A very simple list this month (because I'm feeling lazy): My Latest Purchases From The Best DVD Shop In Beijing (the one next to the Central Academy of Drama) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Dir. Fritz Lang, 1933) The Temptress (Dir. Fred Niblo, 1926) - Garbo! The Killers (Dir. Robert Siodmak, 1946) The Fall of the Roman Empire (Dir. Anthony Mann, 1964) New Orleans (Dir. Arthur Lubin, 1947) The Thin Man (Dir. W.S. van Dyke, 1934) Knights of the Round Table (Dir. Richard Thorpe, 1953) Anastasia (Dir. Anatole Litvak, 1956) Lola Montes (Dir. Max Ophuls, 1955) Nanook of the North (Dir. Robert J. Flaherty, 1922) Random Harvest (Dir. Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) My Darling Clementine (Dir. John Ford, 1946) - the best Western ever. |
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Film List - golden oldies
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2 comments:
The city where I live is of course much smaller than Beijing -- maybe 250K in population when the colleges are in session. So the odds of my ever being able to do a post like this are slender.
But that's a selection dazzling in its range. It makes me wonder what DVDs you've already got that you wouldn't part with.
(In college, I took a couple of filmmaking courses and one in film appreciation. And the school in question had an AMAZING program of films -- got a real education there, on that topic at least. This was in 1969 and beyond, pre-VHS even, and I used to fantasize about someday being well-off enough to afford my own prints of films like the ones you've listed here, kept in a climate-controlled private auditorium. I would have been flabbergasted at my future self's possession of shelf after shelf of great films which cost me between a few dollars to maybe $30 tops.)
The one DVD I wish I could find is of the French thriller Diva. Unless they've recent done a new edition of it, the only one I've ever seen got AWFUL reviews because -- of all things -- the sound was terrible. In a movie which centers on the protagonist's secret. high-quality recording of an opera star who never commits her voice to recordings -- well, the word irony doesn't suffice.
(What region are DVDs sold in Beijing encoded for?)
That is strange about Diva. You remind me that that is one I don't have. I've got the 'director's cut' version of Betty Blue, though.
I think the DVD collection now numbers over 1,000. It's getting difficult for me to remember what I've got, and what I haven't - particularly as there are so many films I've pored over in shops, intending to buy, but not quite getting around to it. And others I bought that proved to be dysfunctional, or that I lost or gave away.
I really should compile a catalogue some time.
Cool Hand Luke was a title that had long eluded me here, but then a friend brought me a copy back from the States. This Is Spinal Tap is the one that I'm most consumed with trying to track down now. Odd that it's never made an appearance here: it is a 'classic'.
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