Blu-Ray Review of the Week: Nashville: Criterion Collection

At the time, Nashville (1975) was Robert Altman’s magnum opus, a sprawling tale featuring 24 characters over five days. Not only does he manage to juggle all of these storylines, but is able to seamlessly interconnect them in major or minor ways. The end result was an unflinching look at America through Altman’s eyes – a kaleidoscope approach that he helped pioneer and that flew in the face of conventional Hollywood filmmaking, but could only have been pushed through the system during the 1970s.

Altman’s playful, freewheeling style is evident right from the get-go as the cast is introduced via a faux television ad for a greatest hits record collection. Then, he proceeds to immerse us in the lives of several characters, presenting them in a non-judgmental way as if he was anthropologist of American culture. Nashville is a cross-section examination of the city’s country music scene, from its royalty, like elder statesman Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) and Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley), to its aspiring up-and-comers, like Sueleen Gay. We also meet various sycophants that orbit these people, as well as musicians, like Tom Frank (Keith Carradine), that exist on the fringes.

The ubiquitous van blasting presidential hopeful Hal Phillip Walker’s political beliefs and Jeff Goldblum’s amateur magician riding around on a chopper provides the connecting tissue that binds all of these characters. As he’s so good at doing, Altman captures key private and public moments of these characters, which provides crucial insights in scene-sized chunks that require the viewer to pay close attention because there are so many people to keep track of. Many of these characters are so fascinating in their own right that they could easily star in their own film and, at times, it feels like certain scenes could be jumping off points for potential spin-off films.

It goes without saying that the cast is uniformly excellent with the likes of Keith Carradine playing a selfish folk singer, Lily Tomlin as a middle-class housewife with two deaf children, and Ronee Blakley as a famous country singer standing out in particular. Also of note are Jeff Goldblum and Shelley Duvall making quite an impression in minor roles as eccentric oddballs. It doesn’t hurt that these actors get to work from Joan Tewkesbury’s brilliant screenplay and are directed by actor-friendly Altman.

To the uninitiated, his mosaic approach may seem scattered and unfocused, but he’s juxtaposing intimate moments with big splashy scenes to provide fascinating slices of life. You don’t have to appreciate country music to enjoy Nashville. You just need to be drawn to interesting characters and human behavior of which this film has in abundance. Altman had a great run during the ‘70s and this definitely one of his best films from this period if not his entire career.

Special Features:

This new Blu-Ray transfer of Nashville looks fantastic. The folks at Criterion should be commended for the excellent work on this print, which has incredible detail while still retaining its filmic look.

Ported over from the Paramount DVD is an audio commentary by director Robert Altman. He points out that the cast wrote most of the songs for their respective characters. All of the songs were done in-house and when Nashville came out, local musicians hated them. He mentions the numerous collaborators he worked with in front of and behind the camera and explains what they contributed to the film. Altman talks about his approach to filmmaking on this engaging and informative track.

Also included is a fantastic theatrical trailer.

“The Making of Nashville” features various cast and crew members recounting their roles in this film and what they think of it now. They talk about getting involved in the project and their impressions of Altman. The likes of Keith Carradine, Lily Tomlin and Michael Murphy (among several others) tell fantastic filming anecdotes and address Altman’s famous habit of encouraging improvisation among the cast.

“Robert Altman’s Interviews” include one from 1975 when Nashville was released and he talks about the film’s origins and how hard it was to get made. There’s another from 2000 where he talks about various cast members and their characters. The third one is from 2002 and Altman points out how Nashville was the first big film where he had complete creative control.

There is “Behind the Scenes” footage of the opening traffic jam scene and the final one. It’s pretty grainy and has no sound, but does provide a glimpse into Altman’s working methods.

Finally, there is “Keith Carradine Demo.” Altman recorded three songs that the actor created fro the film in his office and you can listen to each one.

Blu-Ray Review of the Week: I Married A Witch: Criterion Collection

Screwball comedies don’t come more full of charm then I Married A Witch (1942), and this is due in large part to the casting of Veronica Lake as a sexy sorceress who casts a spell on a man descended from the Salem puritan that burned her at the stake many years ago. The film was an adaptation of The Passionate Witch, a novel by Thorne Smith, and guided to the big screen by French director Rene Clair who had a rocky Hollywood debut with The Flame of New Orleans (1941). I Married A Witch did well, but unfortunately Lake burned her bridges in Hollywood and Clair couldn’t find any screenplays that interested him. This does nothing to change the fact that the film they made together is a comedic gem.

Before she and her father Daniel (Cecil Kellaway) are burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft, Jennifer (Lake) curses her accuser Jonathan Wooley (March) so that his descendants will be unhappy in love. After an amusing montage depicting generations of Wooleys with failed love lives, we land in the present as Wallace Wooley (March) is running for governor and engaged to Estelle Masterson (Hayward), daughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate.

It is at this moment that a violent storm zaps an oak tree that had been planted over Jennifer and Daniel’s ashes, its roots imprisoning their souls. However, the damaged tree allows them to be free, taking on the form of witches’ smoke. They stumble across Wallace and Jennifer is delighted that the curse is still working. She decides to take human form in order to torment Wallace in person. Veronica Lake’s first appearance on camera is quite a sight to behold as Jennifer literally materializes out of the smoke in a raging building fire.

Wallace is compelled to run into the building and rescue her. Right off the bat, the chemistry between the two is apparent as Jennifer acts seductively coy while Wallace is neurotically frantic – understandably so as the building comes down around them. He seems to have it all – he’s being groomed for governor and on the eve of being married to a beautiful, rich woman. However, Estelle is bossy and he doesn’t seem all that thrilled with his impending governorship. Wallace is a bit uptight and leads an ordered life only for Jennifer to come along and throw a monkey wrench in his plans with her cute, sex kitten voice and stunning beauty.

Myron Selznick, the agent for French filmmaker Rene Clair, sent him the book The Passionate Witch by Thorne Smith, which he read and thought that it could be made into a film. He met Preston Sturges, they talked about the project and the legendary director agreed to produce it. Paramount Pictures was looking for the right film for Veronica Lake, an actress attracting a lot of buzz, some of it for her trademark beautiful blond hair. They decided that I Married A Witch would be perfect for her and paired the actress up with Clair.

Smith had died before completing the novel, which was finished by a colleague. Very little of the book, which contained some fairly raunchy passages for the time, made it into the film. Producer Buddy DeSylva told Clair that screenwriter Bob Pirosh was assigned to work on the screenplay and he would be given it when the script was finished. Clair was used to writing and directing his own scripts and this news came as something of a shock to him. However, the director ended up working with Pirosh on the script and the submitted it to the studio, but they wanted considerable changes. Clair and Pirosh rewrote it significantly before they were given approval to begin filming. During principal photography, they continued to rewrite, sometimes even the night before the next day’s shooting, in an attempt to sneak by their version of the film by producer DeSylva.

Like so many screwball comedies, the carefree spirit in I Married A Witch triumphs over the stodgy type. Of course, Jennifer has some help by putting Wallace under her spell, but who could resist Veronica Lake’s considerable charms? This film is one of her signature roles in an unfortunately all-too brief career in Hollywood. She demonstrated quite a gift for not just physical comedy, but also successfully bantering back and forth with Fredric March. She even sings! Rene Clair’s film is a classic opposites attract screwball comedy albeit with a supernatural twist. It tweaks the classic evil witch cliché by presenting one who creates a curse only to succumb to her own love potion through a comedy of errors.

The Criterion Collection recently released a brand new edition on Blu-Ray. It is safe to say that I Married A Witch has never looked better on home video with the transfer looking fantastic. The filmic grain is intact and the print itself looks as good as it ever has. The extras are slim with an audio interview by director Rene Clair from the late 1950s. He talks about working on experimental films vs. commercial ones. Clair speaks candidly about his career. Also included is a trailer.

SOURCES

Dale, R.C. “Rene Clair in Hollywood.” Film Quarterly. Winter 1970-71.

Blu-Ray Review of the Week: Frankenweenie

Since the 2000s, Tim Burton has played it relatively safe, often falling back on his name as a familiar (and marketable) brand that mainstream audiences know and recognize. With the horrible misfire that was the Planet of the Apes (2001) remake, he directed a series of impersonal studio blockbusters that included the likes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). Sure, there was the occasional, more personal effort, like Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), but Burton only seemed to turn off the autopilot on animated projects like Corpse Bride (2005).

It seems like Burton uses his clout from big budget box office successes to make more personal projects. Case in point: Frankenweenie (2012), a black and white stop-motion animated film that expands the live-action short he made early on in his career into feature-length. Unfortunately, this quirky, deeply personal film was released around the same time as several other similarly themed animated films and only had a modest performance at the box office. It’s too bad really, as it is Burton’s best film in ages.

Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) is a bit of a loner – a child who spends most of his free-time making crude, animated movies rather than making friends with kids his own age. He doesn’t need friends so long as he has man’s best, his dog Sparky. However, tragedy strikes one day when Sparky is accidentally killed. Understandably distraught, Victor is inspired by his science teacher (who looks suspiciously a lot like Vincent Price) and his love of horror films to resurrect his beloved pet a la Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. Complications arise when his creation escapes the confine of his house and escapes out into the world.

Frankenweenie is Burton’s most personal and engaging film in years as it harkens back to his early work. Victor crosses the boundaries of life and death, which echoes the Maitlands in Beetlejuice (1988). Victor and his family live in the same kind of homogenous suburbia as Ed and his adoptive parents in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Victor makes the same kind of rudimentary yet goofily heartfelt monster movies as Ed Wood does in Ed Wood (1994). It’s no coincidence that these aforementioned films are also among Burton’s very best.

Frankenweenie also sees Burton reunited with past collaborators like Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice), Martin Short (Mars Attacks!), Martin Landau (Ed Wood), and Winona Ryder (Edward Scissorhands) providing the voices for several characters in the film. Behind the scenes, frequent collaborator Danny Elfman returns to provide an evocative score that pays tribute to the Universal horror films of the 1930s.

As the title suggests, Frankenweenie is basically Frankenstein (1931) for children but with plenty of sly references for his older fans (at one point, Victor’s parents are watching Christopher Lee as Dracula in a Hammer horror movie). Victor fits in quite nicely with Burton’s roster of cinematic outsiders marginalized by the ignorant masses that misunderstand them. The atmospheric black and white stop-motion animation has a texture to it that almost feels tangible unlike most of the CG animated films being made today. Sadly, this throwback to an older style of animation, coupled with it being in black and white, probably did not help it commercially but I think Frankenweenie will be rediscovered on home video where its audience will grow and its legacy will endure. Hopefully, its modest commercial returns will not scare Burton off from making more personal films like this one.

Special Features:

“Original Short: Captain Sparky vs The Flying Saucers” is the clever movie within a movie that Victor creates (with Sparky’s help) and is included in its entirety. It is a loving homage to alien invasion films from the 1950s.

“Miniatures in Motion: Bringing Frankenweenie to Life” takes a look at the stop-motion animation process for this film. We see how the animators brought Burton’s original drawings to life. It is wonderful to see all these people crafting a film with their hands instead of relying predominantly on CGI.

“Frankenweenie Touring Exhibit” is a brief featurette about a traveling exhibit of props and production sketches from the film displayed for people from all over the world to see.

“Original Live-Action Frankenweenie Short” was made in 1984 and was shot in gorgeous black and white. It’s about a young boy named Vincent (Barret Oliver) who decides to resurrect his dead dog Sparky a la Dr. Frankenstein. Shelley Duvall and Daniel Stern play his very Leave It To Beaver-esque parents. Also featured is the late-great Paul Bartel as Vincent’s science teacher.

Finally, there is a music video for “Pet Sematary” by the Plain White T’s. It is your standard tie-in video with the band playing over footage from the film.

Blu-Ray Review of the Week: Heaven's Gate: Criterion Collection

With Heaven’s Gate (1980), Michael Cimino made the classic risky gamble that many ambitious filmmakers make. Still flush from the commercial and critical success of The Deer Hunter (1978), he used all of his newfound clout to make an epic tale depicting the Johnson County War of 1892 with a massive budget, courtesy of United Artists, and a star-studded cast headlined by musician and some-time actor Kris Kristofferson. The film’s production was plagued with several well-publicized problems and the end result was a difficult and challenging film that was savaged by critics as a muddled mess. Worst of all, Heaven’s Gate was a huge box office flop, which resulted in United Artists going under. The lion’s share of the blame was leveled at Cimino who was punished for his hubris. Over the years, he made the occasional film but never enjoyed the kind of resources he did at the peak of his career.

As sometimes happens, the years were kind of Heaven’s Gate, especially when cineastes discovered that the version released in theaters was the studio cut and that his original was much better. The reclusive director had taken refuge in Europe where he’s still regarded highly. Reappraisal of Heaven’s Gate has been a long time coming and recently Cimino’s finally been given the opportunity to restore the film to the way he originally envisioned it so that it can rightly be judged on its own merits.

James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) is a federal marshal that arrives in Casper, Wyoming where he learns of a plot by cattle ranchers to kill local European settlers for their land, sanctioned by the government no less. He soon finds himself embroiled in a bloody battle. He also finds himself conflicted as many of the wealthy cattle ranchers come from the same Harvard-educated background as he did, but Averill also has a strong moral sense and wants to stand up for the settlers who are getting ripped off and killed for their troubles.

Cimino juxtaposes the rich, pompous cattle ranchers, who gather in their ornate wood lodge drinking the best liquor, with the settlers that live in abject poverty and entertain themselves watching cock fights in the backroom of the local bar. He also shows how the community gathers for a county dance at the local roller skate rink that leaves little doubt as to which side Cimino favors.

With Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Kris Kristofferson demonstrated some considerable acting abilities. He had gotten a few more films under his belt by the time he appeared in Heaven’s Gate and was called up to headline this epic, which he does admirably, delivering a thoughtful performance that is quite naturalistic. He is supported by an impressive cast that includes the likes of Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert among others. They all turn in excellent performances, helping bring this fascinating world to life.

It’s a cliché to say it but they just don’t make films like Heaven’s Gate anymore. It was shot on location with massive sets populated by hundreds of extras. The film’s excessive budget is all up there in every frame, gorgeously photographed by the great Vilmos Zsigmond. The film has plenty of ambition to burn and assumes that its audience is intelligent enough to follow the complex narrative and the numerous characters that are a part of it.

Heaven’s Gate is often blamed from the Film Brats fall from grace in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the rise of the producers, but the writing was already on the wall with other ‘70s auteurs having costly flops, like William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977), Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart (1982), and Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York (1977), to name a few. The reign at the top of the Hollywood food chain was over for most of them and Heaven’s Gate just put a fine point on it. Now that enough time has passed, Cimino’s film can be rediscovered and re-evaluated.

Special Features:

This new transfer of Heaven’s Gate has been personally supervised by Cimino. While it may not look like it did when first projected theatrically, a lot of work went into cleaning up the film to the director’s specifications. The transfer looks very impressive, still retaining the filmic look but devoid of any blemishes. The new 5.1surround soundtrack, also supervised by Cimino, is excellent with David Mansfield’s score sounding better than it ever has and the ambient noises and sound effects coming through loud and clear.

There is an illustrated audio conversation between director Michael Cimino and producer Joann Carelli that runs an absorbing 30 minutes. Rather fittingly, he starts off talking about the inspiration for Heaven’s Gate, which was research he did on barbed wire, of all things. Cimino also talks about how he writes screenplays with Carelli acting as an objective editor, keeping him in check and making sure everything made sense. They cover many topics, including how to direct actors, scouting locations, costumes and so on.

Also included is a new interview with Kris Kristofferson who talks about what drew him to the project – mainly the chance to work with Cimino. He loved the attention to detail in the film and how it helped him as an actor. He recounts several fascinating filming anecdotes in this engaging interview.

There is an interview with musician David Mansfield. He said that Cimino wanted real musicians to play live during filming and hired him and other notable musicians, like T-Bone Burnett. Mansfield talks about how he composed the film’s memorable score, his choices for instrumentation and so on.

Assistant director Michael Stevenson is interviewed and mentions that Cimino originally wanted him to work on The Deer Hunter but he was busy at the time. He talks about the mind-boggling logistics of some of the more grandiose sequences in Heaven’s Gate and one really appreciates all the hard work that went into this film.

There is a “Restoration Demonstration” that briefly examines the painstaking work that went into restoring the film to Cimino’s exact specifications. We also see how the numerous scratches, splice cuts and other imperfections were removed.

Finally, there is a teaser trailer and T.V. spot for the film.

Since this edition has been given Cimino’s seal of approval it is not surprising that the documentary Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate is not included. It is quite critical of Cimino and the film, which probably explains why it has not been included, which is too bad as it goes into a blow-by-blow account of what went down. The documentary is easily found online as is the book it is based on, by United Artists executive Steven Bach.

Blu-Ray of the Week: Harold and Maude: Criterion Collection

When Harold and Maude was released in 1971 it was not a hit. It came between the end of the 1960s and the dawning of the 1970s, marking a transition between these two decades with Harold representing the cynicism of the latter decade and Maude representing the love is everywhere idealism of the former. The film was despised by critics and largely ignored by mainstream movie-going audiences, offended by its sweet romance between a young man in his early twenties and an 80-year-old woman. However, the people who did react positively to its hopeful message really loved it and the film developed a cult following over the years. It was director Hal Ashby’s second film and built on the promise he showed with his debut The Landlord (1970). Bolstered by Colin Higgins’ brilliantly written screenplay and Cat Stevens’ insanely catchy songs, Harold and Maude is a classic romantic comedy.


Harold (Bud Cort) is a deeply unhappy young man whose rich mother (Vivian Pickles) repeatedly tries to set him up with prospective women. In retaliation, he repeatedly fakes his own death in one darkly absurd set piece after another. So, she takes him to see a psychiatrist, a priest and an Army officer all in the hopes that they will give Harold a sense of purpose and/or direction in life. It’s interesting to note that each one of these authority figures is presented either as pompous or crazy.

In his spare time, Harold likes to attend funerals and at one of them he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon) who also frequents these ceremonies. When they first meet she offers him some candy, asks him if he sings and dances, and then drives off with a priest’s car. The next time they meet she almost drives off with his car – a hearse no less – and they get to talking. She lives in the moment always eager to experience new things much to his bemusement. They become friends and she gradually pulls him out of his shell with her irrepressible charm. As their relationship develops, they fall in love in one of the most unlikely romances.

Harold and Maude is anchored by the undeniable chemistry between Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon. They play a most unusual couple and yet it works because of how well they play off each other. Cort does an excellent job of conveying Harold’s gradual transition from a depressed introvert to a romantic, done mostly through his big, expressive eyes. He captures Harold’s initial awkwardness around the impulsive Maude, a free spirit full of life and a flower child trapped inside the body of an 80-year-old woman. Harold feels trapped by life thanks to his mother’s frequent attempts to set him up on dates with women, none of whom he’s remotely interested in. Gordon is simply delightful as the fun-loving Maude and yet her performance isn’t a one-note caricature but full of nuances, even hinting at an introspective side. It is hard not to fall in love with Maude much like Harold does because she is just so fun and full of a joy of life.

Harold and Maude is a folk film of sorts, a gentle love story about two lonely people at odds with the rest of the world. It is a sincerely earnest film that wears its heart on its sleeve. It could have so easily come across as silly but the film embodies the ideals of Maude as a brave, free-spirited story full of hope. Its love story shows that superficial details don’t matter so long as you love and care about one another – ultimately, that’s all that matters. Maude teaches Harold that when life knocks you down you have to pick yourself back up. Harold and Maude is a brave film in many respects. First and foremost, it is about a love affair between an early twentysomething and an 80-year-old woman. Its earnest idealism flew in the face of the prevailing cynicism brought on by incidents like the Rolling Stones’ infamous Altamont concert and the assassinations of hopeful political figures like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X, which ended the ‘60s on a dark note.

Harold and Maude survived its initial disastrous reception to become a beloved cult film with notable admirers like Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson whose respective films, Rushmore (1998) and Punch-Drunk Love (2002) are very much in the spirit of Ashby’s film. Harold and Maude was part of a great run of films for the director in the ‘70s that included the likes of The Last Detail (1973), Shampoo (1975), Coming Home (1978), and Being There (1979). Unfortunately, he fell on hard times both professionally and personally in the 1980s but he left behind an impressive cinematic legacy by any standard.

Special Features:

You can finally get rid of the bare bone Paramount DVD as the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray features an excellent transfer that preserves the grain of the film stock while also delivering a pristine print, which is particularly evident in the dimly-lit scenes. Cat Stevens’ songs sound particular good on the sound side of things.

There is an audio commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and one of the film’s producers Charles B. Mulvehill. Dawson takes us through the genesis of the project, including Colin Higgins’ screenplay and Ashby going from his first film to Harold and Maude. Mulvehill recalls all kinds of filming anecdotes including casting and its disastrous reception. Dawson analyzes the film’s themes in depth with some excellent insights on this very informative track.

Disappointingly, the film’s trailer is not included despite being referenced in detail on the commentary as containing deleted footage.

There are audio excerpts from AFI seminars with Ashby and Higgins in ’72 and ’79 respectively. Ashby talks about how he got his start as an editor. Naturally, he talks about how he got the job to direct Harold and Maude while also discussing the challenge of casting the role of Harold. Higgins talks about the genesis of the script and the inspiration for Maude. Both are very engaging and informative.

Finally, there is an interview with Yusuf/Cat Stevens. He talks about how he got interested in making music as a way to express himself. Of course, he talks about how he got involved with Harold and Maude. Ashby was a big fan and used some of Stevens’ songs during filming. The director even invited the musician to the set to see how he wanted to use his music.