About
Dry Glasses
(2023/Criterion/Janus Contemporaries Blu-ray)/Gilded
Age: The Complete Second Season
(2023/HBO/Warner DVD Set)/I
Remember Mama
(1948/RKO/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/On
The Wandering Paths
(2023/Distrib/Icarus DVD)
Picture:
B-/C+/B/C+ Sound: B/C+/B-/C+ Extras: C+/C/C-/C- Main
Programs: B- (Gilded:
C)
PLEASE
NOTE:
The I
Remember Mama
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for a new group of dramas, including imports....
Nuri
Bilge Ceylan's About
Dry Glasses
(2023) offers Turkish middle school teacher Samet (Deniz Celilogul)
getting in some trouble in his employment at the school and thinking
he might get stuck there for all the wrong reason as some kind of
punishment by the establishment, so he wants to go, but friend Kenan
(Musab Ekici) and the beautiful Nuray (Merve Dizdar, who actually got
Best Actress at Cannes for this solid performance) are keeping him
there. Too bad a love triangle may also be developing to make things
worse.
Well,
this one run 198 minutes (!!!!) and has some great shots and ideas
throughout, more than just a melodrama with a love triangle or even a
travelogue, but I was surprised how it works in this slow, consistent
way that engages in subtle ways that works and if you do not get
bored, you will probably be surprised and like this a little more
than you'd expect too. The actors are good, convincing and all meld
together well, this has its own nice mood and takes us some places we
have not been before as a result.
Though
it is not for everyone, the hype makes sense and it is a mature, for
real work that deserves an even larger audience, so I see why Janus
was so happy to pick it up. Definitely worth a look if it sounds
like your kind of movie.
Extras
include a paper foldout with text and some illustrations, while the
disc adds an Original Theatrical
Trailer and Meet
The Filmmaker,
a new interview with director Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
The
Gilded Age: The Complete Second Season
(2023) continue the somewhat fabricated and altered fictitious
version of money and power in early 20th
Century New York City, et al, from the makers of Downton
Abbey
and we covered the debut season at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16160/Cocoon+(2020/Film+Movement+DVD)/The+Gilded
It
is not only more of the same, but the fabrication of things that ring
false (like denying racism and segregation, even with the rich)
becomes harder to suspend disbelief at no matter how good the actors,
costumes, locales and sets remain and it is not any kind of
disappointment they could not figure out how to squeeze Maggie Smith
in this one too before her recent passing. At this point, if you can
still buy it, you'll enjoy it, but otherwise, its denial of history
is not only disturbing and too revisionist for its own good, its like
a time travel tale where they have entered a distorted, alternate
reality having nothing to do with the actual past. Even the HBO
revival of Westworld seems more real than this and that had killer
robots!
Extras
(per the press release) include:
Behind
The Gilded Curtain featurette
Character
Superlatives
Who
Do You Ship?: Ada, Agnes, Bertha, Marian and Peggy
High
Class Drama: Carrie, Cynthia, Denee and Morgan
Peggy's
Power
Character
Spot: Ada, Agnes, Bertha, George, Marian and Peggy
Character
Featurettes: Agnes, Ada, Bertha, George, Marian, and Peggy
The
Black Elite: Then and Now
featurette
The
Real Gilded Age: Carrie, Cynthia, and Morgan
and
Choose
Your Side: Carrie, Christine, Cynthia, Denee, Morgan and Julian.
So
Gilded
Age
is for serious fans only who really, really, really
liked the first season. Others will bored, a few possibly offended
and others still lost. Start at the first season if you decide to
take any of this on at all.
George
Stevens' I
Remember Mama
(1948) is one of the all-time sappy melodramas that people still talk
about because it actually still works by simply keeping its narrative
together and going for its over two hours Irene Dunn plays the title
character, the 'good mother' archetype who finds a way to fix
everything and make everything work against all odds and with love,
will keep the family as together as possible. Some would consider
this sexist and problematic now, including some virgin/whore complex
in for good measure, but the actors are really good here and Stevens
knows what he is doing.
A
young Barbara Bel Geddes is the main daughter/narrator, telling us
how the good old days were and how heartwarming her mom made life,
which kept everyone else together in 1910 San Francisco, certainly in
better shape there that with the recent flight of hundreds of
businesses since COVID, et al, as we post this review.
So
what if things were not quite as warm and well-set as the film
portrays, it is the 'ideal' situation rendered safe and the
supporting cast turned out to all have remarkable careers after this
film if they were not already on their way. They include Philip
Dorn, Oskar Homolka, Edgar Bergen, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Ellen Corby,
Rudy Vallee, Edith Evans, Florence Bates and Barbara O'Neil. This is
also the film where Stevens became a permanent member of the A-list
of directors for the rest of his career. As a result, everyone
should see this one at least once, especially serious film fans.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is sadly the only extras.
Denis
Imbert's On
The Wandering Paths
(2023) stars Jean Dujardin (The
Artist,
Wolf
Of Wall Street,
the OSS:
117
series) as a man who has taken many a journey away from civilization
and has the scars to prove it, especially after falling seven stories
climbing a mountain when drunk. Remarkably surviving, including
being in a coma for a while, then can barely stand. He still decides
to take another solo journey through France, no matter what.
Based
on the Sylvain Tesson book, the screenplay is a mix of an actual
narrative plot with many instances of his thoughts on life throughout
almost to the point of a 'stream of thought' state, if not totally
so. Because he is so good here and some cliches and predictability
is overcome by his performance and a solid supporting cast, this
works a bit better than expected or than it Souths have, but still
has its limits. It is worth a look for those interested and even is
enough of a road movie to call it that, though he hardly uses a car
or other motor vehicle.
Original
Theatrical Trailers for other such releases are the only extras.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Glasses
is consistent and not bad, but is a little soft, even not considering
how the color is ever so slightly drained. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix, on the other hand, has
fine sound, a consistent soundfield, is well recorded and has the
best sonics of all the releases here.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Mama
has been really well restored by Warner Archive and despite being the
oldest (and only older; by 66 years!) release here, is the
best-looking performer of the bunch with fine detail, depth and
fullness that make it easier and more of a pleasure to see. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is as good as this
film will ever sound and the combination is both impressive and makes
sitting through the long film so much easier and more of a pleasure.
The
anamorphically enhanced image on both DVDs (1.78 X 1 on Gilded,
2.35 X 1 on Paths)
look about as good as they can on the old standard definition format
with some good moments, yet still limited overall. The lossy Dolby
Digital sound (5.1 on Gilded,
French 2.0 Stereo on Paths)
also sound as good as they can in the older, compressed codec, but
both would likely sound much better in lossless presentations. They
are fine with these limits, but can be trying at times when viewing.
To
order
the Warner Archive I
Remember Mama
Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo
