Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Music > Concert > Blues > Biopic > Drama > Folk > Politics > Great Depression > Classical > Opera > Ballet > Doc > Albert Collins & The Icebreakers: Live At Rockpalast - Dortmund 1980 (Eagle DVD/2 CD Set)/Bound For Glory (1976/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Der Freischultz/Von Weber (201

Albert Collins & The Icebreakers: Live At Rockpalast - Dortmund 1980 (Eagle DVD/2 CD Set)/Bound For Glory (1976/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Der Freischultz/Von Weber (2015/Christian Thielemann/C Major/Unitel Classica)/Jardi Tancat (1987 aka The Closed Garden/Nacho Duato & The Nederlands Dans Theater/ArtHaus)/Kirov Classics (1991/ArtHaus w/CD)/La Fille Mal Gardee/Ashton (2015/aka Wayward Daughter/Royal Ballet/Opus Arte)/Rain/Steve Reich (2014/Bel Air/all Naxos Blu-rays)


Picture: C+/B/B-/C+/C+/B/B- Sound: B-/C+/B/C+/B (CD: B-)/B/B+ Extras: C-/C+/C/C-/C+/C+/C- Main Programs: B-/B/B-/B-/B/B-/B-



PLEASE NOTE: The Bound For Glory Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last from the links below.



Here's a wide-ranging selection of new music titles that range from blues to classical, ballet and folk through an epic biopic...



Albert Collins & The Icebreakers: Live At Rockpalast - Dortmund 1980 is the fourth and now the oldest of the releases by the Blues legend that we have seen on DVD, though we had hoped maybe a Blu-ray would have arrived by now. Still, this runs at 92 minutes and I easily the longest of the quartet. Many of the songs are by Collins, but longer was not necessarily better than the previous releases here unless you are a diehard fan of Collins himself. This also includes 2 CDs of the video performance that are slightly less dynamic sounding than the DVD, making this the largest of the four, so if you want to try out his work on home video and have plenty to take in, this is your release.


The color video is shot well enough, holding up into the HD age to still enjoy, but those who might not be used to standard definition might want to lower expectations a bit as they would for an old videotaped 1970s TV sitcom or variety show. All in all, a solid release that will not disappoint its intended audience.


For more Collins, try this 1992 Montreux DVD release from Eagle that also includes links to two Ohne Filter shows, one of which features The Icebreakers from 1985...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6601/Albert+Collins+%E2%80%93+Live+At+Montreux+1



Hal Ashby's Bound For Glory (1976) is an epic biopic about the life of groundbreaking folk singer Woody Guthrie (played so well here by the late, great David Carradine) from him humble beginnings, his family life, tolerating (and surviving) poverty & sand storms until the songs he wants to sing start becoming censored by moneymen who like his voice and see the cash cow he could be, but in Depression America are trying to suppress unions and any uprising. HE is not aware of what a Union is or much of anything else, but his experiences show him what is really going on and he gets a new sense of morality out of the injustice.


The 148 minutes film covers his story up to the point he is about to break loose on his own as more than just another commercial music talent, is a road trip movie through the poverty of that America in a way hardly any other film of the subject has ever been able to pull off thanks to the underrated talents of Ashby and is a film that would be very hard to make today if at all, especially then released by a major studio the way United Artists backed and issued this one.


The period is brought to life in uncanny palpabiiity and we also see Guthrie's character flaws, but a consistent script, solid directing, amazing cinematography and an incredible supporting cast that also includes Melinda Dillon, Ronny Cox, Randy Quaid, Gail Strictland, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Mary Kay Place, Wendy Schaal, Brion James, James Hong, an uncredited Bernie Kopell and M. Emmet Walsh.


Twilight Time has issued the film in this Limited Edition Blu-ray that is worth getting, especially if you like the music, because there is plenty in it. Some things are not noted, like Guthrie writing ''This Land Is Your Land'' because he felt Irving Berlin's ''God Bless America'' was problematic, but the film could only go on so long. A note however on the isolated music score, which you can read about technically below. Only the non-digetic music, or the music the characters cannot hear and is not taking place in their world and space, but the audience can hear is on the isolated track. So if you get the disc and find music is not there, that's the split and why.



Carl Maria Von Weber's Der Freischultz (2015) has no less than the amazing Christian Thielemann bringing the supernatural opera tale of class, royalty and wishful legacies to life with implications as relevant now as when it was first written by 1821. At 149 minutes, it is long, but never boring for long, involving and if you can really get into it, involving. I had times where I throughout there were lulls that could have been shortened or changed without affecting the integrity of the original work, but the cast (headed by Adrian Erod, Albert Dohmen & Sara Jakubiak) with the Dresden Staatskapelle is a grade-A production al the way and worth checking into if you are interested.



Jardi Tancat (1987 aka The Closed Garden) runs only 58 minutes, but combines the title ballet by Nacho Duato & The Nederlands Dans Theater with a documentary look at Duato himself. Jiri Kylian hired him in 1981 and he was winning awards by 1984, which is among the many things the makers try to cram into the too-short program. Of course, it deserves a sequel and/or expansion to show us where his amazing dance and creating talents got him, but it holds up as a time capsule of the art form surviving against movements against the arts (and not just in the U.S.) and shows a man whose work comes out of the love of the artform.



Kirov Classics (1991) is simply a 155 minutes compilation of 7 performances from the legendary Kirov Ballet that includes Chopiniana, Perrushka, Barber's Adagio, Le Corsaire, The Fairy Doll, Markitenka and Paquita. There is a reason they have the reputation they do and this long, solid crash course of their work is worthy of the name. Of course, they are older non-HD recordings, but those really interested will have no problem as the performances are that good.



Frederick Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee (2015/aka Wayward Daughter) has another great crew, The Royal Ballet in yet another top rate recent production with Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae conducted by Barry Wordsworth and music by Ferdinand Herold. Originally performed in 1960, this can be a bit surreal like a fairy tale book and was often grouped with ballet versions of classics in that genre like Ashton's own Cinderella has a young woman in love with a local young man, but her mother wants 'bigger things' for her, so possible disaster is not far away for them all.


There are a few down moments in its 100 minutes, but this is otherwise fine, even if it might not necessarily be everyone's cup of tea. The humor is a plus.



Finally, we have Steve Reich's Rain (2014) with choreography by Anne Teresa Die Keersmaeker is a modern free-style ballet from the man who helped make them possible in our time. Running 74 minutes, this is much more engaging than expected and delivers as much impact as much longer ballet programs as good as they can be. The dancers are up tot he task, moving around like you will rarely see anywhere else, but expressing well-developed, thought out moves that synergize to make statements and convey ideas and emotions. Definitely a standout, this is one of thew few newer HD recordings of such work (many have been 1.33 X 1 1080i upscales Naxos has issued over the last few years) and that brings the work home even better. This is well lit and shot too, so catch it if this is your kind of ballet.



The 1.33 X 1 image on the Collins DVD and as well as 1.33 X 1 images upscaled into 1080i 1.78 X 1 presentations on the Kirov and Tancat Blu-rays all come from analog color videotape sources that are not bad, but have some minor issues with analog videotape flaws including some video noise, video banding, anomalies, cross color, and staircasing. As a result, they all look about even despite the upgrade efforts for the classical releases. This is about as good as any of them will look, though I should add that Tancat started on 16mm film and was finished at the time on analog videotape, so it is a second-generation copy (like so many TV productions at the time) to begin with. Like Star Trek: The Next Generation and The X-Files, now both on Blu-ray after serious reworked upgrades, Tancat is among the many filmed programs that deserve all-film-to-HD transfers... especially with Ultra HD Blu-rays now a reality.


Fille is here in a 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image presentation, leaving Freischultz and Rain at 1080i 1.78 X 1 HD, also all looking as good as they are going to. Fille actually is the most stable of all the classical presentation here, so progressive scan shooting helped in this case with very little motion blur.


That leaves the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Glory in a solid new transfer that shows the amazing, often remarkable work of the late, great Director of Photography Haskell Wexler, A.S.C., recreating the period with shocking accuracy from the beauty of the land to the poverty dirt and dust the poor were forced to live in. it is also the kind of work that the best HD around could not create the same way, showing once again the power of celluloid film.


As for sound, all outright music releases have PCM 2.0 Stereo, but Tancat only has this kind of soundtrack and is on the weak side being a documentary, tied in last place sonically by the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mix on Glory that was recorded well enough for its time, but whose sonics have not aged too well. This becomes more apparent when you hear how good the isolated stereo music score is recorded, with the difference being so much that a stereo upgrade could not have been done sadly.


Kirov also only has PCM 2.0 Stereo, but manages to sound better, followed by the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Freischultz and 5.0 mix on Fille, but the surprise sonic champ is the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Rain, with superior sonic quality that impresses throughout and fans will love to have around as demo material. Nice!


Extras for all seven releases include booklets on the respective releases including informative text with Rain and Glory offering illustrations and Glory adding another solid Julie Kirgo essay, plus that disc adds an Isolated Music Score in Stereo and an Original Theatrical Trailer. Collins and Kirov have CDs if you want to count them, while Fille adds a Cast Gallery, Introduction and Darcey Bussell in conversation with Lesley Collier on this work.



To order the Bound For Glory limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and other exclusives while supplies last at these links:


www.screenarchives.com


and


http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com