Showing posts with label dirk bogarde. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dirk bogarde. Show all posts
30 March 2015
Blu-ray Review - Darling (1965)
Genre:
Satire
Distributor:
Studiocanal;
BD Release Date:
30th March 2015
Rating:15
Director:
John Schlesinger
Cast:
Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey, Roland Curram, Alex Scott
Buy: Darling - [Blu-ray]
Darling stars Julie Christie at the height of her fame during the 1960s. John Schlesinger, who would go on to make other classic films later like Midnight Cowboy and Marathon Man, directed it. It’s a terribly dated, but fascinating slice of the swinging 60s.
Christie plays the model/actress Diane Scott in the midst of the changing values of the swinging 60s. She is married to an immature yet perfectly decent bloke, but she meets a literary interview/TV personality Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde) and they start an affair. Both of their respective marriages end and they end up getting married. Scott however isn’t faithful to her husband and screws the advertising executive Myles Brand (Laurence Harvey) so she can get a part in a euro trash thriller. The rest of the film is basically the inner conflicts she has with herself, and the relationships she has with both men and eventually a third while she rises in her fame. Near the end of the film she is hounded by a paparazzi.
Julie Christie of course looks great in the film; one of the film’s Oscars was for best costume design. Bogarde who as everyone knows was a tormented man (he was gay) gives a performance of world-weariness and dissatisfaction with his middle class life and brings some much-needed darkness. Laurence Harvey however is the standout as Gold, he is a amoral and corrupt to the core, he is so twisted and evil it reminds me of the Bill Hicks routine where he tell anyone in advertising to “kill yourself, it’s the only way to save your fucking soul”.
The film attempts to be a satire on the emptiness of the rich white middle class lifestyle. The film has an extremely unsubtle opening where a poster of Diane covers a charity poster of poverty stricken kids in Africa. However the satire never really works, there is a scene where they are upper class ball/dinner and black kids are dressed up in servants’ costumes. It’s obviously supposed to show up the hosts as racist bigots but it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
The film does look best as a dark cynical slice of British New Wave cinema. It is taking it’s cues from Truffaut, Godard and most overtly Antonioni. The 3 leads are outstanding in this forward thinking film. At the time it was a daring film that touched on abortion, homosexuality, infidelity, the changing sexual roles in society etc. The hipness of the film is too knowing for it’s own good, and the lack of knowledge of popular music is strange, there is like one pop song in the whole film despite the mention of Diane’s large record collection early on. It’s certainly doesn’t nail the zeitgeist as much as the later Blow-Up, or even Schlesinger’s game changer Midnight Cowboy, but it’s a solid film.
★★★★
Ian Schultz
29 July 2014
Blu-Ray Review - Victim (1961)
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Network
BD Release Date: 28th July 2014 (UK)
Rating: 12
Running Time: 105
Director: Basil Dearden
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Slyvia Syms, Dennis Price, Nigel Stock
Buy: Victim Blu-Ray
The year is 1961 and homosexuality in the UK is still a crime, this was also the year that filmVictim was released. It became famous for being the first film in the English language to use the word “homosexual” and one of the first films with a sympathetic portrayal of a gay man. It is also widely believed to have played a role in the eventual overturning of the law banning homosexuality.
The police are after a young man named Jack Barrett who has stolen money from his employer and is on the run. He tries to get in contact with the barrister Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde) who is married but in reality is gay and had an affair with the young man. Barrett commits suicide after he is caught but Melville is blackmailed.
Dirk Bogarde was widely known to be gay but rarely spoke about his own sexuality even in his own autobiography. It took him astonishing courage to take up the part in Victim in 1961 and gives a wonderfully paranoid performance throughout the film. It was a game changer and an important film for Bogarde’s career and for cinematic history.
The cinematography has a slight noir tinge which suits the material very well; Otto Heller who photographed many of the finest British films ever made such as Peeping Tom, The Ladykillers and The Ipcress File shot it. Basil Dearden-who did some of the most unique films to come out of the 50s and 60s British industry, directed it.
Network has done a very impressive disc for such an important film. The transfer is clean and has the right amount of contrast and grain. The features include a half an hour interview with Bogarde shot during the release of Victim and it also includes publicity materials like the original trailer and stills.
★★★★
Ian Schultz
14 March 2013
Studiocanal To release Joseph Losey's The Servant,Accident, Entertaining Mr Sloane
restorations and theatrical re-releases of British classics. March 22 will see a beautifully restored release of Joseph Losey's THE SERVANT for its 50th anniversary. Scripted by Harold Pinter (their first collaboration) and starring Dirk Bogarde and James Fox, it will be screening at selected London cinemas.
A disturbing tale of seduction, sexual and social tension and psychological control, THE SERVANT is a stunning dissection of two men, the wealthy young playboy Tony (James Fox) and his new manservant, Barrett (Dirk Bogarde), and the shifting power dynamic in their initially cosy but progressively more fraught relationship. Winner of three BAFTA awards, it is still recognised as one of the best portraits of British class warfare ever committed to screen.
April 8 will see the Home Entertainment release, on DVD, and as the latest Studiocanal Collection Blu-ray - its first ever blu-ray release. Newly created extras include award winning director Richard Ayoade interviewing James Fox, a new interview with Stephen Wooley, a leading fan of the film and new featurettes. The SCC blu-ray will come in the usual exclusive packaging with newly created booklet
Also April 8, STUDIOCANAL will be releasing the second Losey/Pinter collaboration - ACCIDENT, in a new restoration completed by the BFI and also as a blu-ray premiere. New featurettes with film critics and experts have also been created for the extras.
Rounding out the week's releases will be our DVD release of ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE, the film version of Joe Orton's black comedy starring Harry Andrews and Beryl reed, focusing on the brother and sister pairing who become involved and increasingly infatuated with the sexy young amoral drifter with a mysterious past. The DVD features a new extra of Joe Orton;s last ever chat show appearance, recorded a few months before his tragic death.
8 APRIL THE SERVANT – 50th Anniversary DVD, Studiocanal Collection Blu-Ray& EST
Tony (James Fox), a wealthy young Londoner, hires Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) as his manservant. Initially, Barrett appears to take easily to his new job, and he and Tony form a quiet bond, retaining their social roles. Relationships begin shifting, however, and they change with the introduction of Susan (Wendy Craig), Tony's girlfriend, who seems to be suspicious of Barrett and to loathe all he represents. Barrett brings Vera (Sarah Miles), whom he presents as his sister, into Tony's household as a maidservant, but it emerges that Vera is actually Barrett's lover. Through Barrett's and Vera's games and machinations, they reverse roles with Tony and Susan; Tony becomes more and more dissipated, sinking further into what he perceives as their level, as the "master" and the "servant" exchange rolesDVD extras: James Fox interviewed by Richard Ayoade / Interview with Wendy Craig / Interview with Sarah Miles / Audio interview with Douglas Slocombe (Director of photography) / Harold Pinter Tempo interview / Joseph Losey talks about The Servant / Stills gallery / Trailer
Blu-ray extras: As above plus Interview with Stephen Wooley (fan of the film) /Harry Burton (Pinter expert) on Harold Pinter / Joseph Losey and Adolfas Mekas at the New York film festival / John Coldstream (Bogarde biographer) on Dirk Bogarde
Buy The Servant On: DVD
/ Blu-ray
8 APRIL ACCIDENT- DVD, Blu-Ray & EST
The second of director Joseph Losey’s collaborations with playwright Harold Pinter, The Accident is a taut, dark, brilliantly acted dissection of the emotional lives of the English intelligentsia. Dirk Bogarde stars as Stephen, an Oxford Philosophy lecturer, contentedly married to Rosalind but silently resentful of his colleague Charley, whose star is rising as a TV pundit. Among Stephen's students is the casually charming young aristocrat William (Michael York) who has his eye on another of Stephen's charges, Austrian princess Anna (Jacqueline Sassard). Motivated by a dangerous mixture of admiration and envy, Stephen facilitates a meeting between William and Anna. But Stephen's gently magnanimous demeanour conceals a rising tide of anxiety, self-centredness and sexual desperation. Over the course of one drink-drenched summer afternoon in the rolling English countryside, Stephen and Charley's unspoken impulses - charged up by the seductive presence of Anna - break the veneer of English civilityExtras: Talking About Accident documentary featuring an interview with Harry Pinter / · Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter discuss Accident (1957) / Dirk Bogarde biographer John Coldstream discussing Dirk Bogarde – NEW / Harry Pinter expert Harry Burton discussing Harold Pinter – NEW / Interview with feminist author and academic Melanie Williams – NEW / Interview with film critic Tim Robey – NEW
Buy Accident - DVD
8 APRIL ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE- DVD Only
A deliciously dark and humorous story about manipulation and repressed sexuality from controversial playwright Joe Orton. An attractive young charmer by the name of Mr. Sloane weasels his way into the lives of a middle-aged brother and sister, while trying to disguise the truth about his unpleasant past. Sexual tension drives the plot from the very beginning, when the lonely Kath (Beryl Reid) spots Mr. Sloane (Peter McEnery) in a cemetery and invites him to become a boarder. Despite the age difference, Sloane coyly plays along with her flirtations for his own benefit. Their fun seems over when Kath's brother Ed (Harry Andrews) shows up, but the prim and proper gentleman also takes a shine to Sloane, hiring him as his chauffeur and taking particular interest in the young man's tight leather uniform. Kath and Ed's elderly father, however, develops a strong hatred of Sloane, and accuses to him of being involved in an old, unsolved murder.Buy Entertaining Mr Sloane - DVD
Extras: Eamonn Andrews talks with Joe Orton (Eamonn Andrews chat show episode) / trailer
30 July 2012
The Night Porter Review
★★★1/2☆
The Night Porter is a very notorious cult classic that came out in 1974 directed by Liliana Cavani (Ripley’s Game). It’s a film that hasn’t age well in the proceeding years and tries to be a art film when it’s just a piece of exploitation cinema.
The story is about a Night Porter called Maxamilian (Dirk Bogarde) at a Vienna hotel, he has a dark secret he was a SS officer. He had a sadomasochistic relationship with a girl Lucia at a concentration camp, it’s suggested that she was Jewish but it’s never mentioned. Their history is all told in flashback though out the film. They rekindle their relationship many years later against a backdrop of a trial Max is about to face about his war crimes. However he has been meeting with old Nazi chums who are destroying evidence to get away clean. They eventually find out about the girl and want her dead so they hid away in a hotel room.
The film much of it’s time, it’s one of those 70s “art” films that on the edge of being a sex film or a serious art film for example I am Curious series. The film fails are both however it’s a rather interesting film about a woman despite what Max did to her still feels connected to him. Which is a rather daring story to tell. However it’s overly long would have worked a lot better a 90-minute thriller than it’s slightly less than 2 hour running time. Way many long shots of them stuck in this bedroom.
The acting by the 2 leads are quite good especially Dirk Bogarde pull off the complex role of a man who hates his past but also wants parts of it back. Charlotte Rampling’s performance as the girl Lucia is despite her great acting in flashback sequences is pretty bland, she just lying around a hotel room not doing a whole lot. The supporting cast of his Nazi chums are quite effective as well.
Overall it’s a fascinating if somewhat pretentious attempt to tell a fascinating serious story. However the Dirk Bogarde really saves it from being a bad film. It’s overly long and I rarely say that about a film. I could trim at least 20 minutes out and it would work better. It’s worth checking out but it’s not very shocking as some people may suggest.
Ian Schultz
Rating: 18
UK Re-release: 30th July 2012
Directed By:Liliana Cavani
Cast:Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling. Philippe Leroy
Buy: The Night PorterOn Blu-ray [1974]
Win The Night Porter On Blu-Ray
Available to buy on DVD and Blu-Ray on 30th July.
Vienna, 1957. Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi concentration camp officer, is now employed as a respectable night porter at one of the city's most luxurious hotels. Still anguished by the guilt of his actions during the war, he attempts to relieve his conscience by devoting himself to his work while awaiting the upcoming trial of himself and his fellow Nazi officers. But one fateful evening Max's disturbing past catches up with him in the form of the beautiful and alluring Lucia (Charlotte Rampling). Now the wife of a respected American classical composer, almost 15 years earlier Lucia was a teenage concentration camp inmate and Max's lover in an aberrant sado-masochistic relationship. Bound by their memories and uncontrollably drawn to each other, Max and Lucia rekindle their bizarre love affair. But their future together becomes threatened by other ghosts from the past…
To celebrate today's release of The Night Porter on Blu-Ray courtesy of Anchor Bay we have 3 copies of the film to give away, to enter we're not going to ask you a question just follow us at Twitter and like us at Facebook (if you haven't done it already), Send us a quick email with your name, address with your twitter name and facebook name. E-mail them to cinehouseuk@gmail.com,deadline For The Competition is August 19th, 2012 (2359hrs).
Terms and Conditions
- This prize is non-transferable.
- No cash alternatives apply.
- UK & Irish entries only Cinehouse and Anchor Bay Entertainment have the right to alter, delay or cancel this competition without any notice
- The competition is not opened to employees, family, friends of Cinehouse,Anchor Bay Entertainment employees
- This competition is promoted on behalf of Anchor Bay Entertainment
- The Prize is to win The Night Porter on Blu-Ray
- To enter this competition you must send in your answer, name, address only, like us at facebook, follow us at twitter (include twitter/facebook in email) Deadline August 19th, 2012 (2359hrs)
- Will only accept entries sent to the correct email (cinehouseuk@gmail.com), any other entry via any other email will be void.
- automated entries are not allowed and will be disqualified, which could result you been banned.
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- The competition is opened to Aged 18 and over
- Unless Stated Please Do Not Include Telephone Numbers, we don’t need them
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23 June 2012
Liliana Cavani’s THE NIGHT PORTER Getting UK Blu-Ray& DVD Release This July
Vienna, 1957. Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi concentration camp officer, is now employed as a respectable night porter at one of the city's most luxurious hotels. Still anguished by the guilt of his actions during the war, he attempts to relieve his conscience by devoting himself to his work while awaiting the upcoming trial of himself and his fellow Nazi officers. But one fateful evening Max's disturbing past catches up with him in the form of the beautiful and alluring Lucia (Charlotte Rampling). Now the wife of a respected American classical composer, almost 15 years earlier Lucia was a teenage concentration camp inmate and Max's lover in an aberrant sado-masochistic relationship. Bound by their memories and uncontrollably drawn to each other, Max and Lucia rekindle their bizarre love affair. But their future together becomes threatened by other ghosts from the past…
Despite having long divided critical and public opinion due to its shocking subject matter and imagery (respected critic Roger Ebert famously described it as “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering. It is – I know how obscene this sounds – Nazi chic.”) The Night Porter is a courageous and uncompromising piece of filmmaking that has come to be regarded as a classic of European cinema. Comparable to Visconti’s “The Damned”, Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” and Tinto Brass’ “Salon Kitty”, this is a powerful cinematic experience that, once seen is impossible for forget.
The Night Porter will be released on DVD & Blu-ray on July 30th thanks to Anchor Bay Pre order your copy on DVD
or Blu-ray【TRAILER】The Night Porter Published via LongTail.tv
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