Beckett on Film DVD Set (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)First let me say I've been waiting my whole adult life for this collection. I've spent 30 years trying to collect audio and video recordings of Beckett's work, and suddenly here are all the theatre peices in one beautiful package. The chance that you will ever find another film version of most of these works, or ever have a chance to see them on stage, is almost nil. If you love Waiting for Godot and Endgame, you will not regret the money spent on this. Unlike most plays and almost all movies, these are peices to be seen again and again, over a lifetime, letting the beauty and subtlety of Beckett's language slowly soak into your being.
That being said, I was disappointed with only one peice: Endgame. With Michael Gambon as one of the leads, I expected the most from this play. But I'm afraid he was badly misdirected in this. He simply enjoys his dispair too much. He enjoys being a selfish, cruel master and his "Perhaps I could go on..." speech (one of Beckett's greatest)loses all its power. Gambon delivers this with hardly a pause, rambling on with the same puckish tone as the rest of his performance. (I thought maybe I was just too used to an earlier film version directed by Beckett, so I went back to the script to check this. After almost every phrase in the speech, Beckett has written (Pause). Without these pauses to let the anguish of the words sink into our minds, the speech carries no more weight than the rest of the text. Well, probably much more than you wanted to know.)
Short Review: BUY THIS NOW! You'll be watching these films again and again as long as you own a DVD player.

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2003 PEABODY AWARD WINNER!
This acclaimed film project includes all 19 plays of Samuel Beckett, considered the most significant Irish playwright of the 20th century. Many of these outstanding filmed productions have received critical acclaim at prestigious international film festivals around the world including New York, Toronto and Venice. Beckett on Film has brought together some of the most noted directors of our day including: Atom Egoyan, Damien Hirst, Neil Jordan, Conor McPherson, Damien O'Donnell, David Mamet, Anthony Minghella, Karel Reisz and Patricia Rozema. A list of distinguished actors including exceptional performances by Michael Gambon, the late Sir John Gielgud, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, Julianne Moore, Harold Pinter, Alan Rickman and Kirsten Scott-Thomas.
THIS 4 DVD 19 Play Set includes:Waiting for Godot (running time: 2 hours)Not I (running time: 14 minutes) Rough for Theatre I (running time: 20 minutes) Ohio Impromptu (running time: 12 minutes) Krapp's Last Tape (running time: 58 minutes) What Where (running time: 12 minutes) Footfalls (running time: 28 minutes) Come and Go (running time: 8 minutes) Act Without Words I (running time: 16 minutes) Happy Days (running time: 1 hour 19 minutes) Catastrophe (running time: 7 minutes) Rough for Theatre II (running time: 30 minutes) Breath (running time: 45 seconds) That Time (running time: 20 minutes) Endgame (running time: 1 hour 24 minutes) Act Without Words II (running time: 11 minutes) A Piece of Monologue (running time: 20 minutes) Play (running time: 16 minutes) Rockaby (running time: 14 minutes) Plus a 52 minute Documentary on the making of the Beckett on Film Project
Features*Widescreen*Dolby Digital*Color and Black & White

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Being Julia Review

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(More customer reviews)"Being Julia" is a homage to the legendary hammy and self-absorbed actors of yesteryear. Set in 1930's London, the movie stars Annette Bening as Julia Lambert, a forty-five year old actress who suddenly realizes that her best years may be behind her. She is exhausted, depressed, and bored with her life. Her marriage to her business manager, played with his usual aplomb by Jeremy Irons, is for the most part, platonic. What better way to perk things up then to embark on a foolhardy affair with a man half her age? Julia takes as her lover a fawning American, played stiffly by the plastic and conventionally handsome Shaun Evans. Julia throws caution to the winds. She falls hard for the impoverished boy and plies him with expensive trinkets and cash gifts. Meanwhile, a young blonde actress, Avice Crichton, comes along to challenge Julia and the ambitious upstart threatens to upstage the older woman both on and off the stage.
"Being Julia" has a nice look, with its vintage cars, period furniture, and authentic costumes. The musical background, which includes such ditties as "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries," sets the appropriate mood. However, the plot of this film is as trifling and paper thin as its shallow characters. The main reason to see "Being Julia" is to enjoy Annette Bening's amusing and effervescent performance as the ultimate diva. Julia is a talented and vivacious prima donna who appears to be vain and supremely self-confident. Bening shows the fear and the loneliness beneath Julia's haughty demeanor. Julia senses that sooner or later, her star will lose its luster. She knows in her heart that her ultimate enemy is old age; it is the one foe that she can never vanquish.


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BEING JULIA - DVD Movie

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Brideshead Revisited (25th Anniversary Collector's Edition) (1982) Review

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(More customer reviews)Brideshead Revisited is the finest film made for television that I have ever seen. It is true to Evelyn Waugh's great novel. After watching this movie I bought the book and liked it as much as the videos. For those viewers who like to read, if you enjoyed the film you are almost certain to love the book.
After reading the novel, I viewed the tapes a second time and discovered that the movie was even better than I first thought.
What makes this video series great? The performances by a top flight cast are superb and the story is compelling. Jeremy Irons plays the part of Charles Ryder, an artist in search of his soul. His paintings are technially brilliant, but something is missing from them. An eccentric friend characterizes Ryder's work as full of "charm," and this evaluation is true -- the paintings are stylish, but soulless.
Anthony Andrews brings to life Ryder's Oxford college friend, Lord Sebastian Flyte, a spoiled aristocrat trying to break free from the influence of his dysfunctional family. Claire Bloom is his mother, Lady Marchmain, separated from his father, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Lord Marchmain. Bloom is cool, calculating, and condescending. When young Sebastian becomes an embarassing drunk, she seems pleased to attempt to reclaim him from social and spiritual destruction.
Somewhat later in the film Ryder realizes the destructive nature of Sebastian's relationship with his mother. Ryder subverts her wishes by giving Sebastian money for alcohol and then Ryder makes a break with the family when his gift of money to Sebastian is discovered by Lady Marchmain, who confronts Ryder with her muted, yet terrible anger.
Sir John Gielgud is brilliant as Ryder's disinterested father; we come to understand why Ryder lacks Sebastian's heart. Ryder grew up unloved and uncared for and he spends the rest of his life attempting to overcome his disabilty. His marriage to his first wife ends in divorce and he then falls in love with Lady Julia, Sebastian's sister. In the end Ryder's coldness, aloofness, and disdain for religion, something Julia and Sebastian hold dear, cause their breakup.
Last, but not least, the filmmakers have lavished great expense on all aspects of this production. The sets are superbly created to give us a true feel for the time and place in England at the time between the great wars. The music also deserves special mention. It beautifully supports the story and is worth listening to on its own merits. It stays in the listener's mind long after the drama is finished.
Can film ever stand comparison with great literaure? The Brideshead Revisited video series answers this question with a resounding "yes"!

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25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition "Extraordinary" -The New York Times "Visually ravishing" -Time A special silver anniversary edition of the British classic called one of the best series in TV history. Based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, two years in the making, and the equivalent of seven feature films back-to-back, this epic drama tells a story of romantic yearning and loss in the glittering but fading world of the British aristocracy between the wars. Winner of 17 international awards and starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, Sir John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, and Sir Laurence Olivier in an Emmy®-winning role. Bonus features on this edition include the 50-min. featurette Revisiting Brideshead, produced by British television to celebrate the anniversary and featuring retrospective interviews with Irons, Andrews, Quick, director Charles Sturridge, and many more. Also includes a 20-page program guide, production notes, and photo gallery.

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