Macbeth French 3-DVD set

[mteal]

How'd you like the short version, Jeff? To me it's obviously inferior to the UCLA restoration, but I still like it and am glad it has finally found it's way to DVD. Those unremovable French subtitles would probably be a turn-off for me, though.

If they create a similar DVD set of MACBETH for the American market, one film I hope they try and track down would be POWER AND CORRUPTION, a 34-minute educational film about the play that Welles hosted and narrated in 1973. It's listed in Rosenbaum's OW chronology at the back of THIS IS ORSON WELLES. That would make a great extra too, I would think.

[Glenn Anders]

As you may know, mteal, there was a whole series of these educational short films hosted by Welles, possibly six in number, using clips from major feature movies for illustrations of the themes to be taught. One utilized Rochard Brooks' LORD JIM, I remember, and another, Brooks' IN COLD BLOOD.

If you think that it is Welles' MACBETH which is featured in the film you specifically refer to, you would be disappointed, however. Roman Polanski's MACBETH is the one Welles discusses to point up the theme of "power and corruption."

Glenn

[mteal]

I did not know that Glenn, thanks for the info. Id like to see the whole series. Welles was not only a great artist, but a great teacher as well.

Not to take anything away from Polanski's MACBETH (another fine film) but it's strange that Welles would use that one for illustration when he had a perfectly good version of his own to use. Maybe it was part of the contract.

[Glenn Anders]

True, mteal. Welles was imbued as a boy with a need to educate people by his mentor, "Skipper" Hill, and he never lost it.

I tried to research a little more about the Educational Film series from which "MACBETH: Power and Corruption" came but ran into a proverbial cyber wall covered with daisy chains of hyperbole: many promises, few results.

Interestingly, neither the IMDb nor any other major media archive seems to have easily found information on the series.

I had to go to the Media Department of the Poplar Bluff (Mo.) School District ["Home of the Mules"] to come up with the following description of the film you first mentioned:

MACBETH: POWER AND CORRUPTION

Description: Specially edited from the feature film "Macbeth," this is a stunning study of the relationship between power & corrup-tion.
Copyright: 1973
Color:
Grade: SC
(Grade levels are as follows: K-Kindergarten, P-Primary, I-Intermediate, J-Junior High, S-Senior High, C-College, A-All Ages.)
Producer: LCA Purchase Date: 4/11/1990
Run Time: 34 minutes
Subject: /LANG ART/ Dewey: 822 MediaID: 898
Film No.: VT-538

------------------

Poplar Bluff School District has an excellent collection of nearly 6000 educational films, but "MACBETH: Power and Corruption" appears to be the only one of the series they purchased. The series was produced by Coronet Films.

One reason Welles did not use his own adaptation of Macbeth may have been a matter of taste, his own and/or others. Remember, in 1973, Welles had become something of a joke, and his butchered MACBETH was all but forgotten, considered one of his string of abject failures. Another might be that Polanski's color MACBETH had come out two years earlier, to strong notices and much publicity (in part, because of the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate [and others] by the Charlie Manson Gang, who were sensationally on trial at the time.) Finally, the line "All's well that ends Welles" may have still had currency.

He does appear in each of the films, however, dressed in his familiar dressing gown, smoking an occasional cigar (I think), to introduce the film resource, and to discuss the theme illustrated.

I did accidentally come across (among such categories as "Orson Welles and Other Home and Garden Topics") an odd series of eight 50 minute A&E films, four of which listed Welles as "Director":

The Unexplained: Cannibals

Category: Documentary Director: Orson Welles
Rated: NR Color
$14.99 VHS #536241
Tell A Friend Send As A Gift

-----

The Unexplained: Prophets And Doom

Category: Documentary Director: Orson Welles
Rated: NR Color
$14.99 VHS #536242
Tell A Friend Send As A Gift

-----

The Unexplained: Power Of Prayer

Category: Documentary Director: Orson Welles
Rated: NR Color
$14.99 VHS #536243
Tell A Friend Send As A Gift

-----

The Unexplained: Exorcists

Category: Documentary Director: Orson Welles
Rated: NR Color
$14.99 VHS #536244
Tell A Friend Send As A Gift

Welles evidently did not direct those on "Spontaneous Human Combustion" or "Extreme Sacrifice." At least, not for credit.

--------------------

And so, mteal, I pass crown to you:

Remember -- "Coronet: Dead or Alive!"

Glenn

[mteal]

Cannabalism, Exorcism, and the Power of Prayer don't really strike me as Orson Welles territory, But the one on Prophecy and Doom does. That one might be tempting to get, but for $14.99 I would need more evidence that Welles actually did have something to do with these shows.

It might be worth contacting that school district you mentioned to see how one might go about renting POWER AND CORRUPTION. I'll let you know if anything comes of it.

[Glenn Anders]

Mteal: If you are about renting films from school systems, you might want to contact the San Mateo County (California) District Office. I used to teach in that County, and I know that they had the whole Coronet collection. It is entirely possible that they have scrapped them by now, but you could get a line on the series, perhaps. Welles introduced half a dozen or so feature films, as teaching aids, in 30+ minute formats. There were syllabi, etc.

Worth a try, if you are going to make the effort.

Let me know what you discover, in any case.

Glenn

[Store Hadji]

Wow. That's an important chunk of his output, then. Might be similar to those silent movie intros he did in the 70s (several of which are on DVD now,) but at greater length. Hopefully they turn up again...

[colwood]

I thought there were plans to release this on R1 dvd this year. Has anybody heard any news since?

[dkovacev]

I thought there were plans to release this on R1 dvd this year. Has anybody heard any news since?

Some potentially bad news about R1 DVD of Macbeth... it looks like Paramount doesn't have rights to Republic film library at all.
Take a look at this recent discussion at Home Theater Forum, and in particular post no.6:
Has Paramount quit releasing classic films to SD DVD?

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks for the depressing update! Interestingly, the Robert Gitt interview states that Paramount has already done a digital restoration on the long version of "Macbeth", but the film is not on Paramount's list of films they have been restoring since 2000. It sounds like Lionsgate might hold the rights to the Republic films, so hopefully Paramount can arrange a deal with them to get this library out there.

[tonyw]

I also think that Agnes Moorhead was not available. But the film has had a very bad rap ever since the first edition of Charles Higham's THE FILMS OF ORSON WELLES. It is not your traditionasl Shakespeare adaptation and has parallels to the alternative musical fields of punk and garage rock by using the bare minumum of materials available to create a truly expressionist drama which anticipates OTHELLO. MACBETH does deserve re-evaluation and these new versions should help in this perspective.

[ToddBaesen]

According to this entry from Wikipediea, Paramount(aka Viacom/CBS) does indeed own Macbeth and the complete Republic Library...


Republic's video division shut down in 1995, allowing the video rights to the Republic library to be leased to Artisan Entertainment, while the library itself continued to be released under the Republic name and logo. By the end of the decade, Viacom bought the portion of Spelling it did not own previously, thus Republic became a wholly-owned division of Paramount. Artisan Films (later sold to Lions Gate Home Entertainment) continued to use the Republic name, logo, and library under license from Paramount.

As of 2006, Republic Pictures' holdings consist of a catalog of 3,000 films and TV series, including the original Republic library.

Lions Gate Home Entertainment's home video rights expired in late 2005, and now Paramount holds home video and theatrical-distribution rights, while television distribution is now the responsiblity of CBS Paramount Television (since the Viacom/CBS corporate split that took effect at the beginning of 2006).

[Ste]

The French DVD company Wild Side will release a single-disc version of Macbeth on 24 October 2006. Specs and artwork are here.

If you don't already own the three-disc CE, buy it before it's too late. (It's already listed as unavailable at Amazon France, but other French e-tailers do still have it in stock.) I know the forced subtitles put a few people off, but there are ways of circumnavigating this problem. My $30 Cyberhome multi-region player ignored them completely, for example. I believe burning a copy of the DVD also works.

Welles's Macbeth is criminally underrated, I feel. I know it's an unpopular stance, but I really do prefer it to both Othello and Chimes at Midnight (brilliant as those two films are). There is a vitality and a daring in Macbeth quintessential of early, classic Welles. And, let me tell you, I've lived in Scotland and those accents aren't half bad!

Btw, Tony, I haven't forgotten about my little DVD project. I was within a couple of days of making my first postings when a power surge fried my motherboard. I have the material backed up, but until I can buy a new PC (I'm using a borrowed laptop for the moment), it'll have to wait.

[mteal]

I agree that MACBETH is possibly Welles's most underrated film, and I like it better then OTHELLO, but I don't think it's as good as CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. One of my most memorable, Welles-related movie theatre experiences, however, came when I saw a double feature of MACBETH and CHIMES in the late 80's at a local arthouse. CHIMES was shown first, in a fuzzy, beat-up print that drew about 400 people, I would say. A grand total of 12 of us stayed for the subsequent showing of MACBETH, which was shown in an absolutely pristine looking (and sounding) print of the 1980 restoration. It looked so gorgeous and razor-sharp on the big screen that I sat glued to my seat in the near-empty theatre from start to finish, even though I had to pee the whole time. I didn't want to miss a second of it. I guess the memory of that night has given the film a special resonance for me, but I think it's a fine movie under any circumstances, and I suspect it was one of Orson Welles's personal favorites as well. I just like the audacity of the whole low-budget enterprise, including the Scottish accents, and I think some sequences, especially the execution of the Thane of Cawdor, are actually among his most compelling.

[Store Hadji]

I always wondered if my memory of having to pee the whole time would be stronger than the memory of the film I didn't want to miss a second of.