1235 Happiness

[domino harvey]

TK

[domino harvey]

From non-anamorphic DVD to UHD— quite a leap! Kinda shocked this one got the Criterion treatment given the current climate, but I guess a lot of Film Twitter types have probably never even seen this so… that will be fun

[beamish14]

Really glad that Dylan Baker continues to be proud of this film. It is a truly once-in-a-generation work that would be impossible to make today. Just perfection

[mfunk9786]

“Long overdue” doesn’t even do it justice

[pzadvance]

Just to further demonstrate how meaningless the term “Film Twitter” is, my feed has been filled with nothing but enthusiastic posts celebrating this release. Looking forward to finally experiencing this film, I’ve been putting it off in the hopes of an upgrade for years

[Rupert Pupkin]

I have rewatched the movie yesterday, but in 1:33; more on top and bottom but cropped on the left and right. I was surprised to see that the movie will be in 1:85; I saw the trailer and screenshots on Criterion web site page and wonder if the movie was intended at some point to be in 1:33; because all the apartment/corridor sequences are almost like Shining with this 1:33 which emphasize the looniness; and the movie becomes more frightening, cruel, but fair, and... funny.
For instance the sexy brunette, Helen Jordan, you won't see her legs in the upcoming Criterion ratio.
I thought that this 1:33 ratio worked damned good with all the Philipp Seymour Hoffman scene and all the scenes in the apartment; even the opening scene in the restaurant. Or the shrink scene with Philipp's character.
Thus I highly expect this sunrising 4K release (wow!) and the correct ratio.
I remember the poor thing - Jane Adams - in the restaurant scene has no luck in a date in "Little Children" (by the way I think this movie deserve a Criterion release; very interesting). This is like Short Cuts but a-la Todd Solondz's sauce.

[domino harvey]

I imagine they shot to protect for eventual full frame TV airings

[Rupert Pupkin]

I imagine they shot to protect for eventual full frame TV airings

Well, it turned out that this protected frame for TV screenings turned out to be like "accidents never happened" because it just maximized a tension a-la Shining like "something will going wrong", etc...
Loneliness, sexual tension, etc... that works well in 1:33, it's almost more suffocating. I'm curious to see it in the right-correct ratio.
What was the DVD ? 1:85 too ?

[domino harvey]

Yep, it was 1.85 non-anamorphic

[Rupert Pupkin]

Yep, it was 1.85 non-anamorphic

I will check my DVD then; it's odd that it's in 1:33 what I would call even so an open matte (= more on top and bottom; cropped on the left/right sides); a bit like the first S.Kubrick DVDs by Warner.

[cdnchris]

Not sure when this happened, but Criterion is now also releasing a DVD edition for this. The original announcement was Blu-ray and 4K only.

[ryannichols7]

Not sure when this happened, but Criterion is now also releasing a DVD edition for this. The original announcement was Blu-ray and 4K only.

someone mainline me a list of libraries that are buying this, respect

[tenia]

Which makes me suddenly wonder : I realised recently that Criterion seems to have reduced doing DVD releases, and since they were, from what I understood, aimed at libraries, have libraries greatly reduced purchasing Criterion DVDs ? Have they updated to BD ?
Edit : I might be dreaming that, many New Releases have DVD releases.

[soundchaser]

Not the system I work for. We're still DVD-only. (I realize that's one anecdote in a sea of many data.)

[CSM126]

Beaverness

[ryannichols7]

I watched Welcome to the Dollhouse in 2013 and promised to get to Solondz' other films back then, waiting to hold on for a better copy of Happiness. obviously its finally here, and I almost revisited Dollhouse before jumping in here but I didn't wanna wait any longer. I don't usually break up movies into two halves but I did here unintentionally and I sorta regret it - my stopping point was the second Kristina/Allen interaction, for reference. stopping there I was convinced based on the first half this was gonna be a total masterpiece and maybe my new favorite American film of the 1990s. the second half is still good don't get me wrong but for me it kinda lost some of the energy of the first half. the big thing for me is that I didn't find the movie nearly as shocking or awkward as others make it out to be - Bill Maplewood scenes aside of course (though those were remarkably well done). I think had I watched this as a teenager, I would've been repulsed by it, but as an adult I feel like I was able to grasp the movie a whole lot more, and I would actively go out of my way to argue the movie is nowhere near as unsettling as people make it out to be. the issues confronted here all seem genuinely very real and very adult (again, maybe Bill and Kristina aside) and all the kind of thing people have go on in their lives but don't want to talk about. it's a very honest, unflinching film and it's all the better for it and really quite beautiful in its own way, but I'm also someone who considers Gummo to largely be a beautiful film too..

thoughts on second half, definitely have to spoiler:

Spoiler

where it started to lose me was the scenes of Joy and Vlad. I thought Joy was tremendously well written and Jane Adams played her so incredibly - she captured that wispy sense of longing that's kinda hard to pull off without leaning overly twee or cutesy. Vlad being played by a British actor obviously doing a fake accent was lame enough, but I thought that entire plot for Joy was pretty weak and so below her character - she just gets robbed and goes along with it? and that's kinda it for her story? I thought she deserved better than that. I did enjoy seeing Lenny realizing he can't feel anything at all anymore, especially given my own grandparents around that age are basically the exact same way. as noted before, as unsettling as Bill Maplewood's scenes are, I thought they were very well done and Dylan Baker absolutely knocked it out of the park, as did the kid who played Billy.

but by far the best thing about the second half and it's not even a contest was Allen, who I think may go up there with Lancaster Dodd in my personal Philip Seymour Hoffman pantheon performances. at first I thought his scene at the diner with Kristina (where he maybe says five words) was my all time new favorite scene involving him, but then Solondz immediately follows it with the riotous scene in Helen's apartment. I was howling laughing and pretty blown away by how good Hoffman was in these scenes. also, did anyone kinda get a George Costanza feel from these two scenes? Seinfeld was so big at the time, it almost felt like Solondz was doing an "anything you can do, I can do better" thing there, and he absolutely nailed it. Allen, Joy (in the first half), and Bill were definitely the highlights of the movie for me

I have to say I was surprised the movie kinda in a way sets up the sequel, as if Solondz kinda had that planned (and I'm sure I'll learn via the special features whether it was or not) from the get go. I've owned Life During Wartime since 2013 and will finally give it a spin possibly as soon as tonight, though I know it's a very loose sequel. the way the movie has very little resolution at all is kinda admirable, but I do admit I wish I was a little more satisfied by what we got towards the end. I'll continue to watch Solondz's films (I'll probably wait for this possible new 4K of Palindromes), I think one of them is really going to land with me, but I'll say I'm quite surprised this one wasn't the one.

Criterion's image quality was revelatory, I obviously never watched the old DVD but I felt it was really worth the wait. there were some serious moments of beauty here, it's overall a very pleasant looking film in spite of the content! haven't gotten to the two interviews yet but I really wish they'd gotten Jane Adams or literally anyone else to sit down and talk about this - even James Schaumus would've been a great get. also amusing Universal did not slap their logo on at the beginning of the film like they usually do for all the pre-1946 Paramount films they own, they clearly don't wanna be associated with Happiness but...it really wasn't that bad? maybe a hot take? I think the main reason the film is so effective is because it goes out of its way to not show anything at all. last point: as a huge, lifelong R.E.M. song I don't think "Happiness" is all that good a song at the end unfortunately, had never heard it and always insisted I'd wait to watch this movie. all well, I still really liked it, but I guess I had higher expectations