Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by klauswhereareyou

I think Kiss of Death was one that was listed as low quantity during a previous sale, but I'm not sure what the exact number is. That was one I did end up getting this time around.

The low quantity alerts have become tricky. There used to be just one, but now, they'll release two: one for low stock at TT's own sales site, and one for the stock at SAE. They split the inventory between the two sites, so just because one site runs out (or is close) doesn't mean the title is close to selling out, period.

[Reddington]

I've been on a bit of a Pacino kick recently, and am considering picking up Bobby Deerfield.

The combination of Pacino + Pollack + motor racing + the beautiful Marthe Keller sounds like my thing, but I seem to recall some comments way back that it is all rather flat and uninspiring.

Worth a $15 blind-buy in the sale?

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Reddington

I've been on a bit of a Pacino kick recently, and am considering picking up Bobby Deerfield.

The combination of Pacino + Pollack + motor racing + the beautiful Marthe Keller sounds like my thing, but I seem to recall some comments way back that it is all rather flat and uninspiring.

Worth a $15 blind-buy in the sale?

Those comments aren’t completely off base but I did find it to be an interesting 70s drama. I blind bought it in a previous sale and am glad I did, BUT I doubt I’d be compelled to watch it again any time soon. While it pales in comparison to his other work from that decade, it was nice to see him in one of his most restrained performances and the bluray looks fantastic.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Aclea

but it's well told - or at least in the two-hour European cut of the film which, perversely, was only available on DVD in the US, and there in a version with dodgy synchronisation in the early scenes: Europe had to make do with the cut US version shorn of 16 minutes on DVD despite getting the film uncut in theaters and on TV. Thankfully TT's disc offers both cuts.

I still think the film feels truncated and incomplete...especially where Berenger is concerned, who I've read had his part drastically cut.

I certainly didn't hate it like I did The Killer Elite, but it just feels like there's so much missing while what's there is rather turgid.

But it was worth grabbing for $10, if only because it's OOP.

[Aclea]

I always got the impression from Berenger's comments in interviews, which in the past have referred to things that are in the European cut, that he had only seen the US cut, though Helen Shaver having an unbilled walk-on does imply something hit the cutting room floor where she was concerned.

It's certainly a better film than Killer Elite, which degenerates into a complete mess after a decent enough first half hour and suffers from a very obviously stoned director and leading man who pretty clearly have no interest in anything but the check and a writer-producer who they simply ignored when he tried to get them to stick to the script. Certainly the lazy ending was full of "that'll do because this crap doesn't matter" improvisation - according to Bo Hopkins, Peckinpah tried to have his dead character reappear in that scene and make another joke of the lack of narrative logic in his sudden reincarnation.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Reddington

I've been on a bit of a Pacino kick recently, and am considering picking up Bobby Deerfield.

The combination of Pacino + Pollack + motor racing + the beautiful Marthe Keller sounds like my thing, but I seem to recall some comments way back that it is all rather flat and uninspiring.

Worth a $15 blind-buy in the sale?

It's definitely a your-mileage-may-vary movie. I'll probably give it another spin to see if I just wasn't in the right mood for it or was expecting too much, but first impressions weren't good, though I have to admit at least part of that was down to the film almost completely ignoring the Formula One background:



Love Story has a lot to answer for, sparking off a slew of dreary disease-of-the-week doomed romances between beautiful people, one of whom would have one of those terminal diseases that doesn’t affect their looks or their motor functions until the last reel. Case in point, 1977’s Bobby Deerfield, which dusted off Erich Maria Remarque’s 1959 novel Heaven Has No Favourites and sees Al Pacino’s unlikeable and insular racing driver who never takes emotional risks or makes commitments off the track falling for Marthe Keller’s quixotic and manic free spirit who he meets at an expensive clinic while ostensibly visiting his co-driver but really trying to find out what caused a near fatal crash. Naturally he doesn’t read anything into her presence there or her sudden departure when she persuades him to give her a lift home across Italy: he doesn’t even seem to cotton on when running his fingers through her hair and some of it falls out.

It’s a pretty but deathly dull affair that was a notorious critical and box-office bomb in its day, with Al Pacino underplaying his emotionally comatose part almost to the point of invisibility – no Hoo-ahs! here – with Sydney Pollack’s direction taking a similarly sedentary approach to drama and just plonking his two stars in beautiful Italian and French locations where Keller’s spur-of-the-moment and direct personality constantly frustrates and confounds him. Keller’s easily the best thing in the picture, remarkably convincing as the kind of person with no internal edit button who can drive you up the wall one moment and fascinate you the next despite occasionally being saddled with some terrible dialogue (particularly a running thread about “homos in Newark”), but she seems to be doing all the work both as a character and a performer as Pacino constantly retreats within himself. With what little plot there is advancing at a snail’s pace (and that goes for the two brief and disinterested racing sequences too) it’s almost a losing battle with only a few odd moments – a bet that he won’t be recognised in the street if he takes off his sunglasses, the obligatory balloon ride - to keep you going in the hope it will get better. It doesn’t. Even when she finally breaks down some of his reserve by telling him he’s boring, which most of the audience worked out for themselves about twelve reels earlier, he just tries to prove her wrong by doing a bad Mae West impersonation and singing badly (which admittedly could make it a must-see for some).

Still, it does score points for a wonderfully blatant bit of have-your-cake-and-eat-it product placement for a certain brand of watches, and Henri Decae’s Scope photography is certainly attractive.

[tama]

So with this massive sale and lack of new releases announcements is this label wrapping it up?

[Dailyan]

Went back for a small order:

[Show spoiler]

The 2$ off coupon really helps cushion the shipping.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

Went back for a small order:

[Show spoiler]

The 2$ off coupon really helps cushion the shipping.

Wasn't aware they were still offering the $2 coupon...I haven't been offered one since last August (which I'm fairly certain I used.)

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by tama

So with this massive sale and lack of new releases announcements is this label wrapping it up?

On Facebook a couple weeks ago they were asked TT about "new announcements", and was given the reply "soon".

A new posting this week someone asked if there "Do you still have a lot of Fox titles to announce in coming months?" TT replied: "Not at this time."

I seem to think they finished releasing the titles they had a firm licensing agreements for. It seems to me I remember Nick indicating a couples years ago the timeline to get through what they had was about 2 years. It may be a mixture of titles running out and the Disney take over.

It could they may be negotiating for more with Fox (Disney), or with another studio. I do not think they are planning to call it a day...at least for now.

[bonehica]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

Went back for a small order:

[Show spoiler]

The 2$ off coupon really helps cushion the shipping.

Where is this $2 coupon at? Probably gonna place another order from them before the sale ends.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by bonehica

Where is this $2 coupon at? Probably gonna place another order from them before the sale ends.

After you've received an order from TT's site, a day or so later, they'll send an email asking for "feedback" on a title, write a "review" and you'll get an email for the code. In the past, the code use to be just 2$ off the entire order (at least when I looked back on some of my orders when I used it) but now it's 2$ off each item in your cart.

[bonehica]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

After you've received an order from TT's site, a day or so later, they'll send an email asking for "feedback" on a title, write a "review" and you'll get an email for the code. In the past, the code use to be just 2$ off the entire order (at least when I looked back on some of my orders when I used it) but now it's 2$ off each item in your cart.

Thanks, had to go back a few orders before I found one of those emails. Just submitted my review and will see what happens.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

[Show spoiler]Those comments aren’t completely off base but I did find it to be an interesting 70s drama. I blind bought it in a previous sale and am glad I did, BUT I doubt I’d be compelled to watch it again any time soon. While it pales in comparison to his other work from that decade, it was nice to see him in one of his most restrained performances and the bluray looks fantastic.

Originally Posted by Aclea

[Show spoiler]It's definitely a your-mileage-may-vary movie. I'll probably give it another spin to see if I just wasn't in the right mood for it or was expecting too much, but first impressions weren't good, though I have to admit at least part of that was down to the film almost completely ignoring the Formula One background:



Love Story has a lot to answer for, sparking off a slew of dreary disease-of-the-week doomed romances between beautiful people, one of whom would have one of those terminal diseases that doesn’t affect their looks or their motor functions until the last reel. Case in point, 1977’s Bobby Deerfield, which dusted off Erich Maria Remarque’s 1959 novel Heaven Has No Favourites and sees Al Pacino’s unlikeable and insular racing driver who never takes emotional risks or makes commitments off the track falling for Marthe Keller’s quixotic and manic free spirit who he meets at an expensive clinic while ostensibly visiting his co-driver but really trying to find out what caused a near fatal crash. Naturally he doesn’t read anything into her presence there or her sudden departure when she persuades him to give her a lift home across Italy: he doesn’t even seem to cotton on when running his fingers through her hair and some of it falls out.

It’s a pretty but deathly dull affair that was a notorious critical and box-office bomb in its day, with Al Pacino underplaying his emotionally comatose part almost to the point of invisibility – no Hoo-ahs! here – with Sydney Pollack’s direction taking a similarly sedentary approach to drama and just plonking his two stars in beautiful Italian and French locations where Keller’s spur-of-the-moment and direct personality constantly frustrates and confounds him. Keller’s easily the best thing in the picture, remarkably convincing as the kind of person with no internal edit button who can drive you up the wall one moment and fascinate you the next despite occasionally being saddled with some terrible dialogue (particularly a running thread about “homos in Newark”), but she seems to be doing all the work both as a character and a performer as Pacino constantly retreats within himself. With what little plot there is advancing at a snail’s pace (and that goes for the two brief and disinterested racing sequences too) it’s almost a losing battle with only a few odd moments – a bet that he won’t be recognised in the street if he takes off his sunglasses, the obligatory balloon ride - to keep you going in the hope it will get better. It doesn’t. Even when she finally breaks down some of his reserve by telling him he’s boring, which most of the audience worked out for themselves about twelve reels earlier, he just tries to prove her wrong by doing a bad Mae West impersonation and singing badly (which admittedly could make it a must-see for some).

Still, it does score points for a wonderfully blatant bit of have-your-cake-and-eat-it product placement for a certain brand of watches, and Henri Decae’s Scope photography is certainly attractive.

Thanks both.

Sounds like it's worth a punt at the sale price - even if mostly for the cinematography...and Marthe Keller.

[bonehica]

And just like that....grabbed 4 more. Less than $60 including shipping using the $2 coupon. I can live with that

[Show spoiler]

[BenOswald]

Got my order today. Well packaged & quick!

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Reddington

Thanks both.

Sounds like it's worth a punt at the sale price - even if mostly for the cinematography...and Marthe Keller.

Yeah, if you go in with low expectations (like I did) I'm sure you'll find something about it you'll like.

[f451]

Any hopes of finally getting THE LEFT HAND OF GOD with Bogart on Blu-ray? TT released a DVD early on and I had hoped they would revisit that title.

[Stryker81]

First time ordering from Twilight. Placed an order on Wednesday morning and status still says Awaiting Fulfillment.

Does it usually take this long to ship or is it because of the sale?

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Stryker81

First time ordering from Twilight. Placed an order on Wednesday morning and status still says Awaiting Fulfillment.

Does it usually take this long to ship or is it because of the sale?

Most likely due to the sale, mine took 2 days to ship this go round.