Happy DVD Purchases - Other Cool Stuff Out There

[Electric2k]

Thanks for the heads-up, but I'm not a newbie to Orson's films--just this forum.

I'm really looking forward to seeing F for Fake, because I've read qutie a bit about it. The Japanese DVD costs an arm and a leg, but it should be worth it. Hopefully Criterion will put it out in 2003 with extras...

[jaime marzol]

..................

electric, i think 'F' is excellent. have enjoyed it many times. i think it was the jap dvd that jeff w. posted some screen captures of, and it's a wider, better picture than the criterium laser disc.

[dmolson]

For the very first time I saw Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief, his homage to the south of France. The images and colours, as revealed on the new Paramount DVD, really sparkled for much of the show, with Hitch limiting his 'blue screen' work to a minimum (in this case, probably 20-30%)... Not the most engaging Hitchcock film, but thanks to its leads and the spectacular scenery, worth sitting through.
I was disappointed a bit about the extras, tho. As with most Hitchcock dvd releases, daughter is featured prominently, fine, sometimes she adds some insight and has given some old home movies that are interesting. Now she's dragging her daughter into it, and what she has to add is really zip, considering she's about two when he made the film. They've got a Hitchcock academian, also one crew member (Herb Coleman?) and the continuity lady Sylvette, who brings some continental intrigue to the show. One featurette is about the writing and cast, but skims over things that generally are easy to deduce. They mention that one of the primary senior French members, the owner of the restaurant, proved incapable of phonetically getting his lines just right, and was totally dubbed in english. Did Hitch not think about casting someone better -- why not Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier...? They didn't bother to track down Brigitte Auber, who played Danielle... Couldn't she have added something of interest? They always go back to daughter and daughter with some cliched comment... And why is Roman Polanski given a credit, as though he's interviewed, but nowhere to be seen? (I didn't watch the Edith Head featurette, so apologies if that's where he's relegated)
I also bought the 'High Noon', which has similar featurettes that suffer from some of the similar problems. The Leonard Maltin one is good, includes old interviews with the cast when possible, but two featurettes are just 'Sons and daughters of...' giving virtually no real interesting info. Maybe I'm too cynical, but these projects that are under the direction of the star's relatives really are the blandest I can imagine, the total antithesis of a Robin Leach profile. Really disappointing, but even those dregs can't drain out the appreciation of the original classics....

[Michael]

Welles Fan,

I agree with you totally on the LOR/Fellowship extended DVD. We just bought it (finally) a couple of days ago and loved it even more! Then we went the next day to see "Two Towers" and I was blown away. I haven't gotten to any of the extras yet on LOR, but shall soon. The added scenes just enrich the characters so much. I wish every movie I loved had this much care and time put into the DVD releases. Did you notice that on the very end of the credits of the DVD, they thank the "charter members" of the Int'l LOR Fan Club, then proceed to name every one of the thousands of members?! I think that is marvelous. Just another small thing (amoung a million other things) the makers of the film did to satisfy the fans of the books.

Thanks!