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Sep. 25th, 2007
Just in case you're studying German...
Sep. 25th, 2007 10:50 pmCritic’s Choice
New DVDs
By DAVE KEHR
THE 3 PENNY OPERA
Traditionally, G. W. Pabst’s 1931 film of “The 3 Penny Opera” was considered a disappointment, interesting mainly because it was the closest in time to the original stage production. The Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht musical opened in Berlin in 1928 and quickly became an international hit.
Pabst, known for social-psychological dramas like “The Joyless Street” (1925) and “Pandora’s Box” (1929), was an understandable choice by the producers, but not, as it turned out, a particularly happy one. Apparently uncomfortable with characters bursting into song, the sober-minded Pabst threw out several numbers and curtailed others, while forcing Brecht’s anti-realist, anti-theater into a conventional realist mode.
Or so it seemed, until the German-language version of the film was restored by the German film archive in 2005. Drawn from the original camera negative, this version is being released today by the Criterion Collection, and it’s a revelation. With the images restored to a digital approximation of their original clarity and depth, it seems quite a different movie.
( Read more... )
New DVDs
By DAVE KEHR
THE 3 PENNY OPERA
Traditionally, G. W. Pabst’s 1931 film of “The 3 Penny Opera” was considered a disappointment, interesting mainly because it was the closest in time to the original stage production. The Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht musical opened in Berlin in 1928 and quickly became an international hit.
Pabst, known for social-psychological dramas like “The Joyless Street” (1925) and “Pandora’s Box” (1929), was an understandable choice by the producers, but not, as it turned out, a particularly happy one. Apparently uncomfortable with characters bursting into song, the sober-minded Pabst threw out several numbers and curtailed others, while forcing Brecht’s anti-realist, anti-theater into a conventional realist mode.
Or so it seemed, until the German-language version of the film was restored by the German film archive in 2005. Drawn from the original camera negative, this version is being released today by the Criterion Collection, and it’s a revelation. With the images restored to a digital approximation of their original clarity and depth, it seems quite a different movie.
( Read more... )