Playing By Heart (1998) - March 26, 2013

[Akijama]

Playing By Heart Blu-ray

Sophomore writer/director Willard Carroll weaves together an all-star cast in interlocking stories about finding love in Los Angeles. The film's theme is spoken by young club-hopper Joan (Angelina Jolie). Taken by the mysterious Keenan (Ryan Phillippe), she tells him that "talking about love" is like "dancing about architecture" (the original title until the studio thought it would be confused with Dancing at Lughnasa), meaning speech is not the medium to adequately express the details of love. They all try, anyway. Others up for the dance include a TV cooking-show hostess (Gena Rowlands) and her husband (Sean Connery) who still fight over his one brief infidelity 25 years earlier; two lovers (Madeline Stowe, Anthony Edwards) who discuss their unhappy marriages; and a theater director (Gillian Anderson) and her architect, Mr. Right (Jon Stewart). Also searching are Dennis Quaid, Nastassja Kinski and Patricia Clarkson. For a familial sort of love, there's Ellen Burstyn as the estranged mother to her son (Jay Mohr) dying of AIDS.

trailer

[James Luckard]

Excellent! I love this little film, it's kind of like a rom-com version of "Magnolia" and features an amazing early Angelina Jolie performance, along with a gorgeous score by the late John Barry.

I hope the BD is in 2.39:1, the DVD was either cropped or had the mattes opened up to somewhere between 1.85:1 and 2.0:1, altering the compositions of the great Vilmos Zsigmond.

So glad to see even the most obscure films in the Miramax library getting released by Lionsgate. They may not be brand new, shiny transfers, but they're still vast improvements over the old DVDs.

[abintra]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

So glad to see even the most obscure films in the Miramax library getting released by Lionsgate.

Playing by Heart, Marvin's Room and Beautiful Girls are each Echo Bridge releases rather than Lionsgate.

Edit.. And thanks Akijama.

[JTStarkiller]

Gillian Anderson was so hot circa 1998.

[movieman1979]

Originally Posted by abintra

Playing by Heart, Marvin's Room and Beautiful Girls are each Echo Bridge releases rather than Lionsgate.

Edit.. And thanks Akijama.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

I have SO much nostalgic love for this little film (have owned the DVD/soundtrack/score for years and have shown it to countless others who had never heard of it) that to see it in the hands of the butchers at Echo Bridge...UGH!

There go my hopes of a few little bonus features the DVD was never afforded

[movieman1979]

Playing By Heart, that is. Maybe we'll luck out and the transfer will be akin to that of 'Proof', one of the few transfers Echo Bridge apparently got right.

[Akijama]

Originally Posted by abintra

Playing by Heart, Marvin's Room and Beautiful Girls are each Echo Bridge releases rather than Lionsgate.

Edit.. And thanks Akijama.

Np

March 26th is crowded with Miramax's / EB Blu-ray releases. Apart from the titles mentioned in your post, following titles are coming as well :

The Shipping News
Music Of The Heart
Immortality (The Wisdom of Crocodiles)
Senseless
Down To You
Bounty Hunters (1996)
Best Of The Best 3: No Turning Back
Benefit Of The Doubt

[abintra]

Originally Posted by Akijama

Np

March 26th is crowded with Miramax's / EB Blu-ray releases. Apart from the titles mentioned in your post, following titles are coming as well :

The Shipping News
Music Of The Heart
Immortality (The Wisdom of Crocodiles)
Senseless
Down To You
Bounty Hunters (1996)
Best Of The Best 3: No Turning Back
Benefit Of The Doubt

Thanks again Akijama.

They are going individual releases for all these (at first anyway)?

Beautiful Girls and The Shipping News have been released elsewhere already correct? If memory serves, both using poor masters. Anyone know if that is accurate?

Interested in the three you made threads for and a couple in this list also. But, with Echo Bridge, I sit back and wait for things to settle before even considering a purchase personally.

[Adam_ME]

Please get the aspect ratio right this time. The DVD is cropped and non-anamorphic. Not to mention bare bones and very expensive at the time of its release.

[klauswhereareyou]

Looks like Connery is about ready to say, "Do you smell what the Rock is cooking?" on the cover.

[Akijama]

Originally Posted by abintra

Thanks again Akijama.

They are going individual releases for all these (at first anyway)?

Beautiful Girls and The Shipping News have been released elsewhere already correct? If memory serves, both using poor masters. Anyone know if that is accurate?

Interested in the three you made threads for and a couple in this list also. But, with Echo Bridge, I sit back and wait for things to settle before even considering a purchase personally.

Yes, they are all individual releases. Source is VideoETA, btw. You can find them all there.

Here's the review for UK release of Beautiful Girls https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Beaut...Blu-ray/28881/

A good score for PQ, considering their usual high standards

[Youre My Boy Blu!]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Excellent! I love this little film, it's kind of like a rom-com version of "Magnolia"....

Or might Magnolia be a more serious and musical version of Playing by Heart??? The similarities are even more revealing after noticing April Grace, who I forgot was in Playing by Heart, but remembered her in Magnolia. Pretty funny.

Originally Posted by James Luckard

....and features an amazing early Angelina Jolie performance....

Admittedly, modern-day Jolie rarely pops up on my radar.
But back in the day she was the only thing motivating my mission control center.
Watching Jolie in this feels like discovering her for the first time.
Back when she did Hackers and this, I was with her, or her characters of the time. Hey, there's a reason why they open the movie with her little monologue about love, she gives the most memorable performance on the subject within the movie.

Originally Posted by James Luckard

So glad to see even the most obscure films in the Miramax library getting released by Lionsgate. They may not be brand new, shiny transfers, but they're still vast improvements over the old DVDs.

Yeah, and I think in these forums it's easy to get lost in how a film looks or sounds rather than the importance of the movie itself. For now, I can cut the movie some slack for not having the proper OAR, it's just good to see the damn movie.

[DarkEco910]

I'm really kicking myself right now. I traded in my DVD last year at the last Upgrade & Save at Best Buy and was going to wait for a price cut on the blu-ray, of which never happened. One year later, I just realized I never bought it, and now it's NOWHERE to be found except on Amazon for $60 or more?! What the heck!

I've tried the sites for Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, FYE, Family Video, Half.com, and eBay. Nothing. Does anyone have any other ideas where I might be able to find this? I love this movie. Even the DVD is expensive as heck.

[Veronica Mars]

Originally Posted by mertz523

I'm really kicking myself right now. I traded in my DVD last year at the last Upgrade & Save at Best Buy and was going to wait for a price cut on the blu-ray, of which never happened. One year later, I just realized I never bought it, and now it's NOWHERE to be found except on Amazon for $60 or more?! What the heck!

I've tried the sites for Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, FYE, Family Video, Half.com, and eBay. Nothing. Does anyone have any other ideas where I might be able to find this? I love this movie. Even the DVD is expensive as heck.

You can buy mine for $30.

[DarkEco910]

Originally Posted by Veronica Mars

You can buy mine for $30.

I've never paid more than $20 for an amaray brand new, let alone used. Thanks for the offer, but no thank you. If I change my mind, I'll let you know.

[celluloidboy]

Vilmos Zsigmond shot in full scope but halfway compromised the DVD home vid transfer to roughly 1.90:1- 2.00:1, butchering his amazing original compositions. Director may have had something to do with this as well. Good observation.

[OceanBlue]

Apologies for posting in a thread that was last posted in nearly seven and a half years ago. I had thought that Playing by Heart (one of my favourite films at the time that starred an X-Files actor, the other one being The House of Mirth) hadn't had a Blu-ray release anywhere. Checked the Blu-ray section of the database here and it's had a release in the States and Spain (would the latter be a bootleg release?). Have had a quick look through the posts in this thread and it seems the transfer on the US Blu-ray could have been much better.

Been hoping the film gets a spruced-up release with some interview extras and a new restoration/master. Loved John Barry's score in the film.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Apologies for posting in a thread that was last posted in nearly seven and a half years ago. I had thought that Playing by Heart (one of my favourite films at the time that starred an X-Files actor, the other one being The House of Mirth) hadn't had a Blu-ray release anywhere. Checked the Blu-ray section of the database here and it's had a release in the States and Spain (would the latter be a bootleg release?). Have had a quick look through the posts in this thread and it seems the transfer on the US Blu-ray could have been much better.

Been hoping the film gets a spruced-up release with some interview extras and a new restoration/master. Loved John Barry's score in the film.

Dunno if the Spanish BD from "Savor" is a boot, but I tend to assume Spanish discs are boots if they're from labels I don't know.

The US BD looks decent, it's better than the DVD at least. It's definitely a different video master, because the opening and end titles are fully letterboxed on the BD, where the entire movie is cropped on the DVD.

I love the film too, but it's an utterly forgotten financial flop, I doubt there will even be a new video transfer any time soon, much less any special features.

The production was also apparently very difficult. They went through multiple edits, and multiple titles, and most of John Barry's score (which appears in full on his album) was dumped from the final cut of the movie at the last minute and replaced by a new score by Christopher Young.