Gosford Park

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dda1996a
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Re: Gosford Park

#26 Post by dda1996a » Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:29 am

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Aug 10, 2018 10:49 am
Three commentaries, what is this, the Rules of Attraction? I'm increasingly cooling on Altman overall as a director I care much about apart from Nashville and California Split, but this is one of his better efforts. I still find it bizarre that the same year this was nommed for Best Pic / Best Director et al, the narrative was that Ron Howard was owed an Oscar!
Altman's 70s run is pretty spotless, while his two 90s pictures (Short Cuts and The Player) are also wonderful. Haven't really seen his 80s output but what 70s auteur aside from Allen, Spielberg, Kubrick and maybe Scorsese wasnt flatlining in that decade

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Rayon Vert
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Re: Gosford Park

#27 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Aug 11, 2018 1:04 pm

dda1996a wrote:
Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:29 am
Altman's 70s run is pretty spotless, while his two 90s pictures (Short Cuts and The Player) are also wonderful. Haven't really seen his 80s output but what 70s auteur aside from Allen, Spielberg, Kubrick and maybe Scorsese wasnt flatlining in that decade
Two 90s pictures? He made 7 in that decade. I've seen everything by Altman except for Countdown, Beyond Therapy and Aria, and I dearly love him but I think about a third of his output is good/very good to extraordinary, and the rest tends to be at the other end of the spectrum, from the mediocre (That Cold Day in the Park, A Perfect Couple, OC & Stiggs, Fool for Love, Cookie's Fortune, The Company) to the dreadful (Quintet, Popeye, Pret à Porter, Dr. T, The Gingerbread Man), but with the saving grace of eccentricity which makes even most of those lesser works interesting. (By comparison, I appraise Spielberg's output similarly, but I'd say the ratio is more like a quarter.)

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dda1996a
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Re: Gosford Park

#28 Post by dda1996a » Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:08 pm

I know he made more than two, but not having seen them all and the other few I've seen but the two I mentioned weren't good. OC & Stiggs is just incredible for how awful the film is compared to Altman's skill and his penchant for long takes (ditto Pret-a-Porter).

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Big Ben
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Re: Gosford Park

#29 Post by Big Ben » Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:02 pm

I knew a guy who defended OC and Stiggs like it was his own child. Not at all familiar with this though. I am however familiar with it's writer Julian Fellowes as my parents were/are Downtown Abbey fanatics. I doubt this film is pomp and circumstance like that though?

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domino harvey
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Re: Gosford Park

#30 Post by domino harvey » Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:05 pm

This movie and Fellowes' win is why Downton Abbey exists, so

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knives
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Re: Gosford Park

#31 Post by knives » Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:57 pm

With Altman I find that each of his films individually are so eccentric that no two people are going to like the same set of films in the same order making it even harder to talk about him in the broad sense then most other directors. While I'm probably more to the Dom side of things, though I'd probably raise it to about five great films, that particular quality also makes it hard to bag on people who like his films even the ones I find so completely without merit that I'm I'm repulsed by their praise.

For example, rather eccentrically I'd call this one of Altman's best, easily, with the Fry cameo working quite well for its intended purpose even as I wouldn't call it a make or break it part of the film. Also my favorite is Brewster McCloud which probably takes all credibility from me.

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colinr0380
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Re: Gosford Park

#32 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:00 am

I find the Stephen Fry cameo a bit more interesting than I did at first, where it just felt irritating and entirely irrelevant to the rest of the film by seeming a bit too considered in order to get the characters spilling their dark secrets about each other. But these days I think of that cameo role as perhaps similar to Whoopi Goldberg's detective in The Player, as almost an outside force ready to prick the hermetically sealed bubble of the other characters and let the outside world in for perhaps the first time. Even if in both cases they never actually do that and end up feeling a bit susceptible to starry-eyed corruption themselves!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat Aug 18, 2018 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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dda1996a
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Re: Gosford Park

#33 Post by dda1996a » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:32 am

knives wrote:
Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:57 pm
With Altman I find that each of his films individually are so eccentric that no two people are going to like the same set of films in the same order making it even harder to talk about him in the broad sense then most other directors. While I'm probably more to the Dom side of things, though I'd probably raise it to about five great films, that particular quality also makes it hard to bag on people who like his films even the ones I find so completely without merit that I'm I'm repulsed by their praise.

For example, rather eccentrically I'd call this one of Altman's best, easily, with the Fry cameo working quite well for its intended purpose even as I wouldn't call it a make or break it part of the film. Also my favorite is Brewster McCloud which probably takes all credibility from me.
I'd say it takes some credibility off. It'd a great and odd movie that I like but is in no way as good as the surrounding films from the 70s he made (i.e McCabe, Long Goodbye and Nashville)

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
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Re: Gosford Park

#34 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:40 am

I have no quibbles with all the recognised masterpieces with 3 women vying with Long Goodbye at the top of the tree but admit to adoring Popeye and find it the most endearing re-creation of a comic strip character and world in classic live action terms .Shelley Duvall was born to play Olive and Van Dyke Parks` arrangements of Nilsson`s songs the cherry on the gateau. Would also love to see Kansas City in a loaded blu release. On the downside Pret a Porter is like walking barefoot through cat sick. As for Gosford Park the interplay between upstairs and downstairs is exquisite until the arrival of Fry`s farcical character like a wrecking ball demolishing all that painstakingly contrived architecture.

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knives
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Re: Gosford Park

#35 Post by knives » Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:39 am

Popeye's another absolutely fabulous film. I think I just prefer Altman outside of reality, though The Company is my favorite of his late films.
dda1996a wrote:
Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:32 am
knives wrote:
Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:57 pm
With Altman I find that each of his films individually are so eccentric that no two people are going to like the same set of films in the same order making it even harder to talk about him in the broad sense then most other directors. While I'm probably more to the Dom side of things, though I'd probably raise it to about five great films, that particular quality also makes it hard to bag on people who like his films even the ones I find so completely without merit that I'm I'm repulsed by their praise.

For example, rather eccentrically I'd call this one of Altman's best, easily, with the Fry cameo working quite well for its intended purpose even as I wouldn't call it a make or break it part of the film. Also my favorite is Brewster McCloud which probably takes all credibility from me.
I'd say it takes some credibility off. It'd a great and odd movie that I like but is in no way as good as the surrounding films from the 70s he made (i.e McCabe, Long Goodbye and Nashville)
McCabe by the way is the popular film of his which I find absolutely unlikable and obnoxious on every single level so we're likely never going to agree on this topic, but that was my point.

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colinr0380
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Re: Gosford Park

#36 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Aug 12, 2018 6:16 pm

I really like The Company as well, especially for the way that it apparently involved a quite close collaboration with Neve Campbell, who had a background in dance, and for the way that that the stagings cycle through a number of different styles of dance (modern, abstract, ballet and so on) throughout its course. It also makes an interesting pairing with Pret-a-Porter (which like Nabob I have qualms about the broadness of), because they both end with a big subversive climactic staging of an event that suggests that it is not what is occurring on stage that matters but more the audience's reaction, in this case to a big storm occurring during an outdoor performance. Weirdly it could be seen to tie in with the end of Nashville and the deus ex machina finale of Dr T as well!

M Sanderson
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Re: Gosford Park

#37 Post by M Sanderson » Fri Aug 24, 2018 2:30 am

I regard The Company very highly and it’s one I’d like to get a release. Very hard to get hold of this film in HD. Not a popular classic but admired a great deal by critics.

Would also be up for Kansas City, Prairie Home Companion, Cookie’s Fortune rights and materials permitting.

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bearcuborg
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Re: Gosford Park

#38 Post by bearcuborg » Fri Aug 24, 2018 11:17 am

For me, The Company could have gone forever. I’d love to see James Franco or Selma Hyeck make “Paint,” or Alan Rudolph/PT Anderson make “Hands on a Hardbody.”

This film, while fun at times, is my least favorite of his 2000’s work. What I remember most is that it made The Cats Meow feel like a TV movie.
Last edited by bearcuborg on Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Forrest Taft
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Re: Gosford Park

#39 Post by Forrest Taft » Fri Aug 24, 2018 11:22 am

Cookie's Fortune is out on a good looking, inexpensive blu-ray in Germany. Pret-a-porter is also out in Germany, but I haven't seen the disc.

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Aunt Peg
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Re: Gosford Park

#40 Post by Aunt Peg » Sun Aug 26, 2018 8:40 am

My Altman Blu Ray wish list is A Wedding, Quintet, Health, Streamers, Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmie Dean Jimmie Dean, Beyond Therapy, Vincent and Theo and his little seen TV film Precious Blood.

I'd include Brewster McCloud, but being Warners......

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Cremildo
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Re: Gosford Park

#41 Post by Cremildo » Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:46 am

I was about to point out that 'Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean' was released on Blu-ray in the United States a few years ago, but it is so expensive on Amazon that I have to wonder if it's OOP.

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domino harvey
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Re: Gosford Park

#42 Post by domino harvey » Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:18 am

It's not out of print, it's just an Olive release. Amazon has stopped carrying Olive titles for some reason

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Rayon Vert
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Re: Gosford Park

#43 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:41 am

Vincent and Theo is also on blu by Olive.

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Randall Maysin
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Re: Gosford Park

#44 Post by Randall Maysin » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:41 pm

The existing Jimmy Dean bluray seems to be quite wanting though, especially when there is a very first-rate restoration of the film existing, that wasn't used for the bluray and that I have seen. It's at the very top tier of Altman for me, and better than quite a few of his alleged 'masterpieces'.

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domino harvey
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Re: Gosford Park

#45 Post by domino harvey » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:02 pm

What additional level of image quality do you really need for a dank film set entirely in a dusty roadside shack?

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tenia
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Re: Gosford Park

#46 Post by tenia » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:20 pm

You can still get a fresher filmic aspect from a new restoration, even if the movie has a distinct fuzzy photo. After all, it was still filmed on 35mm stock, no ?

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Randall Maysin
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Re: Gosford Park

#47 Post by Randall Maysin » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:23 pm

Oh c'mon, film loving person, surely you don't mean that! Take a gander for yourself and see what you think: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Come-Back ... creenshots

It's certainly not horrible, but there's a fair bit of that 'painted', smudgy quality to these screencaps that people complain about so much, to my eye anyway, though seemingly not as much as Criterion's blurays of Children of Paradise or Madame de.... The resto I saw (by UCLA, IIRC), on the other hand, seemed unimprovable-upon. And it's a very visually lovely film! I dunno, it's one of my favorites and I'd like to see it look as good as it can.

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MichaelB
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Re: Gosford Park

#48 Post by MichaelB » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:41 pm

tenia wrote:You can still get a fresher filmic aspect from a new restoration, even if the movie has a distinct fuzzy photo. After all, it was still filmed on 35mm stock, no ?
Super 16 blown up to 35mm.

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tenia
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Re: Gosford Park

#49 Post by tenia » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:50 pm

Thanks for the precision Michael.

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Randall Maysin
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Re: Gosford Park

#50 Post by Randall Maysin » Thu Jan 24, 2019 6:41 am

So this is region free, whatever that really means? I live in Canada and have a totally standard, not special dvd player, should I buy this? Do let me know, forum, thanks in advance. I love this film so much, I don't think its high art, but I find it very moving, and the ending (which Altman conceived) and the last, I don't know, crane shot? with the credits, are some of my most treasured moments in film and in Altman's canon, along with, among others, the beautiful reunion scene at the end of A Prairie Home Companion. When Altman has a script that has even the slightest bit of show-biz one-two to it, or somewhat better, like on this film, and doesn't ruin it and turn it completely into the crappy Altman improv show, he ennobles it with his beautiful direction, like he did even with the crappy script for Vincent & Theo. Too bad he felt he had to spend most of his career pretending to be a creative genius and wasting his wonderful inspired craftsmanship doing that.

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