03-13-2019, 02:26 PM
The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)
One of the latter Technicolor films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ('The Archers'), once again restored in blazing 4K thanks to Martin Scorsese. It's a pretty faithful adaptation of Offenbach's opera, with the medium of film allowing the best Ballet dancers, to be dubbed with the best Opera singers. The spectacular colour production design, editing tricks and imaginative studio-based filming was something I could admire but not fully enjoy because I just don't get Ballet. A sort of live-action equivalent to Disney's 'Fantasia'.
It was the late George A. Romero's favourite film and this video has him discussing it with great enthusiasm:
Bitter Lake (2015)
Another BBC essay by British Documentary maker Adam Curtis. The subject this time is primarily the sad history of Afghanistan and the way countries like the UK, the USA, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia have used it as a sandbox to play out proxy wars and conduct economic experiments. The long and damaging military alliances between Saudi Arabia and the US/UK are also explored. Curtis delivers less voice-over narration than usual and instead relies on increasingly abstract footage to make his points, from comedies like 'Carry on up the Khyber', to Sci-Fi like Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Solaris'. Much of the factual news footage is picked to demonstrate the almost comic cultural disconnect between the Afghans and the various interlopers.
'Bitter Lake' is on YouTube but it occasionally contains footage of killings and torture, so be warned:
One of the latter Technicolor films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger ('The Archers'), once again restored in blazing 4K thanks to Martin Scorsese. It's a pretty faithful adaptation of Offenbach's opera, with the medium of film allowing the best Ballet dancers, to be dubbed with the best Opera singers. The spectacular colour production design, editing tricks and imaginative studio-based filming was something I could admire but not fully enjoy because I just don't get Ballet. A sort of live-action equivalent to Disney's 'Fantasia'.
It was the late George A. Romero's favourite film and this video has him discussing it with great enthusiasm:
Bitter Lake (2015)
Another BBC essay by British Documentary maker Adam Curtis. The subject this time is primarily the sad history of Afghanistan and the way countries like the UK, the USA, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia have used it as a sandbox to play out proxy wars and conduct economic experiments. The long and damaging military alliances between Saudi Arabia and the US/UK are also explored. Curtis delivers less voice-over narration than usual and instead relies on increasingly abstract footage to make his points, from comedies like 'Carry on up the Khyber', to Sci-Fi like Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Solaris'. Much of the factual news footage is picked to demonstrate the almost comic cultural disconnect between the Afghans and the various interlopers.
'Bitter Lake' is on YouTube but it occasionally contains footage of killings and torture, so be warned:
![[+]](https://forums.fanedit.org/images/focus/collapse_collapsed.png)