Burning Hunger
In observance of tonight's final showing of Rene Clement's Is Paris Burning? (1966) at the New Beverly Cinema, there's an underlying humor scene between Gert Frobe (as the good German general who defied Hitler's orders to torch the city) and Orson Welles (as a Swedish diplomat) in the middle of this YouTube clip.
It was noted by a Time magazine reviewer that Welles' concerned expression seemed to be driven by hunger for the cakes and pastries sitting before Frobe. Watch this scene with this interpretation in mind and it's a scream. Welles does seem to be doing everything he can not to think of the food in front of him, his resolve melting by the second.
Is Paris Burning? is a ambitious but boring film that lost money. You can tell from the pacing and the cutting of the Frobe-Welles scene why it bombed. Kirk Douglas as Gen. George S. Patton?
That said, could the jacket art for the 2003 Paramount DVD be any more off-putting? It's like the Paramount Home Video art director said to the artist, "I want you to create jacket art that will repel each and every prospective viewer. Not just the under-25s, not just World War II buffs, not just the cinefiles who may want to see this thing out of respect for Rene Clement. I want every last person on the face of the planet to look at this thing and go, 'No!...I don't want to see this.' Can you do it?"
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 17, 2008 at 9:27 AM
comment #1
alynch
says ...
Gotta agree. Why would they just put "With An All-Star Cast" on the cover rather then, you know, actually list some of these cast members.
Posted by alynch
at June 17, 2008 10:15 AM
comment #2
T. Holly
says ...
I'd like to try and repel each and every prospective viewer to this thread, but the clip is having a hard time playing and I have to leave, but for a guy who can't take an art photo, oh wait, you we're an ad/PR man before this, so you MIGHT have a point.
Posted by T. Holly
at June 17, 2008 10:25 AM
comment #3
btwnproductions
says ...
I have a soft spot in my heart (and maybe head) for these second-tier 60s epics, but this one is a slog. The history is fascinating, and made for a good book, but the multiple story threads never coalesce.
Posted by btwnproductions
at June 17, 2008 10:25 AM
comment #4
Jack Price
says ...
The cover is giving me flashbacks to Eric Carles' "The Hungry Caterpillar."
Posted by Jack Price
at June 17, 2008 11:08 AM
comment #5
azmoviegoer
says ...
Gotta agree w btwnproductions with his comment about the book being better than the movie. Of course, I might be slightly biased in saying that when my uncle co-wrote the book.
Posted by azmoviegoer
at June 17, 2008 3:28 PM
comment #6
raskimono
says ...
Boring movie. Agreed but not a bomb. It's a French film. It was released in France and was very successful there and in other parts of Europe. It already made all its money before its American release. Paramount didn't fund the movie. They just acquired American rights. Welles thinks it is an American movie because the dialogue is in English. Subtitles wasn't common in the sixties and seventies. All movies were dubbed. Foreign distribution companies might want to go back to that since the movies made more money back then.
Posted by raskimono
at June 17, 2008 6:11 PM
comment #7
raygo
says ...
It is one of my favorite books of all time. I read it in high school in the 70s, probably 3 times. I still have the hardback in the my bookcase.
Posted by raygo
at June 17, 2008 6:30 PM
comment #8
Richardson
says ...
"Foreign distribution companies might want to go back to that since the movies made more money back then."
I have this theory that dubbing could, potentially, make the experience of the movie closer to what the director intended. Because the director didn't want an audience reading the dialogue, processing all of the dialogue visually, through that part of the brain, and distracting it from all the actual visuals in the movie.
The problem is, the dubbing is almost never any good. I'm not sure what goes wrong -- people try to act too much with their voices, nobody with a vision guiding the performances, I don't know -- but I can't get behind the end result.
I just think that dubbing well could possibly be superior to subtitles.
Posted by Richardson
at June 17, 2008 10:23 PM
comment #9
jany
says ...
Si vous etes interesses par le dossier, ou desirez en savoir plus, contactez-moi par mail, et je vous mettrai en contact.
Best regards,Jane, CEO of high availability clustering
Posted by jany
at April 22, 2011 7:32 AM