Risselada Blog

Under discussion:

The Adventures of Robin Hood  (1938)

Glorious Technicolor  (1998)

Glorious Technicolor

This documentary is included on The Adventures of Robin Hood DVD.  It's quite well done and should be interesting for anyone with a general interest in film history or technical film history.  When you realize how elaborate, cumbersome, and expensive it was to utilize Technicolor, it's no wonder that it took so long for color movies to catch on and then for other type of color processes to become used more often.  But also when you realize how much more brilliant the colors of Technicolor were compared to any kind of new color development process for decades it's surprising.  And how wonderful that the process also preserves so much better, almost perfectly apparently.  This documentary will give you the details along with some interesting (although sometimes a bit pretentious) comments by famous cinematographers.

Rating: 9/10

Under discussion:

Gone With the Wind  (1939)

Hollywood Remembers: Vivien Leigh - Scarlett and Beyond  (1991)

Vivien Leigh: Scarlett & Beyond

This is supposed to be a retrospective on the life of Vivien Leigh, but at times it felt more like Jessica Lange's audition tape.  Her role as the host has her fawning over Vivien with over written dialogue that's also over acted while putting herself into strange tableaus.

Anyways, I'm sure it would be a good documentary for anyone interested in Vivien Leigh.  I'm really not.  Her acting often bugs the hell out of me.  But again I had to watch this because it was on the Gone with the Wind special features.  There are three discs in that set.  Sheesh!

Rating: 6/10

Under discussion:

H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer  (2004)

Expo: Magic of the White City  (2005)

H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer

Watched this one just after watching the EXPO documentary.  My girlfriend rented both of them from Netflix at the same time.  So we got a back drop of two things that were going on around the same time around the same place.

H.H. Holmes is an interesting character that I'd never heard about until just recently.  But his bout of serial killings were around the same time and more extensive than Jack the Ripper.  The only reason he may not be as well known is perhaps because the identity of Jack the Ripper is unknown and is a more mysterious case.  But H.H. Holmes may have been the most abominable personality.  Premeditation applies to this guy 100%.  He designed a whole building for killing and seems to have been planning on a life of murder from a young age.  He spent years in medical school, passing with flying colors seemingly just to get to a place where he would have more access and trust to be able to perform his murders.

I guess I won't give away too much since that's what the documentary is for.  But it's too bad the documentary can get kind of corny.  The narration can be a bit silly, and some of the effects and reenactments are just plain goofy as well.

It's probalby worthwhile if you are interested in the subject though.

Rating: 7/10