The new A Little Night Music DVD..

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 1:24pm

I just got it. The widescreen is freaky. And he quality alright.

Someone on Amazon mentioned it's like a bootleg. And I'm wondering is it a bootleg?

The website of the maker Hens Tooth says

We do not sell our DVDs directly to the public. They may be ordered over the Internet from a variety of companies including Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, CD Universe, Deep Discount DVD, DVD Empire, or DVD Planet. Or you may order by phone from Movies Unlimited at [phone].

www.henstoothvideos.com

Sounds a little fishy to me. But wouldn't they need permission from Prince and Sondheim to make this DVD?

Updated On: 6/14/07 at 01:24 PM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 1:33pm

Why is that fishy? Buena Vista Home Entertainment doesn't sell their DVDs directly. They sell thru Amazon.com, The Disney Store, Best Buy, etc. Why would the production company sell directly?

Plus, if they are recognized by Amazon.com, Deep Discount DVD, etc. as a reputable company - I would trust them. It's authorized.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 1:35pm

The whole design of the DVD looks very cheap and bootlegish.

I took that not selling directly thing - meaning they don't sell them in stores, only over the internet. I guess I misunderstood that.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 2:11pm

Yeah, it does, but most independent production companies that aren't mainstream don't quite look "professional" even though it is legit.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 2:22pm

Its better looking that the bootleg that's been going around Ebay for some time (with Taylor on the cover rather than the movie artwork".

[Paulyd]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 2:35pm

It is authorised, its just that the company is very small and the cost to remaster or restore the original master would be expensive, and to be honest not worth it.

The film simply isnt big enough to spend that kind of money. It's much cheaper to reversion a video master and transfer it to DVD, which they have probably done in this case. This is the kind of thing i'm involved in with my job here in the UK.

If the original print has been sitting around for ages collecting dust (which this one obviously has) it's very expensive to get it back to a quality that people would find acceptable today.

To be honest films made around this time didnt look to great in the first placde, and many films were not looked after as well as the should have been.

I know its no real consellation, but you should be happy that they've released it at all.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 2:42pm

It's a legit release.

It just seems like a bootleg.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 3:10pm

Yeah, and I'm still awaiting mine, as is everyone who used Amazon, no? Next week I think. I did hear reports that the color is vastly superior to the VHS. I didn't expect a pristine transfer, and don't notice many of the nitpicky things technically proficient types do. (I just got the 2000 Australian/Showtime miniseries remake of ON THE BEACH on DVD from Amazon, dirt cheap, and to me it looks stunning ... yet I read fantatics who talked about the anamorphic distort and color "blocking," if that's the term, things I could possibly pick up. It's clear, sharp, with solid stereo sound, and though I'd prefer the wider screen ratio, it fills the screen comfortably). Unless there are dreadful streaks or something, I should be happy with NIGHT MUSIC.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 7:41pm

I'm stuck with Amazon too

But yeah this is par for course with Hen's tooth--honestly I think we shoudl thank them for releasing it at all--when Image gave up because they didn't want to release it unrestored, and decided a restoration wasn't worth it I thought we wouldn't see a DVD...

I have one other Hen's Tooth DVD--Neil Jordan's debut Freudian horror film Company of WOlves (With Angela Lansbury as one creepy grandmother) -- it's one of my top movies and while the print is good it's disappointing that the dvd itself is so obviously budget--especially since right after in the UK a super deluxe edition came out...

E

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/14/07 at 8:44pm

Well there is a vertical streak present on the screen during some parts of the movie.

And someone said on amazon that the mixing is different, and all the songs now are a whole step higher or something. I don't know about that though. Couldn't really hear a difference.
Updated On: 6/14/07 at 08:44 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 6:59am

I heard the vertical streak appears in "Now"/"Soon"/"Later" but that the color is far truer than the VHS. And the sound is supposed to sound anything but budget. I suppose color and sound trump perfect print. Yes, we should be grateful we're getting it. I'll be the first to post on it once mine arrives. This was much anticipated,and the delay is surprising, since it's available elsewhere (though as noted, not in stores).

[tazber]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 7:40am

I got mine from amazon the Thursday of the week it was released.
I don't know if it makes a difference, but I joined the amazon prime thing last year.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 9:03am

Whoa, that kinda ticks me off. I pre-ordered mine waaay back. Thanks for the heads up, Taz.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 6/15/07 at 9:06am

I got mine from Amazon this past Tuesday but I haven't had the chance to watch it yet. Anything has to be better than the Embassy Home Video VHS tape I have.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 7:38pm

If it's the same video as the one I have it's even recorded on EP speed--ie the poorest quality! Really shocking for a pro video.

Still nothing from Amazon for me

As for it maybe being all a step up--sometimes this happens--nearly all UK DVDs are a pitch or step up because they use PAL and that's how PAL transfers 24fps film to make it compatible. The recent NTSC Region 1 DVD of Last Unicorn used the German remastered edition as a soruce--which is PAL, so the whole score is a pitch up (the film clocks in a few mins earlier too) but it's only really noticeable to those who have the soundtrack. I play the movie soundtrack to ALNM a good deal so will be interested to hear if there's a change

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 7:48pm

Jesus, guys... I ordered mine from DeepDiscount.com, which was on a 40 percent off sale for the past 10 days. No tax. Free shipping. I ordered it last week, it was shipped on a slow boat to China... and I got it Friday.

And DeepDiscount.com is owned by Amazon!

So, what's up!?!

Why haven't you gotten yours yet?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 7:58pm

Rub it in why don't you

[jimnysf]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 8:00pm

I watched it last night. The vertical lines were annoying as were some of the washed out looking scenes. I can't believe that this is the best possible print that exists in the entire world but if it is, it needs to be restored before it's lost forever.

I didn't know Deep Discount is owned by Amazon. Is that something recent or has it always been the case?

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 9:12pm

Amazon bought DeepDiscout recently. They merged it into one site (no longer CDs and DVDs separately)... and now they offer books and such as well.

Sorry, Eric. It wasn't meant as gloating! I just don't get why you don't have your copy yet!

By the way, the DeepDiscount.com sale ends today... you just enter DVDTALK in the promo code spot and you'll get an EXTRA 20 percent off (from the 20 percent you already get!). Good for anything but pre-orders.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 10:01pm

Thanks. I thought the sale ended yesterday. Maybe I will have to buy some more.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 10:51pm

I got mine from DEEP DISCOUNT too. I'm glad I did!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/17/07 at 11:57pm

I just changed my order to Deep Discount (yep it was still in the processing stage at amazon so I could cancel it no prob)--the shipping is the same to canada but with the code it's about 3 bucks cheaper than amazon.

I dunno why people still seem surprised that this is probably the best print in existance--it was a flop film (that never got any major distribution anyway) from Roger Corman's budget New World label. It was never a grade A production (and all thru filming everything was made as cheap as possible--they changed the setting to Austria solely because Austria was offering massive tax breaks to court American film)--and I doubt any company would want to invest the money required to remaster it--like Image briefly planned to (I think many DVD fans take for granted that basica remastering is cheap--it's not)

E

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 11:04am

Mine finally came yesterday (June 2.

After reading so much about the print quality, I expected something far, far worse. It looks pretty good in places, and those vertical lines to me aren't as distracting as some folks contend. I'd heard the color was at least truer, and generally that's the case -- though Taylor's famous dress reads as tomato, with an orange tint, and not the blood red I recall. It's not a restoration, but we've all owned far worse prints on vhs and dvd.

But even a good print wouldn't fix what seems the worse lighting and (especially in interiors) cinematography in a major film -- even a cheap one. Have you ever seen such SHADOWS?! Every interior seems to have some omnicient lighting source that casts dusk-like shadows across the floor. When Taylor walks toward the daybed during "Clowns," she creates a shadow worthy of PETER PAN. At one point, a lifted hat sends a dark shadow across a face. And the exteriors! During the final sequence, when Cariou has his epiphany about being "coherent," he is literally in the dark. It's shocking.

Returning to the film after about 15 years, I was struck by how badly served Taylor is here -- by lighting, direction, everything but text,for a role she's actually so very right for. She looks best in the final sequences, as has been widely reported -- because the early montage material was filmed last when she was heavier and who knows, probably ready to abandon ship. The most startling example of the lack of care afforded this major star is in the "You Must Meet My Wife" sequence. She answers the door on Cariou and looks abou puffy, bloated, and again, lit from some deadly white light source. She doesn't play the scene badly, but Prince has no idea how to put her and Carious in the same shot -- so he rarely does.

The other impression: how wrong Downs seems. To my thinking, she's far too sophisticated for Anne, so much so, that when she ends up with "Eric" (so dubbed in the film), she seems to be cradle-robbing. She even seems more sophisticated that Cariou. It doesn't help the case made for mature vs. young love, and somtimes she seems like a younger Joan Collins -- a bizarre parallel, considering how many people once called Collins "a poor man's Liz Taylor." She's lovely and accomplished, but a child bride? Isn't that key to making the case for Frederick's crisis?

The only person to emerge unscathed is Rigg. The film's potential is best exhibited in one sequence: Rigg in a back of a carriage, singing "Every Day a Little Death" as a ruminative solioquy. Suddenly, we see what might've been.

There are other nice glimpses -- I even felt Herminone was nicely understated, and with better direction and (fill in the blank) could've worked as Taylor's Mama. But even in the famous dinner table scene, she is given inadequate focus and weight. The sense of occasion is lacking, so she cannot score.

If only a Vincent Minelli could've gotten his hands on this material, it might's been one of the charming gems. The film doesn't fail because of the budget constraints -- it fails because Prince was at sea with storytelling on film. Scenes that had rhythm and grande style on stage fall flat and don't even play as musical comedy. It sometimes feels like a dubbed foreign movie -- and not SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT.

I'm in love with the material, and poorly executed as it is -- missing about half the score -- I'm happy to have it. At least we can sift through the scenes and watch the best parts -- and Taylor's "Clowns" does almost work. This might've been one of her best screen performances, and that's sad.

Updated On: 6/29/07 at 11:04 AM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 3:23pm

And by the way -- were "Liaisons" and "Miller's Son" filmed? I think I heard that only the former. (But why "introduce" an actress as Petra without that song?")

[Wicked63]

Posted: 6/29/07 at 3:29pm

The source material for A Little Night Music on DVD is infamously bad quality was in such a bad state i for one am incredibly grateful its out there at all. Well done Hens Tooth and a big thank you- whats next for us?