Death On The Nile and Evil Under The Sun

[ravenus]

I don't recall if the 2015 BBC mini-series adaptation of And then there were none had any significant changes (other than the poem being now called Ten Little Soldiers), but I loved it, and thought it was very respectful to the dark tone of Christie's original work.

On an aside, when I saw Aidan Turner as the mercenary character, I immediately thought "This guy should be playing James Bond". I look on the internet and yep, he's one of the people that has at least been considered for a post-Craig world Bond. I'm hoping he bags it.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Markgway

Infinitely.

In both cases it's simply Christie and, subsequently, her estate basically cynically throwing the 'purity' of the books out of the window to maximise their earning potential - sorry, reinvigorate the brand - a calculation authors make every time they sell screen rights to their books. And in both cases it worked. There hadn't been a hit English-language big screen adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel since 1978, just as there hadn't been even a modest hit big-screen adaptation of Sherlock Holmes since the 60s until Guy Ritchie played up the Bartitsu to turn him into a badass.

[bigbadwoppet]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

You don’t think it’s a tad hypocritical to chastise your friend and make spurious claims about people in her profession for simply expressing a desire to see a film that you yourself have seen? Many people on this site saw the excellent version that was already available and also looked forward to seeing the remake, do you call that being superficial in terms of cinema taste, or simply having an open mind? I’m not surprised she didn’t know what to say, I’d be taken aback too if someone responded to me like that.

Nope, as a critic, I've to watch crap that otherwise I would choose not to see. I was literally looking forward NOT TO SEE that film.

Don't you think you're a bit of an idiot for defending someone you don't even know or can possibly care about?

My background is English lierature and I always found it risible that these intellectuals, who'd find anything outside the school curriculum to be lowly trash would be so superficial about cinema in general. I was once in my tutor's office and I saw amongst the books a copy of Braveheart on vhs. My opinion of said tutor never recovered. If it had been a novel instead of a video, it'd have been in the dustbin of that same study.

But I guess my point escapes you. Pity.

I find it fascinating (not in a good way, tough) when grown adults react like teenage children to fashion, hype, etc. The trailer for Branagh's film was aimed at people who've never heard of Christie. Anyone over the age of 30 feeling excited about that film makes me sad.

[bigbadwoppet]

Originally Posted by Aclea

The character is a composite of both Connery and George Coulouris' characters.



It's extremely doubtful that someone in his social position would have had any difficulty occupying a first class carriage in Europe could they afford it: there was no US-style back of the bus segregation. In fact, the very route it took guaranteed multi-cultural passengers.



Sorry to bring up touchy facts about the past, but, not least as a consequence of having empires and colonies, interracial marriages and relationships in Europe were not uncommon, even among the aristocracy:

https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/3/2/21/htm

I seem to recall that the character of the doctor was Greek.

The paper you linked does not mention any of those cases in aristocratic circles. Britain was a curious case as in the working class being very unprejudiced racially (good), while the aristocracy were racist even against what we would perceive as the same (e.g. the Irish!). The aristocracy sympathised with Hitler because of their mutual "dislike" of the Jews. Author Frederick Forsyth, a notorious tory, comments in his memoirs how, as working class, he never saw any discrimination against them but recognised it was an issue with the upper classes.

If you've seen the film Gandhi, you may be under the misapprehension that he was advocating for racial equality while working as a solicitor in South Africa but the sad truth is that he was advocating for the racial superiority of Indians over native South Africans.

Laurens van der Post (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) was invited to Japan for having defended two Japanese travellers who'd been unceremoniously kicked out of a restaurant in South Africa for being "black".

For every positive anecdote in the paper, I can recount endless cases of such ignorant behaviour that present a very different reality. The paper itself warns readers on not assuming from these cases that racism did not exist or was only a minor occurrence.

The doctor, as portrayed in the Branagh film, would have had serious trouble even to enter university at that time, let alone mix in those social circles. Certain European passengers on the train (the Count and Countess, the Princess) would have made the trip a very unpleasant experience even without the murder.

The fact that the film needs to add a expository monologue only for that particular character is an admission of how contrived the situation is.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by bigbadwoppet

Nope, as a critic, I've to watch crap that otherwise I would choose not to see. I was literally looking forward NOT TO SEE that film.

Don't you think you're a bit of an idiot for defending someone you don't even know or can possibly care about?

My background is English lierature and I always found it risible that these intellectuals, who'd find anything outside the school curriculum to be lowly trash would be so superficial about cinema in general. I was once in my tutor's office and I saw amongst the books a copy of Braveheart on vhs. My opinion of said tutor never recovered. If it had been a novel instead of a video, it'd have been in the dustbin of that same study.

But I guess my point escapes you. Pity.

I find it fascinating (not in a good way, tough) when grown adults react like teenage children to fashion, hype, etc. The trailer for Branagh's film was aimed at people who've never heard of Christie. Anyone over the age of 30 feeling excited about that film makes me sad.

It's really quite ironic that you would make a statement like this considering how immature you come across in this post and so many others like it with the faux snobbery and petty insults. I'm sure you think you're an intellectual talking about your background in English literature and the fact that you are a critic but you just come across like you are trying way too hard.

[Brandon K]

Originally Posted by bigbadwoppet

as a critic

Everyone’s a critic and good journalism is nonexistent today, so that means nothing.

You don’t need to wear an “I’m special” badge to have an opinion, and touting your supposed merits doesn’t make your opinion any more valid than anyone else’s.

Can we get this thread back on topic?

[marsbars]

Originally Posted by bigbadwoppet

It is. I actually think Lumet's film, or more precisely Paul Dehn's script, improves on the novel.

I've come to appreciate Finney's performance as Poirot as I can now see how he took overacting to a level of perfection beyond any other actor in the history of cinema.

Without the marvelous novel we wouldn't have the movie, but I read it for the first time a few weeks ago and was shocked by how much Dehn's script is an improvement on it. Like adding more flesh to the bones.


Except for Bette Davis in The Letter. I remember seeing it in the days of VHS and saying to an actor friend, "She chews the scenery to bits, then spits it out. Why am I loving so much?"
He said, "That's an art form that very few actors can achieve."
Aided and abetted of course by the genius of William Wyler.

[jimqk]

Just finished watching my brand new Kino Blu-ray of Death on the Nile and totally enjoyed it. The audio and video are superb, and of course the movie is great. Lots of great performances from the all-star cast and the ending is still shocking even though I've seen the movie before.

[The Star of Astaroth]

Anyone listened to the commentaries yet?

[clflowers]

I watched my copy of Death on the Nile last night. I was very pleased with the image quality, but was wondering about some image judder that appears sporadically throughout the film. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it a fault with my personal copy?

[Alfred E. Neumann]

The SC is much better but the compression sucks.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...5&l=1&i=1&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...55556&i=12&l=1

[critterdvd]

Originally Posted by The Star of Astaroth

Anyone listened to the commentaries yet?

I listened to "Evil Under the Sun" the other day and really enjoyed the track. It's more of a Historical overview of Poirot, anecdotes from the film industry in the late 70s and discussion of the actors more than the actual making of the specific film. I was really entertaining throughout the whole film and would definitely recommend it if you have the time.

[infiniteCR]

These look a lot nicer so far.

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by Alfred E. Neumann

The SC is much better but the compression sucks.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...5&l=1&i=1&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...55556&i=12&l=1

Kino looks overall better to me in those caps. It is more organic with better film grain. Also, contrast is better balanced with better separation between highlights. The SC transfer is robbing away detail in almost ‘reverse’ clipping. It’s weird. Like the highlights are blending into each other because contrast is too low and everything is too close to each other in terms of brightness levels.

And yes, the SC transfer also has pretty bad compression.

Kino seems way better overall.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Alfred E. Neumann

The SC is much better but the compression sucks.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x...5&l=1&i=1&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...55556&i=12&l=1

Bizarre. These appear to be entirely different transfers. They look very different and the framing is different too.

I agree, the SC looks like a much newer transfer, the KL transfer looks very dated, but the SC looks like it has a lot of DNR.

SC:


KL:

[Alfred E. Neumann]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Bizarre. These appear to be entirely different transfers. They look very different and the framing is different too.

I agree, the SC looks like a much newer transfer, the KL transfer looks very dated, but the SC looks like it has a lot of DNR.

SC:


KL:

I doubt it's DNR, just a crappy encoding I guess.

[Rockercub]

Based on the caps, the KL appears to be exactly the same transfer as the Italian Universal release, down to the white specks:

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=3&x...7&l=0&i=8&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=3&x...4&l=0&i=9&go=1

I have the new German SC Agatha Christie set, but it looks a little drab to me. Just based on colors, I prefer the KL/Universal, but since I have the old Italian Agatha Christie set, I think I'm all set. By the way, the Italian Universal release has the SC logo on the back, so I'm guessing it's the original SC transfer reviewed on the site for the UK release:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Evil-...Blu-ray/94732/

And if that's right, then it's interesting that it only got 4 stars while the KL got 4.75.

[James Luckard]

The Italian and KL discs do, indeed, look like the same transfer. It's a shame the seemingly newer and superior transfer on the German disc is completely ruined by gallons of DNR.

[Rockercub]

I noticed that Svet did the reviews for both the old UK SC and new KL releases, so I asked him about it, and he confirmed that the presentations are different. He found something off with the gamma levels on the UK release affecting colors, so that accounts for the difference in ratings. But he can't comment on whether the old UK and Italian releases are the same transfer, as he's never seen the Italian release. If anyone has any additional information, I'd appreciate it. Just looking at the caps, I'm not seeing any difference in color between the old Italian and new KL releases, so I'm hoping they match up well in motion. I am wondering about the lower bitrate on the Italian and whether that's enough to warrant an upgrade to the KL.

[Mikezilla3k]

For anyone wondering, Death On The Nile uses the same restoration as on the Remastered SC release:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...109371&i=7&l=1

Comparison to the old release:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=15...7&a=0&go=1&l=1