TRAILERS

1

So I know the book has become the literary joke of "something that takes a long time", but some of the shots in this trailer look amazing! And for 1969 no less! And Janus Films does good stuff, so I'm tempted to seek this out. Hopefully the run-time isn't as long as the book lol.

THE_RAW_ on Feb 6, 2019

2

1966...not 1969, Raw. Good luck if you watch this. An 8 hr. Russian flick is more than I can handle. Maybe watch it in increments over 4 or 5 nights. Still...It does look beautifully shot and the production design it also beautiful. I can't remember this film at all, but I'd not gotten involved in film yet and didn't have a bead on excellent foreign films like this.

thespiritbo on Feb 6, 2019

3

Imagine it as a mini series.

tarek on Feb 7, 2019

4

I just got 'being approved' because I used the name of the tyrant German dictator from WWII in the title of a very long doc film we all went to see at UCLA in the late '70's titled 'Our H..ler'....don't know why that name is outlawed here on Alex's site. He explained it to me once. Anyway...the point being 8 hrs. is a gut job. Now let's see if my original post below posts or is deleted...all for the name. I think Alex explained that the name is used poorly or whatever so it's easier to just flag it. Weird, but it is what it is.

thespiritbo on Feb 7, 2019

5

Yeah. It's some filter at work. I find it very stupid and immature to ban the name of a historical figure, even if he was an awful person. We should ban also Gilgamesh, Agamemnon and every historical figure who were behind mass murders.

tarek on Feb 7, 2019

6

Good idea. I'd take a whack at it if I could record it and watch it at my leisure. 8 hours is tough. I remember going to UCLA in the late 70's to see a 6 or 8 hour documentary from Germany titled 'Our Hitler'. It was pretty good, but that's just too long and I would never do that again. Cheers, tarek!

thespiritbo on Feb 7, 2019

7

So....it is almost as long as the book... lol

THE_RAW_ on Feb 7, 2019

8

It's long. I never saw it or read it and have little interest in doing so. I did read The Idiot and liked it and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky (sorry for the misspelling?) but they weren't as long as this story/thing/book/movie...lol...

thespiritbo on Feb 7, 2019

9

Nah. I don't know how fast you can read, but I know 8h is still way shorter than the time I'd need to read the book. Plus, it has eye candy. Glad I stumbled on this trailer, I figured any adaptation would be rather stuffy, but this looks amazing. And I don't really have the time to read <500 pages books (much less 1400 lol)... I just love cinema more than prose, so I'm willing to spend it there.

Terry Craig on Feb 8, 2019

10

That's a fair assessment. I concur.

THE_RAW_ on Feb 11, 2019

11

Damn, this looks beautiful.

Efterklang on Feb 6, 2019

12

This must be the peak of restoration ability.

DAVIDPD on Feb 6, 2019

13

Neither the book nor the film here look short. But that's the price of a good art (which doesn't mean that something long is also good) ...

shiboleth on Feb 6, 2019

14

This most definitely deserved a better than 2k scan. I sure hope that's an error. Either way, It'll be great to see it when Criterion puts it out on blu-ray.

Charles Knowlton on Feb 6, 2019

15

"War and Peace" was shot in 70mm and shown in four parts in the Soviet Union. it was about 7 and half hours long. Apparently, the original negative was left to decay and is beyond repair. Bondarchuk, l've read, did a version for Russian television 30 years ago or so, but had to reframe the picture in a 4:3 aspect ratio, cutting out half the image. ln the US, "War and Peace" was cut to six hour and shown in two parts. I don't think a 70mm print was ever shown in the US. lt was definitely 35mm when I saw it around 1968 or 1969. The prints were not very good. The available DVD version is not good either and the dubbing is dreadful. We can thank Criterion for this and look forward to the restoration, possibly as Criterion's 1000th release.

James Shertzer on Feb 19, 2019