Dziga
Vertov: The Man With The Movie Camera and other newly-restored works
(1924 - 1934/Flicker Alley Blu-ray)/Magician:
The Astonishing Life & Work Of Orson Welles
(2014/Cohen Media Blu-ray)/Smiling
Through The Apocalypse: Esquire in The 60s
(2014/First Run DVD)
Picture:
B/B-/C+ Sound: B-/B-/C Extras: B/C/C+ Films: B+/B/B
Now
for some must-see documentaries, including some classics whose
qualifications as such us debatable...
Dziga
Vertov: The Man With The Movie Camera and other newly-restored works
(1924 - 1934) features five films by the highly successful Soviet
Propagandist who happened to be a fine filmmaker along with Sergei
Eisenstein in the early years of Soviet Cinema. The
Man With The Movie Camera
(1929) is the centerpiece here, an international hit that celebrates
the possibilities and excitement of the film camera in
self-reflective ways that are meant to play like a documentary
(showing the 'social realities' of the world) but is obviously staged
and has camera and editing tricks it revels in as much as it
self-reflection. Some consider this the greatest documentary ever,
but I'm not so sure despite how effective it is.
The
cameraman (Vertov) is actually being followed by another cameraman,
making him the subject to some as a way to further hype the world of
cinema (then so new) and its possibilities. However, this is as much
a Soviet propaganda work as anything from explicit celebrations of
'socialism' to montage editing that suggests people become one and
one with new 'technology' (cameras and factory machines, which are
also presented as equivalent in the film) to produce a strong bounty
so the 'oppressed workers' will never go without again.
Known
for promotion the kino-pravda or film truth, the film unfortunately
was an influence on Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi Propaganda films (which
expand on (and steal) some shots and scenes from this particular
film) but also just a film with such energy that once it gets
started, it never stops. You see women doing jobs you would not see
them doing in other societies (especially the United States, which is
the point, even if these women never
had these jobs in the USSR) continuing the myth of progress, one that
is more obviously a myth on the 25th
anniversary of the collapse of the USSR.
Also
included here are two more silent films, Kino-Eye
(1924, 78 minutes) and Kino-Pravda
(1925, 23 minutes) that are the precursors to Camera
(68 minutes) and two sound films, Enthusiasm:
Symphony Of The Donbass
(1931, 66 minutes) in an early sound film featuring machine sounds,
et al and Three
Songs Of Lenin
(1934, 59 minutes) which deals with the death of Lenin as a founder
and the
main figure of liberating the oppressed with some footage of him when
he was alive (a few parts where we hear his voice) and in a way
resurrects him as a way to say he is still alive because the
oppressed are somehow no longer. The true intent is sadly revealed
in the final shot when Stalin shows up smiling, about to begin his
murderous reign of terror. You should see all five films.
A
thick booklet of Flicker Alley's usual scholarly calibre is included,
though we are counting the four additional films as extras since they
cannot be part of the title of the release.
Chuck
Workman's Magician:
The Astonishing Life & Work Of Orson Welles
(2014) runs 94 minutes, but does a fine job of covering the life and
creative work of Welles, going beyond Citizen
Kane,
showing his great radio work, his early triumphs, his political work,
how he continued as an artist and filmmaker, then also shows his
problems, difficulties and conflicts in being ahead of his time and
ticking off one too many people who wanted to get rid of him. The
classic interviews are great, including with him, plus we get many
new fine comments and other facts and rare footage throughout.
Workman
is really good at this and he does not fail to show hi9m as a man
ahead of his time and create a discourse that shows him as a master
of all the arts and not just film or stage. Hard as it may to
believe, Welles' legacy is not as solid and solidly known as it ought
to be at this point, so this will turn out to be a much more
important volume than those who know, know of and love Welles might
expect. Another must0see release we highly recommend.
Extras
include a nicely illustrated booklet on the film with a little text,
while the Blu-ray adds an Original Theatrical Trailer and an
on-camera interview with Workman by the underrated Annette Insdorf.
Last
but not least is Tom Hayes' Smiling
Through The Apocalypse: Esquire in The 60s
(2014), a profile of the magazine, Americana, publishing and his
groundbreaking publisher/writer father Harold T.P. Hayes, took the
successful 1940s hit magazine and made it even more groundbreaking in
the decades to come until he left decades later. Through vintage
stills, some film clips, great interviews (one of which also appeared
in a recent Muhammad Ali documentary), many magazine covers and new
interviews, we see how bold, literate and incredible the
once-oversized magazine was and why it has the legendary reputation
it has.
Director
Hayes also gives us much about his family and that includes more
pictures and film clips, telling us about himself and the time in the
process. This runs a long 97 minutes, but it is rich and worth your
time. Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Benton, Candice Bergen, Hugh Hefner
and many of the people who were there are also featured.
Extras
include Extended Interview clips with Nora Ephron, Gore Vidal and Gay
Talese.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image on all
five films on Vertov
have been as restored as possible, but Camera
is by far the vest looking and it is amazing for its age, a 1929 film
looking much fresher and newer, 86+ years (!!!) and counting. It can
show its age at times, but not as much as the other films. The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Welles
shows the age of the various materials used, some of which are rough,
but this is well edited for the most part and looks good overall.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Esquire
is the softest of the three due to format and has its own rough
footage, but is also well assembled (note the stills) and is fine for
the format.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix on the three silent
Vertov
films
are new orchestra recordings that sound fine, but did not work so
well for me, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mixes on the sound films
are aged, scratchy and a little brittle as is typical of Soviet films
of the time, but I doubt they will ever sound better than they do
here.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Welles is a mix of new
audio, restored audio and some rough audio throughout, so some of
this is barely stereo and more than a few clips are mono at best.
Still, Workman has made them as audible as possible, but don't expect
the multi-channel to be active much.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Esquire
knows its limits and is just fine for the usually simple stereo and
sometimes mono sound we get, but it can be soft and could have used
some slight boosting at times. Wonder if this would sound better
lossless?
-
Nicholas Sheffo