Petulia
- Lino
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:18 am
- Location: Sitting End
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Richard Lester's Petulia and other "cult" classic Warner comedies are getting a DVD release this June, 20th. A Fine Madness, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, The Loved One and Petulia will each be available for $19.97 SRP. All the films have been newly remastered and are presented in anamorphic widescreen. Moe info and artwork here:
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=60506
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=60506
- backstreetsbackalright
- Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:49 pm
- Location: 313
- Lino
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:18 am
- Location: Sitting End
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- oldsheperd
- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:18 pm
- Location: Rio Rancho/Albuquerque
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- Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:00 pm
- Location: Chicago
- Lino
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:18 am
- Location: Sitting End
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- Lino
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:18 am
- Location: Sitting End
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And now, DVDTalk:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22324
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22324
Final Thoughts:
Warner Brothers deserves kudos for ending the shamefully long wait it took to bring Petulia to DVD. While this is a movie complex enough to have warranted a full-scale, Criterion-styled treatment, at least this disc includes an interesting retrospective and a gorgeous print transfer. Along with A Hard Day's Night, Petulia ranks as Richard Lester's enduring masterpiece – and one that any movie aficionado would do well to check out.
- Michael
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:09 pm
After reading so much about Petulia for years, I ran to Best Buy yesterday to buy the DVD blind! I just know that the film is right up my alley.
I wonder how Petulia compares to Schlesinger's magnificent Darling also with Julie Christie (made about 3 years prior). Darling is great great great. I think about this film a lot lately. The Capri sequence is amazing.. I never knew that it was such a cruising spot for gay men! Capri has always been my grandmother's favorite place to visit for about 60 years and she loves reminiscing on how beautiful and free people are on the island and how the world should be like that. But Darling boldly, cruelly slaps you away from that thinking. It shows that no matter how much sex or fame or money there is in the world, its still and always a cold, empty world. Petulia's premise almost sounds the same if I'm not mistaken.
Anybody seen Darling?
I wonder how Petulia compares to Schlesinger's magnificent Darling also with Julie Christie (made about 3 years prior). Darling is great great great. I think about this film a lot lately. The Capri sequence is amazing.. I never knew that it was such a cruising spot for gay men! Capri has always been my grandmother's favorite place to visit for about 60 years and she loves reminiscing on how beautiful and free people are on the island and how the world should be like that. But Darling boldly, cruelly slaps you away from that thinking. It shows that no matter how much sex or fame or money there is in the world, its still and always a cold, empty world. Petulia's premise almost sounds the same if I'm not mistaken.
Anybody seen Darling?
- Michael
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:09 pm
Oh Petulia! Oh WOW! Petulia is a film that you have to watch at least three or four times to get the full impact. It's impossible to fully understand Petulia based on one viewing because of the kinetic editing which can be disorientating (reflecting the characters' state of mind and also the most craziest era of Americas history), the film refuses to give you any space to emotionally connect to its characters. In other words, the film is thoroughly chilly and numbing. Like being caught in the pot-smoke haze with no way out. The structure of Petulia works like "mosaic" (with endless non-linear flashbacks!) so that's why repeated viewings are essential for films like this. Once you put all the broken pieces together to get the whole picture - becoming an amazing revelation that you will be rewarded.
Petulia is one wave of gorgeous images that will pierce through your minds eye. I had a hard time falling asleep last night because the images just refused to let go of me. The world captured in Petulia is painfully cold and bitter - hospitals complete with dummy TVs!, apartments made of steel and glass, isolated boats, rows and rows of houses built exactly the same and so on.
I still can't believe that they advertise Petulia as a comedy!
Crazy, isn't it? Petulia is one of the most cynical and cruel films I've ever seen. The film continues to follow me into the next day. The resonance is so powerful. The last scene, the last word equals the visceral impact of "Rosebud".
One question about Petulia: I don't undersand the whole point of the Mexican boy. Did something happen between him and Petulia's husband? When the nurse called him "spic", I was like "damn". Some film directors from other countries are really clever at filming "hate letters" to America. Look at Douglas Sirk.
Petulia is one wave of gorgeous images that will pierce through your minds eye. I had a hard time falling asleep last night because the images just refused to let go of me. The world captured in Petulia is painfully cold and bitter - hospitals complete with dummy TVs!, apartments made of steel and glass, isolated boats, rows and rows of houses built exactly the same and so on.
I still can't believe that they advertise Petulia as a comedy!
Crazy, isn't it? Petulia is one of the most cynical and cruel films I've ever seen. The film continues to follow me into the next day. The resonance is so powerful. The last scene, the last word equals the visceral impact of "Rosebud".
One question about Petulia: I don't undersand the whole point of the Mexican boy. Did something happen between him and Petulia's husband? When the nurse called him "spic", I was like "damn". Some film directors from other countries are really clever at filming "hate letters" to America. Look at Douglas Sirk.
- Lino
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:18 am
- Location: Sitting End
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Michael, if you liked Petulia's editing style, I recommend you check out Roeg's Bad Timing.
viewtopic.php?t=2434
BTW, I have yet to watch Petulia (though it's on my to-watch list for a long time) but your description just wetted my appetite even more!
viewtopic.php?t=2434
BTW, I have yet to watch Petulia (though it's on my to-watch list for a long time) but your description just wetted my appetite even more!
- tavernier
- Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm
- Michael
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:09 pm
Richard Lester is American.
For some reason I thought he was British. My mistake. But still... Petulia is a very clinical, ugly look at the 60s America. And it came from an American director! Even better.
The editing style is watered-down Resnais: it's clever but it definitely doesn't have the emotional resonance of Hiroshima or Muriel.
Hmm.. I don't think Petulia is set out to make you emotinally connect to the film itself. The characters are too numb, confused and distant for us to connect to them in any way and the film works the same way. The editing style certainly has a very strong "mental" resonance but I think Petulia's "emotional" resonance comes through repeated viewings.
For some reason I thought he was British. My mistake. But still... Petulia is a very clinical, ugly look at the 60s America. And it came from an American director! Even better.
The editing style is watered-down Resnais: it's clever but it definitely doesn't have the emotional resonance of Hiroshima or Muriel.
Hmm.. I don't think Petulia is set out to make you emotinally connect to the film itself. The characters are too numb, confused and distant for us to connect to them in any way and the film works the same way. The editing style certainly has a very strong "mental" resonance but I think Petulia's "emotional" resonance comes through repeated viewings.
- tavernier
- Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm
He had left America before he started making movies, and I believe Petulia was his first (only?) film shot in the U.S.Michael wrote:Richard Lester is American.
For some reason I thought he was British. My mistake. But still... Petulia is a very clinical, ugly look at the 60s America. And it came from an American director! Even better.
- tavernier
- Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm
Please don't make me watch this movie again!Michael wrote:The editing style is watered-down Resnais: it's clever but it definitely doesn't have the emotional resonance of Hiroshima or Muriel.
Hmm.. I don't think Petulia is set out to make you emotinally connect to the film itself. The characters are too numb, confused and distant for us to connect to them in any way and the film works the same way. The editing style certainly has a very strong "mental" resonance but I think Petulia's "emotional" resonance comes through repeated viewings.
- Michael
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:09 pm
The reason why I said "mental resonance" is because Petulia functions very much like a jigsaw puzzle or perhaps a mosaic in which all the pieces are jumbled or disorganized. (Hiroshima's use of flashbacks is more linear if I'm not mistaken while Petulia's is intentionally, totally fragmentary and confusing.) So your mind gets busy while you fit together all the pieces of Petulia and put them in order before you can step back and look at the whole picture. Once the whole picture is realized, then the "emotional resonance" blooms from there only if you allow it. It's easy to dimiss the crazy, non-linear editing style as gimmicky. It's so effective in its way of experiencing through the fucked-up mindset of the characters, the characters (put altogether) being the ultimate metaphor of the 60s America.
The last shot of Petulia left me in silence that I have no idea why. I would love to see what others think of the film, especially its last shot.. what it's supposed to signify.
The last shot of Petulia left me in silence that I have no idea why. I would love to see what others think of the film, especially its last shot.. what it's supposed to signify.
- Michael
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:09 pm
The Language of Time: The Discontinuity of Sound and Image in Richard Lester's Petulia
http://fringedigital.com/flicker/petulia/
http://fringedigital.com/flicker/petulia/
- carax09
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:22 am
- Location: This almost empty gin palace
tavernier wrote:Roeg was the cinematographer on Petulia. The editing style is watered-down Resnais: it's clever but it definitely doesn't have the emotional resonance of Hiroshima or Muriel.Myra Breckinridge wrote:Michael, if you liked Petulia's editing style, I recommend you check out Roeg's Bad Timing.
Careful Bertrand, your Kael is showing!
Love,
Leos
- carax09
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:22 am
- Location: This almost empty gin palace
- carax09
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:22 am
- Location: This almost empty gin palace
Michael, I think it's interesting that you compare Sirk to Lester in this context. It's overly simplistic to characterize Sirk (who chose to live here) as anti-American; His best films expose the hypocrisy of American inclusiveness, at a time when it was extremely brave to do so. By the time Lester (who chose to leave) came along, the outsiders were taking to the streets. Petulia may be daring in certain respects, but it's not brave in the way that All That Heaven Allows is. Well, that's my opinion anyway.
- Michael
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 12:09 pm
carax, I wholeheartedly agree with you about the bravery of All That Heaven Allows. It's a gutwrenching, bitter "attack" on everything that America holds dearly. I often wonder if the '50s viewers got "it" or if it went over their heads. After watching Petulia, the thought of the film being made by Sirk if he was young and making films in 1968 came across my mind. Like All That Heaven Allows, Petulia relies on structures, colors, camera angles, etc to reveal every wart of America...both are also romances made tragic by the "plasticity" and hypocrisy that fuel whatever eras they take place in.