Well, dear readers, today I shall write short notes because yesterday’s were so long and unseemly. Today I shall be succinct and brief, not necessarily in that order.
Yesterday, I received in the mail two count them two PAL DVDs, both of which I already have on regular DVD – Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. So, why did I want these motion pictures on PAL when I already have them on regular DVD? Because these DVDs are from France and they are both Special Editions, plus Umbrellas is enhanced for widescreen TVs, unlike its American counterpart. Also, I felt the domestic release of Young Girls, even though enhanced, was a bit soft. Well, I was not disappointed in these PAL DVDs, they are, for the most part superb. The transfer of Umbrellas is in its correct ratio of 1:75. The domestic release by Fox Lorber is 1:66 and it cuts off at least an inch or more of image on each side – for example, the title of the film on the Lorber DVD is es Parapluies de Cherbour. With the import DVD you get all the side image and its considerable and necessary. This import is also sharper than the Lorber with better color, although the one caveat I have is that it occasionally has a green tint that would have been easy to correct – that’s only sporadic, however. Young Girls is quite a bit sharper than the Miramax domestic DVD. I watched Umbrellas last night – I haven’t seen it in its entirety for ten years. It is a wonderful movie, all-sung, with gorgeous photography and sublime music by Michel Legrand. I loved this film so much when I originally saw it (opening day on its original release) that I must have gone back and seen it ten or fifteen times during that original run. Catherine Denueve is so breathtaking and heartbreakingly beautiful in this film that she’s like a painting come to life.
Each of these Special Editions comes with a second disc, unfortunately neither of them have English subtitles (the films themselves do), and I don’t really understand French, but I’m still enjoying them tremendously. The first (in the Umbrellas set) is called The Universe of Jacques Demy and it has lots of interviews, but most importantly, gorgeous and lengthy clips from all his films. Young Girls has a retrospective documentary by Agnes Varda (Mrs. Demy) and it’s marvelous – all the principal cast go back to Rochefort and reminisce.
Now, you see, I said short notes and already I have written like a windbag. Let’s all click on the Unseemly Button below before I write one more word.
As I mentioned in a post yesterday, I spoke with one of the singers on The Sherman Brothers Album, and apparently it is coming out and has been finished. By whom I don’t know. I do know that we had a post here a week or so ago where someone quoted a lyric from a Sherman Brothers song – I thought it strange as it had nothing to do with the topic of the day or any other posts – it was also anonymously posted. Perhaps that was someone’s subtle way of telling us all it was finally coming out. I am happy that other websites do come and visit every single day to see what we’re up to. It’s so comforting, isn’t it? I feel we must be very special to be included in their thoughts.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I also watched The Manchurian Candidate yesterday. They really need to redo the DVD with a new fresh digital transfer – the current DVD is the old laserdisc transfer and it simply will not do, oh, no, it simply will not do. What a great movie – still viciously funny and viciously shocking to this day. The acting in this movie is beyond superb – everyone should have been nominated for an Oscar and they all should have won. Sinatra has never been better, Laurence Harvey is incredible as Raymond Shaw, and John McGiver is brilliant as a liberal Senator. What a unique character actor he was. And what can I say about Leslie Parrish as his daughter and the love interest of Laurence Harvey? I can only say that I thought she was spectacularly beautiful then (first as Daisy Mae, then here) and I have not changed my opinion one iota. Without giving anything away, I will tell you that Miss Leslie Parrish plays a small but pivotal role in the sequel to Benjamin Kritzer. Isn’t that tantalizing? Isn’t that just too too? But the performance of the film, and one of the all-time great screen performances ever belongs to Miss Angela Lansbury who, at thirty-eight, was playing Laurence Harvey’s mother (he was three years her junior) and never for one minute do you doubt the casting (and there is no makeup or aging done on her, which makes it all the more astounding). She’s icy, brittle and brilliant, and her final scene with Laurence Harvey is as good as screen acting gets. If you somehow have missed this film, see it now.
Speaking of Benjamin Kritzer, I did promise to reveal the title of the new book today and so I will. I was having great difficulty when I began the book figuring out what to call it. The original title was simply The Return of Benjamin Kritzer, which I knew wasn’t right. Then, for a very brief time I was going to call it the title of the prologue (which I won’t give away here) with the subtitle The Return of Benjamin Kritzer. That wasn’t right either. My friend Margaret told me to stop beating myself up over it and that it would come to me when the time was right. Of course, she was absolutely correct, and a week later I was writing the first chapter, wrote a scene and suddenly there it was, staring at me from the page. I typed it up on a piece of paper and fell in love with it – so, as of last April I had my title. Kritzerland. The title plays an extremely important role in the book, too, which is nice. That’s why I laughed when I saw Jason’s Jasonland the other day. Harvey Schmidt is hard at work on the cover and I should be seeing it soon.
Well, these weren’t such short notes after all. These were medium notes. Can anyone remember when the next live chat is? Is it tomorrow? I’m thinking we may skip it this week because we’re still dealing with that company that provides the chat room and it isn’t ready yet (it’s a bit complex). So, we can have one via AOL, or we can just wait a week and start out with our brand spanking new chat room. I leave it up to you, dear readers.
Well, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must do some writing, some driving, some walking and some eating, not necessarily in that order. Today’s topic of discussion: What is currently in your CD player, and your video/DVD player? You know my DVD player – in my CD player, the soundtrack to The Manchurian Candidate by David Amram, and today, Flower Drum Song, the revival cast recording. Your turn.