Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[Page14]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

[Show spoiler]Janice and Bill Templeton, played respectively by Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl) and John Beck (Rollerball), live an affluent and idyllic life in their beautiful New York City apartment with their 11 year-old daughter, Ivy, played by Susan Swift. Their everyday contentment is shattered, however, when Ivy begins to experience intense episodes of nightmares and frantic sleepwalking. Meanwhile, the family is routinely followed by a mysterious man, played by Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs). Their stalker soon introduces himself as Elliot Hoover, and informs the married couple that Ivy possesses the reincarnated soul of his own daughter, Audrey Rose, who died in a fiery car accident at the same instant that Ivy was born. As their daughter's self-destructive nightmares intensify, the Templetons, desperate to protect her, are torn apart by conflicted instincts about whether or not to trust Hoover and about how to save Ivy from mortal danger.

The 1977 horror drama, Audrey Rose, which was based on the popular novel by Frank De Felitta, who also wrote the source novel for The Entity, is a snail-paced thriller that demands patience from even the most ardent fans of the supernatural cinema that followed in the wake of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. Fortunately, this movie is an ultimately rewarding experience thanks to the late-career talents of director Robert Wise, who excelled behind the camera with a diverse catalogue of films, namely The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain, The Haunting, West Side Story, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Born to Kill. Wise's casting instincts ring true as always, especially with regard to Mason and Hopkins, who delve into their roles with the utmost seriousness and commitment. The music score by Michael Small is a crucial ingredient, and it adds a genuine eeriness to the end result.

Audrey Rose may never quite live up to the promise of its terrifying first scene that depicts the car accident where the title character meets her fate, but I enjoy the myriad of ways that it asks hard questions about what happens to us after we reach the clearing at the end of the path in our lives and about whether or not our own natures are dictated by those who passed before us. A courtroom drama sequence almost drags this film down to the point of ridiculousness, but a late scene featuring a hypnotist, played by Norman Lloyd (Saboteur, Dead Poets Society), brings us back into the realm of subtle horror.

This Twilight Time Blu-ray delivers a nicely serviceable transfer of an inherently grainy movie and, despite the grain and brightness, fans can rest assured that Audrey Rose has never looked better on home video. The only extra of real note, the isolated score, is a beautiful listen. As always, the Twilight Time booklet essay provides a summation of why this movie has a place of prestige in cinema history, and the booklet's recap of Robert Wise's past accomplishments is a welcome read.

I've decided to delve more often into Twilight Time Blu-ray titles that have languished in my unwatched list for too long, and I'm glad that I got around to revisiting this film for the first time since seeing it on television during my 1980s childhood.

Thanks Owl! Good to see you back ... and writing even.

I have to admit that this title never really excited me, even though I have nothing except reviews to base those feelings on. But that being said, I couldn't resist picking it up just before it sold out. Being a somewhat early Anthony Hopkins movie played a part in me buying it. (Robert Wise and Marsha Mason don't hurt either).

[Hazel Motes]

TT has put out 17 Woody Allen movies to date. Yet they haven't touched his 2 most OOP movies. My favorite Woody Allen comedy, Play It Again, Sam and the last great comedy he made, Deconstructing Harry. I really hope this happens before Arrow gets their hands on either title because I'm already pot committed to collecting WA via Twilight Time.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by Hazel Motes

TT has put out 17 Woody Allen movies to date. Yet they haven't touched his 2 most OOP movies. My favorite Woody Allen comedy, Play It Again, Sam and the last great comedy he made, Deconstructing Harry. I really hope this happens before Arrow gets their hands on either title because I'm already pot committed to collecting WA via Twilight Time.

"Play It Again, Sam" is with Paramount, so I'm skeptical of that one getting a release. "Deconstructing Harry" is with Warner, so hopefully that gets a Warner Archive release eventually. I think Sony released "Deconstructing Harry" in the UK, but not sure about the current rights of that one over there. If Sony has the UK rights to it still, maybe an Indicator release could happen.

[slasherdisc]

Placed an order for Seven-Ups, New Centurions, The Incident, and The Stone Killer !

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by Hazel Motes

TT has put out 17 Woody Allen movies to date. Yet they haven't touched his 2 most OOP movies. My favorite Woody Allen comedy, Play It Again, Sam and the last great comedy he made, Deconstructing Harry. I really hope this happens before Arrow gets their hands on either title because I'm already pot committed to collecting WA via Twilight Time.

Manhattan Murder Mystery was the final Woody Allen film to be released by Twilight Time.

[HitchcockLang]

Originally Posted by Brad1963

Manhattan Murder Mystery was the final Woody Allen film to be released by Twilight Time.

Says who? I'm pretty sure they indicated before that they had a certain number which indicated one more than they do and someone guessed "Sweet and Lowdown" and they slyly confirmed on Facebook.

It's also been speculated that they could easily get Melinda and Melinda.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by Hazel Motes

TT has put out 17 Woody Allen movies to date. Yet they haven't touched his 2 most OOP movies. My favorite Woody Allen comedy, Play It Again, Sam and the last great comedy he made, Deconstructing Harry. I really hope this happens before Arrow gets their hands on either title because I'm already pot committed to collecting WA via Twilight Time.

That's because their deal didn't include either of those films.

Originally Posted by HitchcockLang

Says who? I'm pretty sure they indicated before that they had a certain number which indicated one more than they do and someone guessed "Sweet and Lowdown" and they slyly confirmed on Facebook.

Well, they did, specifically. Their original Allen deal was for everything unreleased up to Manhattan Murder Mystery (the UA/Orion/Tri-Star catalog). After Manhattan Murder Mystery, Allen started releasing through Miramax/Fine Line/etc.

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by HitchcockLang

Says who? I'm pretty sure they indicated before that they had a certain number which indicated one more than they do and someone guessed "Sweet and Lowdown" and they slyly confirmed on Facebook.

It's also been speculated that they could easily get Melinda and Melinda.

Twilight Time themselves after Manhattan Murder Mystery was announced. I believe it was on the Home Theatre Forum page.

[PowellPressburger]

Really wish TT could get U.S. distribution for the DreamWorks Woody Allen titles esp if maybe Allen pushed for them to be able to release them.

I really love Anything Else (2003) Christina Ricci and Stockard Channing have so many great lines in that one.

Melinda and Melinda shouldn't be hard to get since they license from FOXs catalog. And of course Sweet and Lowdown is with Sony.

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

Really wish TT could get U.S. distribution for the DreamWorks Woody Allen titles esp if maybe Allen pushed for them to be able to release them.

I really love Anything Else (2003) Christina Ricci and Stockard Channing have so many great lines in that one.

Melinda and Melinda shouldn't be hard to get since they license from FOXs catalog. And of course Sweet and Lowdown is with Sony.

I would really like Bullets Over Broadway. Drat, drat, Disney, drat!

Bullets Over Broadway and Play It Again, Sam are the last two Allen's that I'm jonesing for.

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

Really wish TT could get U.S. distribution for the DreamWorks Woody Allen titles esp if maybe Allen pushed for them to be able to release them.

I really love Anything Else (2003) Christina Ricci and Stockard Channing have so many great lines in that one.

Melinda and Melinda shouldn't be hard to get since they license from FOXs catalog. And of course Sweet and Lowdown is with Sony.

They may not be able to sub-license Sweet and Lowdown from Sony. Unlike Manhattan Murder Mystery and Husbands & Wives it is not a Sony owned property. They only acted as a distributor. Same may be said for Melinda with Fox.

[jmat91]

Auto focus is insanely good news!

[Member-167298]

Originally Posted by jmat91

Auto focus is insanely good news!

[Show spoiler]"Go balls deep, pop!"

[jmspls72]

Auto focus will be my first TT RELEASE and day 1 pre order

Defoe is so creepy in this flick

[The Great Owl]

Richard Bone, played by Jeff Bridges (Iron Man, Hell or High Water), sells yachts for a friend at a Santa Barbara marina while earning money on the side as a gigolo, and he drifts listlessly through life in quiet acceptance of the fact that he is becoming too old for his former carefree loverboy existence. Bone's best friend, Alex Cutter, played by the late John Heard (Big, Home Alone), is a crippled Vietnam veteran who, with his one eye and his missing leg, rages at the world with a Captain Ahab fury and constantly picks fights while drowning his caustic bitterness at local bars. Mo, played by Lisa Eichhorn (The Vanishing), is married to Cutter, but she earns the affection of both of these flawed men with a sense of resigned malaise while succumbing to alcoholism as a refuge from Cutter's abusive anger.

The lives of these three burned out California lost souls are changed forever when Bone's car breaks down in a rainy alley one night and he witnesses a mysterious man in a large car dumping something in a garbage can. When the body of a brutally murdered teenage girl is found in the garbage can the next morning, Bone is questioned by police, who are frustrated by his vague recollections. Later in the day, however, while Bone, Cutter, and Mo are attending a parade, Bone recognizes the familiar profile of an immensely wealthy and influential local tycoon, J.J. Cord, and points him out as the man whom he saw in the alley. This hazy noncommittal recognition sparks a fire in Cutter, who instantly commences an obsessive quest to expose Cord's crimes as a way of fighting his personal demons and exacting a bitter revenge on the untouchable big men in the world who rise to riches while the unfortunates like him are run over by the everyday rigors of life. Bone indulges in his friend's fancies, mostly out of bored amusement, but tragedy awaits both of them when the stakes are raised by their efforts to solve the mystery.

Cutter's Way, which was directed by Ivan Passer, was released in 1981, but its relentlessly downbeat and world-weary approach has more in common with the cynical sadness of 1960s and 1970s gems like The Misfits, Fat City, and Chinatown than it does with the ambitious everything-is-possible cinema that was starting to take hold during the Reagan era. This film, based on the Newton Thornburg novel, Cutter and Bone, comes across as a final dying gasp of idealistic hippie dreams in the wake of the Nixon, Watergate, and Vietnam years, and, as such, it was derided upon its release by critics who sensed that its sun-drenched brand of nihilism was already an anachronism.

Thankfully, Cutter's Way is now rightfully being reevaluated as an American classic. After my first viewing last night, by way of the excellent Twilight Time Blu-ray, I was so stunned in a “How did I make it through 46 years of life without seeing this film until now?” reaction that I had to start the film over and watch it all of the way through a second time before having a third go by way of the commentary track. This movie avoids the tidy hero tropes that were starting to take hold during the early 1980s and, instead, wallows in the mire of its insanely authentic protagonists with such resplendence that we cannot help going along for the ride, although we know from the beginning that things will not end well.

I love one particular scene, when, after suffering an unimaginable loss, John Heard's Cutter turns down a friend's invitation for a drink by saying, “I don't drink. You know, the routine grind drives me to drink. Tragedy, I take straight.”

Heard is a tour de force as the title character, and, although, as a 1980s kid, I grew up watching him in many comedies and dramas, I consider this to be his greatest and most multilayered role. Bridges, who has been recognized with long overdue prestige in recent years, shines as well in one of his most laconically melancholic early performances. Lisa Eichhorn, ever the underrated actress, is a true wonder simply by way of her eyes, which give one the impression that her character is carrying the weight of the world. Be on the lookout for Ann Dusenberry (Jaws 2), as the sister of the deceased teen, Stephen Elliott (Beverly Hill's Cop) as J.J. Cord, and Arthur Rosenberg (Footloose) as a well-meaning soul who must juggle his friendship with Cutter and Bone with his loyalties to Cord.

This Twilight Time disc delivers an impressively filmic presentation that, while not quite demo-worthy, seems to be wonderfully faithful to the source material of a feature that wavers between sunlit beauty and drabness.

The commentary track with Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo is a terrific listen, especially because Kirgo's emotional passion for the film mirrors my own astonishment after my initial viewing.

Well done, Twilight Time!

[spargs]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Richard Bone, played by Jeff Bridges (Iron Man, Hell or High Water), sells yachts for a friend at a Santa Barbara marina while earning money on the side as a gigolo, and he drifts listlessly through life in quiet acceptance of the fact that he is becoming too old for his former carefree loverboy existence. Bone's best friend, Alex Cutter, played by the late John Heard (Big, Home Alone), is a crippled Vietnam veteran who, with his one eye and his missing leg, rages at the world with a Captain Ahab fury and constantly picks fights while drowning his caustic bitterness at local bars. Mo, played by Lisa Eichhorn (The Vanishing), is married to Cutter, but she earns the affection of both of these flawed men with a sense of resigned malaise while succumbing to alcoholism as a refuge from Cutter's abusive anger.

The lives of these three burned out California lost souls are changed forever when Bone's car breaks down in a rainy alley one night and he witnesses a mysterious man in a large car dumping something in a garbage can. When the body of a brutally murdered teenage girl is found in the garbage can the next morning, Bone is questioned by police, who are frustrated by his vague recollections. Later in the day, however, while Bone, Cutter, and Mo are attending a parade, Bone recognizes the familiar profile of an immensely wealthy and influential local tycoon, J.J. Cord, and points him out as the man whom he saw in the alley. This hazy noncommittal recognition sparks a fire in Cutter, who instantly commences an obsessive quest to expose Cord's crimes as a way of fighting his personal demons and exacting a bitter revenge on the untouchable big men in the world who rise to riches while the unfortunates like him are run over by the everyday rigors of life. Bone indulges in his friend's fancies, mostly out of bored amusement, but tragedy awaits both of them when the stakes are raised by their efforts to solve the mystery.

Cutter's Way, which was directed by Ivan Passer, was released in 1981, but its relentlessly downbeat and world-weary approach has more in common with the cynical sadness of 1960s and 1970s gems like The Misfits, Fat City, and Chinatown than it does with the ambitious everything-is-possible cinema that was starting to take hold during the Reagan era. This film, based on the Newton Thornburg novel, Cutter and Bone, comes across as a final dying gasp of idealistic hippie dreams in the wake of the Nixon, Watergate, and Vietnam years, and, as such, it was derided upon its release by critics who sensed that its sun-drenched brand of nihilism was already an anachronism.

Thankfully, Cutter's Way is now rightfully being reevaluated as an American classic. After my first viewing last night, by way of the excellent Twilight Time Blu-ray, I was so stunned in a “How did I make it through 46 years of life without seeing this film until now?” reaction that I had to start the film over and watch it all of the way through a second time before having a third go by way of the commentary track. This movie avoids the tidy hero tropes that were starting to take hold during the early 1980s and, instead, wallows in the mire of its insanely authentic protagonists with such resplendence that we cannot help going along for the ride, although we know from the beginning that things will not end well.

I love one particular scene, when, after suffering an unimaginable loss, John Heard's Cutter turns down a friend's invitation for a drink by saying, “I don't drink. You know, the routine grind drives me to drink. Tragedy, I take straight.”

Heard is a tour de force as the title character, and, although, as a 1980s kid, I grew up watching him in many comedies and dramas, I consider this to be his greatest and most multilayered role. Bridges, who has been recognized with long overdue prestige in recent years, shines as well in one of his most laconically melancholic early performances. Lisa Eichhorn, ever the underrated actress, is a true wonder simply by way of her eyes, which give one the impression that her character is carrying the weight of the world. Be on the lookout for Ann Dusenberry (Jaws 2), as the sister of the deceased teen, Stephen Elliott (Beverly Hill's Cop) as J.J. Cord, and Arthur Rosenberg (Footloose) as a well-meaning soul who must juggle his friendship with Cutter and Bone with his loyalties to Cord.

This Twilight Time disc delivers an impressively filmic presentation that, while not quite demo-worthy, seems to be wonderfully faithful to the source material of a feature that wavers between sunlit beauty and drabness.

The commentary track with Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo is a terrific listen, especially because Kirgo's emotional passion for the film mirrors my own astonishment after my initial viewing.

Well done, Twilight Time!

Great review, Owl. I've long been an admirer of this film.

[DukeTogo84]

Wish they could release Woody Allen's Match Point. Pretty ridiculous that this doesn't have a blu-ray yet.

[Cremildo]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Wish they could release Woody Allen's Match Point. Pretty ridiculous that this doesn't have a blu-ray yet.

My most wanted Woody Allen BD is Bullets Over Broadway, which is only available in some non-English-speaking countries.

[MortimerBrewstr]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm also hoping for a release of Everyone Says I Love You (from anyone, really). Like Bullets Over Broadway, it only has a really terrible non-anamorphic DVD in North America.

[latehong]

Originally Posted by MortimerBrewstr

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm also hoping for a release of Everyone Says I Love You (from anyone, really). Like Bullets Over Broadway, it only has a really terrible non-anamorphic DVD in North America.

Minority maybe, but certainly you're not alone. Frankly, I don't remember much about the film, but for the magical dance in the night by the river alone, I would welcome a decent release.