- Actors: Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jane Fonda, Terence Stamp, James Robertson Justice
- Directors: Louis Malle, Roger Vadim, Federico Fellini
- Language English, French, Italian
- Classification: To be announced
- Studio: Arrow
- VHS Release Date: 24 Jan 2000
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004CQ5J
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 18,158 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Product details |
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hands down the best release of Histoires Extraordinaire (Arrow Blu-ray),
By Paul WJM (Midlands, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spirits Of The Dead [Blu-ray] [1973] (Blu-ray)
Spirits of the Dead (as AIP re-titled it) is quite an unusual anthology horror movie from the later 60s, featuring three, almost experimental, adaptations of Poe stories from three well known European directors (Vadim, Malle, Fellini respectively). They're not particularly horrifying but there is an air of mystery about them, and they're particularly artistic explorations of Poe's tales of the weird and supernatural. Vadim's story is sexy (featuring Jane Fonda in an array of rather amazing costumes) but somewhat wayward, disjointed and long; Malle's segment is an intriguing look at a sadistic man with an apparent doppelganger that appears whenever his cruel nature reaches excessive heights; Fellini's final piece is a tale about a man who loses his head to the devil (famously showcasing Terence Stamp's convincingly deranged performance as a lost, cynical drunk).
An important film such as this is embellished with a superb transfer for the Arrow Blu-ray Disc - periodically grainy, often exhibiting fantastic clarity. There are a couple of audio language options for each segment and you may wish to flip between these depending on the tale (the first and third tales I believe work better in English due to the fact that the main characters are portrayed by English speaking actors who dubbed their own voices). The fact that Arrow has provided such an array of options is incredibly thoughtful and as a result this release blows the previous video/DVD/laserdisc editions away. The entire French language version is available as a separate entity (can be chosen from the brilliantly designed main menu) but the picture quality is not up the standard of the main presentation (though still probably better than DVD quality), plus the colours are very different. The AIP commissioned Vincent Price voiceover is available as a short extra too. The main bonus is a 60 page booklet containing reprints of the three Poe stories that make up the film, plus two essays, one of which is the excellent Tim Lucas study of the film (originally from Video Watchdog in the late 90s). The presentation of this book is very professional and grants a great backdrop with which to understand the film. The Blu-ray Disc is encased in a thin Blu-ray case adorned with poster artwork on every side, and the book plus case are housed in a sturdy cardboard outer case making the whole package supremely attractive. Something I'd give 4.5 stars (though the film does take more effort than your average horror), this is an essential buy for fans of historical horror and foreign cinema and Arrow are to be congratulated - hopefully this, along with their other releases this year, is a sign of things to come.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent Blu-ray presentation!,
By sam hain (Paris, France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spirits Of The Dead [Blu-ray] [1973] (Blu-ray)
Having seen this on TV years ago and also having two versions on vhs, it is now a pleasure and a thrill to see this film transferred to Blu-ray and looking incredible. My favourite is still the Fellini segment but what is usually described as the weakest story, Metzengerstein, benefits from the crisp, colourful transfer making it so good to look at that one can almost forgive it's weaknesses...
Also includes a French Language version which shows the vast improvements made to the look of the restored print. If you love this film, you'll want this Blu-ray.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great to see this get a good transfer,
By
This review is from: Spirits Of The Dead [Blu-ray] [1973] (Blu-ray)
Its an odd film this ... Vadim's section is bizarre and looks like it stole the costumes from the Barbarella set ... Also it has the brother and sister Fondas playing lovers which is a bit peculiar : )) ... Then Malle's section is really quite dull and forgettable and totally wastes Bardot and Delon like nobody else ever has ... Then there's Fellini's "Toby Dammit" which is just great ... Fellini at full throttle with Terrence Stamp giving the most memorable role of his career ... You may well find the rest of the film boring , but Toby Dammit is a masterpiece
As for the blu ray ... Its pretty bare bones but the transfer is very good and well worth it just for Fellini and Stamp P.S The 5 stars are for Toby Dammit as you'll have guessed
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
