People on Sunday Directed by: Robert Siodmak & Edgar G. Ulmer Written by: Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak & Curt Siodmak Starring: Erwin Splettstößer, Brigitte Borchert, Wolfgang von Waltershausen In the late 1920's, a group of young filmmakers would marry documentary techniques with fiction to create People on Sunday, a silent film utilizing non-actors to tell a scripted story about a relaxing weekend in pre-Hitler Berlin. The project is considered a work of genious by many and jumpstarted the long and illustrious careers of those involved, including a young Billy Wilder. When tracing the lineage of the French New Wave [1] and New Hollywood [2] eras of filmmaking, you're likely to end up coming across this seminal piece of German cinema. The story is simple: four friends plan to meet for a day at the beach on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Wolfgang is a wine salesman who courts a young girl named Christl, a film extra.
- 7/31/2011
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
Chicago – One of the most important home entertainment releases of the year is Criterion’s high-definition restoration of Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer’s “People on Sunday,” an extraordinary filmic landmark from 1930 that is a must-see for any self-respecting cinephile. Watching it for the first time, I felt like I was witnessing nothing less than the birth of independent cinema.
Coming out on the heels of “city symphony” pictures such as Walter Ruttman’s 1927 opus “Berlin: Symphony of a Great City,” and Dziga Vertov’s 1929 classic “Man With a Movie Camera,” “Sunday” blended the stylistic flourishes of avant-garde documentaries with experimental narrative structures. At its core are five non-actors playing characters loosely based on themselves, and the film’s witty prologue notes that after production wrapped, they all returned to their regular jobs.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
A triumphant success with critics and audiences alike, this silent German masterwork united a group of brilliant unknowns,...
Coming out on the heels of “city symphony” pictures such as Walter Ruttman’s 1927 opus “Berlin: Symphony of a Great City,” and Dziga Vertov’s 1929 classic “Man With a Movie Camera,” “Sunday” blended the stylistic flourishes of avant-garde documentaries with experimental narrative structures. At its core are five non-actors playing characters loosely based on themselves, and the film’s witty prologue notes that after production wrapped, they all returned to their regular jobs.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
A triumphant success with critics and audiences alike, this silent German masterwork united a group of brilliant unknowns,...
- 7/7/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Black Moon: The Criterion Collection (1975)
Directed by: Louis Malle
Starring: Cathryn Harrison, Therese Giehse
Criterion.com Synopsis: Louis Malle meets Lewis Carroll in this bizarre and bewitching trip down the rabbit hole. After skirting the horrors of a mysterious war being waged in the countryside, beautiful young Lily (Cathryn Harrison) takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic life of an extremely unconventional family. Evocatively shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Black Moon is a Freudian tale of adolescent sexuality set in a post-apocalyptic world of shifting identities and talking animals. It is one of Malle’s most experimental films and a cinematic daydream like no other.
Camille 2000: Extended Version (1969)
Directed by: Radley Metzger
Starring: Daniel Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo
IMDb.com Synopsis: Marguerite, a beautiful woman of affairs, falls for the young and promising Armand,...
Black Moon: The Criterion Collection (1975)
Directed by: Louis Malle
Starring: Cathryn Harrison, Therese Giehse
Criterion.com Synopsis: Louis Malle meets Lewis Carroll in this bizarre and bewitching trip down the rabbit hole. After skirting the horrors of a mysterious war being waged in the countryside, beautiful young Lily (Cathryn Harrison) takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic life of an extremely unconventional family. Evocatively shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Black Moon is a Freudian tale of adolescent sexuality set in a post-apocalyptic world of shifting identities and talking animals. It is one of Malle’s most experimental films and a cinematic daydream like no other.
Camille 2000: Extended Version (1969)
Directed by: Radley Metzger
Starring: Daniel Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo
IMDb.com Synopsis: Marguerite, a beautiful woman of affairs, falls for the young and promising Armand,...
- 6/27/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It always manages to amaze me how fast the months fly by, it seems like only yesterday we were announcing the May 2011 Criterion Collection titles, and here we are with June’s. This month continues Criterion’s recent trend of increasing the new titles selection, and bringing an amazing director to the Eclipse Series.
Let’s go through all of the new titles first this time. Earlier this year, Criterion released their “wacky new years” drawing, hinting at a couple of titles that we are finally getting to see made official this June. In that drawing we had an image of Marilyn Monroe with Albert Einstein’s head, hinting at Nicolas Roeg’s film, Insignificance. This will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 14. In that drawing, we also had the infamous glowing briefcase, hinting at Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (which also screened last year at the...
Let’s go through all of the new titles first this time. Earlier this year, Criterion released their “wacky new years” drawing, hinting at a couple of titles that we are finally getting to see made official this June. In that drawing we had an image of Marilyn Monroe with Albert Einstein’s head, hinting at Nicolas Roeg’s film, Insignificance. This will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 14. In that drawing, we also had the infamous glowing briefcase, hinting at Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (which also screened last year at the...
- 3/15/2011
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
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