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Hey! You think a thread on Sternberg would provide a safe respite from thinking about how Labor committed electoral suicide through self-loathing induced political incompetence.

It's a pity that I don't see much chance of Paramount saying yes to Kino* Blu Sternberg - if they won't say yes to a brand who can maximise sales, why would they say yes to a brand whose business model goes for saturation. I look to Europe for hope (while nagging my library to grab this set).

Spring Hill, Brisbane -- which meant I had just as good a view for watching Labor's annihilation as anywhere in Sydney. As far as I can tell the only difference between the contempt felt for respective state governments is that in NSW the government is looked upon in fascinated horror - in QLD the government is ignored, blanked....we will wait and then we will vote. How federal Labor could think reminding us of these governments was a good idea just boggles the mind.

The sad thing is that out there somewhere Arbib, Howe, et al are arguing that they were right, just not right enough - that Abbot's success proves Australia is a right-wing country, that Labor should have shifted further to the right to capture the centre, and of course, that Rudd should have been replaced earlier. This is of course ignoring the fact that Labor's vote collapsed every time they shifted away from left-wing policies. Sadly, they're probably being rewarded right now -- otherwise Gillard/Labor would have to admit that their unctuous glazed stupidity destroyed a potentially ten year government within a couple of months.

The best we can hope for Labor to be dragged into decency by the Greens and Andrew Wilkie as they try and form a government.

A vague, weak attempt to staying on topic: my previous comment's * was going to refer to an argument that the spectacular improvement of Kino's quality control produced in shifting to blu-ray warrants a re-branding or distinct label to avoid being tarnished by their back catalogue's lack of quality control.


Bulimba declared: LNP 78 ALP 7.

david hare wrote:John, do you live in Sydney?

It was bad enough Rudd was the choice of the Labor machine, but at least the man had a few ideas. Of course he became Box Office poison the moment he suggested not supporting the deeply nasty pro-Israel lobby, suggested a tax on the fucking miners, and greatest error of all, divorced himself from the Faction Thugs who run the fucking Party. Did you read the little, buried story about Gillards "de Facto", his conflct of interest invovlement in the Property industry, his appointment to a Government sponsored contruction/building tendering entity, and his and Gillards smiling appearance at a "Friends of Zion" function in Melbourne just before she knifed Rudd. There's more filth here than you can shake a stick at.

You only have to look at Gillard's Lynchian, bizarre Oscar awards speech last night in which she THANKED Mark Arbib to simply reel at the sheer total moral bankruptcy. How could anyone vote for them any more. And I havent bothered to mention the toally evil demonziation of the "boat people". Maybe after March and their annihilation in NSW, the cancer that is Sussex St will go, and something will rise in its place. It will take a very long time, if ever.

Meantime we've got Greens and Indies. It's the best you've got.

On the upshot, the situation as is will wind up giving Greens and Indies more power. And maybe a minority government will be forced to have less crummy policies than a majority government would have.

david hare wrote:The real treat recently from the back passage was that new print of American Tragedy!

Christ you just reminded me I am delinquent in tweezing this, and it is now sitting on DVD waiting to be spun.

The situation with the von Blu's is depressing for sure, inasmuch as the road to A Deal for distribution seems almost hopelessly muddled by the pre-existing situation with crit, and a bummed veteran package producer like Issa Clubb who's been on deck putting out some of the most venerable CC packages for well over a decade, who no-one is going to want to appear to be walking over.

Or maybe not. In this dog eat dog business, and with Paramount on the boards as ultimate rightsholder, anything's up for grabs... if only at a very high and annoying price point.

Who'da thunk? Of all the Blu's of known classics coming out, they'd hit a stumbling block of a chiseling rightsholder-- a major studio at that-- for a SILENT FILM???? How many copies does paramount think are going to be flying out the door here? Sure it's Joe, and sure these are masterworks, but how many copies beyond a few hundred harrdcore directors, teachers, libraries, and fans like us, do they think are going to be pouring out into UPS and toppling off of store shelves in the coming months? They should simply be pleased at the opportunity for a decent deal and distribution with one of the two or three R1/USA labels that present an opportunity for real money, remove the packaging and production overhead from Paramount, and avoid the PD mire of labels like Grapevine or Vintage Film Buff.

Sheesh!

It's been an amazing turn around for Kino. I remember when somebody linked to this promising discussion of a re-release of Tarkovsky's Sacrifice http://bretwood.blogspot.com/2009/01/wo ... ifice.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , and I just thought it sounds nice, but they'll probably blow it - now I'd pre-order their next release.

I can't tell if Paramount are being petty, greedy, or stupid when it comes to licensing back catalogue - probably all three. That's partly why I think an overseas release of these films/telecines is now more likely: stubborn self-obsessed companies are more flexible about overseas matters - look at BBC licensing arrangements for one.

I know of Hodsdon, it would be an impressive feat to care about films in Brisbane and not know his work - but the closest I've coming to meeting him is nodding or saying hello, and then scratching my head in the background while people I know chat to him.

When it comes to Sussex St contempt I'll have to acquiese to you. I'm curious what happens in NSW if the opposition demonstrates that it is unworthy of government again - I imagine some Sydney wide brain snap.

Just caught footage of Alexander Downer crowing about this election - now I have to go cleanse myself.

Dave Kehr's take on the box set from the NY Times.

You guys are making me incedibly jealous with all this 'Thunderbolt' and 'American Tragedy' talk! This is fun stuff to read anyway...

Do you guys know if the sound in 'Thunderbolt' was planned from the start of production?

Jo cares about his sound design so very much in the later films that it's hard for me to imagine Jo's first sound experiments being anything less than fully realized and fascinating - your various cool and puzzled reactions to the film make me very interested indeed. Certainly the sound design in Blue Angel is wonderful, and that was made in conditions that must have been just as primitive, being Germany's first sound picture and all.

Maybe Jo needed a 'Thunderbolt' where he could experiment and find out what works or what doesn't? In fact, I think he himself says something along those lines in 'Chinese Laundry'.

Anyway, I've never seen any of his silents yet and I can't wait for tomorrow!

liam fennell wrote:Jo cares about his sound design so very much in the later films that it's hard for me to imagine Jo's first sound experiments being anything less than fully realized and fascinating - your various cool and puzzled reactions to the film make me very interested indeed. Certainly the sound design in Blue Angel is wonderful, and that was made in conditions that must have been just as primitive, being Germany's first sound picture and all.

While the conditions were certainly primitive, in 1930 Germany could look back on quite a few years of experimenting with sound film, even though UFA was slow to adopt it. In any case, "Der blaue Engel" certainly wasn't Germany's first sound picture, not even UFA's (that honour probably goes to Hanns Schwarz' "Melodie des Herzens" from 1929, a masterpiece which sadly today is practically unknown). An interesting article on the development of the German sound film is at filmportal.de (in German only, though).

So I guess Sternberg could look back on his own experiences with "Thunderbolt" and the expertise of the UFA staff when creating the indeed wonderful audio world of "Der blaue Engel".

thanks, didn't know that. I was just going by what Jo said in his autobio.

Makes sense though, 1930 is kind of late, now that I think of it.

david hare wrote:Although I frankly think Lang's use of sound in Testament of Dr Mabuse even more striking.

Partly because Lang understood early on (as many exploring the new sound technology did not) the benefit of silence within a sound film (an advantage the sound film has over a silent one.
And, David, thank goodness someone has finally made the BLUE ANGEL / MOROCCO comparison. Given the former's huge reputation I didn't understand why I fel somewhat disappointed by it when I first (finally) caught up with it. Too much expectation, possibly? Too much Jannings, not enough Dietrich? Certainly MOROCCO takes much the same themes and explores them far more subtly and with more nuance.

I do certainly agree Morocco is much more sophisticated. In addition to the ending, all the stuff at the beginning when Jo is setting the mood is just sublime as well; the marching drummers (first from the back of the line, then at the front) the people praying to Mecca, the hands tapping the finger cymbals...

Maybe not worht mentioning, but for some reason I have a certain fondness for the 'magic door' to Marlene's dressing room in Blue Angel. It's so primitive/unsophisticated, but it works for me - maybe because Jo is so deliberatly artificial as an artist in general.

liam fennell wrote:I do certainly agree Morocco is much more sophisticated. In addition to the ending, all the stuff at the beginning when Jo is setting the mood is just sublime as well; the marching drummers (first from the back of the line, then at the front) the people praying to Mecca, the hands tapping the finger cymbals...

I was also thinking of the characters. Lola-Lola is little more than a slut where Amy Jolly might be of easy virtue but finds it difficult to stay with a man she does not love no matter how comfortable her life. Menjou's Le Bessiere is an infinitely more complicated character (and not just in terms of urbanity) than Jannings' professor. His philosophical attitude near the end, when he realizes Amy is going to leave far more sophisticated than anything in BLUE ANGEL.
(I might have known this once & forgotten... did Sternberg have any say on the script for BA? Or was he just handed it?)

Box Set

The Last Command
The Docks of New York

Even in compromised form, Docks was probably my favorite American silent (dramatic) film .... (waiting for a sale price, but may have to bite the bullet). ;~}

I've been slowly going through this...and it's easily the release of the year for me.

Did anyone else think that Guy Maddin staged much of Archangel based on The Last Command? I couldn't help but chuckle at the flashback Russia scenes because they looked just like similar scenes in Archangel.

I have just watched the extras (makes the set even more worth it, I think), and I'm very tempted to see The Salvation Hunters. Is it worth it? The clips looks very good.

Maybe Salvation Hunters will appear as an extra on later Sternberg releases, a la Bucking Broadway on Stagecoach.

Perhaps if they can get Shanghai Express finally ironed out (I assume it's coming since Universal hasn't released it in R1 but have elsewhere), they can chuck it on as an extra. It really is worth seeking out, and it's in good condition too.

Well, there we have it: the first Criterion release to involve a member of Mission of Burma (Roger Miller, also of the Alloy Orchestra).

Anyone having trouble getting the menu to show on Docks? Works on the macbook, not on the Samsung blu.

Having seen Criterion's version, Docks of New York remains (possibly, maybe even likely) my favorite Hollywood film.

Underworld was phenomenal too. Wasn't as fond of Last Command when I last saw this (not at all recently) -- maybe my heart will soften towards it in this new version. ;~}

Have been watching the video essays included in the release and came across this interesting fact concerning the film that Sternberg made for Chaplin. The reason given why the film was destroyed was that Chaplin did not want to pay taxes on it, hence destroying the negative!

Was this a regular practice? It seems quite extreme to me! I wonder if this practice is one of the reasons why many silent films are lost to us?

Working my way through these beautiful transfers, revealing so much depth of field and gradient-layerings in the compositions, not to mention the thousand and one pieces of direction in so many individual shots will all of his extras in crowd scenes... loving it all intensely-- Bergstrom's essay, von's interview for Swedish television.

The one clunker of the set has got to be-- for me-- Tag's visual essay. To me, the most uninspired and flatlining stream-of consciousness meandering which reveals little about the films or von himself, and, instead, merely a certain modicum of insight into the way Tag thinks when he watches a beautifully photographed silent film made by a man whose decadence is beyond the realm of his own experience. I have profound respect for Tag, his work on Ford, Ophuls, and many others, but this fell flat... with the most painfully obvious comments whispered with an almost religious intensity.

With a body of work as exceptional as Tag's, I guess not getting personally rocked to the socks by all 100% of his efforts is only normal and quite expected. I just had high hopes, von being von, and Tag being Tag..

Mme Bergstrom knocked it out of the park as usual with her signature firm grasp, based on a lifetime of film obsession with all those that just happen to be my own personal faves. Vive la Bergstrom!

HerrSchreck wrote:Mme Bergstrom knocked it out of the park as usual with her signature firm grasp, based on a lifetime of film obsession with all those that just happen to be my own personal faves. Vive la Bergstrom!

I finally received my set yesterday and am just 'coming back' - because this whole set made me swoon just by LOOKING at it - from "Underworld" and that Bergstrom essay. And indeed, this might be the extra of the year. Wonderfully informative, great analysis, and it made me immediately want to grab "The Salvation Hunters" (which most likely would have been the best extra CC could have thought of for this set).

"Underworld" itself, which I didn't know before, is pretty impressive, too, but I think I let it sink in a bit before commenting on it. It's strange for me because I had seen "Thunderbolt" before it, and while that film is certainly less visually impressive (Sternberg being hampered by the demands of sound technology I guess), both played almost as twin pieces for me, with the later film expanding on the psychological aspects and 'insight' - the gangster who is 'good at heart' - which are already there in "Underworld", but not perhaps as pronounced as in "Thunderbolt". This only because of the foregoing discussion here, and as an expression of my liking of "Thunderbolt" at least on the level of narrative.