Images for a potential study of slow-motion coach rides in late '50s/early '60s European cinema

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• Stephen says:

  October 19, 2010 at 4:24 am

  Fascinating. How much mater­i­al is there? I won­der what moods and mean­ings are cre­ated and wheth­er pat­terns emerge in dif­fer­ent eras. I would say there are largely two main camps – the ‘in the moment’ (romantic) rev­er­ie and the anti­cip­at­ory journey.
  Belle de Jour’s (1967) coach rides, though they aren’t slow or long, have par­tic­u­lar significance.
  I haven’t come across a study like this so I would be very inter­ested in see­ing what it brings up.

• Tony Dayoub says:

  October 19, 2010 at 7:20 am

  THE MAGICIAN makes for a stun­ning Blu-ray and an unex­pec­ted addi­tion to the Criterion Collection (at least for me). It’s a great example of how well Blu-ray not only suits pre-1960 cinema (and black-and-white films for that mat­ter), but greatly enhances it.

• Fuzzy Bastarrd says:

  October 19, 2010 at 9:24 am

  Adaptations of Dracula alone could fill this one…

• Michael Adams says:

  October 19, 2010 at 10:00 am

  Despite my love for Bergman, I’ve nev­er been a fan of The Magician, but the image above has always res­on­ated with me.

• bill says:

  October 19, 2010 at 10:14 am

  I went to pick up THE MAGICIAN this week­end, and the store that was most likely to carry it, was­n’t car­ry­ing it. I’m not sure why, but I want to see this movie so effin’ bad.

• Glenn Kenny says:

  October 19, 2010 at 10:19 am

  I gotta say I kinda can­’t blame you, Bill; I really dig “The Magician,” it’s a real Bergman “genre” film if you will. and both the Blu-ray and the standard-def remas­ter look amaz­ing. Now that my dis­play issues appear to have resolved in my favor (update in the works) I hope to write a little more extens­ively about this some time soon.

• bill says:

  October 19, 2010 at 10:51 am

  “it’s a real Bergman “genre” film”
  That’s how it soun­ded to me, and while I love Bergman, just in gen­er­al, movies like HOUR OF THE WOLF and THE SERPENT’S EGG stick with me much more closely than some of his oth­er, more “clas­sic” films.

• Mike Mazurki says:

  October 19, 2010 at 12:02 pm

  On a related Bergman note, I was recently able to see THE TOUCH, Bergman’s one for­ay into English-language films, in a new 35mm print. I’d been want­ing to see it for years, but it’s been out of cir­cu­la­tion for years and as far as I know, has nev­er appeared on video in any form.
  It’s owned by Disney (part of the ABC cata­logue I think which includes oth­er films one would­n’t nor­mally asso­ci­ate with Walt such as…Straw Dogs) and the print was pro­duced by the Swedish Film Institute.
  It’s cer­tainly not one of Bergman’s best by any stretch, but it is fas­cin­at­ing, as its stars Elliot Gould(!) and Bibi Andersson and occa­sion­ally suf­fers from bad dia­logue and what sound like music­al com­prom­ises made for the American back­ers, dat­ing the film in a way that does­n’t hamper his oth­er films of the peri­od. However it’s strengths far out­weigh its weak­nesses. Hell, it’s Bergman! Anyway, hope­fully a Blu-ray/DVD release is in the works.

• haice says:

  October 19, 2010 at 12:16 pm

  Another one of your evoc­at­ive posts.
  A key goth­ic coach memory for me is CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD with Donald Sutherland as a witch.
  As far as Bergman’s sub­lime THE MAGICIAN I can now part with my old Embassy VHS tape and swim in this beau­ti­ful release. Is it too much to dream of ALL THESE WOMAN mater­i­al­iz­ing in a eye-popping Blu-ray? One of the fun­ni­est scenes ever is Jarl Kulle as the pom­pous crit­ic pad­dling around the Artist’s swim­ming pool in a blow-up swan toy.

• bill says:

  October 19, 2010 at 1:18 pm

  Elliot Gould in a Bergman film makes abso­lutely no sense to me. I must see this movie.

• D Cairns says:

  October 19, 2010 at 1:54 pm

  Does Elliot Gould in a Bergman make more or less sense than David Carradine?

• bill says:

  October 19, 2010 at 2:07 pm

  From where I sit now, less, as I’ve seen THE SERPENT’S EGG and like it very much, and because, unlike Carradine, Gould does­n’t look any­thing like Max Von Sydow.

• C. Jerry Kutner says:

  October 19, 2010 at 3:00 pm

  Just watched THE MAGICIAN Blu-ray this week­end and imme­di­ately thought of BLACK SUNDAY when I saw that shot.
  In a sim­il­ar vein, I was also reminded of William Castle’s THE TINGLER. The sur­pris­ingly sim­il­ar cli­mactic set pieces of THE MAGICIAN and THE TINGLER are both about one per­son try­ing to scare anoth­er per­son to death (or some­thing close to it) with obvi­ous fakery. Bergman, Bava, and Castle – Brothers of the Gothic.

• lipranzer says:

  October 19, 2010 at 8:51 pm

  I also thought of Fellini while watch­ing it, par­tic­u­larly with the use of music near the end.