1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

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DarkImbecile
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1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Feb 12, 2021 4:46 pm

Merrily We Go to Hell

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Addiction, nonmonogamy, and female sexual liberation: decades before such ideas were widely discussed, Dorothy Arzner, the only woman to work as a director in 1930s Hollywood, brought them to the screen with striking frankness, sophistication, and wit—a mature treatment that stands out even in the pre-Code era. Fredric March (in one of four collaborations with Arzner) and Sylvia Sidney turn in extraordinary performances as the urbane couple whose relationship is pushed to the breaking point by his alcoholism and wandering eye—leading them into an emotionally explosive experiment with an open marriage. Exposing the hypocrisies and petty cruelties simmering beneath the surface of high-society elegance, Merrily We Go to Hell is a scathing early-feminist commentary on modern marriage.

SPECIAL FEATURES
  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Dorothy Arzner: Longing for Women, a 1983 documentary by Katja Raganelli and Konrad Wickler
  • New video essay by film historian Cari Beauchamp
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
    PLUS: An essay by film scholar Judith Mayne

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domino harvey
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#2 Post by domino harvey » Fri Feb 12, 2021 5:22 pm

I don’t remember anything about this movie but according to a board search I did enjoy it. Is this the pre-code they were teasing a while ago? I’m starting to lose track of our nascent clues

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Pavel
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#3 Post by Pavel » Fri Feb 12, 2021 5:32 pm

Wasn't the pre-code The Story of Temple Drake (which I actually like a tad more than this) or did they tease something more recently?

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domino harvey
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#4 Post by domino harvey » Fri Feb 12, 2021 5:53 pm

That was prob it. Merrily my memory has gone to Hell

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FrauBlucher
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#5 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Feb 12, 2021 5:56 pm

I haven't seen this but I'm very intrigued. Plus, the doc on Arzner sounds compelling

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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#6 Post by starmanof51 » Fri Feb 12, 2021 6:57 pm

I feel a little sad we missed getting a New Years Clue drawing for this one

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therewillbeblus
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#7 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 12, 2021 7:28 pm

I like domino's linked reading of this film as a quiet apology for functional alcoholism, and I look forward to revisiting it from a lens of its treatment of closeted addiction because I did think it was starting to work on that front towards the end yet never materialized. I found it annoying how they said "Merrily we go to hell" throughout the film.

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Finch
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#8 Post by Finch » Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:43 pm

Given the wildly divergent reactions to this announcement in the other thread, I'll pass on a blind buy and try watch the film first though I've always liked Frederic March in everything of his that I've seen this far and Sylvia Sydney was very good in the Lang film with Fonda, You'll Only Live Twice.

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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#9 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:28 am

I rented the DVD, which also had The Cheat on it. Well, I loved Merrily We Go to Hell. March and Sidney were amazing. They are the reason this film works so well. March’s alcoholic/drunk is one of the best portrayals I’ve seen. He didn’t play it over the top, which a lot of actors tend to do. And after seeing this I wondered why Sidney isn’t more highly regarded. Arzner’s direction was brilliant. I loved her mise-en-scene. She definitely had an eye for staging and pacing. I want to see more of her films. I look forward to seeing the CC edition.
Btw, I strongly disliked The Cheat. Thankfully it was barely an hour long.

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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#10 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 11, 2021 9:02 am

March is playing a very specific kind of alcoholic- the “functional” alcoholic, whose life is actually unmanageable but it’s not spiraling so outlandishly out of control, so he can keep up the self-delusion that it’s manageable. I’m glad you liked it- though if you think this is one of the best depictions of alcoholism, and the alcoholic perfs you’re seeing appear artificial, you’re either looking for a specific and often unrealistic picture of the throes of addiction or watching the wrong movies!

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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#11 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Mar 11, 2021 3:45 pm

I should clarify. I was referring to, and should've said so much, to the Golden Age of Hollywood period. Many of the alcoholics portrayed in that era was cartoonish. It was like the only type was like being the town drunk. Your term as 'Functional' was really what I meant, and that's why I thought March was spot on. The people I know that had that type of dependency that was unmanageable in their lives yet gave the impression that everything was normal.

And March playing the newspaper journalist was apropos to that industry, who were notoriously functional alcoholics. Anyway, I really liked the film. I'm glad that CC is releasing otherwise I probably would've never discovered it.

And if anyone can recommend other Arzner films I would be grateful

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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#12 Post by FrauBlucher » Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:30 pm


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tenia
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#13 Post by tenia » Sun Jun 20, 2021 5:45 am

Chris, could you if possible post the booklet tech details of this release here, please ?
The movie is getting a BD release in France this month, and while this definitely isn't sourced from the same presentation, I wonder if both releases might be sourced from the same raw master with extra work performed on Criterion's side or if these are 2 different masters altogether (I don't have the Criterion disc but have been to compare the French disc with a few caps).

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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#14 Post by yoloswegmaster » Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:38 am

tenia wrote:
Sun Jun 20, 2021 5:45 am
Chris, could you if possible post the booklet tech details of this release here, please ?
The movie is getting a BD release in France this month, and while this definitely isn't sourced from the same presentation, I wonder if both releases might be sourced from the same raw master with extra work performed on Criterion's side or if these are 2 different masters altogether (I don't have the Criterion disc but have been to compare the French disc with a few caps).
"This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphgics Director film scanner from a 35mm composite duplicate negative at Roundabout Entertainment in Burbank, California. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI Film's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from a 35mm optical track using Avid's Pro Tools and iZotope RX.

Colorist: Lee Kline/Criterion Post, New York."

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tenia
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Re: 1076 Merrily We Go to Hell

#15 Post by tenia » Tue Jun 22, 2021 11:40 am

Thanks !
I suspect the French master simply is an older one, especially since it opens on a quite old and wobbly Universal logo (I'd say circa 90s).

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