Premiering on TCM 4/17/11
Anyone else excited to watch this? The ad that has been playing on TCM looks incredible.
shareLooks rather like a crazy combination of "The Red Shoes" and "The Tales of Hoffmann". Can't wait!!
shareI had mentioned to someone it looked like The Red Shoes on crack! The images alone are stunning. I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favorites.
shareMe as well. Hope others will be tuning in besides us! :) My VCR is already warmed up!
shareVCR? Wait, what century is this?
my vcr is warmed up too(some of us haven't caught up with the ram-it-down-your-throat digital campaign of the 21st century).
shareI still use mine occasionally. If all of my films had a proper dvd restoration/release, I'd give it up for good.
sharemy dual DVD/VHS player works beautifully, why give up all my really cool videos? I have some TV stuff taped from the 1980s, it's like going back in a time-machine.
shareNothing wrong with keeping a VCR around to watch your old tapes. Too much stuff that'll never make it to DVD, Blu-Ray and beyond. But it seems a little weird to still be recording on a VCR in 2011. Just saying.
As for the film itself, I was disappointed when Robert Osbourne said this was the 1976 cut with added songs and narration. However, once it was underway I realized that the dialogue-free 1966 version would be insufferable. It's not as weird and trippy as the TCM Lost and Found commercial made it out to be (it's a travesty that that commercial's not online), but with the narration added it's just odd enough that it sorta reminds me of "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T."
I wasn't expecting to see a film recut for children, but I really did enjoy myself. It was visually stunning and Claudia Corday... Wow, she's my new obsession.
shareThis didn't have a hope in hell of reaching the kiddie crowds, if that's what they had intended, but it was visually quite stunning, with beautiful changing light cues and an eye-popping set design. I loved Dr. C.'s chamber of non-horrors, although the added narration and songs were truly abhorrent.
shareThe animation sequences (Which I personally thought were unnecessary and didn't fit with the film) and narration were added to the re-release for children. The original film has no dialogue. I would love to see that version one day.
shareIn my review, I left out my discontent with the animation .. mainly because I wasn't sure if it was part of the 1966 release or not (It was helmed by an animation studio in Madrid). It certainly WAS out of place, and not especially well done, but like the rest it was supremely nutty.
shareAccording to info online, here's three versions of the film. The original was 98 minutes long, no dialogue, no animation. This version was released in Spain and arthouse theatres in Europe and America.
In 1968, the second version was released, which was whittled down by ten minutes. No idea where this one played or if anything was changed other than a few cuts.
The 1976 version is the one TCM aired, which features the added songs, narration and animation (the out-of-place cartoon replaced a live-action dream sequence).
Weird thing is, I ran it in the newspaper archive and couldn't find anything for the "Mysterious House of Dr. C.;" it was released theatrically in '76 under the title "Dr. Coppelius." Presumably this is the same version released on Pan-and-Scan VHS in the UK under the latter title.
http://www.kiddiematinee.com/d-drcoppelius.html
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Well, it's about 9 minutes shorter than the original 1966 version, but I plan to have a recut of the 1968 version available on my blog in the next few days. Yesterday I discovered the '68 version is the PAL VHS release. Unfortunately, the quality's not very good (as most early video releases aren't), so I've edited the widescreen TCM print, dropped in the original soundtrack and some alternate footage.
Voices and animation aside, the '68 cut is mostly the same as the '76 version that TCM broadcast. The music is identical, there's just no lyrics. The credits are completely different, they're similar to an old Disney movie with the names and actors' photos printed in a storybook. The first dream sequence feels like an outtake from "The Three Caballeros." The second dream sequence (which immediately segues to the alien animation segment in the '76 cut) was completely omitted.
Personally, I probably would've been bored to sleep if I'd seen the '68 version first, but I suppose it's essential viewing for ballet enthusiasts.
http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/
that's amazing! i have bookmarked your blog and can't wait to watch it. :)
shareSorry for the delay (my internet connection's been out more than it's been working this week), but below's a link to the post. Both the '68 and '76 cuts are available as avi and DVD VOB files (though you'll need WinRar, 7Zip or a program capable of unpacking rar files to open 'em once they're downloaded). Plus I put together a soundtrack, re-shared the press books from TCM's site and assembled a third cut of the movie that's odd, to say the very least.
http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/2011/04/dr-coppelius-and-his-myster ious-house.html