videos, which, of course, are wonderfull glimpes into the magic that Springsteen brings to the stage.

The Atlantic City, I'm on Fire, Brilliant Disguise, Human Touch, Secret Garden, Ghost of Tom Joad, Streets of Philidelphia, and Highway Patrolman videos are the highlights of the non-performance selections. Of the live footage, an extremely energetic 'Rosalita' from '78, a hilarious 'Fire,' a totally reworked and beautiful 'Born to Run,' an angry 'Spare Parts,' a spectacular 'Leap of Faith,' and a moving If I Should Fall Behind are the best.

Best of all is the closing clip of Bruce reworking Born in the USA solo on guitar for the Charlie Rose show. This ledgendary athem of rage is transformed into a dying horse whisper.

This is video collection with very few misses, and a rich collection of Springsteen's quiet but successfull stroll into the world of videos.

Near Perfect!
A nice summary of Bruce's early video work. However, why the edit on "Rosalita" - the band introductions (which were originally included when the video came out in the 80's) were a lot of fun. I'd love to find a copy of them.

Otherwise, a great presentation

Good live performances on disk 1
Disk 1 is very good with live performances. Disk 2 was not that great and is videos. I wanted the song Rosalita as that is the best song and is missing from latest DVD's.

Ecompasses the Best of Springsteen
This chonological colection of Springsteen's work is great for any Springsteen fan. The 2 DVD set is essentially his greatest hits in video form. A lot of these videos are live performances and show how great Bruce Springsteen is as a live performer. Bruce Springsteen truly is The Boss, and this video collection adds to the legacy. Highlights of the DVD include a rivoting live performance of War, found on the bos set, and a rare version of Fire, a song he wrote for the Pointer Sisters. This also shows some of the later work, including Secret Garden from Jerry Maguire, and Murder Incorporated from his greatest hits album. 4 out of 5 because of Weak representation form the pre-BITUSA era. ... Read more

Reviews (87)

the aficionado version
This classic neo-noir has been cleaned up a bit and is ready to delight another generation of cinephiles. While obviously a low-budget independent film, you can't watch Blood Simple without being astonished at the sophisticated imagery and innovative cinematic techniques. It would seem unbelievable that this was the Coen Brothers' first film if subsequent features hadn't reinforced one's awareness of their unique talent. Carter Burwell's music is breathtaking, as integral to the action as Bernard Hermann's score was to Psycho. The cast is superb and DP Sonnenfeld works wonders with shots and lighting.

Frances McDormand is Abby, the wife of Marty, a scuzzy bar owner in Texas. Abby is fed up and movin' on with Ray, one of Marty's employees and, you know, that's just not the kind of thing Marty is going to stand for. He hires the magnificent M. Emmett Walsh to follow the pair. As in the best film noir, no one is pure and no one doesn't lie. Double- and triple-crosses, misunderstandings and betrayals leave a bloody trail brilliantly realized on film with composite fades, Raimi-esque runs, excruciating foley work and a haunting score.

The DVD extras are disappointing in quantity but not quality. There is a theatrical trailer; cast and filmmaker credits; interesting and informative, if short, production notes; English, French or Spanish subtitles or captioning for the hearing-impaired; and a commentary track. While one can't help but be disappointed that there isn't a Coen commentary, the remarks made by Kenneth Loring are absolutely brilliant. If this is, as he states, the "aficionado version", it is largely due to the erudition of this complex man; ultimately Loring leaves the film behind, far far behind, as he explores Merchant-Ivory films, explains animatronics, calls our attention to miniature smoke, exposes Adrian Butts, and laments the loss of the Bulgarian "Son of Todor" storyline. You will never see film in the same way again, once Kenneth L. is done with you.

It is a real pleasure to see this essential film out on dvd.

Coen's Debut film... Simply Wonderful
Before I talk about the film, a word about the wonderfully funny DVD audio commentary by "Kenneth Loring" of "Forever Young Films". Brilliantly tongue in cheek, a posh sounding historian offers some of the most ridiculous comments yet to run along with a film. Now onto the wonderful film by the Coen Brothers... (Raising Arizona, Fargo, Miller's Crossing). BLOOD SIMPLE takes the thriller genre and twists it 180 degrees. The extremely tight screenplay introduces us to several wonderfully dysfunctional people, including Abby (Frances McDormand), Ray (John Getz) and Marty (Dan Hedaya). Rather then take their love triangle to afternoon talk shows, they resort to murder... Just to make the whole thing all the more interesting, a gumshoe (M. Emmet Walsh) is involved to screw things up even more. The cinematography is wonderfully shot by Barry Sonnenfeld, director of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, GET SHORTY and the upcoming BIG TROUBLE. And the musical score by Carter Burwell perfectly supports the scenes tension. The wonderful film is often reminiscent of their later film, FARGO. I am very glad to be able to see this film again with a wonderul audio and video transfer. But, if truth be known, the biggest surprise is the audio commentary. That alone is worth the price of admission...

a simple story, a bit gruesome
I didn't really enjoy this movie. The story is of a love triangle that leads to a contract killing that goes bad. There are twists and turns to the story, but they are the only things that keep the story going and they didn't really seem that fascinating to me. The answers to the questions that arise are answered fairly quickly so there's not much tension or mystery built up. There's some gore. There's a pretty good joke near the end. It's a chance to see Frances McDormand, who I think is a really good actress, in an early role.

Excellent thriller
This movie is a nearly flawless thriller. It's dark and sometimes bloody, but sprinkled with the quirky characters and odd, dark humour that fans of the Coen's have come to cherish. It is tight, taut, and tense - nearly perfect.

Grab it if you love thrillers, noir, or the Coens.

The audio commentary track is *hysterical*, though many may not appreciate the humor. Please don't mistake it for the real thing; the track is a joke.

I'm a believer
Hi, I have not seen nor purchased this DVD but after reading some of these reviews had to comment--the ORIGINAL theatrical release had the Four Tops "The Same Old Song" during the "cleanup" scene and the ending credits. The Four Tops song, not the Neil Diamond song (or Monkees or whoever) is the ORIGINAL. I don't know what happened, but I vividly remember the first time I saw the film in the theater (Same Old Song) and then when I saw it again (I'm a Believer) I was extremely shocked and disappointed at the replaced music--It doesn't even fit with the storyline, that the bartender guy would insist on playing a Neil Diamond song--the Same Old Song fits better with his character and with them movie. I have never enjoyed the movie as much after they changed the music and am very pleased that they decided to go with the original song for the Director's Cut. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

"But I have no regrets."
In "Live Flesh" police partners David (Javier Bardem) and Sancho (Jose Sancho) respond to a call that shots have been heard in an apartment building. They stumble into an argument between a wealthy young woman, Elena (Francesca Neri), and Victor (Liberto Rabal)--a man she's trying to brush off.

Almodovar--the master storyteller of the bizarre twist of fate--picks up the tale 5 years later. Victor is released from prison, and David--now a paraplegic--is married to Elena. Elena has cleaned up her act and devotes herself--and her money--to an orphanage. Victor is bent on revenge, and David, although physically at a disadvantage, wants to protect his wife.

In the midst of all this unfinished business between Victor, David, and Elena, are David's old partner, Sancho, and his beautiful wife, Clara (Angela Molina). Victor's passionate, erotic affair with Clara complicates matters.

No one can begin to make a future until coming to terms with the past, and all five characters collide as blame and retribution exact a heavy cost. "Live Flesh" marks a departure for Almodovar from his usual comedies, and this film deals with some rather painful issues while subtly criticizing the Franco regime. "Live Flesh" is an extremely solid, unflawed Almodovar film--replete with excellent performances from each of the five main characters. Almodovar always creates the most intriguing female characters, and Clara was particularly complicated and interesting to watch. Victor's character was also extremely well done--when he's released from prison and returns to the abandoned hovel he calls 'home', he is immediately a much more sympathetic character.

Almodovar films launched Antonio Banderas into Hollywood, and Javier Bardem was soon to follow the same career pattern. Penelope Cruz appears in a small role as Victor's prostitute mother. Nudity, adult themes, erotic sessions--in other words ... Almodovar--displacedhuman

A brilliant erotic thriller
Almodovar here shucks his tendency to blend campy sexuality and what he calls "screwball drama" for a strong work that instead fuses intense, real eroticism and the violence of a thriller into a powerful drama of fever-pitch emotionality.

Victor, born on a bus in a more typical Almodovar opening sequence featuring Penelope Cruz as his mother, is a loner and a man on the edge. He stalks Elena, a junkie-prostitute-drug dealer and forces his way inside her apartment. When two cops subsequently bust her for possession, they don't count on Victor, there with her, who pulls a gun on the cops in a scene that ends with one of them being paralyzed from a shot to the base of his spine.

Victor is nabbed and sent to prison. On his release, he discovers that Elena, whom he still lusts for, is now married to the paralyzed cop. And of course Victor cannot leave well enough alone.

It's the interplay of the second cop, the second cop's wife, Victor, and Elena that brings the emotional fluids here to a boil. The story development including surprising revelations establishes a momentum that results in a climax more than worthy of the preceding events, and that more than justifies the label of thriller for this film.

Lust, jealousy, murder, betrayal--all the juicy stuff that thrillers are made of--are, in the hands of a unique Spanish director, given a searing life of their own. It's truly a wonder to see this perfect mesh of out-of-control emotions, Spanish culture, and dazzling eroticism.

A brilliant film. Although All About My Mother is superb, it is more a return to Almodovar's sensibilities. Live Flesh is unique and is even unique for Almodovar. This makes it really special.

another reason i love modern european cinema
Besides just simple good film-making, I've figured out WHY European dramatic cinema is better than that found in the U.S.

They make more REAL honest movies about human behavior. Whereas in the U.S, a great percentage of films are juvenile comedies, trash pop culture flicks or shallow horror movies. The more you make the more likely you're able to turn out quality- and this film from Spain is no exception.

My Spanish cinema experiences are few, but I've enjoyed what I've seen... one of which being the wonderfully creepy movie: "The Devil's Backbone"

so, go order this or buy it, turn the lights down, pour your drink, and get comfy for a good quality movie...

and hey, it's one of Penelope Cruz's first movies!

Heady stuff that never compromises - typical Almodovar
"Live Flesh" begins with Victor Plaza being born on a bus in Franco's Spain in 1970 and ends, twenty six years later, with... well, I wont spoil the ending; but typically with Almodovar, it is fitting and poetic. In between, we follow Victor on his journey into manhood, as he learns the hard way about disillusion, betrayal, love, lust, life, death, and tragedy.

As a young man, Victor believes that a one-off sexual encounter with a beautiful Italian junkie is something more than it is, and pesters her to such an extent that she draws a gun on him in order to get him to leave. A struggle ensues. The gun accidentally goes off, and although noone is hurt, it brings the unwelcome attention of two policemen. Another struggle ensues. Another shot is fired. One of the policemen is paralysed from the waist down. From then on, all four of their lives become tragically entwined; with deception and misunderstanding leading towards bitterness and envy. Inevitably, the lies are stripped away, unwanted truths are revealed, and all the various dilemmas are resolved amidst a scene of emotional and actual carnage.

This must sound like heady stuff, almost melodramatic? It is. This is Almodovar, after all. There is the usual complex plotting that reveals the strains that pull apart and bring together relationships while the emotional lives of the characters are laid bare. There is the relentless drive to resolve the emotional dilemmas while avoiding sentimentality. In short, there are all the usual touches that one expects from Almodovar, including the wonderful acting from the cast. Wonderful! A film that will draw you back again and again and again.

Powerful
(Read above for storyline)

Another incredible film from Pedro Almodovar!
He never fails to tell the most incredible, tragic stories with warmth and genuine affection for all of his characters, no matter what they have done, or how they live their lives.
A powerful film and tragic film, with powerful performances from all the leads. ... 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

Reviews (64)

The Innocents
That Atom Egoyan is one of the very best directors making movies today is beyond reproach. If he had only made the elegant and stunning "The Sweet Hereafter" his place among the pantheon of directors would be assured. So what happened with "Ararat?"
In a nutshell, "Ararat" is too complicated; filled with too many sub-plots and extraneous material not central to the plot. It's as if Agoyan, in his need to set the record straight about the Armenian Genocide says too much. The problem with all of this is that it takes away from the dramatic core of the movie: "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
The Armenian Genocide by the Turks at the beginning of the 20th. Century is innately rife with sorrow, pathos and human despair but Atom Egoyan would have better served his people and his subject had he made a simple, straightforward dramatic film based on Clarence Ussher's Diaries, an American doctor and an eye-witness.
Several story elements do work, though: the story of Arshile Gorky and his mother become a touchstone for the entire film: it's emotional center. Also, Raffi's (David Alpay) plot line with the customs official (Christopher Plummer) though realistically implausible is nonetheless dramatically true. Some of the performances are also first rate: David Alpay, Christopher Plummer and Charles Aznavour as the director of the film-within-a-film.
As in most of Egoyan's films, events and how they are recalled and thereby inevitably interpreted by a group of people is at the core of "Ararat.": Recollection as a way of eventually getting at the truth of a thing.
For the most part, "Ararat" is well thought out and humane and it definitely brings to the forefront a piece of history many of us know nothing about. But ultimately "Ararat" does not carry it's grim burden well: telling the horrific story of the decimation of a people; a story too long hidden away in the history books (if there at all) of these heroic Armenians many of whom survive today and remain irrevocably scarred by it.

Remarkable and Multi-dimensional
This film is a work on many levels dealing with various social and political issues. The movie within a movie concept is successfully executed by Egoyan. There are also numerous talented actors in this film such as the main character David Alpay and even popular singer Charles Aznavour.

It seems as though some reviewers who gave this movie a negative review have not actually seen the movie. These are individuals who attempt to sabotage works dealing with the Armenian Genocide. However, a few Turkish scholars have risked their lives and accepted the Genocide and believe it is the first step to accept their history and actions of their ancestors. Also, contrary to what one reviewer wrote, this movie is based on a HISTORICAL ACCOUNT by the American physician Dr. Clarence Ussher who set up a hospital in Van and witnessed the horrors of Genocide.

The bottom line is this movie is very thought provoking as the New York Times reviewer wrote. This is one of those movies where you will find yourself trying to answer questions long after you've seen the film. Thus, one viewing will not suffice.

art or artifice?
Armenian-Canadian and Egyptian-born film director Atom Egoyan's film Ararat on "the Armenian genocide", while intricately constructed in his usual style, is a disservice to the ideals of progressive constructionism and historically faithful fiction. In this context it is important to consider how the Armenian propaganda machine and extremist groups regularly abuse Armenian art in order to reach their political aims. These fringe elements of the Armenian diaspora (especially in North America) over the 20th century have built the expat Armenian identity squarely on anti-Turkish feelings and this movie works to buttress that aim. The director's life and growing up in Canada as a teenage immigrant also impacts the movie in predictable ways, and is worth commenting on. Egoyan is essentially an identity-convert. He refused his Armenian identity as a teenager and made efforts to be a 'normal' Canadian. He did not speak Armenian. However in college, radical Armenian nationalists helped him rebuild his national identity on powerful anti-Turkish sentiments. Now they could bond around a common enemy. He was Armenian because he was anti-Turkish and vica versa. The nationalist trend in his character became even more significant when he married a beautiful but fanatic Lebanese Armenian, Arsinée Khanjian, who is cast as Ani in the movie. There's nary a single member of the cast who isn't caught up in the politics and this shows.

The 'genocide legacy' in particular has played a crucial role in Egoyan's self-identification like many Armenians in the diaspora, descendants of rural folk forced out of their ancestral lands as refugees by events beyond their control or comprehension. Though almost none of these millions of North American descendants of displaced Armenians had ever been to Turkey (or Armenia for that matter, though this would have been more difficult under the Soviets), many of them continued to believe and financially support the notion that the Turks had attempted to obliterate their race. Mind you these very same Turks and Armenians are descendants of Ottomans, a very genetically diverse and inclusive group (not to be dismissed by glib theories of rape and pillage - cf. Semino et al. Science vol. 290 10 Nov 2000, for an analysis of European Y chromosomes and human migration) who despite early military successes were unarguably one of the most tolerant conquerors in recorded history. It is deeply ironic that these people would nevertheless sabotage their own community after hundreds of years of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and collaboration in art, philosophy, literature, and trade. Most of the fruits of this cultural collaboration is unfortunately unavailable on the web or outside the realm of academia, but not music- see "Istanbul 1925" (a compilation CD by Traditional Crossroads available through Amazon) for a delightful historical example, coincidentally reproduced from the original recordings in the US by Armenian-Americans.

In essence Egoyan has exaggerated the past in order to legitimize his identity, in the cultural obsession which is the primary trait of "modern" Armenian art.

Egoyan bases his script on the (1917) book by Clarence Ussher, who worked as an American missionary in the eastern Ottoman Empire during WWI. However, the script deviates considerably from Ussher's accounts, beyond the boundaries of artistic expression especially for such a politically charged historical subject. Egoyan chooses to focus in his film-within-a-film on the Armenian revolt in the Ottoman city of Van in 1915. However the script conveniently neglects the fact that the actual revolt ended with the victory of Armenians, when the Ottoman governor of Van was forced to flee and was replaced by an Armenian at the conclusion of a bloody joint attack by the Russian army, which occupied the city joined by local Armenian bandits and militia. This Armenian-Russian joint attack resulted in the death of more than 20,000 Van residents, none of whom were armed combatants. Of course these historical 'macro' facts also covered in Ussher's book did not fit well into the victim's psychology which pervades the movie.

Ararat, though I hate to say it, is a typical Armenian propaganda film (see also Midnight Express) and will damage the ongoing attempts for Armenian-Turkish dialogue for the benefit of humanity, ie. for the people who actually have to live in these countries and not kick back on their leather couch in a US/Canadian suburb and pop in a DVD for entertainment/shock value, or for self-serving members of the diaspora hungry for victim psychology consumables. As other unbiased movie critics will attest, Ararat is one of Egoyan's worst films in terms of art value. A good product requires effort, subtlety and meticulousness. Extreme prejudice, ideological perniciousness and cartoonish depictions of good and evil do not improve the artistic quality of a film. That's not to claim Egoyan made this movie out of sheer hatred. The point is that he is compelled to become the voice of the proselytisers and as such does not really attempt with his art to reach into the nature of societal and emotional tensions that underlie cultural obsessions. As he states in interviews he refuses to discuss 'the genocide issue'. When you reject dialogue or debate on an issue you can't claim to make a critical film on the subject. It's likely that extremist Armenian elements within the diaspora acting through his wife and friends (not to mention Bob Lantos) have put enormous pressure on Egoyan to make a film like Ararat. This pressure has been building from decades of frustration with other prominent Armenian diaspora filmmakers (see Mamoulian, Kazan or Verneuil). Several years before this film Egoyan had even mentioned in an interview that he was not a historical filmmaker and that he would not be making a film on the events of 1915.

It's clear that he eventually succumbed to the pressure. Still, external forces aside it does not justify this intentionally obscure and convoluted effort because as an intellectual and high profile Armenian-_Canadian_ artist, more so an Officer of the Order of Canada, he has a responsibility to probe the underlying elements with integrity and create a conduit to bring together Armenians and Turks through visual art in reconciliation and self-awareness. To build such an outlet would after all be in the spirit of the Canadian national character.

Deep, captivating, emotional!
Very few movies leave a deep impact lately, as this one did. Not only because of my armenian background, but the composition and the human interaction. I had to watch it twice to make sure I did not miss anything and still did not catch all the nuances untill I listened to the commentary. I'm swept away! Recommended it to all my friends and family and will share it at work with my non-armenian friends!
Atom, thank you!

The Complete Picture..
I liked this movie because unlike most movies about massacre and persecution in the Old World, this movie follows up on the persecuted peoples, in this case the Armenians, as they find the life in their new country-of-refusge, Canada. As is the case with real, live human beings, escaping persecution to safety and "freedom" is not enough to address the complexity of the human soul. All of the Armenian-Canadians portrayed in the film live in a New World context and suffer from New World problems along with the alienations and isolations of New World lives. As in all Egoyan movies, most of the film protagonists in this exsemble work do not exist merely as didactic sterotypes. They breath, their relationship to their heritage is compromised in the personal life, they suffer. They suffer in a way which is special to the New World, Canada and The United States alike.

Instead of bringing us a dry, linear account, the story of the Armenian massacre in Eastern Turkey is told indirectly, through the filming of a film about it. In many instances the viewer is confused, not certain if it actually is a flashback to the actual past or merely the scenes of the massacre being filmed for the film. Does it matter? What is the relationship between the actual events and the events portrayed in the film? One keeps wondering about that.

Like all Egoyan films, the production is professional and smooth. The themes of his earlier movies about emotional disconnection and the use of video and vice to overcome that disconnection appear here as well. That is perhaps what makes this movie special: In exploring his own Armenian heritage, he never drops the ball of his old themese and concerns. He never forgets or ignores thay they are all in Canada now and that the fact that the Armenians were persecuted in the Old World, does not solve their problems of existentiality and their own estrangement in a New World Society.

Egoyan offers us a new model for the making of films about cataclyismic, life ruining problems. I wish that movies of this type could have been made about the Jewish Holocaust and the Palestinian Refugee Problem. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Pedro Alomodóvar made this misfired, rambling comedy about a romance novelist (Marisa Paredes) whose crumbling marriage has left her depressed and unable to work. At a low point, she writes a scathing indictment of her own books (which are penned under another name), with no one realizing critic and author are one and the same. Almodóvar (Law of Desire) has the start of a great idea here, and for once, he's direct about his sympathy for a character. But nothing else about The Flower of My Secret is so clear. Despite its unusual allegiance to the straightforward "women's films" of the 1950s, this movie blows it by becoming needlessly complicated over extraneous junk, forcing one to grope in the dark for Almodóvar's point. --Tom Keogh ... 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

Description

Against a backdrop of the treacherous mountains, rivers and icy plains of the Siberian wilderness, acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai, Rashomon) stages an extraordinary adventure of comradeship and survival. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. ... Read more

Reviews (39)

Wonderful movie and profound art.
I don't agree with the complaints about picture quality. Our copy had excellent picture and sound except for the first 30 seconds or so. The cogent subtitles were highly visible yellow below the wide screen picture. We have the "Delux Letterbox Edition". Maybe the bad picture quality was in earlier Kino releases.

The story is intriguing. I was moved to laughter, joy, and almost to tears throughout this wonderful film. The themes of aging, friendship across cultures, loyalty, and individual and societal transformation are handled with typical Kurosawa profundity, insight, and pathos. Perhaps more than any other director, Kurosawa gets the little details right, especially regarding relationships and the way a person's motivation and behavior are determined to a large degree on their history and their quest for wholeness. Dersu Uzala often reminded me of Kurosawa's early films in this regard.

The cinematography was wonderful. The Siberian wilderness was shown as a beautiful and compelling Garden of Eden, soon to be destroyed by the evils of civilization. Ironically, one of the protagonists was a surveyor, a decent and caring man whose survey was to be used to destroy the wild paradise he and Dersu traveled through.

Rent it, and then buy it. If you love Kurosawa's work, just buy it.

Dersou Ouzala: Pure Poetry!
Dersu Uzala is probably one of the most beautiful and touching movies ever made. A 1971 production directed by the genius Akira Kurosawa, based on Vladimir Arsenyev's novel, this movie received the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film. A true visual experience -- like every Kurosawa picture --, this movie portraits the breath-taking paradisiacal wilderness of Siberia. The story focus on the relationship between a russian captain (played by Yuri Solomin) and a Goldi hunter (Maxim Munzuk), and its development, nature, and consequences. It is a very moving picture, about true feelings, emotions, and above all friendship. As far as the DVD is concerned, the quality is disappointing, especially when one takes in consideration the price. However, I believe this is still a worthy acquisition for any serious movie collector. Akira Kurosawa is definitely one of the best movie directors ever, and Dersu Uzala is a movie to be not only watched, but experienced.

The old man and the Taiga
1902: Arseniev (Yuri Solomin), a czarist officer and his men exploit and map the Usuri-region. The gigantic pine-forests of the Taiga evoke visions of the Walpurgis-night. Dersu Uzala (Maxim Munzuk) sits down at their camp-fire and smokes his pipe. The old man who lost his wife and children during a smallpox-epidemic lives in the mountains without permanent refuge and hunts for the stag, the wild boar, the sable. He benefits from the nature, but does not exhaust it. As a matter of course he takes the lead of the expedition and shows them how to cover a roof with bark and instructs them to leave stock- rice, salt, matches - to other travelers. They learn not to squander cartridges and that an empty bottle can be valuable in the wilderness. They wade through the morass and suddenly the winter sets in. Arseniev and Dersu lose their way on the ice-covered lake Hanka and a snow-drift covers their footprints. Their race against time is perhaps the most breathtaking scene in the film: The two men cut as many blades of grass as possible in order to survive the cold night. Arseniev realizes how small man is in from of the big nature. He invites Dersu to join him ("It' comfortable in the city") but Dersu prefers his free life. He sees the men off to the train station and they agree that "He is such a good man!".

1907, spring, snow-break: Arseniev explores the Usuri-region again. Three months later a vast territory has been mapped, but the task would be carried through quicker with Dersu's help. Arseniev looks out for his old friend. Dersu made much money with furs, but a trader disappeared with his savings...

The Taiga in summer is a jungle. "Amdar" (the tiger) follows them. They discover pitfalls with carrion. Dersu is shocked over those needless killings. He is at war with the Chunchuse who abduct women. Arseniev helps him save three of their victims who were nearly drowning, but Dersu fall in a torrential river and the rescue-operation is another absorbing (and ingenious) moment.

The turning-point in Dersu's life comes when he inadvertently kills the tiger. He becomes nervous and irritable and believes the the spirit "Kangar" will punish him. His vision becomes defective; He misses his game. "How can I live in the Taiga?". Arseniev invites him to Chaberowsk: "My house is your house". His wife welcomes Dersu and his little son worhips him, but Dersu cannot manage life in the city where water and wood cost money. He is arrested when he tries to fell a tree. He feels redundant and decides to return to the mountains. Arseniev understands his request and gives him a brand-new gun as farewell-present. A few days later he is forced to identify the body of his old friend: somebody killed Dersu - for his gun.

DERSU UZALA needs no recommendation: it won an oscar as best foreign film in 1975 and every fan of Akira Kurosawa will see it sooner or later. Centra Asia, this gigantic territory, looks awe-inspiring in itself (and bear in mind that there is no wilderness in Japan where nearly every tree has been cultivated for aesthetic reasons) and the cinematography is overwhelming - I wish I could have seen it on the big screen. What impressed me most was the high-mindedness of the performances. There is not one patronizing undertone. Deep respect for those people who live in, of, and most importantly with the nature pervades this film.

Dersu Uzala
It is a beautiful movie to watch, and the friendship that develops between the captain and Dersu is touching. I hadn't seen it in many years but found it interesting that Dersu's speech patterns and lessons reminded me of Yoda. I realize that that sounds pedestrian, but I am wondering if Lucas had the same thought in mind. While the letterbox viewed on a TV is not nearly as impressive as the full screen movie experience, having the subtitles not intrude on such a beautiful film is a plus.

Touching!
Just showed the film to my girlfriend. This is my fourth time watching it. I just got this movie on dvd a few months ago. Decent transfer. I'm glad they did the transfer though. Not many people know of this movie. They rather do a transfer of "American Pie" than this movie! Overall, this is a great movie. One of Kurosawa's best! I rank this movie up there with "The Seven Samurai". It's a beautiful story with great characters, beautiful sceneries, and a touching ending. It's basically in my top ten movies of all time! If you haven't seen it, check it out, be patient and the reward will come. I think that's the key. With any good foreign movie, you have to give it "patience". Let the images go through you, transform you to another time and place. That's what you get when you watch poetry at work. It's a painting; all the colors and movements form to give you the whole picture. And this movie is like that. It moves you. I promise--you'll remember it for the rest of your life! ... Read more

Description

Cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo's masterful use of Technicolor transforms Juliet of the Spirits, Fellini's first color feature, into a kaleidoscope of dreams, spirits, and memories. Giulietta Masina plays a betrayed wife whose inability to come to terms with reality leads her along a hallucinatory journey of self-discovery. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the fully restored version of one of Fellini's most dazzling dreams. ... Read more

Reviews (31)

"C'mon Guilietta! We're all waiting!" (for you to come out)
This is a film about a woman in her 30s--a well-to-do Italian housewife--and the inner changes she experiences through several events in her life including, most prominently, the infidelity of the husband she loves. But it's much more too.

Fellini's stunning visuals--the colors and settings, the outrageous dress, and the fantastic score of Nino Rota, makes it seem as if Italy is the most exotic place on earth.

The first time I watched this film I was a bit put off by some of the events that didn't always make sense, as well as the annoying white subtitles that are difficult to read. But there was something about it that compelled me to watch again. I'm still not sure I understand the ending, or the role of the tall Spaniard, but there are many subtle and wonderful things happening.

The music of Rota is simply captivating. Most of it is carried by a lilting, swinging clarinet and a quirky organ in an unlikely but very rich marriage. I'm disappointed to find there is apparently no film score available on CD.

The viewer is treated to the whole litany and range of emotions of a woman suspecting her husband of cheating--and Guilietta Masina, in a great performance, tells it all in her face.

Guilietta also has visions. Her penchant for the spirts, along with the urging of her kooky friends, ("S/he only comes every seven years!") leads her to visit a spiritual charlatan, a phony guru, in a memorable and hilarious scene. "
"Isn't it an apple?"
"No dear, you must see beyond material form."

Guilietta's friends also try to persuade her to experience love beyond her marriage. I shan't tell the result but, again, Fellini treats the viewer to many, many exotic and unexpected scenes.

Finally, this film also explores the relationships of Guilietta to her husband, her mother and sisters, her friends, her husband's friends and her maids. In a sense, this is very much a woman's film. But it's more; it's surreal; it's certainly one for those tired of boring, contemporary films.

FELLINI'S BEST FILM?
Federico Fellini's films often reflected an enticing and disturbing dreamworld. "JULIET OF THE SPIRITS" is his first color film and it is a delight to see the bright, vivid colors again. All previous existing prints on tape were deplorable transfers.

Simply put, the story focuses on a wealthy Italian housewife in her 30s and the interior metamorphosis she undergoes as she experiences the passages, events and changes in her life, most notably her husband's unfaithfulness. A husband she loves. No words can do justice to the stunning visuals -- cinematography, costumes and production design.

Many film buffs consider this Fellini's best film -- even better than his autobiographical "81/2" -- a film that is in many ways the psychological flip side of "Juliet."

Fellini was one of only a handful of world class filmmakers that was fully actualized as an artist. He could not only break the rules, but make new ones. And no one excelled better than he in visualizing an elliptical, ephemeral dreamstate that still speaks to our deepest feelings in a unique and fresh style.

Nina Rota's fantastical score raises the intensity of the images and nuances the fleeting emotions. See this great movie for the first time and discover a genius and humanist who painted with light.

Thanks to Criterion for continuing the tradition of gathering the greatest films from the finest filmmakers around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements.

Who Doesn't Daydream...?
....It's a Fellini Cine, babes!

I was--like I have been while watching other foriegn films--put off initially by the seemingly incongruous little snippets of music and visuals. I mean, couldn't those Europeans make a movie that flowed better? Jeez! I open my mind, watched it a few times and came to these conclusions. First, Giulietta, the actress, must have been a bit off to have done this apparently semi-real story abouat a middle aged woman married to a famous director who she suspects is having an affair. I mean, she was married to Fellini when this was produced. Second, albeit the digital reprocessing has made the cinema more vivid and the costuming more striking, the women more sexier, it showed it's date. When Juliet goes to confront the lady about l'affair, she should have kick the B*'s tail. That probably would have been the response for a character in a current day movie. Third, in an odd sort of way, it all but helps a more modern Eyes Wide Open to make some kind of sense. I mean, who can say how we will respond when a whiff of infidelity comes into our relationships, our lives? Juliet's response were these visions. Some of these were from her far away youth. Some just were pure Fellini bacchanalia. Tom Cruise in Eyes was thinking well, if my wife can *think* it, well, I can just *do* it and be one up on her. It starts for Tom as 'getting even', but it corrodes into something else that he had no control over. (I always say we are forever one step from a huge disaster and we don't know it....) We see Juliet almost giving into her urges with the pretty Latin kid who she meets at her neighbor's...but something just doesn't feel right.

And so, that's what this film is about. What we go thru when we suspect something or hear some painful news. We have the brilliant Guilietta Masina and the surreal Fellini to thank for giving these emotions some sort of form..

One of Fellini's best films
I started watching Fellini films as a young teen, seeing the older ones in the revival theatres, and eagerly anticipating his newest films. Juliet of the Spirits is truly my favorite Fellini film. The camera visuals and color are stunning. The wide screen format is imperative. I only wish that Criterion had also added the (bad) English language soundtrack. It's better for first time viewers. Some of Fellini's imagery is easily missed by reading too many subtitles.

Beautifully Filmed Nonsense
While I admire the cinematic beauty of "Nights of Cabiria" and even its plot (as threadbare as it is, it's still good fun), by the time Fellini got to Juliet of the Spirits, he had really run out of things to say. Early on in the movie, there are harbingers of a plot, some suspense and even something verging on high drama, but none of these pan out, and instead we are left with.......a mess.

Giulietta Masina is a very great actress, it is just that there wasn't much material for her to work with. It is too bad she hitched her wagon to husband Fellini's star her entire career, because if she were just in a few movies with plots, character development and finely crafted dialogue, we could have discovered the full range of her talent.

In 1965, when this movie came out, there weren't so many movies about a woman's "midlife crisis" and her quest for "fulfillment"; By now this plot has become a cliche. As far as the story line goes, "Juliet of the Spirits" has got to rank among the worst, even losing out to the B-movies and straight-to-video films that are grist for the mill on Lifetime and The Oprah Channel.

And that is really a shame, because this is one of the most gorgeously filmed movies I've ever seen. Director of Photography Gianni di Venanzo's use of Technicolor is breathtakingly fascinating for its sumptuous use of warmth and its balance of colors and use of shocking hues. It rivals movies such as "Fantasia" and "Vertigo" for its artistic *visual* excellence.

Yet, this movie taken as a whole is rambling, unfocused and pretentious in a genre that is not too difficult to master. Some call Fellini's movies "surrealistic," and I have no argument with that. Perhaps my bourgeoise temperament lacks the patience to put up with it in two-hour-long doses. I prefer my surrealism in visual stills from Dali, Man Ray, Magritte.

The irony of it is that the best movie of the "woman finding herself" genre -- "Shirley Valentine", directed by Lewis Gilbert -- is filmed so dryly that it borders on incompetence. Imagine what a movie that would have made were the script put into the hands of di Venanzo and Fellini with a soundtrack by the great Nino Rota.

Altogether, viewing "Juliet of the Spirits" can be a pleasant experience, so long as one is concerned with camera work, editing, color timing and music. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Akira Kurosawa's sequel to Yojimbo is more lighthearted and less cynical, a rousing adventure with Toshirô Mifune reprising his role as the scruffy mercenary who becomes an unlikely big brother to a troupe of nine naive samurai. Shuffling into a secret meeting where the proud young men discuss the graft choking their clan, Mifune's Sanjuro scratches his scraggly beard and distractedly rubs his neck like some common peasant while giving them advice on appearances and truths: "People aren't what they seem," he warns the dubious lads. "Be careful." Naturally they aren't, and Sanjuro grudgingly adopts the well-meaning but hopelessly ill-equipped heroes, giving the starry-eyed youths a series of lessons in real-world honor and respect while saving their skins from reckless attacks and impulsive plans. It isn't the subtlest of Kurosawa's films--the repetitious lessons and speeches delivered to the thickheaded samurai are rather obvious--but it's one of his most entertaining. Mifune, gruffly at ease with the boys, is hilariously discomforted in the presence of a cultured lady, who sees through his shaggy exterior and imparts a little wisdom of her own. Mifune bounds into action in a number of impressive sword fights--wonderfully choreographed lightning-quick battles in which Mifune leaps all over the widescreen image--but an increasing sense of waste, of futility, hangs over the action scenes, culminating in a tense but meaningless duel of honor. The accompanying trailer on the DVD features brief behind-the-scenes glimpses of Kurosawa directing Mifune through an action sequence. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (40)

Sanguine samurai.
Companion piece to 1961's nihilist comedy *Yojimbo*. Not so much a sequel or prequel but rather a redux sort of thing. *Yojimbo* was a boffo hit in Japan (and drew raves from all over the world), and Kurosawa, whose quest for cinematic art never precluded showmanship, gave the audience more of what it wanted: even more action, more comedy, more Toshiro Mifune than in the previous movie. A legitimate criticism of *Sanjuro* is that it somewhat lacks the originality of *Yojimbo*, in particular the End-Of-The-World rancidity in tone, atmosphere, and characters. The liner notes in Criterion's DVD even go so far as to call this movie "sunny" (what an insult! Mifune's samurai would cut your head off if he heard you call him that). "Sunny" is not the apt adjective to describe the sudden, explosive violence in the film; the body-count is too appallingly high to laugh off. The violence here still hurts, and there's a lot more of it here than in *Yojimbo*. Kurosawa may have become weary of the whole samurai genre: a very nice patrician lady admonishes Sanjuro with "good swords stay in their sheaths"; he remembers this advice following the satirically bloody, over-the-top climax. The slice-and-dice duel between Sanjuro and his enemy is, I think, Kurosawa's way of saying, "You want violent action? I'LL give you violent action!!" Though it's designed to elicit shocked guffaws, the evident disgust with the whole samurai mindset leaves the larger impression. For that matter, the old "code of honor" is represented by 9 good-hearted samurai who also happen to be idiots. Just because there might be something worth fighting for here, unlike in *Yojimbo*, the bloody work required to ensure the victory of Good still leaves a bloody stain on the psyche. (Significantly, there was no "three-peat" in the Sanjuro series.) Considering all that, the amazing thing is how entertaining and funny *Sanjuro* remains. Of particular note is how discommoded Mifune appears whenever a pair of very civilized ladies (i.e., the antithesis of himself) show up. When the 9 good samurai keep waking Mifune up with their excited gibbering is also a classic. *Sanjuro* is a minor masterpiece fully deserving of standing alongside *Yojimbo* on your shelf.

A Great Adventure
I love Toshiro Mifune. It's so wonderful to see him play this character. He cracks me up every time he does his little shoulder-twitch character trait. Brilliant!

SANJURO delves a little deeper into his samurai character. There's some themes about killing and comparisons of his character to a good sword that should be sheathed. Other than that, it is flat-out adventure on the menu!

Again, Kurosawa is a wonderful story teller. I find his work (the three films I've seen so far -- HIDDEN FORTRESS, YOJIMBO, and this one) to be so economical. He can add a wrinkle to the story with one word; one look. He truly transcends the language barrier because the storytelling is so good.

I thought Criterion did another good job with the transfer. The trailer does, indeed, feature Kurosawa directing Mifune in an action sequence, which is interesting. I wish Criterion would use pictures on its chapter lists. When I want to access a certain scene and am unfamiliar with the movie it is hard to do based on chapter names that make no sense to me. Other than that, no qualms about the rest of the DVD.

Next, I'd love to see HIDDEN FORTRESS on DVD. Criterion, are you listening ?

One of Kurosawa's best samurai films
In my own opinion, I find Sanjuro to be one of my favorite films by the Kurosawa. Unlike Yojimbo, which mainly showed the violent side of humans, Sanjuro shows a much deeper meaning. A woman in the film comments that he should not use too much violence. At first, he ignores her and thinks that she's completely stupid. In the end, he ends up killing a man in order to save his own life. He understands that "Good swords are kept in their sheaths." Another translation of this would be that violence is bad. This is a continuing theme for Kurosawa, especially in his samurai period movies. I highly recommend it.

a cool follow up to yojimbo
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This film released shortly after the release of Yojimbo, has the same main character. In this film, Sanjuro withthe help of some friends eliminate corruption in his town and rescue his uncle was was jailed on trumped up charges. The film has a famous 'splatter' scene in the climax which is almost Hitchcockian because of the filmmakers use of chocloate syrup for the stage blood. (in B&W films, one cannot tell the difference anyway)

The DVD only has a theatrical trailer for a special feature, but it is still worth getting for those interested in films like this.

"A good sword is best kept sheathed."
I've never been fond of sequels, and when I found out Akira Kurosawa, a film maker I respect and admire more than any other, had done a sequel to his classic "Yojimbo," I had to wonder just how it was. I saw it and needless to say I was very impressed. This is with out a doubt probably one of the best sequels I've ever seen.

Sequels are commonly one of two things: 1) a rehash of the first movie, or 2) a continuation of a story that should have ended with the first film. "Sanjuro" is none of the two - instead, its just another adventure for our ronin friend Sanjuro in his quest for money. This time he finds himself accidentally nearby where some clueless samurai retainers are trying to figure out who in their clan is plotting to take over while their lord is away. Sanjuro steps in to help them out (almost out of aggravation at just how incompetant his new acquaintances are). He guesses correctly that it is the Super-Intendant and not the Chamberlain (as originally guessed) who is the traitor, and the story continues from there.

"Sanjuro" has all the right doses, and even more, of what you got in "Yojimbo." There are more fight scenes - or perhaps I should say there are more chances for Toshiro Mifune to slash through a crowd of hapless enemies. There are also more chances for our hero to figure out traps and plan ways out of sticky situations. With out a doubt, I think Sanjuro ranks as one of the most clever heroes I've ever seen on film, and you just get a joy at his wit and quick-thinking (I especially like how he got the villains to throw petals into the stream).

I would suggest any one who loved "Yojimbo" to give this film a good chance. It's just as enjoyable as its predecessor, and hey - if it has the name Akira Kurosawa on it, it can't be the least bit bad. ... Read more