The magnificent Ambersons

The magnificent Ambersons

DVD - 2018

A brilliant, moving portrayal of an aristocratic American family in what many critics consider a masterpiece equal to Citizen Kane. Based on a novel by Booth Tarkington, the drama begins in the 1870s when the Amberson family is at the height of its wealth and prestige. But the day arrives when all the Ambersons are stunned by the truth of their financial ruin.

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DVD/MOVIE/DRAMA/Magnificent
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Location Call Number   Status
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Subjects
Families > Indiana > Drama.
Children of the rich > Drama.
Inheritance and succession > Drama.
Mothers and sons > Drama.
Social change > Drama.
Feature films.
Domestic drama.
Fiction films.
Film adaptations.
Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
Genres
Feature films
Domestic drama
Fiction films
Film adaptations
Video recordings for the hearing impaired
Published
[Irvington, New York] : The Criterion Collection [2018]
Language
English
Corporate Authors
Mercury Films Inc, RKO Pictures
Corporate Authors
Mercury Films Inc (-), RKO Pictures
Other Authors
Orson Welles, 1915-1985 (film director), Joseph Cotten, 1905-1994 (actor), Anne Baxter (-), Agnes Moorehead, 1906-1974, Booth Tarkington, 1869-1946
Edition
Two-DVD special edition ; DVD edition ; full screen
Item Description
Originally produced as a motion picture in 1942.
Special features: two audio commentaries; new interviews; new video essay on the film's cinematographers by scholar François Thomas; new video essay on the films score by scholar Christopher Husted; Welles on The Dick Cavett show in 1970; segment from Pampered youth, a 1925 silent adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons; audio from a 1979 AFI symposium on Welles; two Mercury Theatre radio plays: Seventeen (1938), an adaptation of another Booth Tarkington novel by Welles, and The magnificent Ambersons (1939); trailer.
Physical Description
2 videodiscs (88 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in
Format
DVD.
Audience
MPAA rating: Not rated.
Production Credits
Music, Bernard Herrmann ; cinematography, Stanley Cortez ; editor, Robert Wise.
ISBN
9781681435251
Contents unavailable.
Review by Library Journal Review

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington, Welles's follow-up to his masterly Citizen Kane depicts the downward spiral of a turn-of-the-century Indianapolis family headed by a motorcar magnate (Joseph Cotten). Shorn of more than 40 minutes by RKO Pictures after a negative test screening and saddled with reshoots including an upbeat ending, Ambersons (1942) endures as a tragic case of what might have been had its director's original vision survived. The chiaroscuro lighting and deep-focus lensing are reminiscent of Kane, but the former comes off as a bit extreme at times-certainly through no fault of the superb 4K restoration. The varied and ample special features, including commentaries, interviews, video and printed essays, and much more, make for a lavishly complete package suitable for an infamously compromised work of art. VERDICT A must-have for serious collections-appealing to casual TCM fans even if best treasured by die-hard film buffs. [See Trailers, LJ 10/1/18.]-Jeff T. Dick, Davenport, IA © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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