DVD Liliom
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Review(s): DVD Liliom | |
| A Fine Film in a Disappointing Transfer |
Lang's version of Molnar's stage play, "Liliom" is quite wonderful, and one of the best films he directed during his long period of exile. However, Kino's DVD transfer is a disappointment and should be avoided. Buy the VHS version instead, particularly since the DVD looks as if the VHS was merely reproduced with a further loss in duplication. Kino almost always produces good to excellent DVD transfers, so this one is doubly troublesome; the contrast is poor, important details are lost, and the overall image is fuzzy and as soft as whip cream. This should be a five star but the poor quality of the transfer brings it way down. I bought it because I had to see it, but I only saw part of the lovely film that Lang originally put on the screen.
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| WONDERFUL FILM - disappointing print |
If I were rating the VHS copy of this movie, rather than the DVD, I'd have no hesitation in giving it 5 stars. This is truly a delightful film, although after the title character dies and goes to "heaven", it does tend to drag a bit. But previous reviewers have described the film in such detail that I would like to concentrate, instead, on the film print used for this DVD version. Kino Video is one of those companies that we can thank for producing DVDs of many hard to find films from the silent era and "Golden Age" of Hollywood and Europe. After all, it is Kino Video that we can thank for distributing the incredible restoration of "Metropolis"! So I criticize them with great hesitation. and only because I would like them to be a bit more consistent. (For instance I, for one, have never purchased a DVD produced by Criterion that wasn't almost perfect . . . well, OK, perhaps their print of "The 39 Steps" could have been a bit sharper, but this exception only proves the rule.) One of the reasons the DVD format has become so popular, especially among film collectors, is its ability to reproduce films on our TVs at twice the resolution offered by the best of the old videotapes. If this ability is not utilized, what is the point of buying the DVD . . . why not just go buy the cheaper videotape? This is the case with "Liliom". As I mentioned, the print is very clean, but the resolution of the print is so low that it is like watching a rather mediocre videotape. For instance, in the "outdoor" scene where Liliom is going to rob the man in the tunnel (I realize that it was filmed in a studio, but none-the-less), the bushes in the background look like blobs of gray and white rather than bushes with actual leaves. The resolution is so low that a great deal of the scenery in many scenes looks like it was painted with a mop. Having said this, however, I still recommend that everyone who is interested in great film-making see this film. It has many wonderful moments, and holds a significant place in the history of European cinema. Just go in with your eyes open . . . wide open, if possible . . . and see if you can borrow it from you local library instead of paying cold, hard cash for it. Maybe then, Kino will start looking around for better source material to "restore" for us collectors.
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| Deserves to become a true cinema classic |  |
At last we have it on video and DVD--the 1934 French film version of Ferenc Molnár's "Liliom", with very legible subtitles, so that now the entire English-speaking world can take in the beauty of this sorely neglected film. For those who don't know, "Liliom" is the Hungarian play on which Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel" is based, and in 1934, the great German director Fritz Lang, while staying in France during his flight from the Nazis (he was Jewish), made a French film version of it. (There had already been an early U.S. talking film version in 1930, but from all accounts, it made no impact whatsoever and remains forgotten.) Hammerstein, when adapting "Liliom" into "Carousel" in 1945, was largely faithful to his source material, so viewers unfamiliar with "Liliom" should have no trouble recognizing the similarities, right down to certain lines of dialogue. This French film, unfairly kept out of circulation by Fox in favor of the film version of "Carousel", is everything an exemplary film version of a play should be, exceptionally well acted by some of the best character actors ever to emerge from France, beautifully photographed, and directed with an imagination that surpasses Henry King's in "Carousel", as excellent as that film is. Fritz Lang's idea of Heaven, easily the funniest segment of this otherwise very serious and deeply moving film, is one of the most imaginative concepts Lang ever dreamed up, and has to be seen to be appreciated. Charles Boyer, extremely young, and with a full head of hair if not a hairpiece, is perfectly suited for the role of Liliom , the non-musical equivalent of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Billy Bigelow. The role of Julie has an imaginative twist to it in this version---both Julie and her daughter are played by Madeleine Ozeray, and if ever an actress showed versatility it is here. Ms. Ozeray creates two distinct characterizations flawlessly. In other roles, the actress Florelle plays Mrs. Muskat (Mrs. Mullin in "Carousel") as more of a floozy, and Lang even gives her a touch of sympathy and humanity when she orders that all the lights in the amusement park be dimmed at an especially tragic moment. Pierre Alcover plays Alfred the criminal (Jigger Craigin in "Carousel") as a self-satisfied, overfed lout who wouldn't even think of obtaining money in an ethical manner, and does so in the great tradition of French 1930's character acting. Wolf Beifeld, the character who was turned into Mr. Snow in "Carousel", is omitted entirely in this version, but Mimi Funes does play Marie, Julie's best friend, as a much more worldly character than we have ever seen. Maximillienne is all wise understanding as Mrs. Menoux, the boarding house keeper and equivalent of Cousin Nettie in "Carousel".And Henri Richaud contributes a truly comical portrayal of two equally flustered commissioners, one in Heaven, and one on Earth. There is no clambake in this version either, but those who are used to "Carousel" will notice that "Liliom" is so well acted and directed that one does not miss the beautiful Rodgers and Hammerstein score even if the viewer has it ringing in their head as they watch this film. That is how good the Fritz Lang "Liliom" is. Fox has been, up to now, sorely negligent in seeing that this film was shown with subtitles in English-speaking countries, but they have finally come through. Rent or buy "Liliom", and treat yourself to the most unfairly neglected 1930's foreign film classic.
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