Todd Haynes on Blu-ray

[James Luckard]

I feel like Dark Waters gets left out of the conversation about his films, because it's so wildly different from anything else he's done, but I thought it was fantastic.

He shoots the whole thing like a 70s paranoia thriller. The locations are really characters. The law office is not a set, it's the real office of the real firm from the story in Cincinnati, he talked about it at a Q&A I went to. The design of the offices is super cinematic and photographs really well.

I really loved that film, even though almost nobody saw it.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

MILDRED PIERCE - This is a pure melodrama, without the overt formal elements commenting on the genre. It's also one of the most fascinating films of a book I've ever seen, because it's not an adaptation of the book, in the conventional sense. It's literally a film of the book - every word, from beginning to end. The dialogue is all straight from the book, and every scene from the book is there, onscreen. Haynes also brought a bold new photographic style to his work here. He shot the miniseries on 16mm film, and it looks absolutely gorgeous, like an artifact of the period. That's probably the one distancing element in the piece.

This is why I love his version of Mildred Pierce, because it's exactly like the book. The Joan Crawford film really leans into the murdery aspect of the story, which I always found very secondary to the family relationships and melodrama of it all. The book feels more like domestic fiction than murder mystery to me. I will always prefer the miniseries over the film. And I actually still need to buy it too...

I'm not exactly sure how I would rank his films, but Carol is easily my favorite and I'm Not There is easily my least favorite.

[BenOswald]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

As a Mainer, that's piqued my interest. Camden's a nice place (it's where most of the on-location filming for "Peyton Place" was).

I love that there's a great commentary track on the TT release of Peyton Place by a fella that moved there because he loves the movie so much. He even does a location featurette.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Namuhana

This is why I love his version of Mildred Pierce, because it's exactly like the book. The Joan Crawford film really leans into the murdery aspect of the story, which I always found very secondary to the family relationships and melodrama of it all. The book feels more like domestic fiction than murder mystery to me. I will always prefer the miniseries over the film. And I actually still need to buy it too...

I'm not exactly sure how I would rank his films, but Carol is easily my favorite and I'm Not There is easily my least favorite.

Haynes's Mildred Pierce miniseries has been OOP for a few years, but third-party and used copies are still out there for reasonable prices.

Glad to see someone else agrees with me on both Carol and I'm Not There.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Haynes's Mildred Pierce miniseries has been OOP for a few years, but third-party and used copies are still out there for reasonable prices.

Glad to see someone else agrees with me on both Carol and I'm Not There.

Oh, it's OOP? I always thought HBO would repackage it with just the BDs but I guess they went another route then, haha. Thanks for the heads up! Off to eBay I go.

Carol's not only a perfect movie in general, but it was shot in Cincinnati too, so I'll always like it even more because of that.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Namuhana

Oh, it's OOP? I always thought HBO would repackage it with just the BDs but I guess they went another route then, haha. Thanks for the heads up! Off to eBay I go.

Unfortunately, HBO put almost all of their TV movies and miniseries out of print just before they launched HBOMax. They clearly don't want physical media competing with it, and I'm sure those catalog titles were selling minimal copies on BD by that point anyway, so they figured anyone who was going to buy a BD had long since done so.

Originally Posted by Namuhana

Carol's not only a perfect movie in general, but it was shot in Cincinnati too, so I'll always like it even more because of that.

Yep, the funny thing is that Cincinnati ended up looking more like 1950s New York than New York itself does anymore.

Haynes also shot Dark Waters in Cincinnati, because the story took place there.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Yep, the funny thing is that Cincinnati ended up looking more like 1950s New York than New York itself does anymore.

Haynes also shot Dark Waters in Cincinnati, because the story took place there.

Yeah, we've gotten more and more film productions here the last few years. It's kind of exciting for this medium-sized city, haha.

[Christian Muth]

I got POISON today and am not happy with the presentation. I really think this should have been 1.33:1 pillar-boxed, and two shots in a row with burned-in text starting at 21:52 seem to confirm this (EDIT: another series of "stretched" shots hits earlier, starting at 14:08). Since there was seemingly no way to "crop" those shots to 1.78:1 while maintaining a decent shot composition as well as the on-screen text, the image suddenly reverts to "stretched", with everybody looking really fat. Really obnoxious! The sound is also pretty lousy, sounding like a noisy optical track.

Chris

[iamnoone]

Originally Posted by Christian Muth

I got POISON today and am not happy with the presentation. I really think this should have been 1.33:1 pillar-boxed, and two shots in a row with burned-in text starting at 21:52 seem to confirm this (EDIT: another series of "stretched" shots hits earlier, starting at 14:08). Since there was seemingly no way to "crop" those shots to 1.78:1 while maintaining a decent shot composition as well as the on-screen text, the image suddenly reverts to "stretched", with everybody looking really fat. Really obnoxious! The sound is also pretty lousy, sounding like a noisy optical track.

Chris

How was the DVD presented? I sold it off in anticipation of this. Argh. Stretching aspect ratios is my worst pet peeve, like visiting my mother years ago and she had all the full-frame shows stretched fat to "fill the widescreen". Asked her if she noticed how fat and distorted everyone was, and she said she didn't care, just wanted that screen to be filled.

[jrsl76]

Originally Posted by Rzzzz

I have this Dvd. It is my most wanted Todd Haynes film on blu....

Would you mind DMing me where you got this. It’s great, but I’ve only ever seen a heavily duped vhs years ago and it was terrible quality.

[Christian Muth]

Originally Posted by iamnoone

How was the DVD presented? I sold it off in anticipation of this. Argh. Stretching aspect ratios is my worst pet peeve, like visiting my mother years ago and she had all the full-frame shows stretched fat to "fill the widescreen". Asked her if she noticed how fat and distorted everyone was, and she said she didn't care, just wanted that screen to be filled.

I never had the POISON DVD, just the full-frame 1.33:1 Laserdisc (which I still have- gonna have to make a DVD-R of it now!). The "stretching" of the various shots that were uncroppable to 1.78:1 is a clear indication that it shouldn't be presented in this aspect ratio. Being that it was shot on standard 16mm, that makes some sense. So ridiculous for an "arthouse" film of all things to be compromised this way!

Chris

[Wernski]

Originally Posted by iamnoone

How was the DVD presented? I sold it off in anticipation of this. Argh. Stretching aspect ratios is my worst pet peeve, like visiting my mother years ago and she had all the full-frame shows stretched fat to "fill the widescreen". Asked her if she noticed how fat and distorted everyone was, and she said she didn't care, just wanted that screen to be filled.

The 1999 DVD is fullscreen; the 2011 DVD has the same stretching as the blu.

[Christian Muth]

Originally Posted by Wernski

The 1999 DVD is fullscreen; the 2011 DVD has the same stretching as the blu.

Is the entire 2011 DVD stretched, or just certain shots like the Blu-ray with the rest of it cropped?

Chris

[Wernski]

Originally Posted by Christian Muth

Is the entire 2011 DVD stretched, or just certain shots like the Blu-ray with the rest of it cropped?

Chris

Yeah, they're both equivalently screwy throughout.

[Christian Muth]

Originally Posted by Wernski

Yeah, they're both equivalently screwy throughout.

No excuse.

Kino should be ashamed but they probably don't care.

Chris

[Rzzzz]

Originally Posted by jrsl76

Would you mind DMing me where you got this. It’s great, but I’ve only ever seen a heavily duped vhs years ago and it was terrible quality.

You bet. But keep in mind, this Dvd is probably a copy of that very same horrible VHS you saw. It is the same transfer that pops up on Youtube. I have yet to find a decent copy of this film....

Edit: Sent you a PM. I'm not sure if you are a John Waters fan like I am but if you get the "deluxe" edition is has The Diane Linkletter Story. It is one of his earliest films and has to be seen to be believed. He has stated in interviews that it was essentially a camera test and everyone ad-libbed their lines. If you are one of those who are easily offended then do NOT get that version as it has quite a few anti-PC short films that are pretty much designed to offend, much like John Waters earlier works....

[James Luckard]

At last!

Originally Posted by BunyipPouch

The Criterion Collection has announced a bluray release of The Velvet Underground from Director Todd Haynes (Carol, Safe) for December 2022.



Features:

• New 4K digital master, approved by director Todd Haynes and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring Haynes and editors Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz
• Outtakes of interviews shot for the film with musicians John Cale, Jonathan Richman, and Maureen Tucker; filmmaker Jonas Mekas; and actor Mary Woronov
• Conversation from 2021 among Haynes, Cale, and Tucker
• Complete versions of some of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie, including Piero Heliczer’s Venus in Furs (1965)
• Teaser
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Optional annotated subtitle track that identifies the avant-garde films seen in the movie
• A 2021 essay by critic Greil Marcus

[CelestialAgent]

Glad to see May December not being forever consigned to streaming only.

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

May December (only a Netflix Original in the US/Canada and a Sky Original in the UK) is getting a UK Blu-ray from Dazzler Media on 5th February.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Glad to see May December not being forever consigned to streaming only.

Excellent news!

I'm adding the link you posted in the Netflix Originals thread:



https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CP2N3KSM/

[DAT_JB]

After seeing Todd Haynes in the CC closet last week I immediately thought about May December getting a Criterion release. Very excited to see this on Netflix this Friday.