That's one bitter Last Emperor Espresso
I'm glad that unlike most DP Vittorio Storaro have fully embraced the digital HD medium. That being said, cropping the original aspect ratio for the films that he shot for DVD release is terrible. See the Criterion DVD release for The Last Emperor, VS approved version has been cropped and zoomed to fit 2.20:1 from it's original 2.35:1 to accommodate your HD TV sets of 1.78:1 AR. This is sacrilege. I know, I know, who I am to say this, it's more his work than mine (or ours - the fans and the viewing masses), but being a fan and one of the viewing masses, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, it has become a collectively shared, cherished aesthetic property. When others poke fun or scrutinizes the film, the fans are the first to champion the piece, therefore, there's a level of mutual responsibility by the film makers and the film fans to respect the original work of art on all levels. Star Wars shouldn't be retouched and re-shot with new scene 20 years later for the sake of commercial appeal to a new generation, screw the new generation! It won't mean as much to them as it means to the generation that first experienced it fresh. It's a different time, different social, political, economic culture; people think differently, no matter what you do to the film(s), it will be accepted, or rejected in a different manner under different times and situation. Secondly, if you (VS) really intended for the film to be 2.20:1 then why did you shoot in 2.35:1? Then you should have shot it in 2.20:1 or at least matted the 2.35:1 down to 2.20:1 for the theatrical projection. This is a bunch of BS, I was mad, but ok, I'll accept directors going back to old materials and editing in previously un-used scene(s), but DPs butchering the frame and composition to sell DVDs, forget it. I'm really sad that Bertolucci or even Criterion themselves gave no opposition to such an obviously anti-scholastic decision, especially since there are very few "decent" (even half-way decent) editions of this film available on DVD. Please see the screen shot comparison at http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/lastemperor.htm and you will see the extent of the damage. It's heart breaking because the transfer of the criterion is so amazing, as always. Dear Mr. Storaro, since you find it so easy, non-nonchalantly even, to defecate on your previous works, not just The Last Emperor (I've heard you also re-framed Apocalypse Now and Reds for DVD release), may I suggest not to waste other people's money and time, including community of fans and admirers of your work, first, acquire all remaining prints, including negatives, inter-positives, etc., of your work, and you will have an unlimited supply of floss for your teeth, so much so you can even sell your own brand of dental floss, dental hygiene is very important, and there's just too much money on the table for you to waste time with petty, drop-in-the-well, DVD releases. Perhaps your own brand of toilet paper. I wonder how brilliantly photographed film will feel on my ass; perhaps blissful,
please don't squeeze the Last Emperor can be your commercial tag line. Perhaps you can poke holes in it and make a coffee filter, espresso of course. Or baby diapers for your grand kids (or yourself in a few years), or perhaps recycle them to be reuse to film such modern classics as Meet the Spartans or any of the gems directed by Tyler Perry. Please use your imagination, oh...excuse me, you have obviously already filed bankruptcy in the imagination department.
Labels: Films on DVD
The Sun in My Eyes
About the Sun, I completely agree with Paul on his review of the Sun, however, where the movie failed for me was the absolute miscast by Sokurov to pick Robert Dawson as MacArthur. This was a tragic and a huge miscalculation on all fronts, and quite frankly, and amateurish mistake by a decent director. Having seen Moloch but not Taurus, the Sun being billed as part of Sokurov's "tetrology" about emperors, dictators, rulers, etc. (Moloch was about the dead-pan, social aspect, dissection of Eva Braun and Hitler). With all of his past flaws aside from past films, let me focus on the Sun. Robert Dawson is a decent man, I'm sure, trying hard to bust through the wall with his "big break", and by all means Sokurov handed him fastidiously MacArthur on a silver platter, couldn't have been better for Mr. Dawson. And most genuinely (potentially) great actors will come up on top and deliver; and there are also the other half of the acting population who are handed a "big break" and of course faded away like ice in water. I believe, sadly, Robert Dawson fits the bill of the latter. If you were to carefully comb through the credentials of Robert Dawson you will see that even as an extra, the films he appeared in as an extra in are third tier films. Films that you don’t just miss Dawson if you blink, they’re films of the caliber that if you blink and you forget everything about the entire film. Let’s play a game, I will now pretend to be Sokurov and review Mr. Dawson’s resume, what will be the one role that will convince me to give this heavy character of MacArthur to Dawson. The Competition, Richard Dreyfuss 1st attempt at a lead in a movie (Not in Close Encounters of the 3rd kind, I consider the SFX and the Aliens, and some degree Truffaut, as the leads), flanked by soon to be Mrs. Spielberg and Mrs. Ex-Spielberg, Amy Irving. Dawson, you played “Recorder Player” humm, ok, ok, that was you first officially gig, it’s ok, let move on. The Couch Trip, let me just sum this dismal masterpiece with the list of the lead cast, Dan Aykroyd, Walter Matthau, Charles Grodin, Donna Dixon, ok, let me stop before I become sick inside, you played “man at party.” Humm, let’s keep going. Your next one is a TV movie, lets save us both the embarrassment and skip that one. Ok, then we got, dear god, Fletch Lives, yes, that Fletch Lives, yes, that Chevy Chase, ok, same as the last one, let's just skim through it and see what catches our eyes, Class of Nuke’Em High, part II-Subhumanoid Meltdown no less, blah, blah, blah, meaningless TV film extra roles. Obscure B-movie roles, moving up from being extra, getting more meaty rol….oops, back as an extra as the Embassy Employee in The Card Player, then a lead role in a TV movie, then here we are, The Sun. The audition was phenomenal, astounding, ridiculously brilliant, or maybe Dawson came cheap and money was tight (money is always tight or Dawson just uses his tongue very well…so be the case, because in the end the movie is not entirely about the relationship with Hirohito and MacArthur (not entirely), however, Issei Ogata, didn’t come off the acting boat like Dawson, especially Edward Yang’s masterpiece Yi Yi: A One and a Two. For me is a matter of what both actors bring to the role, Ogata brought his A game, he had to, this was the Emperor of Japan we’re talking about, both prestige and stigma attached to the role, while Dawson brought what he has under his belt, Recorder Player, Man at Party…this singularity, is the discrediting factor of The Sun’s inability to move beyond meditations in caricature to a complex character study between two people that lead two nations through a war that neither men completely understood and to a certain extent; wanted involvement. Dawson’s weak link snapped the whole chain that is The Sun. In the end, Sokurov is as much to blame for such negligence as Dawson’s own acting. Movies like The Sun do not direct themselves. Check out Downfall, the German counterpart to The Sun, of course Hitler was a more well define evil of WWII, and in some ways easier to dissect than Hirohito (I feel a bit over done here by Bruno Ganz – ironically was considered for the part of Schindler in Schindler’s List – but I guess you have too be crazy and over the top to murder 8 million plus people). Hirohito is not so easily labeled as most of the outsiders of Japan (including other Asian countries that suffered under the cruelty of the Imperial Army that quickly dismisses Hirohito as guilty by association) have come to believe. I know a lot about Hirohito, and both side of the argument, my ancestry and hatred for the crimes of the Japanese Imperial Army of WWII refuses to give quarter to anything Japanese of WWII, in the same respect, the facts are so squeaked and manipulated to the point that I have very little confidence in Hirohito’s involvement or disengagement with the goings-on of the Pacific conflict to make a rational assessment; and who knows if the facts were manipulated to protect Hirohito from persecution, because if the embodiment of Japan was on trial for crimes against humanity, then all of Japan would also be sticking it’s head in the noose as well. But is responsibility and reconciliation such a bad thing? I don’t know, ask a German.
Final thought is only to say that The Sun, as Paul states, labors hard not to be a political podium to the viewers; but in the end, it can’t help but get involved into the political canvas, especially when you are speaking of Hirohito and MacArthur or else it will be a shoe seller trying to sell shoes without shoe strings…yeah…good luck with that, so I would personally believe that Sokurov should have spent more time with his actors and less time trying not to be political; or if he is insistent, may I suggests remaking Marie Antoinette? You can't get less meaningless or political as that. Sayonara, The Sun.
Labels: Parasite Reviews
