Question:
Having finally got my 5.1 system out of storage, I'm working through a huge backlog of Ruscico and DVD-Audio titles, the first of which is <I>Air Crew</I> - which, much to my delight, turned out to be the Soviet Union's answer to <I>Airport</I> and its umpteen sequels.
Truth be told, it's no masterpiece, and much of its interest is based as much on cross-cultural curiosity value as anything else, but you can read my full review <A HREF="http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=1042&story=3589">here</A>.
Upcoming reviews over the next few days include:
<I>Autumn Marathon</I> - a sweet, sad comedy about a man whose essential niceness, inability to say no, unwillingness to hurt people and general passivity means that everyone thinks he's a lying, philandering ratbag. Decent if unspectacular Ruscico disc.
<I>Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears</I> - one of the biggest Soviet blockbusters (over 75 million tickets), this melodrama about the lives of three women in the 1950s and the 1970s is pure Hollywood corn for the most part, which may explain why it won the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Ronald Reagan apparently watched it twice when preparing for his summit with Gorbachov, in order to get some insight into the Russian psyche. Relatively lavish two-disc Ruscico special edition including lengthy interviews with cast, director, writer and composer plus some fascinating newsreel footage - I particularly liked the one from 1958 that essentially said "We've got the Sputnik and the Americans haven't! Ha ha!"
<I>The Planets</I> - Naxos' second bargain-price DVD-Audio: a very good performance of Gustav Holst's warhorse and a superlative recording, with Dolby Digital and DTS alternatives on offer for those who can't handle the higher-quality Advanced Resolution tracks.
<I>Messiaen: Vingt Regards</I> (Teldec) - my current favourite DVD-Audio disc, and a commendably adventurous choice for a relatively early release. Contemporary music specialist Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives a spellbinding account of Olivier Messiaen's dauntingly difficult (both technically and musically) piano suite <I>Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus</I>, and the piano recording is quite frankly the most convincing I've ever heard, with the five-speaker surround giving an amazing sense of three-dimensional space.
One review that I hope you will be undertaking at some point, MB, is the forthcoming (?) 3-disc release of Sergei Bondarchuk's WAR & PEACE.
Originally posted by RDNZL
One review that I hope you will be undertaking at some point, MB, is the forthcoming (?) 3-disc release of Sergei Bondarchuk's WAR & PEACE.
I certainly plan to, but Ruscico's approach to subscription copies (like pretty much everything else they do) is decidedly idiosyncratic - for instance, I've yet to receive <I>Stalker, Mirror</I>, <I>Ivan's Childhood</I> or <I>Come and See</I>, even though they've been out for ages. (I ended up buying the Artificial Eye <I>Stalker</I> because I couldn't wait!).
For what it's worth, these are the unreviewed titles that I have right now, so if anyone would like a particular DVD to jump the queue, please let me know - the first three titles are most likely to be the next ones I watch.
<UL><LI>Agony
<LI>Andrei Rublyov
<LI>At Home Among Strangers, A Stranger Among His Own
<LI>Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair
<LI>A Cruel Romance
<LI>Dauria
<LI>Father Frost
<LI>Father of the Soldier
<LI>The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors
<LI>The Little Mermaid
<LI>An Old, Old Tale
<LI>The Princess and the Pea
<LI>Ruslan and Ludmilla
<LI>The Snow Queen
<LI>A Tale of Time Lost
<LI>Tchaikovsky
<LI>Torpedo Bombers</UL>
Truth be told, it's no masterpiece, and much of its interest is based as much on cross-cultural curiosity value as anything else, but you can read my full review <A HREF="http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=1042&story=3589">here</A>.
Upcoming reviews over the next few days include:
<I>Autumn Marathon</I> - a sweet, sad comedy about a man whose essential niceness, inability to say no, unwillingness to hurt people and general passivity means that everyone thinks he's a lying, philandering ratbag. Decent if unspectacular Ruscico disc.
<I>Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears</I> - one of the biggest Soviet blockbusters (over 75 million tickets), this melodrama about the lives of three women in the 1950s and the 1970s is pure Hollywood corn for the most part, which may explain why it won the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Ronald Reagan apparently watched it twice when preparing for his summit with Gorbachov, in order to get some insight into the Russian psyche. Relatively lavish two-disc Ruscico special edition including lengthy interviews with cast, director, writer and composer plus some fascinating newsreel footage - I particularly liked the one from 1958 that essentially said "We've got the Sputnik and the Americans haven't! Ha ha!"
<I>The Planets</I> - Naxos' second bargain-price DVD-Audio: a very good performance of Gustav Holst's warhorse and a superlative recording, with Dolby Digital and DTS alternatives on offer for those who can't handle the higher-quality Advanced Resolution tracks.
<I>Messiaen: Vingt Regards</I> (Teldec) - my current favourite DVD-Audio disc, and a commendably adventurous choice for a relatively early release. Contemporary music specialist Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives a spellbinding account of Olivier Messiaen's dauntingly difficult (both technically and musically) piano suite <I>Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus</I>, and the piano recording is quite frankly the most convincing I've ever heard, with the five-speaker surround giving an amazing sense of three-dimensional space.
Answers:
One review that I hope you will be undertaking at some point, MB, is the forthcoming (?) 3-disc release of Sergei Bondarchuk's WAR & PEACE.
Answers:
Originally posted by RDNZL
One review that I hope you will be undertaking at some point, MB, is the forthcoming (?) 3-disc release of Sergei Bondarchuk's WAR & PEACE.
I certainly plan to, but Ruscico's approach to subscription copies (like pretty much everything else they do) is decidedly idiosyncratic - for instance, I've yet to receive <I>Stalker, Mirror</I>, <I>Ivan's Childhood</I> or <I>Come and See</I>, even though they've been out for ages. (I ended up buying the Artificial Eye <I>Stalker</I> because I couldn't wait!).
For what it's worth, these are the unreviewed titles that I have right now, so if anyone would like a particular DVD to jump the queue, please let me know - the first three titles are most likely to be the next ones I watch.
<UL><LI>Agony
<LI>Andrei Rublyov
<LI>At Home Among Strangers, A Stranger Among His Own
<LI>Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair
<LI>A Cruel Romance
<LI>Dauria
<LI>Father Frost
<LI>Father of the Soldier
<LI>The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors
<LI>The Little Mermaid
<LI>An Old, Old Tale
<LI>The Princess and the Pea
<LI>Ruslan and Ludmilla
<LI>The Snow Queen
<LI>A Tale of Time Lost
<LI>Tchaikovsky
<LI>Torpedo Bombers</UL>
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