676 I Married a Witch

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repeat
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 am
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Re: I Married a Witch (René Clair, 1942)

#51 Post by repeat » Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:05 am

I'm afraid I too was quite underwhelmed by this when I saw it on TV (albeit in terrible unrestored condition) a little after reading all the hype on the forum and elsewhere - especially as I'm a big fan of Clair's It Happened Tomorrow, a far superior fantasy/screwball comedy from the same period. I didn't hate it, but I guess I had inflated expectations based on Tomorrow and was disappointed to find little of that film's wit and punch (not to mention the masterful direction of the last 15-20 minutes or so, five of which play out virtuosically in real time!); also rather failed to see the appeal of Veronica Lake, but to each their own, I guess...

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: I Married a Witch (René Clair, 1942)

#52 Post by Gregory » Thu Jul 31, 2014 1:56 pm

Drucker wrote:So not to call people out, but I remember when this film was announced it had some ardent backers, right? Anyone have anything to add illustrating their love of the film?
I also thought we'd see some ardent defenses that get inside the film a little and point to things I might not have caught, having only seen it once. It seems like you were onto something when you questioned in the vote thread, "this is the Clair film we want to discuss?" Not that the discussion has been pointless or anything like that. I hope to see A Nous la Liberté chosen in a future round.
My take on Witch is that it seemed like it was not the film it could have been if so much hadn't gone wrong in its production: Sturges leaving, conflict and lack of chemistry between Lake and March, and (perhaps most crucially) a screenplay that just wasn't exactly a riot by screenwriters (Robert Pirosh and Marc Connelly) who are not known for having created great comedies in general.

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CSM126
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:22 am
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Re: 676 I Married a Witch

#53 Post by CSM126 » Mon Oct 30, 2017 10:27 am

Was rewatching this today and the Blu-ray froze for a few moments at the 1:13:42 mark, and the player was making some whirring sounds. Almost like an old-fashioned DVD layer change way back when. Anyone else had this issue? Never had it before.

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 676 I Married a Witch

#54 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Jan 16, 2023 1:17 am

Apparently the Library of Congress did a new restoration that just screened at MoMA. Like the previous restoration, it had to be pieced together from multiple sources. The restoration work was also digital rather than photochemical, mainly because a photochemical approach would have been impossible given what they needed to do with available sources.

Per MoMA's website:
Digital restoration by the Library of Congress and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation; courtesy of Shout! Factory and the American Genre Film Archive. New York premiere. 77 min.

As is the case with many independent productions, the original elements of I Married a Witch took a serious beating as the film passed from distributor to distributor, and for this restoration the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center of the Library of Congress digitally combined three sources to recover the film’s striking visual quality.
It's screening one more time on the 30th, albeit at 4:30 pm. Did anyone catch it by any chance? I imagine it could very well be an improvement over the last restoration even though it was fairly recent. (I'm still hoping someone releases a UHD of the 4K restoration I saw of F for Fake - the Criterion Blu-ray looked rock solid to me, but the new restoration managed to blow it away in both picture and audio quality.)

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Black Hat
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
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Re: 676 I Married a Witch

#55 Post by Black Hat » Mon Jan 16, 2023 2:02 pm

I saw it. I'm not the best member to ask about these things but, it looked great to me and an improvement on the blu. Agree on F for Fake it looked and sounded phenomenal.

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Elizabeth Corday
Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2021 12:58 am

Re: 676 I Married a Witch

#56 Post by Elizabeth Corday » Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:19 am

I wish they had more bonus features. A documentary on Lake would have been appreciated.

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 676 I Married a Witch

#57 Post by hearthesilence » Wed Jan 18, 2023 1:36 pm

Maddin's liner notes may have made her final years seem a bit worse than they really were. She definitely drank too much and as a result died from cirrhosis, but otherwise she seemed more or less fine living her eccentric life.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: 676 I Married a Witch

#58 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jan 18, 2023 1:58 pm

They should have read, 'Other than slowly dying from a degenerative disease as a result of alcoholism, she was doing just fine!'

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 676 I Married a Witch

#59 Post by hearthesilence » Wed Jan 18, 2023 4:05 pm

Hah, well, it didn't seem like she died that slowly, but regardless, Maddin's description of her downward spiral was more about where her life took her after her career in Hollywood and not so much the alcoholism. He doesn't mention this, but she was still doing promotional tours for her best-selling memoir (three years after publication) and making quite a few public appearances (including acting in theatrical productions in the UK) when she found out she had cirrhosis and dying the following month.

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