lifeboat – FILMdetail

DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Sony Pictures Home Ent.): David Fincher brings his full digital armoury to Stieg Larsson‘s bestseller and the result is a masterful adaptation hampered only by the limitations of the source material. [Buy the Blu-ray or DVD]

Dracula (Universal): The classic 1931 adaptation of Bram Stoker‘s novel directed by Tod Browning, starring Bela Lugosi as arguably the most iconic version of the famous vampire. Digitally restored as part of Universal’s 100th anniversary celebrations. [Buy the Blu-ray]

Lifeboat (Eureka): Another vintage dual DVD & Blu-ray release from the Masters of Cinema collection, this 1941 drama from Alfred Hitchcock sees American and British civilians stuck in a lifeboat in the North Atlantic. Like Rope (1948), Dial M for Murder (1954), and Rear Window (1954) it sees the director explore a limited setting. Stars Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Heather Angel and Hume Cronyn. [Buy the dual edition DVD/Blu-ray]

La Grande Illusion (StudioCanal): Studio Canal have digitally restored Jean Renoir’s classic 1937 anti-war film exploring the relationships between French officers and their German captors during World War One. Starring Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay and Erich von Stroheim, it is currently screening at selected UK cinemas and is available as a dual DVD and Blu-ray. [Buy the DVD or Blu-ray]

Faces (BFI): A 1968 drama directed by John Cassavetes starring John Marley, Cassavetes’ wife Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel and Lynn Carlin, who both received Academy Award nominations for this film. Shot in high contrast 16 mm black and white film stock it was an inspiration for indie filmmakers in the pre-Sundance era. [Buy the DVD/Blu-ray Dual Edition]

Il Boom (Studiocanal): 1963 comedy by Vittorio de Sica set amidst the backdrop of the post-war Italian economic miracle which transformed the country in the span of a decade, from the late 1950s to the onset of the 1970s. It stars Alberto Sordi and Gianna Maria Canale. [Buy the DVD]

ALSO OUT

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Being Human: Series 4 (2 Entertain) [Blu-ray / Box Set]
Despair (Park Circus) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Despicable Me (Universal Pictures) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Fury (Revolver Entertainment) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Gladiator (Universal Pictures) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Hirokin – The Last Samurai (Signature) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Jurassic Park (Universal Pictures) [Blu-ray / Normal]
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The Son of No One (Lionsgate UK) [Blu-ray / Normal]
Ugetsu Monogatari/Oyu-sama (Eureka) [Blu-ray with DVD]

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In 1962 François Truffaut carried out a series of extensive interviews with Alfred Hitchcock at his offices in Universal Studios.

Recorded to audio tape, the content was eventually edited down into Truffaut’s famous book Hitchcock.

A landmark meeting of two great directors, the conversations cover Hitchcock’s life and career in great detail as they discuss films such as Blackmail (1929), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1939), Rebecca (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), The Birds (1963), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960).

Truffaut did not speak much English, so he hired Helen Scott of the French Film Office in New York to act as the translator for the sessions.

The half hour sessions were subsequently broadcast on French radio and in 2006 Tom Sutpen started posting audio files on his blog ‘If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats‘.

HIGHLIGHTS

FULL LENGTH AUDIO

You can listen to the 25 parts individually below (just click on the relevant links to download as single tracks):

PART 1: Childhood through to his early years in the film industry (26 mins) [MP3]

PART 2: Mountain Eagle through to the end of the silent era (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 3: Blackmail through to a discussion about American audiences (26 mins) [MP3]

PART 4: Rich and Strange through to realism in films (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 5: The 39 Steps through to plausibility in film and film critics (28 mins) [MP3]

PART 6: Secret Agent and Sabotage (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 7: Young and Innocent and The Lady Vanishes (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 8: Final years in Britain through to his move to America (28 mins) [MP3]

PART 9: Rebecca (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 10: Discussion about Hollywood through to Notorious (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 11: Mr and Mrs Smith through to Suspicion (26 mins) [MP3]

PART 12: Saboteur through to Shadow of a Doubt (26 mins) [MP3]

PART 13: Lifeboat through to Spellbound (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 14: Notorious through to The Paradine Case (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 15: Rope (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 16: Rope and Under Capricorn (26 mins) [MP3]

PART 17: Stage Fright through to Strangers on a Train (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 18: Strangers on a Train through to I Confess (28 mins) [MP3]

PART 19: Notorious through to a discussion about suspense (27 mins) [Mp3]

PART 20: Initial discussion about the The Birds through to Rear Window (27 mins) [Mp3]

PART 21: The Wrong Man through to Vertigo (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 22: North by Northwest through to Psycho (26 mins) [MP3]

PART 23: Psycho (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 24: The Birds (27 mins) [MP3]

PART 25: Psycho through to characterisation in films (27 mins) [Mp3]

> Find out more about Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut at Wikipedia
> Buy Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut from Amazon UK