Directed by Douglas Sirk (1952-1959)
6xDVD5 + 1xDVD9 | ISO | PAL 16:9/4:3 | > 620 mins | Total: 31,6 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy | USA
Douglas Sirk remains one of cinema's sharpest observers of human nature, and the string of melodramas he made in the 1950s, although glossy and colourful on the surface, reveal a cynical and pessimistic view when examined more closely. Although his movies were derisively labeled as “women's pictures” by critics, directors such as Godard and Fassbinder later praised his films, applauding his use of cinematic distancing techniques to coax the audience into examining the message behind the images. This magnificent box set contains seven of the master of melodrama's finest works, including his masterpiece - All That Heaven Allows, a ruthless depiction of spite in suburbia, and a heavy influence on Fassbinder. Features Imitation Of Life (1959), Magnificent Obsession (1954), Written On The Wind (1956), All I Desire (1953), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and The Tarnished Angels (1958).
Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 01:25:12 | 4,29 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Comedy | USA
A rare comedy from Sirk, but still dealing with family issues and status. Samuel Futon (Charles Coburn) decides to leave his millions to the family of a lost love. However, he tests their worthiness by taking a room in the family home, working for the family business and secretly donating a large amount of money. A good cast of Universal contract players led by Piper Laurie and the emerging young Rock Hudson.
IMDB
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The earliest film in the collection - Has Anybody Seen My Gal? - is the most atypical work featured. A bright and jolly Technicolor musical, it boasts a tremendous comedy performance from Charles Coburn as a millionaire who decides to donate a portion of his wealth to a poor, worthy family. However, their happiness wanes as their social standing increases as people start reacting towards them with snobbery, or offering false friendship. Although Sirk's themes of jealousy and fakery feature in the film, this is ultimately a frivolous piece of escapism, and should be enjoyed as such. A couple of years later he directed All I Desire, boasting a superb performance from Barbara Stanwyck as a wayward mother who returns to the family she deserted years before to go on the stage.
All I Desire (1953)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 01:16:27 | 3,56 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Drama, Romance | USA
Naomi Murdock played by Barbara Stanwyck, returns to the hometown she deserted to follow her acting career. She encounters much conflict with the people she left behind. Stanwyck goes to town in a very immoral and, certainly for the time, daring role as she flirts and tries to manipulate all around.
IMDB
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Although not in the same class as Douglas Sirk's major melodramas, "All I Desire" has many of the traits that would be developed in these later works. As such it is essential viewing for fans of Sirk's films. His use of color is legendary so much is lost by this being filmed in black and white, the result of a tight fisted Universal Studios.
Fans of Barbara Stanwyk should not miss it either. Stanwyk is one of a handful of actresses who simply never gave a weak performance. Under the direction of the likes of Wilder or Sirk, she's a compelling screen presence. Sirk had great admiration for Stanwyk calling her "one of the best in town". He used her a few years later in "There's Always Tomorrow" which remains his greatest unrecognised opus. There his criticism of the American family values is particularly cutting, whereas "All I Desire" has an altogether more forgiving view of small town narrow mindedness.
Sirks films are always worth watching. They are extremely well crafted with each shot carefully thought out. Nothing is left to chance. Those who dismiss the melodrama as an inferior genre would do well to take a close look at his body of work. "All I Desire" makes a good starting point.
Magnificent Obsession (1954)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 01:43:21 | 4,24 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Drama, Romance | Nominated for Oscar | USA
The one that really started it all and made Rock Hudson a star, in this classic love story with more ups and downs than a rollercoaster and just as bumpy…Rich spoilt brat, Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) has an accident, using the only respirator in the town, thus causing the death of the local doctor. He then meets Helen (Jane Wyman) the doctor’s widow, who takes an instant dislike to him. More tragedy follows as Helen is struck down by a car making her blind. This is Merrick’s chance to redeem himself.
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Magnificent Obsession has perhaps the soapiest of all of Sirk's plotlines - a man accidentally causes the death of a doctor and the blindness of his widow. Wracked with guilt, he trains to be a surgeon to restore the woman's sight, falling in love with her as he does so, although she does not realise who he is. On the surface this is an old school Hollywood weepie, and both Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman deliver moving performances. However, the inherent creepiness of the hero's plan is subtly implied throughout the film, and adds a disquieting layer to the piece.
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 01:25:01 | 4,22 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Drama, Romance | 1 win | USA
Wyman and Hudson together again in the melodramatic love story involving class and social standing, with Hudson as the young handsome gardener, attracting the attention of Wyman’s rich widow; much to chagrin and animosity of family and towns folk. The film inspired Fassbinders ‘Fear Eats the Soul’ and Todd Haynes ‘Far From Heaven’.
IMDB
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This was a massive hit at the box office, and Wyman and Hudson starred opposite each other again in the fantastic All That Heaven Allows, Sirk's masterpiece - a ruthless depiction of spite in suburbia, and a heavy influence on Fassbinder (who remade it as Fear Eats The Soul) and Todd Haynes. Wyman stars as Cary, a wealthy widow, who gradually begins an affair with a younger gardener. The couple soon find themselves the objects of disgust from their neighbours and Cary's children. Although it is beautifully photographed throughout, Sirk scathingly shows the ugly paranoia and hatred that can lurk behind suburban walls. There are some great moments here – Cary's daughter sobbing without tears when she confesses her “guilt”, and the classic scene where the selfish children lose interest in their mother once she has given up her happiness for their sake, and give her a replacement companion – a television.
Written on the Wind (1956)
DVD9 | ISO | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 01:35:29 | 6,77 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Drama, Romance | Won Oscar | USA
Hudson and Stack best friends from childhood, fall for Lauren Bacall, Stack’s sister Dorothy Malone is in love with Hudson, and is a nymphomaniac. Love, lust, betrayal it’s all here, lavishly shot with great sets and costumes, Sirk hitting his stride.
IMDB
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Written On The Wind, a tale of the super-rich living in Texas, chooses to focus on the misfits of the family rather than the well-adjusted characters played by Hudson and Lauren Bacall. Although the roles of the drunken son (Robert Stack, never better) and his nymphomaniac sister (Dorothy Malone, who won an Oscar for this role) are the black sheep, it is they who elicit the most sympathy. Filled with torrid dialogue and obviously artificial sets, Sirk brilliantly draws attention to the artificiality of cinema, and the superficiality of affluent American life. Pedro Almodóvar famously said of the film: “I have seen Written on the Wind a thousand times, and I cannot wait to see it again.”
The Tarnished Angels (1957)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 01:27:05 | 4,18 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Drama, Romance | Won Oscar | USA
Reuniting the same leads from ‘Written on the Wind’, Hudson, Stack and Malone again in a love triangle, against a backdrop of daredevil flying.
IMDB
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The Tarnished Angels, shot (unusually for Sirk) in sharp black and white, again stars Stack and Malone as outsiders, this time as stunt aerial performers regarded as gypsies by the townsfolk. This sees Sirk at his bleakest, and the tragic character of Stack's pilot is devastatingly rendered – a self-destructive man who rejects every chance of happiness and treats the woman he loves (Malone) abominably, he kamikazes his way through his pathetic life to his ultimate destruction.
Imitation of Life (1959)
DVD5 | ISO | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 01:27:05 | 4,34 Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subtitles: English Genre: Drama, Romance | Nominated for 2 Oscars | USA
Lana Tuner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, in what is most arguably, the ultimate five hanky weeping of all time. Dealing with race, family, fame and loss, by the time Mahalia Jackson sings at the end, everyone is in tatters.
IMDB
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Sirk's final film, Imitation Of Life, is a remake of a classic 1930s film about an actress's relationship with her black maid. Sirk plays with the racial tension of the piece, and once again it is the most obviously destructive character who is the most sympathetic - the maid's daughter, who can pass for white and is ashamed of her black heritage. Her treatment of her well-meaning mother is appalling, yet Susan Kohner's incendiary performance, filled with desperation and drive, is astonishing, and the audience empathises with her unenviable plight. After the death of one of the major characters (the best death bed scene ever conveyed on film?), repentance takes place at a funeral. But, as Sirk said, “you don't believe the happy end, and you're not really supposed to.”
Sirk’s films have aged incredibly well, and appeal to film lovers and film students alike, as they can be enjoyed on different levels and reward repeated viewings. A genius of cinema, this welcome release of his greatest films on this splendid box set is long overdue.
Sirk’s films have aged incredibly well, and appeal to film lovers and film students alike, as they can be enjoyed on different levels and reward repeated viewings. A genius of cinema, this welcome release of his greatest films on this splendid box set is long overdue.
狗仔卡
发表于 2011-8-17 21:51:11
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