Liliom: Amazon.ca: Charles Boyer, Madeleine Ozeray, Robert Arnoux, Roland Toutain, Alexandre Rignault, Henri Richard, Marcel Barencey, Raoul Marco, Antonin Artaud, L�on Arvel, Ren� Stern, Mimi Funes, Rudolph Mat�, Fritz Lang, Erich Pommer, Bernard Zimmer, Ferenc Moln�r, Robert Liebmann: DVD

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5 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars LANG'S "LA STRADA", Nov 18 2006

By

Vampire Truth (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liliom (DVD)

NOTE ABOUT THE KINO EDITION - AVOID THE KINO FOR THE FOX 2006 RELEASE of CAROUSEL: The 2006 2-disc Special Edition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical CAROUSEL has a FAR superior print of Fritz Lang's LILIOM as a DVD extra on disc two and is a superior value compared to this Kino DVD which has no extras and costs almost the same amount. Surprisingly, Fox doesn't make a big deal out of their stunning print (Fox's European arm apparently produced Lang's only French-language production) but in this instance, Lang's LILIOM is better than CAROUSEL, the picture it compliments!

Far darker and more fatalistic than CAROUSEL (which was based on the same play) this French language classic is a fascinating and rare entry in the Fritz Lang filmography. Charles Boyer is terrific as the rough and brutish but charming title character, a carny who meets an innocent young maid and moves in with her, with tragic results. Like Fellini's similarly carnival-derived LA STRADA, this is a portrait of a mismatched relationship between a rough-hewn and violent man and a tender, loving woman with a skein of tragedy woven throughout. Lang's heavy Germanic fatalism in the first half of the film marks this as of a piece with his German classics like M and his DR. MABUSE films, but the light-hearted fantasy of the film's final third also suggests a bridge to his more variable and commerce-driven American period. Since LILIOM is literally the transitional film between Lang's German and American works, it's a must-have for anyone enamored of the artistic progression of the master. Again, BUY THE CAROUSEL SPECIAL EDITION OF 2006 AND GET A BETTER PRINT AND A SPLASHY TECHNICOLOR MUSICAL FOR THE SAME PRICE.

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2.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Film in a Disappointing Transfer, May 28 2004

By

Frederick Edell (Nelson, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liliom (DVD)

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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3.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL FILM - disappointing print, May 22 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Liliom (DVD)

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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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more

Published on April 19 2004 by albertatamazon

5.0 out of 5 stars on the MIDWAY ..........
A STUNNING version of the non-musical play [there is a song or two though nicely warbled by Mr. Boyer] - the telling of a 'ne'er do well' lout who seduces? Read more

Published on April 3 2004