Antonia's
Line (1995/Film Movement
Blu-ray)/Lamb
(2015/Sony DVD)/Lilies Of
The Field (1963/United
Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Pressure
Point (1962/United
Artists/Olive Blu-ray)/Tomorrow
(1971/Filmgroup/B2MP Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B/C/B/B/B- & C+ Sound: C+/C+/B-/B-/C+ Extras:
C/C/C+/C-/C- Films: C+/C/C+/C+/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Lillies
Of The Field
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,
while Tomorrow
is now only available from our friends at B2MP. All can be ordered
from the links below.
Here
are dramas trying to say, show and do more than tell serious stories,
even of they don't always succeed...
Marleen
Gorris' Antonia's
Line
(1995) is by a talented female filmmaker that has been controversial
and offers a feminist discourse, but it is a problematic one that
treats sexual abuse, sexual humiliation and sex in general in
troubled ways that fly in the face of a true feminist look at the
world. This is, along with too much awkward humor for its own good,
how a story about three generations of fatherless women lived, grew
and were lucky to survive.
The
problem is not enough ironic distance and not enough being taken
seriously (no real satire here) and I remembers not being impressed
at the time I first saw it. Now I see why I forgot... I was trying
to forget it all. At least this Film Movement Blu-ray is far better
than the copy I saw eons ago, but improved playback only outlined its
flaws all the more vividly. Hope to see more Gorris films to
compare, though.
Ross
Partridge's Lamb
(2015) wants to be a drama with impact about an older man (played by
the director) who takes a (too)
young, poor street girl (Oona Laurence) and help her by simply
getting her out of her bad neighborhood (a fantasy by people who live
in cynical myths about poverty who think it cannot happen to them, is
the fault of the poor, etc.) to the Rockies and this will help
transform her. Skipping that what he does is technically kidnapping
(his name is the title character, but 'might' refer to her as well,
so this is sexist enough, no matter who wrote the book) and the final
cut we get believes in its own b.s., but I did not.
I
could not even call it well intended, but is creepy, problematic and
despite a few good moments, has enough issues for a Freudian
deconstructive essay or two. I could even add that his good intents
are abusive, so this is one of the most messed-up independent
productions in a while. Guess the script forgot about the advent of
the Amber Alert. Yikes!
Ralph
Nelson's Lilies
Of The Field
(1963) is the overrated hit comedy/drama where Sidney Poitier gets
tricked by nuns into building them a new church of bricks. United
Artists was happy to have a limited-budget film like this do well,
but I always found any good will undermined by the phony set up of
the strict-but-good head nun stereotype (the nuns all speak German,
so the film has a seriously major issue of 'the cutes' that may look
racist and/or condescending to some or many) and it goes on and on
and on and on and on....
At
least we can see it as a time capsule and part of a cycle that
included Hollywood trying to deal with race that commercially peaked
with Guess
Who's Coming To Dinner?
(also on Twilight Time Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), plus guest
turns by Stanley Adams and the director in a speaking role break the
monotony very briefly, but this one never worked for me and never
will.
Hubert
Cornfield's Stanley Kramer-produced Pressure
Point
(1962) has Poitier a year earlier as a psychiatrist dealing with a
new therapist (Peter Falk) ready to quit, but the much older Poitier
(love the gray make-up) has his own tale of despair from his work.
Thus, almost the rest of the film is in flashback, but no less than
singer Bobby Darin is the patient the drove him nuts, a violent guy
with an identity crisis who eventually joins a hate group!
Darin
is actually very good here and convincing as he runs (in great Rock
'N' Roll fashion) over any flaws or datedness in the film and its
script and its early take on psychoanalysis is oversimplified and
dated for certain. However, this is a curio worth seeing once
(especially on this solid Blu-ray) and I was glad to revisit it after
such a long time.
Joseph
Anthony's film of William Falkner's Tomorrow
(1971) comes from a screenplay by no less than Horton Foote and with
Robert Duvall in an amazing performance transforming himself into a
very gruff, lonely man who we first see in court on a jury not voting
guilty for a young man who may have committed murder. Why? We see
in flashback as he lands up with a woman who happens to be hanging
around him home, a place of solitude where he keeps to himself.
After a while, he actually marries her, but its not all happiness.
I
won't ruin any more from there, but Duvall (in a film that arrived
the same year as George Lucas; original THX-1138
and a year before the first Godfather)
was on an artistic roll in the early peak of his acting skills and
powers, so it is terrific B2MP has issued this indie gem (despite
minor flaws) and stopped it from being a lost orphan film. Duvall
alone is worth your time, but its the best film on this list, handles
the ideas of children best and everyone should see it at least once.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Line
might have some flaws on the print here and there, but the color is
excellent and sometimes very surprisingly good, so the transfer will
make fans and viewers interested for the most part.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfers on Lillies
and Pressure
can also show the age of the materials used, but they are both far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film save the
best film prints. Gray scale is just fine and detail and depth can
impress when you least expect it.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Tomorrow
comes from a UCLA archival 35mm print that was not in the best shape
and absolutely can show the age of the materials used, but the
transfer has been done with great care and we get some naturalistic
shots that Lillies
and Pressure
cannot oddly touch. I like the density in which it was shot and some
of the camera angles as well. The
anamorphically enhanced DVD is not bad, but no match for the Blu-ray,
especially where Video Black is concerned.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Lamb
should be better to as good as that DVD, but it is an HD shoot that
looks very soft, color-challenged and disappoints throughout. It's
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better, but the lossy Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono on the Tomorrow
DVD, PCM 2.0 Mono on the Tomorrow
Blu-ray and also lossy Dolby Digital Dutch 2.0 Mono on the Line
Blu-ray can actually compete when they should not be able too. Line
is laid back sonically, but is well-recorded enough, so why no
lossless sound?
That
leaves the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mixes on
Lillies
and Pressure
the sonic winners by default, consistent if not spectacular.
Extras
include Original Theatrical Trailers in all cases but Line
(which includes an illustrated booklet with a new Thelma Adams essay
and archival interview with the director) and Lamb
(adding an audio commentary track, Deleted Scenes & Photo
Gallery), while Lillies
adds another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and another excellent, underrated essay by the great
film scholar Julie Kirgo, plus that Blu-ray disc adds a feature
length audio commentary track by Kirgo, Nick Redman & Lem Dobbs
and Isolated Music Score track that also has some sound effects.
You
can order the Tomorrow
Blu-ray/DVD set among other fine gems at...
http://b2mp.net/home/
…and
to order the Lillies
Of The Field
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it among many other great exclusives
while supplies last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
