I'm searching... Give me a minute...
I'm so very close to having converted my video collection to shiny DVD format. Yes - this chump is, very much, Hollywood's bitch. But, DVDs are better, not just in terms of improved sound and picture. They're physically lighter for a start. And, there's usually extra... stuff... on them. And, um, they're more likely to survive an EMP than VHS?
I'm only talking about "retail" videos here. I still have many unlabelled cassettes of random TV tying me to the format. I guess they might turn out to be useful as a wallpaper of normalcy - should I find myself in some kind of future Omega Man-scenario.
Of course, there are a few stubborn hold-outs trapped in the analog world. Films such as Hal Hartley's Trust and Wim Wenders's Until the End of the World. The fact that I can't get the second on DVD is particularly frustrating since it's one of the main reasons I bought a DVD player in the first place.
And not because it features an EMP.
When I picked up a copy of it on VHS about 10 years ago, I only knew it though the soundtrack. The cover art made it look a bit like one of those straight-to-video cyber-crud movies (y'know the sort of thing even Rutger Hauer would have passed on). But, since they're one of my many guilty pleasures, I naturally bought it.
(Actually, I seem to have quite a lot of "guilty pleasures" I don't mind admitting to. I guess that means I'm just relaxed about being low-brow.)
But UtEotW, a road movie set in the "future" of 1999, surprised me. I ended up liking everything about it, and it's certainly near the top of my list of favourite movies that-aren't-acknowledged-classics. I'll concede that it's not to everyone's taste. It certainly doesn't have the kind of plot efficiency we expect from most movie story telling. It's left to trudge through its world, seemingly changing styles with each scene, for over two hours. And if it seems like a patchwork, that's because it's just an abridged version of a larger, and seldom seen, work.
I have somehow managed to miss the extended (to five and a half hours!) director's cut, Trilogy, every time it has shown in London. So rumours that a DVD release was coming were enough for me to prepare myself for its arrival with the purchace of a DVD player.
It's been a few years now. While waiting, my stopgap movies have grown into a respectable DVD collection. But UtEotW taunts me still. No real news, just a note that it remains in preparation. 1999 isn't getting any closer.
movies: posted at 02:13, link
