While Janus Films’ restoration of Chimes at Midnight has been given high marks from the likes of The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, it was a pleasant surprise to see a 50-year-old Orson Welles’ movie reviewed in the pages of Entertainment Weekly.
The re-release is an upgrade of the Filmoteca Española restoration, which was released in Europe last year by Mr. Bongo.
The trendy, pop culture loving Entertainment Weekly had nothing but good things to say in its brief review of the restored Chimes at Midnight. The magazine’s critic awarded the 1965 movie its highest rating:
Thanks to an astonishingly crisp restoration, Orson Welles’ 1965 Shakespearean masterpiece can now be appreciated by anyone who thought his best days behind the camera ended with Touch of Evil. Welles gives a mammoth performance (in every sense of the word) as the Bard’s tragic fool Falstaff, while John Gielgud anchors Welles’ expressionistic visuals and disorienting Dutch camera angles with classical austerity. It’s a feast for the ears, eyes, and soul. A
Chimes at Midnight concludes its extended run at the Film Forum in New York on Tuesday and begins its nationwide showings. Check out our listing of screenings across the country.
Although a home video release date has not yet been announced, it is expected that the Criterion Collection will release Chimes at Midnight in the second half of 2016.
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