89-91 / BD 43, 69, 229 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse

Discuss releases by Eureka and Masters of Cinema and the films on them.
Message
Author
User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#76 Post by Yojimbo » Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:25 am

karmajuice wrote:
In briskness of pace, excitement, humour, and even cheesiness it reminded me a lot of the wonderful Franju 'Judex/Nuits Rouges set.
This is dead-on. I'm slightly obsessed with this strain of cinema -- represented, at its best, by Feuillade, Lang, Franju, Welles, and perhaps a few others. I've thought of writing about them, but my reaction is so instinctive and emotional that I've had difficulty formulating an articulate approach to the subject. I mean, my love for them is by no means imaginary, nor is it a guilty pleasure -- these films are rich, and their merits are very real. But they inhabit such strange and irrational places, and I think some people have difficulty coming to terms with that. The Greenspun quote on the 1,000 Eyes page of MoC's site gets at the matter, that these films require "both greater innocence and infinitely greater sophistication than most of us bring to the movies nowadays". People dismiss them because of their implausible, labyrinthine plots, but that's precisely why they're so great. These (thrillingly absurd) plots allow us to experience moods, sights, and moments which couldn't exist in any other context. And the filmmakers synthesize these elements into a startling whole: the pulpy, surreal poetry of Franju, the satirical fever dream of Mr. Arkadin, Lang's rendering of fear and mystery into pure cinematic form.

Maybe more on this later. And, on a rather tangential note, anyone who loves these sorts of movies as much as me should check out Edward Gorey's silent screenplay, The Black Doll. Of course Gorey's work in general is influenced by these films, and silent film in general, but this screenplay is a particularly intense distillation of those influences and his most frank homage. It's an absolute delight -- hilarious and confounding and beautiful -- and the book also has a lengthy interview with Gorey, primarily about his cinephilia. I always tend to think of Gorey when discussing these films, so I thought I'd mention it.

I liked the silent Mabuse the most, but the others hardly stood a chance: how do you best a film like that? Still, the other two try their damnedest and come remarkably close. I really enjoyed 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, probably more than Testament, and I don't quite understand why it's been damned by faint praise. Then again, I'm the guy who thinks Ministry of Fear is top-tier Lang, so maybe I'm just crazy.

All hail Masters of Cinema! Seriously, you guys are a godsend.
agreed about your general comments and about Mr Arkadin, which has long been a favourite Welles of mine; I was delighted to be able to acquire a paperback of the novel, about 30 years ago, - though it remains unread! :roll:
I'm intrigued by this screenplay book you've mentioned; I don't think I've ever read any because, although I bought the screenplay paperback of Ford's 'Wagonmaster', I've tended to be put off by those abbreviated 'stage directions'.
I might make an exception in this case, given our mutual interests, but it would need to drop in price.

btw, since making my previous post I've since acquired the box-set of the first series of 'Danger Man': this first series consisted of 25 minute episodes; from Series Two, onwards, it was expanded to 50 minutes.
Although the 25 minute episodes perhaps rely a tad too much on exposition, the abbreviated time allowed does make for snappier, more enjoyable storylines, overall.
I will admit to being concerned with McGoohan's prudishness, however: he explicitly insisted that guns not be used and 'no fooling around with women'!! 8-[
(although forearmed with this knowledge it could make it interesting to see how the writers, and his character, got around this 'handicap'!) :-k

karmajuice
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:02 am

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#77 Post by karmajuice » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:52 pm

I should mention that the screenplay is unproduced. Being a silent screenplay, it consists almost entirely of description and reads rather like a short story. As one would expect from Gorey, it's often funny and pushes the tropes of the genre to silly extremes, but it's also completely sincere and at times wonderfully enigmatic. The book is hardcover and the interview is almost as long as the screenplay. It also has illustrations of the costumes described in the climactic, Judex-inspired masquerade.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#78 Post by MichaelB » Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:51 am

Yojimbo wrote:I will admit to being concerned with McGoohan's prudishness, however: he explicitly insisted that guns not be used and 'no fooling around with women'!
...which is why he wasn't cast as James Bond, despite being a clear front-runner - and a much more obvious candidate than Sean Connery.

User avatar
Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#79 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Feb 15, 2011 10:51 am

MichaelB wrote:
Yojimbo wrote:I will admit to being concerned with McGoohan's prudishness, however: he explicitly insisted that guns not be used and 'no fooling around with women'!
...which is why he wasn't cast as James Bond, despite being a clear front-runner - and a much more obvious candidate than Sean Connery.
Yeah, the Bond films just wouldn't be the same without 'the Bond girls'! :lol:

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#80 Post by Calvin » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:43 am

Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse is getting a Blu-Ray upgrade on September 24th

User avatar
JPJ
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:23 am

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#81 Post by JPJ » Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:22 am

Calvin wrote:Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse is getting a Blu-Ray upgrade on September 24th
Release of the year for me.Thank you MOC!

BrokenFace
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:34 pm

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#82 Post by BrokenFace » Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:25 am

Now I don't know what to do. I have the original Eureka DVDs of the first two Mabuse films. Have long been meaning to upgrade to the box for the 3rd film & the booklet/extras. But now there's a separate blu-ray of Testament. Confusing!

User avatar
JPJ
Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:23 am

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#83 Post by JPJ » Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:48 am

BrokenFace wrote:Now I don't know what to do. I have the original Eureka DVDs of the first two Mabuse films. Have long been meaning to upgrade to the box for the 3rd film & the booklet/extras. But now there's a separate blu-ray of Testament. Confusing!
Sell your car and just buy'em all,MOC deserves support.

User avatar
matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#84 Post by matrixschmatrix » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:43 pm

This will be the third copy of Mabuse I own simultaneously- I wish I knew if there were blus coming of the other two, so I'd feel ok about letting the box go.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#85 Post by swo17 » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:45 pm

Not much help but:
Are you going to be releasing the other two Mabuse films on Blu Ray too?
MoC Twitter wrote:No immediate plans, I'm afraid.

User avatar
TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#86 Post by TMDaines » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:55 pm

This is going to be one of those occasions, where if Criterion released it on Blu-ray I'd probably snap it up as there's a lot of extras on there that aren't in the MoC box, but as there's nothing really new here I'm probably going to wait for a great price, since it's not a film I'm completely mad about and I couldn't really sell the old copy at this stage.

User avatar
What A Disgrace
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:34 pm
Contact:

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#87 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:06 pm

I want the MoC Blu-ray, since the Kalat commentary is apparently different from the Kalat commentary on the Criterion (which I already have), but I'm very disappointed that this film is the only one out of the box in which there are plans to upgrade.

If there are no plans to upgrade the others, they should at least be released separate from the box.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#88 Post by Calvin » Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:19 pm

I'm guessing that HD materials just aren't available for Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler and Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse because, if there were, I doubt MoC would just upgrade Testament. If you look at the boxset, Gambler and 1000 Eyes are "new, officially licenced transfer[s] from restored materials" while Testament is a "new, officially licenced high-definition transfer from restored materials".

User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#89 Post by Drucker » Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:29 pm

Would Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler need to come from FWMS? I haven't seen the film so don't know if it comes from there...but perhaps that could be the reason no HD is available for that film?

User avatar
eerik
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:53 pm
Location: Estonia

Re: 089-091 The Fritz Lang Mabuse Box

#90 Post by eerik » Wed May 02, 2012 3:06 am

Nick's twitter:
I've responded to folk numerous times about the COMPLETE MABUSE box not being upgraded to Blu-ray. Which is very unlikely to happen. TESTAMENT was available singly from Eureka before the MoC Series existed, and they've had HD materials for years. So it made sense.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#91 Post by swo17 » Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:20 am

Full details are now available for the DF upgrade of Testament. It looks like the only difference (other than the film being in HD) is that the booklet will be 20 pages longer, including writings by Lotte H. Eisner and Fritz Arno Wagner. Also, the excerpts of vintage interviews with Fritz Lang are now described as being "substantial," if that means anything.


User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#93 Post by MichaelB » Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:44 am

I'm very happy to endorse that - the transfer looks fabulous. Allowances for age obviously have to be made, but fewer than you might expect.

One thing I've never understood, though, is this implication that I've encountered in quite a few reviews that scripting commentaries in advance is somehow a bad thing (the use of the word "but"). Obviously, it's great if you're a natural raconteur like John Waters and you actually made the film, but I'd actually be more reassured if a critical commentary had been scripted in advance than otherwise.

User avatar
Finch
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: Edinburgh, UK

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#94 Post by Finch » Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:15 pm


User avatar
Der Spieler
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#95 Post by Der Spieler » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:54 pm

Looks like a fair upgrade to me.

Will buy now.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#96 Post by tenia » Sat Sep 29, 2012 4:39 pm

Just watched Dr Mabuse, and found the picture to be not so clean (I expected a bit better).

It has visually all the defects you usually expect from a BD of a 30s movie, but I thought that many white speckles and scratches are typically stuff that would have been cleaned if the movie was from a major studio.

The audio track is also not in a very good shape and many sequences sound like you listen to the movie through an electric fan. The burning at the end of the movie, with all the fire trucks sirens, makes it extremely noticeable, but it's something you can also hear around the 25th minute, during the discussion at the coffee shop.

User avatar
EddieLarkin
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#97 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:26 pm

For about 10 minutes it was really bugging me why David Kalat sounds so friggin' weird on the Testament Blu-ray commentary, when I realised it's because when he recorded this back in 2009, he had to do so to the slightly shorter 25fps DVD! They've slowed him down now to match the correct 24fps on the Blu. I never thought I had an ear for these sort of things (never really encountered a PAL DVD I've had a problem with, or indeed slowed down NTSC DVDs like Alexanderplatz), but I guess I'm so familiar with Kalat's voice I immediately realised something was up. I popped the DVD in and all was well.

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#98 Post by peerpee » Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:56 pm

Maybe he recorded them to NTSC, they were sped up to PAL for the DVDs in 2009, and you think this is what he sounds like normally? Maybe the Blu-ray brought it back down to "normal Kalat"? :)

User avatar
EddieLarkin
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#99 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:31 pm

I had only days before got through his epic der Spieler commentary, so maybe you're right! Either way, I prefer 25fps Kalat to 24fps Kalat!

User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: 89-91 / BD 43 The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Boxset

#100 Post by Drucker » Tue Apr 30, 2013 9:34 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:I had only days before got through his epic der Spieler commentary, so maybe you're right! Either way, I prefer 25fps Kalat to 24fps Kalat!
Funny, my father always had the pitch shifted up just a hint on his turntable when I was a kid, and I always heard music just a tone higher than it was meant to be heard.

Post Reply