criterionforum.org

It's absolutely insane that a film of the importance of The Shanghai Gesture isn't available in 35mm. Apparently the George Eastman house is holding a 35 of it though from their own restoration. From a retrospec of Joe at the Museum of the Moving Image, Program Notes:

The Shanghai Gesture
Saturday, October 7, 4:00 p.m.
1941, 106 mins. 35mm print from George Eastman House. With Gene Tierney, Walter Huston. In this delirious thriller, a Shanghai madam blackmails a British official who tries to close her brothel.

Then from the Silent Movie Theater summer 2008 prog:

Legendary director Josef von Sternberg isrenowned for his critically praised, sensi-tive films offering insight into the delicatemale-female dynamic. The Shanghai Gesture is not one of them. Shot mostly whilethe director was laid up flat on his backin pain, this wonderfully overheated 1941melodrama follows the misadventures ofpretty Poppy (Gene Tierney), who slidesinto the booze and gambling world ofShanghai, thanks to the unholy influenceof Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson, sport-ing some of funniest hairdos in Hollywoodhistory), while her estranged dad (WalterHuston) tries to intervene. This dream-like orgy of art deco excess, quotable juicydialogue and surreal plotting offers onecompulsive guilty pleasure after another,showing exactly where Kenneth Anger gotmost of his ideas. For years this was con-sidered an embarrassment for the director,but its avid cult following growing everyyear would certainly argue otherwise. Restored 35mm printof The Shanghai Gesture courtesy of George East-man HouseLATE SHOW

So there is hope....

Ick - Orbit Media! Thanks for saving me seven quid.

From the Films Sans Frontieres ANATAHAN:











Interestingly, the DVD opens with a text screen apologising for the fixed French subtitles (and their occasional illegibility, being at times white-on-white), but stating that in view of the film's rarity, they'd rather present it as is than not at all.

There's also a FSF SHANGHAI GESTURE, but I doubt whether it's any better than other versions on the market.

Here is the schedule for the BFI Southbank (London) von Sternberg retrospective in December.

An Illustrated introduction by John Baxter - 1 Dec 18:10

The Salvation Hunters - 2 Dec 18:20; 3 Dec 18:30

Underworld - 2 Dec 20:20; 4 Dec 18:20

Children of Divorce - 3 Dec 18:30; 5 Dec 18:20 [showing with the surviving fragment of The Case of Lena Smith]

The Last Command - 5 Dec 20:30; 15 Dec 18:20

The Docks of New York - 6 Dec 16:15; 12 Dec 18:10

(all the above silents will have live piano accompaniment)

Thunderbolt - 6 Dec 18:20; 14 Dec 20:40

The Blue Angel - 6 Dec 20:45; 7 Dec 20:45; 10 Dec 18:30; 16 Dec 14:30 [German version, as it's listed as being subtitled]

Morocco - 4 Dec 20:45; 5 Dec 16:15; 9 Dec 20:50; 13 Dc 16:20

An American Tragedy - 8 Dec 18:30; 13 Dec 20:40

Dishonored - 8 Dec 20:45; 20 Dec 18:20

Blonde Venus - 9 Dec 18:30; 16 Dec 20:45

Shanghai Express - 1 Dec 20:30; 12 Dec 20:30; 13 Dec 18:30

The Scarlet Empress - 8 Dec 14:30; 10 Dec 20:45; 16 Dec 18:30

Crime and Punishment - 15 Dec 20:40; 19 Dec 18:20

The Devil is a Woman - 18 Dec 18:30; 21 Dec 20:30 [showing with short The Fashion Side of Hollywood]

The King Steps Out - 18 Dec 20:40; 20 Dec 16:20

Sergeant Madden - 20 Dec 20:15; 29 Dec 18:20

The Shanghai Gesture - 21 Dec 18:10; 27 Dec 15:50

Macao - 22 Dec 18:30; 30 Dec 20:40

Jet Pilot - 22 Dec 20:40; 23 Dec 18:10 [new print]

The Saga of Anatahan - 28 Dec 18:20; 29 Dec 20:40

The Epic That Never Was - 23 Dec 20:40; 30 Dec 18:20 [showing with short film The Town]

Man, a double feature of Macao and Jet Pilot on December 22 would just be about the most fun you could be having that day

If you're in London, for my sake, don't miss Docks of New York. I missed it at a Sydney showing a few years back and have always regretted it. I saw The Blue Angel in the german-language version at the same and it was quite magical.

Aside from that french release, is there any other dvd edition of Anatahan? I've been curious to watch this movie.

Does anyone have the Spanish DVD of Crime and Punishment? How's it look?

Perkins Cobb wrote:Does anyone have the Spanish DVD of Crime and Punishment? How's it look?

Like this:









...in a word-- magnificent. A very good film, too. Some have mixed feelings, I think it's great.

"Crime and Punishment" indeed is an indispensible film, and I tend to regard it as the best Peter Lorre performance ever. Absolutely amazing how Sternberg manages to condense the endless pages of Dostoevsky's novel into a film that with only 80 minutes feels pitch perfect. Dark and brooding and not to be missed.

While it's obvious vonS didn't have the budget to work with that he had with the Paramount films, this is a hugely under-rated film. I DVDRed it from TCM earlier this year & I'll have to check that against the screen caps. My impression at the time was that I'd never seen it look so good... but then I hadn't seen it in possibly 30 years (& on TV, meaning it was probably a 16mm with all the deficiencies that implies). Some images, such as the shot of the graduating students look as though vonS had been possessed by the ghost of Paul Leni, but there are other images (such as the one in your first screen cap, Herr Schreck) that are pure Sternberg.
Much as I love the Sternberg/Dietrich collaborations, I find it regrettable that vonS's reputation with most people rests on them because CRIME AND PUNISHMENT and AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY are not easily available.

In fact I'd recommend Starcafe over fnac.es: they have good rates and their shipping is somewhat cheaper than fnac.es. Plus, their interface is english-friendly.

Luckly the shipping to Portugal it's not expensive If anyone needs help with the spanish just ask

Shanghai Gesture to be the first Sternberg film to receive the Blu treatment courtesy of Wilde Side in 2011.

Oh, yes. This has been my favorite, tied with Blonde Venus, since I was introduced. Even by von Sternberg's standards it feels like it came from an other planet. Even more so than his actual silent movies the climax feels like something only that era could produce. I just hope this Blu is actually good. What's Wilde Side's track record.

Gesture, despite it's-- again, for me-- narrative predictability (does you-know-who, playing an unusually bratty, hi-volume part, turning out to be

Spoiler

Huston's daughter

really surprise anyone?) is a really fabulous film that constitutes Joe's last carefully modulated studio project that hits the same thematic and visual marks that the early Paramount films ooze in spades. I don't quite put it all the way up there with the best of his silents or the Marlene films like Empress, Express, Venus, Morocco, or Devil Izza, but it sure comes damned close.

After the big global letdown-- a major nostril-blow into the gutter of disappointment-- of the CC silents set being without exception non Blu (not even DOCKS which looks astronomically well and is a huge favorite among fans), and with still with nary a whisper about Shanghai Express which was supposed to be on the docket for 2009, according the guarded whispers floating around the back alleys of cine-rumor, which itself would be pure visual orgasm in Blu.. hell any of those paramount titles would be pure visual orgasm in blu), Gesture is without question a nice consolation prize, and a decent enough start in getting this man's work out on blu.

I mean he's only like y'know, perhaps the director with the finest, and most acutely virtuoso visual sensibility in the whole of the sound era... at least the golden age of the big studios.

HerrSchreck wrote:I mean he's only like y'know, perhaps the director with the finest, and most acutely virtuoso visual sensibility in the whole of the sound era... at least the golden age of the big studios.

The other night TCM ran MOROCCO and I sat and actually watched it again (as opposed to having it on in the bsckground while I did other things). I was struck by the audacity of his essentially stopping the movie dead for that prayer sequence (after the legionnaires arrive back in town) which was no more than an excuse to capture the play of light and shadow on their white burnooses as they knelt, bowed and otherwise moved about under the trellis.

I'll admit my love of Gesture is basically only because it is so god damned pretty. It has the power of a feast in it's abaility to fill one up. It might also be the only time where the visual by itself, with no context to the story or the other visuals around it brought tears to my eyes. That has to be one of the greatest accomplishments possible

HerrSchreck wrote: I mean he's only like y'know, perhaps the director with the finest, and most acutely virtuoso visual sensibility in the whole of the sound era... at least the golden age of the big studios.

With no doubt. While there may have been better directors in Hollywood, no one ever has made a better Hollywood picture. He understood the style that only Hollywood can accomplish better than any other director.

The wonderful documentary on I, Claudius, titled The Epic That Never Was, narrated by Dirk Bogarde and with the remaining original footage, is a supplement on the BBC release of I, Claudius box set.

Felix wrote:The wonderful documentary on I, Claudius, titled The Epic That Never Was, narrated by Dirk Bogarde and with the remaining original footage, is a supplement on the BBC release of I, Claudius box set.

I watched this last night, first time I'd seen it since it was broadcast, back in the early 60s I guess, when I were a bairn. After so long it was amazing to see how well I remembered it (that evocative opening tracking shot through the gates to the mansion stuck in my brain all that time).

Really, I cannot recommend this highly enough, even if you do have to buy the whole box set (which goes fairly cheap BTW and was more than fairly good BTW, despite the usual BBC budgetary constraints). What you get is the story behind the film introduced and spoken by Dirk Bogarde, with shots of the abandoned mansion which was the HQ for the shoot. there are interviews with most of the main players, including two with JVS, and then there are the wonderful rushes, some of them final takes ("cut and print it"). Probably about 30-40 minutes footage in a 70 minute documentary. There is one beautfiul shot of Merle Oberon, for all the world looking like Dietrich, breathtakingly beautiful. Some extended sequences of Laughton as Claudius including the key speech in the Senate after he is offered the Emperorship and in which he is superb. Beautiful sets and lighting by Perrinal (but it is JVS lighting as usual).

JVS is very honest about the difficulties of working with Laughton but offers fulsome praise of his ability to give him what he wanted (especially in one scene shown where he arrives at the Senate), but the actor who played Caligula was equally honest in his view that Oberon's accident which curtailed the filming was a godsend given the relationship between Laughton and JVS.

Worth seeing by anybody but essential for any fan of Von Sternberg, I am astonished that it has not been discussed here before, I am assuming that is because of the documentary's obscurity (I'd never have known if I had not seen it first time round and went looking for it online).

For those of you in NYC, BAM is doing a complete Dietrich-Von Sternberg retro starting April 4th All titles shown on 35mm.

Robert Thanks for the tip...I immediately bought some tickets. Seeing the manic, opulent and insane Scarlet Empress on a big screen is too much to miss.

So a relative of mine recorded Thunderbolt for me several months ago off of TCM, but he wound up erasing it before he could get it to me over the holidays.

With that in mind, anybody else record it or know where I can see it? I'm hoping the TCM broadcast at least had a decent quality transfer to show.

EDIT: Never mind, archive.org has a copy (sloppily re-named "At the Gates of Death" - just wait for the title card). French subtitles and a bluish tint, but watchable.

Wonderful, promising news, the very rarely screened Anatahan is not only showing at Metrograph, it is a "2K restoration performed by Kino Lorber, in association with the Library of Congress and Lobster Films, working from the original camera negative and other 35mm elements provided by the Estate of Josef von Sternberg and the Cinematheque Française."

The film has only been available in abysmal public domain transfers, and I've avoided seeing it for that reason even though it has been championed by some critics. (I'm almost certain most critics in general have never seen it due to its obscurity.)

If a 2k restoration from more or less the OCN is now available, a BD is surely a strong possibility.

hearthesilence wrote:Wonderful, promising news, the very rarely screened Anatahan is not only showing at Metrograph, it is a "2K restoration performed by Kino Lorber, in association with the Library of Congress and Lobster Films, working from the original camera negative and other 35mm elements provided by the Estate of Josef von Sternberg and the Cinematheque Française."

The film has only been available in abysmal public domain transfers, and I've avoided seeing it for that reason even though it has been championed by some critics. (I'm almost certain most critics in general have never seen it due to its obscurity.)

If a 2k restoration from more or less the OCN is now available, a BD is surely a strong possibility.

An account of the 1975-76 restoration of the film appears in Anthony Slide's Nitrate Won't Wait. Part of the account is readable in this Google Books page. I suppose the question is, which version does this digital restoration conform to? The original 1953 release or the 1958 revision that the 1976 restoration eventually chose with Mrs. von Sternberg's guidance?

Then again, there appears to be at least one more version of the film that replaces von Stenberg's narration with that of a Japanese boy, in broken English. This comes from an examination of the film's production history.