Champagne
& Caviar: Four Weimar Comedies 1931 - 1932
(Flicker Alley Blu-ray Set)/Give
Me A World: The Collective Soul Story
(2025/Thunk Blu-ray)/Man
On Wire
(2008/Magnolia Blu-ray)/Route
One/USA
(1989/Robert Kramer/Icarus Blu-ray Set)/When
We Went Mad!: The Unauthorized Story Of Mad Magazine
(2021/Gravitas Ventures Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- (Weimar:
B, save B- for Secretary)
Sound: C+/B-/B/C+/B- Extras: B/D/C/B-/D Main Programs:
B/B/B/B-/B-
Now
for the latest documentary releases, including a set of priceless,
saved classics with a remarkable story to tell...
Champagne
& Caviar: Four Weimar Comedies 1931-1932
deal with the last years of great German Cinema before the Nazis
ruined everything and much, much worse. I shows a cinema that was
more than able to compete and complement similar genre works from
Hollywood, the U.K., France and elsewhere. When they say the Germans
were ahead of almost everyone else, it was not just in technology and
mechanical innovation, but in heart, soul and the arts, which they do
not get enough credit for. Though we still celebrate the many silent
classics leading up to the sound era, we need to see as many (all if
possible) of the sound films they were making before the Third Reich
highjacked it all and worse.
What
will strike you about the films are their energy, joy, the chemistry
of the actors, smart storylines and more of a palpable world that
(despite serious economic difficulties) had much going for it and
could be built on (WWI's results did not help them either, of course)
and it is too bad these films did not become big international hits,
because they deserved it and you will see why when you watch all fur
of them.
As
explained by the press release with my comments afterwards, the films
are:
Die
Privatsekretarin
(The
Private Secretary)
(1931): Renate Muller plays the title role in director Wilhelm
Thiele's workplace comedy (adapted from the 1905 novel by Istvan
Szomahazy) about a young woman who goes to work in a bank office in
search of a wealthy husband. Hitler had this one, pulled, censored,
banned and apparently, all 35mm copies and negative were destroyed
for good. The film is very likable and entertaining, though you know
watching bad things would happen later.
Der
brave Sunder
(The
Upright Sinner)
(1931): Max Pallenberg stars as Leopold Pichler, a haplessly
dedicated banker tasked with transporting money to Vienna, but who is
unknowingly part of a larger financial scheme on the part of his
boss. Directed by Fritz Kortner, The
Upright Sinner
is based on Alfred Polgar's play The
Embezzlers,
in turn based on the novel by Valentin Kataev. Also fun and also a
musical, it is as entertaining and shows how the genre was on the
upswing in development there before WWII permanently interrupted it
all.
Die
Koffer des Herrn O.F.
(The
Trunks of Mr. O.F.)
(1931): Directed by Alexis Granowsky and starring Peter Lorre and
Hedy Lamarr, The
Trunks of Mr. O.F.
follows a small German town that turns itself upside down in order to
impress an imagined visitor whose extravagant luggage has arrived at
the local hotel. Lorre was newly an international megastar thanks to
Lang's 'M'
and gives a totally different performance here, better with comedy
than he gets credit for. The Nazis went after this one too.
Ich
bei Tag und du bei Nacht
(I By
Day, You By Night)
(1932): Ludwig Berger directs the charming romance between Grete
(Kathe von Nagy) and Hans (Willy Fritsch), two boarders who rent the
same room, one during the day and the other at night. A likely
influence on Billy Wilder's The
Apartment,
I By
Day, You By Night
is also infused with an all-singing, all-dancing celebration of the
power of cinema. This is the most spectacular of the four, the
makers (and industry for that matter) knew they were building into
productions worthy of Hollywood and any other moviemaking capitals,
but this would be the unintended peak of where they were going and it
is sad how the music stopped. Afterwards, I briefly thought of
Fosse's Cabaret.
Extras
include fine Feature-Length Audio Commentaries for all four films
thoroughly documenting the behind-the-scenes stories, as follows:
Die
Privatsekretarin
(The
Private Secretary)
by Lukas Foerster, German film critic and programmer
Der
brave Sunder
(The
Upright Sinner)
by Nadine Rossol, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at
Essex University, with additional insight by Lukas Foerster
Die
Koffer des Herrn O.F.
(The
Trunks of Mr. O.F.)
by Anjeana Hans, Professor of German Studies and affiliated faculty
in Cinema and Media Studies at Wellesley College
Ich
bei Tag und du bei Nacht (I
By Day, You By Night)
by Christian Rogowski, Professor in Language and Literature in the
Department of German at Amherst College
Souvenir
Booklet featuring an essay by Lukas Foerster
and
Reversible Cover Artwork, the reverse of which we are using as the
cover for this set of reviews.
A
great collection all serious film fans need to catch, Champagne
& Caviar is a very
special set that impressed me even more than I expected. You'll be
impressed and even amazed when you finish this set, even love some of
what you see.
Joseph
Rubinstein's Give
Me A World: The Collective Soul Story
(2025) tells the story of what really happened to one of the most
popular bans of their time, reflecting a sad reality of so many great
bands since the late 1970s who had hits and suddenly disappeared,
even when they were still together. Think the likes of Toad The Wet
Sprocket, Split Enz, The Motels, Crowded House, Ambrosia, Deee-Lite,
The Little River Band, A-Ha, Jamiroquai, Chambawamna, Semisonic, Gin
Blossoms, Swing Out Sister and
so many others.
In
this case, the band was a hit right off the bat with songs like
Shine, December, Gel and The World I Know
among others. So why after they were on a roll for a while there did
they disappear? Turns out their manager was stealing all of their
money, they sued, it was a mess and they somehow survived and
finished their Atlantic Records contract. From there, they
continued, despite facing more twists and turns and this is yet
another very impressive documentary on a major music act like the
ones we have been getting lately. If you like or love them, you'll
have to see it, but even if you are a passing listener, it says so
much about the industry, society and how anything can happen,
especially when people are stabbing others in the back. Definitely
check it out!
There
are sadly no extras.
James
Marsh's Man
On Wire
(2008) is a still-solid documentary about the true story about how
high- wire walker and magician
Philippe Petit
cast a rope across the then-standing two World Trade Center Towers
and and walked it back and forth without a net! You can read about
this release more at this link to my DVD coverage:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8282/Man+On+Wire+(2008/Magnolia+DVD-Video
As
impressive as ever and deserving of more celebration than ever, I was
happy to see it should up as well as it does.
Extras
are less than the
DVD, repeating the animated short film The
Man Who Walked Between The Towers,
but leaving a nice interview with Petit and a 1973 program on Petit
called Philippe
Petit’s Sydney Harbor Bridge Crossing.
Odd and unusual for Magnolia, but not good. You can also read more
about Robert Zemeckis' The walk (2015) with Joseph Gordon-Levitt
playing Petit in an underrated motion picture on the events in this
documentary on Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13990/The+Walk+(2015/Sony+Blu-ray+3D+w/Blu-ray+2D
Guess
a 4K edition of that one is overdue. Hope they restore the extras
too.
Robert
Kramer's Route
One/USA
(1989) is a two-part, 255-minutes trip from Canada to the Director's
Key West home. Very raw, real and more valuable than even he could
have imagined at the time, it becomes a portrait of the results of
Reagan's America and should have been a warning to future generations
of voters, but it is one of many such works that not enough people
saw and shows where we are now.
On
the other hand, the mini-series does not make comments or judgments,
has no manipulative editing and just shows things as he sees them.
If you are bored, you are either missing his points or simply have
seen this (like I have) far many more times than you would like to
admit or remember. It is sad to see good people treated like this,
disposable and worse, which makes a film like this all the more
valuable. Then we also learn about the filmmaker himself, so it is a
special work worth seeing at least once.
Extras
include the brand new release Looking
for Robert
(2025), directed and narrated by Kramer's longtime cinematographer
and producer, Richard Copans and a 12-page booklet with essay by film
scholar and critic, Erika Balsom and some nice stills.
Alan
Bernstein's When
We Went Mad!: The Unauthorized Story Of Mad Magazine
(2021) is a sometimes roughly made, but on the thorough side.
Founded in 1952 by the EC Comics company, they quickly found
themselves a hit, but also in the middle of a political storm as the
company's horror-genre comic books became the target of more
Hollywood and entertainment industry witch hunts by the U.S.
Government. That is covered well here.
After
barely surviving that mess, they became part of the counterculture
and then, much imitated by others (Cracked
Magazine
being the most successful) and continuing until 2019, they are now
(like the Peanuts
comic strip) just republishing older classics. Still funny, even
inspiring a skit comedy TV show (and others like it,) it is a solid
107 minutes worth seeing and reminds us that no matter the media of
the future, nothing beats a great physical magazine.
There
are sadly no extras.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white
digital High Definition image transfers of all four Weimar
films can expectedly show the age of the materials used, all 35mm
sources save 16mm for Private
Secretary,
but have been restored very well and the latter films have more than
a few mint moments. All four offer PCM German 2.0 Mono that has also
been cleaned up and restored as much as possible, but they show their
age and limited sonics. The combinations are as good as we could
expect under the circumstances and shows some remarkable filmmaking.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition transfers on Soul,
Wire
and Mad!
have plenty of good and rough clips and stills, including some bad
video transfers of old film and analog
videotape flaws including video noise, video banding, telecine
flicker, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage.
Older digital video can have some of the same issues. Expect some
softness here ands there too, but they are all more than watchable
enough. All three releases also just happen to offer DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes that sounds good on Soul,
best on Wire
and a little more forward and harsher on Mad!
than it ought to, so be careful of high level playback on that one.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Route
can show the age of the 16mm materials used, soft here and there, but
looks about as good as we could expect. The PCM 2.0 Mono also sounds
good for its age, with some limits in the location audio, but as good
as it likely ever will.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
