See the film, don't buy the Vanguard DVD....
Added 3/24/2008
This is another other wordly, serene, austere, meditative work by Portugal's greatest filmmaker, Manoel de Oliveira. It's a loose update of the Madame Bovary story by Flaubert, and it's an immensely sad, tragic, beautiful, and haunting film, one of de Olveira's most interesting and fascinating films. It has some of the greatest photography in Manoel's work (the shots of the valley are breathtaking). It has wonderful, pointed narration. It is somewhat reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (something mentioned by another reviewer here), both in photography, tone, narration, and pace. The dialogue here is more intellectual and thought provoking than in Lyndon. It is a typical dense, multi layered work by de Olveira, and it's one of his best films. Despite the pace of the film being slow, it flies by quite considerably. De Oliveira's films are endlessly fascinating to me. This film reminds me of his film The Fifth Empire-Yesterday as Today, and how it's very talky (intellectual talky), and many of the camera shots are static, yet, it's absolutely fascinating and both films really fly by despite their lengthy running times (Abraham's Valley is 203 minutes, The Fifth Empire-Yesterday as Today is 127 minutes) and languid pacing.
The Vanguard DVD here is not a good transfer. Avoid it. I saw this film at a retrospective of de Oliveira's work at BAM Rose Cinemas, and it was the full length version, projected at 1.85:1, and in Portuguese with English subtitles. The DVD is 1.33:1, the image is distorted, it's not the full length version, and it's dubbed into French, so it should be avoided at all costs.
I would normally give the film 5 stars, but it gets four here because of the poor quality DVD.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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worst movie ever...
Added 6/3/2004
i have seen A LOT OF movies, and i consistently cite this one as THE WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN... my god, could film drop any lower... the sheer boredom doesn't even provide any entertainment value... in the tradition of all manoel de oliveira's films (or at least the three i've forced myself to see), it is dull, dull, dull and pointless... this is cinema for those who want to claim they enjoy intellectual films and force themselves through the three-hour torture of having to watch this empty anti-film... if i wanted to see a slide show of portugal, i would just go there or pick up a picture book
1 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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I could live with the video transfer if not for the sound
Added 8/3/2003
This is a great film, but I am going to try to return the DVD as the soundtrack is dubbed in French. It isn't the original Portugese.I don't own the U.S. VHS and don't know if it is also French, but I DO own a transferred copy of the U.K. PAL VHS and it is most clearly in Portugese. Even the pitch of the narrator's voice is different between the two versions. I don't know if this was deliberate (I hope not, since the DVD box claims it is Portugese) or if they used the wrong film master, but it makes a tremendous difference. Also, the sound is distorted in part of chapter 4, but I could even live with that if it was in the right language. I was really looking forward to this and I'm too upset to even come up with a sappy response for the Where in the world are you? box as is my custom.
7 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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This may not be the director's cut
Added 1/26/2003
If the running length is 187 minutes as claimed, then the film has been cut by about 16 minutes. Perhaps the distributor trimmed the film to make it fit on a single disc? Cutting a single frame out of a Manoel de Oliveira film is inexcusable. The film should be seen in its proper aspect ratio and running time.
5 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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WARNING The DVD Transfer is Faulty
Added 1/7/2003
This is a great movie and one that people should see. However, Vanguard Cinema has transferred the film FLAT when it should have been transferred SCOPE, which means all of the actors are squeezed and look like they are tall thin aliens. It's very distracting and considering the film is 3 hours long this ruins the film. I wish for this film to be seen and if the VHS version is available I recommend it. UPDATE: It is possible this looks okay on 16x9 TV's because the image then would s-t-r-e-t-c-h out.
6 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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See the film, don't buy the Vanguard DVD....
Added 3/24/2008
This is another other wordly, serene, austere, meditative work by Portugal's greatest filmmaker, Manoel de Oliveira. It's a loose update of the Madame Bovary story by Flaubert, and it's an immensely sad, tragic, beautiful, and haunting film, one of de Olveira's most interesting and fascinating films. It has some of the greatest photography in Manoel's work (the shots of the valley are breathtaking). It has wonderful, pointed narration. It is somewhat reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (something mentioned by another reviewer here), both in photography, tone, narration, and pace. The dialogue here is more intellectual and thought provoking than in Lyndon. It is a typical dense, multi layered work by de Olveira, and it's one of his best films. Despite the pace of the film being slow, it flies by quite considerably. De Oliveira's films are endlessly fascinating to me. This film reminds me of his film The Fifth Empire-Yesterday as Today, and how it's very talky (intellectual talky), and many of the camera shots are static, yet, it's absolutely fascinating and both films really fly by despite their lengthy running times (Abraham's Valley is 203 minutes, The Fifth Empire-Yesterday as Today is 127 minutes) and languid pacing.
The Vanguard DVD here is not a good transfer. Avoid it. I saw this film at a retrospective of de Oliveira's work at BAM Rose Cinemas, and it was the full length version, projected at 1.85:1, and in Portuguese with English subtitles. The DVD is 1.33:1, the image is distorted, it's not the full length version, and it's dubbed into French, so it should be avoided at all costs.
I would normally give the film 5 stars, but it gets four here because of the poor quality DVD.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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worst movie ever...
Added 6/3/2004
i have seen A LOT OF movies, and i consistently cite this one as THE WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN... my god, could film drop any lower... the sheer boredom doesn't even provide any entertainment value... in the tradition of all manoel de oliveira's films (or at least the three i've forced myself to see), it is dull, dull, dull and pointless... this is cinema for those who want to claim they enjoy intellectual films and force themselves through the three-hour torture of having to watch this empty anti-film... if i wanted to see a slide show of portugal, i would just go there or pick up a picture book
1 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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I could live with the video transfer if not for the sound
Added 8/3/2003
This is a great film, but I am going to try to return the DVD as the soundtrack is dubbed in French. It isn't the original Portugese.I don't own the U.S. VHS and don't know if it is also French, but I DO own a transferred copy of the U.K. PAL VHS and it is most clearly in Portugese. Even the pitch of the narrator's voice is different between the two versions. I don't know if this was deliberate (I hope not, since the DVD box claims it is Portugese) or if they used the wrong film master, but it makes a tremendous difference. Also, the sound is distorted in part of chapter 4, but I could even live with that if it was in the right language. I was really looking forward to this and I'm too upset to even come up with a sappy response for the Where in the world are you? box as is my custom.
7 out of 10 people found this helpful.
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