Once again, an incredibly interesting and exciting selection this month. Thank you Weepingsam. This film falls right in the cracks of my film history knowledge. And, once again, the FotMC has presented me with a film that I might never have gotten into on my own. Now, if it only wasn't this overwhelming!
To be honest, I was having trouble even following it in the beginning. I was not prepared for the way the story was playing out. I ended up putting on the commentary by David Kalat (I have the IMAGE DVDrelease. The KINO edition doesn't have this commentary but it is a much better restoration. Ironicly, the image is signicantly worse on the IMAGE release). He has a few strange moments in the way he presents information at times, but overall it is a tremdously insiteful and entertaining track. And, most importantly, it put me in the proper mindframe to take in the movie in a benificial way. So I am going to have another go at it. It is still an potentially overwhelming film. There are a lot of ways to approach this one.
I wanted to post this because I am seeing that the posts aren't happening yet and we're in the last third of the month. Maybe others had the trouble with it that I had. Maybe not. But I felt the need to express my experience with the film(s) so far. Yes, this is a difficult 4 1/2 hour silent work, but it is not only important, but extremely exciting too, and I am very happy that it was selected.
I hope to have more to say before the month is out.
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2 comments:
Thanks. It IS an overwhelming film - the length is bad enough, but there's so much going on inside it.... I had something of the same reaction when I saw it first - even being prepared for it by class: it takes a good deal of effort just to follow what's happening - add in the fact that it's not just a silent film, but one from a transitional period - it seems to jump back and forth between the older, "tableau" style cinema Bordwell writes about, and newer styles - it takes a while to get used to the pacing, and the alternation... (Watch it next to Nosferatu, say - Murnau looks completely modern...) I also saw only the first half in class - coherent enough, but then we started reading about it, and talking about it.... and the more I read about it the more fascinating it became. Finding time to watch the second half was a challenge - the Film of the Month Club provided a handy excuse! And the two together are even more overwhelming...
Anyway - if I had to do it again, I'd probably pick something a bit less daunting - maybe TESTAMENT OF DOCTOR MABUSE - that's a bit more manageable, and pretty amazing in its own right... (Kalat's commentary on that is quite good, as well. And he leans heavily on Tom Gunning, I think, whose book on Lang is as good as it gets.) I am absolutely convinced that I have to track down as much Lang as I possibly can now - I've always loved M and Metropolis, and liked the American films I'd seen by him, but never dug into him like into Capra or Hitchcock...
I'm feeling the same way about Lang now, and German silent cinema in general. I also need to get my hands on the better version of "Dr. Mabuse". I saw the screen captures on DVDBEAVER and it is significant.
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