reading up on movies before buying

[dfordoom]

How do you decide which film to buy next on DVD? Do you have a favourite film review website? Do you read up about classic movies before you buy them on DVD? Or do you read up on them before you watch them?

[ken123]

I don't need no stinkin critic. I buy classic films about 95% of the time, most of which I have seen many times previously.

[movieman1957]

I ony by a DVD after I've seen it and would enjoy it enough to get my money's worth.

If I'm looking for ideas on films the people here and TCM is usually where I look.

[dfordoom]

I don't need no stinkin critic. I buy classic films about 95% of the time, most of which I have seen many times previously.

I very rarely buy a movie on DVD if I've already seen it. There are just so many movies I haven't seen! But then my obsession with classic movies is only about a decade old, so I'm still catching up!

[ken123]

I don't need no stinkin critic. I buy classic films about 95% of the time, most of which I have seen many times previously.

I very rarely buy a movie on DVD if I've already seen it. There are just so many movies I haven't seen! But then my obsession with classic movies is only about a decade old, so I'm still catching up!

I love classic films on DVD that have an audio commentary.

[filmlover]

Generally, I will be excited ahead of time about a new set coming out, (such as the Tyrone Power set out now) and make a decision at the announcement time to add it to my collection. I think I am more of a sucker for a boxset than I am for individual releases, but I do get either based on the circumstances. It all comes down to a film star or film I like first, though. I would also say that extras on the DVD play a part in my thinking if I will get it.

[MissGoddess]

Recommendations both here and at TCM have influenced which version, if there are several, I will get, but by and large I lately have just been trying to get as many of my all time favorites on dvd as I can afford. There is one website, dvdbeaver.com which I sometimes look at because they really do give you all the lowdown and even include screen captures, so you can actually see the quality of the print yourself.

I admit that if Criterion does release a film I like, I usually try to get their version because of all the work they tend to put into making it a collector's item.

I've come around to really enjoying commentaries, whereas I used to detest them. I thought they influenced me too much to absorb someone else's point of view about the movie, but now I just switch it off if I become annoyed. The worst commentaries are the "gossipy" kind or those that basically just tell you what you are looking at, without offering any behind the scenes insight. If Scott Eyman and Peter Bogdonavich are mentioned as providing commentary, it does a lot to persuade me to buy the dvd.

[Moraldo Rubini]

I usually only buy DVDs of movies that I've already seen and loved. Exceptions are movies that don't seem to be available in any other format. For example, I bought Douglas Sirk's (then known as Detlef Sierck) La Habanera starring the legendary Zarah Leander because I'd never seen it offered in a repetoire house or on television. The Jessie Matthews movie Evergreen is another unseen movie that I would buy. It seems the only way to catch it.

I also try to only buy movies that have added features (audio commentary, deleted scenes, short subjects, documentaries, etc.). Most classics I can catch at the local rep houses (and that's how I prefer to watch them), but those added features are priceless to me.

So a great problem for me is not a resource to help decide what to buy, but rather a resource to inform me of the release dates of DVDs.

[moira finnie]

For example, I bought Douglas Sirk's (then known as Detlef Sierck) La Habanera starring the legendary Zarah Leander because I'd never seen it offered in a repetoire house or on television~Moraldo

So, Moraldo, as I believe that we've both discussed our mutual interest in the work and life of the notorious Zarah Leander, could you please tell me what you thought of this movie. How does it fit into the rest of Douglas Sirk's films? Where did you find this dvd, did it have subtitles for those of us who never got past German 102? Thanks!

In regards to commentaries, I can't afford to buy dvds at any price regularly, but will seek out films to borrow or rent that I've loved and hope to see if they have a commentary--though there have been times when, listening to a commentary by even such a renowned film scholar as Richard Schickel , (whose commentary on The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit sent me over the edge a little), and others, I've thrown something and started to talk back to the tv like a crazy person 'cause the commentator is ill-informed, jaded and condescending to the film, the period or the audience. That makes me crazy! It's not that I wish a person to suspend all critical judgment when they record these commentaries, but I'd just like it if someone is at least interested in the topic! Also, please hire someone who takes the time to prepare and research ahead of the recording session. Nothing's worse than a slacker who's shuffling papers or saying "I dunno" or a person who gets easily verifiable facts dead wrong during a commentary. Hey, I'm just a member of the great unwashed public, and I know some of this stuff better than some of these clowns.

Some of the best commentaries seem to be by scholars such as
Kenneth Geist & Cheryl Lower, Gregg Kimble and Christopher Husted,
James Ursini and Alain Silver, and filmmakers themselves such as Robert Wise or the offspring of directors or actors such as Chris Mankiewicz. I wish that Scott Eyman did commentaries for films! The guy's too busy writing for a living, I suppose.

[Moraldo Rubini]

La Habanera is compelling and chilling to watch. The story of a lass from Stockholm who escapes the "hopelessly cold Swedish minds" and homeland to travel to Puerto Rico, where she is enchanted by the warm climate and hot blooded natives. To Astree (Zarah Leander), the island is an idyllic paradise; to her aunt, it is a brutal land of savages. Astree falls for the local baron (whom she witnessed killing a bull at the local bullfight), and elopes (while wearing a towering mantilla!) with him. The newly wed couple arrive home to a telegram from the aunt that reads, "As a wedding gift I will pay for your divorce." Charming, eh?

Ten years later we discover the heroine stuck in a loveless marriage, sweltering in the unnatural heat and surviving a malaria epidemic (which spread because "Americans are so lax"). Her husband accuses her of turning their tow-headed son "into a Swede" as he has no interest in attending brutal bullfights, but rather longs for the snow that he's never experienced. (It isn't explained how the brunette Leander and her dark husband spawned a youth with purely Aryan features.)

La Habanera foreshadows Douglas Sirk's glossy Hollywood films with luxe sets and glamorous close-ups (Leander is often framed in tropical flowers and louvred backdrops). In the scene where Astree explains snow to her son ("Snow is millions and billions of frozen angel tears. Masses of tiny little stars, very soft and cold that melt in your hand when you touch them. And if you lick your hand, they're not bitter like human tears, but slightly sweet." She doesn't mention the need to shovel it.), he is lounging in a white fur rug so thick as to look as if he could make snow angels in it.

Unfortunately, my Kino copy of this disk stalls 2/3 of the way into the picture and then skips several scenes. I exchanged the disk for another, but this second disk had the same problem; a problem which I now imagine was transferred from the master(?). I have hesitated to buy any Kino products since then.

This movie was wildly successful, cementing Leander's popularity in Europe. Sirk and his (Jewish) wife, Hilde Jary, fled Germany after making this picture. Leander gained some resentment from her compatriots in Sweden for remaining in Germany to become such a big star. Then the Germans resented her for quitting them in 1942. She refused to meet Hitler, and remained anti-political. MGM wanted to bring her to the U.S., but she preferred to stay and work for UFA.

Leander was made a star after Garbo and Dietrich refused to come to Germany to make films. And Leander is intended to remind us of Garbo (whose films were no longer shown in Europe). She shares her beauty and a voice that sounds like dusk. A singing Garbo.

[moira finnie]

Thanks for that very amusing synopsis of Zarah Leander's movie. I love your description of her as having "a voice that sounds like dusk." That's a perfect encapsulation of her unique vocal power.

As you may recall, there is an hour of the documentary series all about her included in Hitler's Women (2001), which runs occasionally on the History International and History Network channels. It includes interviews with many of those who worked with her and portions of a Swedish doc about her life in which her adult son & an elderly Zarah discusses her career choices, (while she scrupulously avoids discussing any thoughts about the Nazis that may have occurred to her during her career height).

Since the History Channels love to run stuff numerous times, (especially when its about the Nazis), you'll probably have a chance to see this sometime, Moraldo. Thanks very much.

[MissGoddess]

In regards to commentaries, I can't afford to buy dvds at any price regularly, but will seek out films to borrow or rent that I've loved and hope to see if they have a commentary--though there have been times when, listening to a commentary by even such a renowned film scholar as Richard Schickel , (whose commentary on The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit sent me over the edge a little), and others, I've thrown something and started to talk back to the tv like a crazy person 'cause the commentator is ill-informed, jaded and condescending to the film, the period or the audience. That makes me crazy! It's not that I wish a person to suspend all critical judgment when they record these commentaries, but I'd just like it if someone is at least interested in the topic! Also, please hire someone who takes the time to prepare and research ahead of the recording session. Nothing's worse than a slacker who's shuffling papers or saying "I dunno" or a person who gets easily verifiable facts dead wrong during a commentary. Hey, I'm just a member of the great unwashed public, and I know some of this stuff better than some of these clowns.

Some of the best commentaries seem to be by scholars such as
Kenneth Geist & Cheryl Lower, Gregg Kimble and Christopher Husted,
James Ursini and Alain Silver, and filmmakers themselves such as Robert Wise or the offspring of directors or actors such as Chris Mankiewicz. I wish that Scott Eyman did commentaries for films! The guy's too busy writing for a living, I suppose.

Hi Moira,

You and I agree on annoying vs. informed commentarians (is that a word? it is now!) and I agree Schickel's condescending remarks sometimes make me want to gag. But you will be delighted to know I'm sure that Scott Eyman does provide a commentary on My Darling Clementine, and just as you'd expect it is informative, fluid, perceptive and entertaining. He's about the best I've heard. Wyatt Earp III also does a commentary on the shorter version, but he contributes very little that's new.

[moira finnie]

Thanks so much for the info about the dvd of My Darling Clementine, Miss G. It sounds as though it should be worth tracking down.