Happy Late Sunday Night. They are showing "Greed" by Erich Von Stroheim on TCM right now, and they are showing the four hour version. I've been watching it off and on. "Greed" is one of the most famous and important Silent Movies ever made, and there's a story behind it. It seems that Von Stroheim's original version of the film was somewhere between 7 and 10 hours long (and you thought four hours was a marathon!). The original version was only shown once, though I don't know why. Perhaps the studio execs went bonkers. At any rate, much of the original negative was later lost in a fire. How horrible is that? No matter the length of the film, it was said to be a masterpiece. For years, a measly two hour version existed that students of the film decried as an abomination. But at some point, a restoration was attempted. Using as much of the original film as could be obtained, the restorers used still photographs to fill out the story in places where footage was missing. This resulted in the four hour version that I had heard about, but had never seen. In fact, I didn't know that it could be seen. I wasn't aware that TCM had a copy.
Watching it intermittently just now, I would venture that it isn't a film that most folks nowdays would be willing to sit through. Even I would have to break it down into two nights of viewing, two hours per night. But for fans and historians of cinema, I'd imagine that "Greed" would be on most of their must watch lists. I have been searching for a copy for about ten years, and was always hoping for a Criterion version. I think that there may have been some litigation involved with the rights to the film, which is why a proper restoration effort has never been undertaken. Just tonight, though, I see that bootleg copies of the four hour version are available from England, and they are All Region playable.
It's probably from one of those semi-legit dvd companies like the one I bought "Song Of The South" from. The quality on that one was not too bad, all things considered, though it was a far cry from the sharpness of an official release. I think I will shell out the nine bucks for one of these DVD-R copies of "Greed", however, just because I Need To See It as part of my continuing cinematic education.
Good singin' in church this morning. I went back to my trusted formula of water, citrus and coffee before choir (no gummy smoothies this time) and everything was back to normal. After church I drove to Burbank to take my sister Sophie shopping.
Napped when I got back home, then got back to researching Glomar.
You should research Glomar yourself, when you have time in between your searches to differentiate the films of Erich Von Stroheim from those of Josef Von Sternberg.
Back in the early days of film, you had to have an Epic Teutonic Moniker in order to direct.
Well........not really (just ask Buster Keaton).......but it didn't hurt. It made you sound Ultra Artistic.
I mean, can You - just as yourself, as you are today - imagine calling yourself "Josef Von Sternberg"?
Here in Los Angeles, we have a locally famous grocery store chain called "Vons". You could probably put an apostrophe in between the "n" and the "s" and I wouldn't have a fit because even though I am an Apostrophe Nazi, it would be proper. It is said that Los Angeles was where the concept of the Supermarket first appeared. In the early 20th Century, two local grocers began stocking dry goods and other retail items in their stores, and all of a sudden you could buy everything you needed under one roof. Those grocery companies were Ralphs and Vons.
Vons was named after the Von der Ahe family, who might under other circumstances have produced a famous movie director. But for their store, they just kept the all-important "Von"(s) and ditched the rest. They understood martketing.
Image is everything.
The old cliche asks, "what's in a name"?
Hell, I don't know. Go ask a German, or an Austrian. At one point, they were using names to take over the world.
It's that Middle Thing they do, that "Von" or "Van".
Would Edward Van Halen have been as big, if he'd been Edward Halen? How about Vincent Gogh? Would his paintings have sold for fifty million?
Maybe so. But the Von/Van Factor adds something that cannot be denied. Or confirmed or denied.
Try and Glomar that, my CIA friends. :)
Well, finally : "You say it's my birthday"....."It's my birthday, too yeah"....."You say it's your (my) birthday" (dee dee dee dee dee dee, de dum), "we're gonna have a good time".
"Yeah we're goin' to a party, party, yeah we're goin' to a party, party"......(dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dum dum dee dee, dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dum dum dee dee) cue guitar riff and repeat.
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment