Terrible sound quality is obvious - you'd better have book with you while watching. Despite great names, there are no great performances - except, probably, Natasha. Decent rendering of the great Chekhov's play, but I definitely prefer taped Broadway 1965 (?) performance. BTW revolutionary "International" at the very end is, mildly put, not a good idea.
A very significant record of a great production
The other two reviews of this DVD seeem to me to have missed the point somewhat. Yes, on a purely technical level The Three Sisters print is certainly inferior. What must be remembered is that it is an archival print of a low-budget film that succeeds through its wonderful performances and vibrant authenticity. The film captures some wonderful performances by some wonderful actors, and was very obviously devised primarily as a means of preserving the original theatrical production whilst intelligently incorporating elements of cinema. Where else are you going to see Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Joan Plowright AND Laurence Olivier in the one cast?! Fascinating and magnificent.
The Sound and the Furious
I agree with the review on poor sound. It echos and is quite difficult to understand; my students would agree. The viewing experience turned out to be frustrating for them, but at times they were able to establish the events for more popular scenes. Recommended if you desire a visual or are a Chekov purist.
I bought this movie just because Gerard Butler is in the cast but I must say that the whole story is great! It's a different type of movie and it's based in an old bookclassic, which makes it even better. The cast is great, besides the hunky Gerard Butler. Worth seeing. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlotte Rampling - Alan Bates Director(s): Michael Cacoyannis DVD Release Date: Released the 25 February 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Anton Chekhov's The Seagull centers around impassioned would-be writer Konstantin (Frank Langella, Dracula), who hopes to write plays that will shatter what he sees as the clumsy, artificial constraints of theater. But his self-indulgent mother (Lee Grant, Shampoo), a famed actress, dismisses his efforts. Her lover (Kevin McCarthy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), a successful novelist, patronizes Konstantin and steals away the young man's beloved Nina (Blythe Danner, Meet the Parents). Chekhov is above all a poet of love--not the raptures of consummation, but the misery of love unrequited, misdirected, spurned, and abused. His eloquent tales of heartbreak have a phenomenal compassion for the weaknesses and flaws of human beings. This TV movie,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Nikos Psacharopoulos - John Desmond (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 05 February 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Fine performance all around, and an interview with Edward Albee. The direction is a bit stagey, but the film is well-transfered to DVD and looks fine on a 16x9 set.
The only down side is that Katherine Hepburn is (how shall we say this?) not as fine here as she is in other films. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Tony Richardson DVD Release Date: Released the 22 July 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Katharine Hepburn, one of the great American actresses, stars in this film adaptation of one of the greatest American plays, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. Hepburn plays Amanda Wakefield, a faded Southern belle now living in a small urban apartment, where she suffocates her two children--her restless son Tom (a very young Sam Waterston) and her painfully shy daughter Laura (Joanna Miles)--with her incessant mixture of insistent cheer and guilt. After much prodding from Amanda, Tom finally brings home a friend from his workplace, in the hopes that he might strike up a romance with reclusive Laura. The result is one of the sweetest and most heartbreaking scenes ever written. Hepburn's steely will and sudden vulnerability make her ideal for the domineering mother,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Anthony Harvey (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 11 February 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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