3 / BD 183 Michael

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peerpee
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Re: 3 Michael

#51 Post by peerpee » Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:09 pm

A sealed OOP MICHAEL being given away by me in an hour on Twitter @shittydeath

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jwd5275
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:26 pm
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Re: 3 Michael

#52 Post by jwd5275 » Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:19 pm

Damn! Of all the times to be stuck at work....

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: 3 Michael

#53 Post by matrixschmatrix » Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:32 pm

Haha, awesome- I just gave away my copy as a birthday present last week.

cana7cl
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Re: 3 Michael

#54 Post by cana7cl » Sat Aug 11, 2012 3:56 pm

Back in print for a limited run.

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manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
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Re: 3 Michael

#55 Post by manicsounds » Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:04 am

The new pressing has a 2012 copyright, so 'collectors' will still want the original.

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swo17
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Re: 3 Michael

#56 Post by swo17 » Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:38 am

MoC is constantly making subtle changes to things like spine color or title presentation from one pressing of a particular title to the next, usually without calling any attention to it. Are there people that collect all of these different variations?

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Drucker
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Re: 3 Michael

#57 Post by Drucker » Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:45 am

It's still going for 30 GPB on Amazon UK on EBAY, FWIW.

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Stephen
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:11 pm
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Re: 3 Michael

#58 Post by Stephen » Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:55 am

I am really pleased to finally receive this down here this morning. Having only recently become acquainted with Mr Dreyer’s work, it quickly became apparent that this film was a gaping hole in my collection and I hope many other supporters of MOC pick up this edition with the outcome it might incentivise Eureka to release one or two of their other OOP titles still under license.

And I don’t think that I’ve ever anticipated a Blu/DVD release more than MOC’s forthcoming ’The Passion of Joan of Arc’.

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Sloper
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:06 pm

Re: 3 Michael

#59 Post by Sloper » Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:26 am

It's still my favourite Dreyer, and continues to get better every time I watch it. I can understand why Joan and Day of Wrath are his most celebrated films, but I think Michael is his richest, most moving and most deeply rewarding work (Gertrud, which has a lot in common with this film, comes in at a close second). Wonderful to have the two versions and two scores on MoC's edition, too.

JackTwist
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:53 pm

Re: 3 Michael

#60 Post by JackTwist » Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:00 pm

So I'm heavily debating. There are still copies available from Eureka much to my relief after thinking I had missed out on the brief re-release. The question is, this late in the game, what are the odds that I purchase the DVD copy and then a new restoration or blu-ray is announced?

The other thing, as someone new to a region-free player, I've yet to play PAL content, so how different is the PAL speed up on a film like this?

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Drucker
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Re: 3 Michael

#61 Post by Drucker » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:16 am

JackTwist wrote:So I'm heavily debating. There are still copies available from Eureka much to my relief after thinking I had missed out on the brief re-release. The question is, this late in the game, what are the odds that I purchase the DVD copy and then a new restoration or blu-ray is announced?

The other thing, as someone new to a region-free player, I've yet to play PAL content, so how different is the PAL speed up on a film like this?
I can't answer the last question (I guess I just don't notice it) but this package is wonderful, sharp and worthwhile. Mikael isn't available via the DFI's site, and the Kino is available in the USA, so I don't think there's any reason to believe a new restoration is imminent.

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manicsounds
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Re: 3 Michael

#62 Post by manicsounds » Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:44 pm

JackTwist wrote:how different is the PAL speed up on a film like this?
If you've watched a silent movie at 24fps and then saw it at 25fps it is almost impossible to tell the difference without aural support.
Music on the other hand you can tell a slight pitch difference, especially if you know the songs or voices by heart.

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neilist
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:09 am
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Re: 3 Michael

#63 Post by neilist » Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:46 pm

JackTwist wrote:So I'm heavily debating. There are still copies available from Eureka much to my relief after thinking I had missed out on the brief re-release. The question is, this late in the game, what are the odds that I purchase the DVD copy and then a new restoration or blu-ray is announced?
As far as I'm aware, the reason why 'Michael' was OOP for so long is that it sold so poorly that it never warranted a repress. I guess it got a small repressing recently due to the fact original copies were going for so much and it made sense to do it at the same time that 'La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc' was getting a release. As to PAL speedup, as Drucker suggests above, I don't imagine you'd ever notice it.

I'd say buy it for definite, you'll be supporting MoC and, as great a film as it is, I very much doubt at all that anyone has plans for another restoration, until maybe the 100th anniversary in 2024!

JackTwist
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:53 pm

Re: 3 Michael

#64 Post by JackTwist » Sat Dec 22, 2012 4:30 pm

Thanks. I went ahead and bought it. Felt super happy that I was able to get it because I thought it was a sure-fire miss. Could've gone with the Kino edition instead but that edition is UGLY! Bought this and Passion of Joan of Arc on blu-ray. Beside Vampyr, this will be my first true introduction to Dreyer and for that I'm very excited.

Why is the film so unknown? It seems most feel it is a Dreyer masterpiece.

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Drucker
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Re: 3 Michael

#65 Post by Drucker » Sat Dec 22, 2012 11:43 pm

JackTwist wrote:Thanks. I went ahead and bought it. Felt super happy that I was able to get it because I thought it was a sure-fire miss. Could've gone with the Kino edition instead but that edition is UGLY! Bought this and Passion of Joan of Arc on blu-ray. Beside Vampyr, this will be my first true introduction to Dreyer and for that I'm very excited.

Why is the film so unknown? It seems most feel it is a Dreyer masterpiece.
I'd say there are very few, in general, silent films that are well-known by the general public. Very, very, very few. This isn't even Dreyer's most popular/best silent film. Part of the reason Dreyer didn't make a lot of films, I believe I've read, is his lack of commercial success. So an incredibly personal, high-minded artistic director who had little commercial success in his own time is bound to have a lack of popularity to a degree for all time (short a Hugo-type movie made about him). His admiration in film lover circles, however, is undeniable, and surely an important acknowledgement that keeps his career and films relevant to a certain population to this day.

My two cents, at least.

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Drucker
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Re: 3 Michael

#66 Post by Drucker » Sat Sep 07, 2013 7:56 pm

Well I just re-watched this film, after having a bit of a Dreyer binge the last two weeks, and I'm glad to say I have a much better appreciation of his work. I've watched all of his DFI available films in the last three weeks and now re-watched Michael, and in terms of where this film stands among Dreyer's work, I don't see how one could not see this as a masterpiece.

This film moves in such a beautiful way, and I think is the first of his films that perfectly melds style and story. (I haven't seen Parson's Widow yet, nor Master of the House). It feels like a Dreyer film throughout, not merely showing flashes of his brilliance in the making. I found a few of his early works to be a bit burdened by plot, and while he uses shots such as an insert of flowing water or an empty forest to create atmosphere, they weren't, perhaps, fully ingrained in the film as well as every shot here is.

I've also read most of Dreyer In Double Reflection at this point, and so many of the ideas Dreyer mentions/brings up with his films come through so clearly here, first. The "realized mysticism" of the man and woman holding the statue, and their entire affair brings out the best of his genius throughout the film. The "gliding movement" that occurs when Michael paints the countesses' eyes, as well, is an amazing example of application of technique. As soon as Brutus and Cesar are brought up, the Master has a look on his face of dread and foreshadow. It is in his look alone that the betrayal at the end of the film is predicted, and the same look returns when the Master knows he has been betrayed. On top of the mystic nature of the film, the lighting and ways shots are composed is also absolutely beautiful.

Michael, to me, fits more with his Gertrud, Ordet, and Day of Wrath period of films than his early ones. One thing that really separates it from his early films is the lack of a clear good versus evil/protagonist versus antagonist. The President has a clear moral choice he can or can not make, as do the characters in Satan's book, Love One Another, and Bride of Glomdal. In Michael, The Master and Michael are both guilty of harming the other one. And again, the plot and how it ends is absolutely secondary to how the film plays out, evolves, and moves.

Now, I do like Dreyer's early films I've seen (with the exception of Satan's Book, which I felt was more burdened by plot and so many expository intertitles), so I do not mean to put them down at all. But Michael towers above them all I feel, and absolutely belongs in the conversation with his best works.

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rockysds
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Re: 3 Michael

#67 Post by rockysds » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:26 am

Upgrade coming next year:
Eureka on Facebook wrote:Newsflash! We can reveal that Carl Th. Dreyer's MICHAEL is coming back to The Masters of Cinema Series in the new year! A stunning 1080p presentation from a brand new 2K restoration, will be available on Blu-ray for the very first time anywhere in the world.

Full Details will be announced in the next few months...

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Drucker
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Re: 3 Michael

#68 Post by Drucker » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:18 am

Hell yes. Also I don't remember that post I wrote four years ago but I sound smartish. Pretty cool.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: 3 Michael

#69 Post by What A Disgrace » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:19 am

Why does next year sound so much better than this year?

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rapta
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Re: 3 Michael

#70 Post by rapta » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:49 am

What A Disgrace wrote:Why does next year sound so much better than this year?
Probably because they've been forced to buck the trend and do less studio titles thanks to labels like Indicator and Arrow grabbing everything they would've gone for (from Sony, MGM and Fox anyway). Criterion too, of course.

Pretty good though as it means they've had to dig a little deeper, and not only are we getting an upgrade of a Dreyer I wasn't expecting - I honestly figured they'd upgrade Vampyr first, if only to prevent another potential Criterion UK acquisition - but several other decent titles are lined up for MoC in the new year: three early films from Hou Hsiao-hsien; King Hu's Legend of the Mountain; James Whale's The Old Dark House; Phillippe de Broca's King of Hearts; and at least one more from Billy Wilder (probably The Fortune Cookie or Witness for the Prosecution). And that's just what we know about!

Anyway, glad they're upgrading Michael as it means I no longer have to worry about hunting down the long-OOP DVD edition.

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Drucker
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Re: 3 Michael

#71 Post by Drucker » Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:55 am

I paid like $60 for this about two months before they re-issued it on DVD, so all subsequent issues of this title are my doing. You're all welcome.

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: 3 Michael

#72 Post by matrixschmatrix » Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:10 pm

God, I think I paid like $150 or something

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markhax
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Re: 3 Michael

#73 Post by markhax » Fri Oct 13, 2017 7:31 pm

Great news! This is such a rich film, and for Dreyer it was second only to "The Passion of Joan of Arc" among his silents. There was a restored version screened at the Berlinale in 2006, two years after the MOC release.

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Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: 3 Michael

#74 Post by Ribs » Thu Nov 30, 2017 11:05 am

...is it weird that MoC is billing the new restoration as a "World Exclusive?" Doesn't that strongly imply no one else will be releasing it, using stronger wording than the usual wording like above about it just being the first release in the world?

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
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Re: 3 / BD 183 Michael

#75 Post by L.A. » Thu Nov 30, 2017 11:48 am

Mauritz Stiller made a version called The Wings (1916) which survives. Wish they could still try to add this as an extra, I don’t mind if it means a delay.

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