Withnail And I

[rgfinch]

is NOT anamorphic .

I have an e-mail from the authoring house saying so.

Suggest we all avoid Withnail until somebody does it right.

[APPRIA40WR]

The UK release?

[ColinP]

Seeing as it's highly unlikely that we'll never get to see an anamorphic transfer of this film for technical reasons I don't think it's worth boycotting this release.

[rgfinch]

What technical reasons are those ??

[Michael Brooke]

There's absolutely no reason why an anamorphic transfer couldn't be made of <I>Withnail & I</I> - it's a perfectly normal film shot on 35mm! - so I suspect it's more due to the fact that there's already a very good cinematographer-supervised transfer in existence, and its quality is such that it wasn't considered worth doing an anamorphic transfer.

And, to be fair, I can sympathise - some people can be altogether too anal about this sort of thing, and I really don't think it's worth paying a five-figure sum for a new transfer just for a tiny improvement in picture quality for a film that wasn't exactly Lean or Kubrick in the visuals department to begin with!

I've got the Criterion and it looks absolutely fine. I'm only buying the Anchor Bay out of sheer egomania, as I'm apparently quoted in it!

[Napoleon]

I would have thought a new anamorphic transfer,using the original pal source would have given a noticeable improvement.But i will keep hold of my criterion edition now,so thanks for the info.

[JohnyC]

What technical reasons are those ??

I imagine that if the film was shot in an aspect ration lower than 1:1.78 (e.g. 1:1.66), then in order to have an anamorphic transfer they'd have to add black bars to the sides of the picture. Which methinks won't go down well at all with the 16:9 TV-owning-crowd. What's the OAR on Whintnail And I?

[Adge]

Thanks for the info, gonna cancel my order for the R2 anchor bay release too, I'll stick with my criterion release too.

[johntchance]

Michael, i've got the booklet that comes with the Withnail disc and can assure you that you are quoted in it, it features your biography from the IMDB and and thanks you by name.

[charlie angel]

I like my Criterion W&I - don't think I'll be trading up until a far superior version is released (the commentary on the Anchor Bay version doesn't interest me enough without Richard E Grant or Bruce Robinson present)

[Michael Brooke]

<B>Michael, i've got the booklet that comes with the Withnail disc and can assure you that you are quoted in it, it features your biography from the IMDB and and thanks you by name.</B>

Fame at last! Anyone want to buy signed copies off me? :D

(Come to think of it, I can't even remember writing that Bruce Robinson biography - it must have been in 1995, which was the last time I wrote a lot for the IMDB, so I'll put it down to premature Alzheimers)

[Cap'n Al]

Originally posted by charlie angel
(The commentary on the Anchor Bay version doesn't interest me enough without Richard E Grant or Bruce Robinson present)

Yes, the absence of the director always makes a commentary irritating, because the stars/writer/critic is always trying to second-guess their intentions; I can't imagine anything more annoying than hearing someone say 'Here, X might have intended...'

[urruri]

Who else thinks this is a overrated film?

[Grumpy]

Originally posted by urruri
Who else thinks this is a overrated film?

Have to agree it's a big pile of stinking pooh !

[Michael Brooke]

In early 1988, I moved out of a hellhole in Brighton that I'd been sharing with a variety of hippies, drug dealers, "resting" would-be actors... and literally a fortnight later went to see a new British comedy that I knew absolutely nothing about in advance - a friend dragged me off to see it purely because he liked the poster.

Hand on heart, I have <U>never</U> laughed so hard at a film before or since - it struck so many chords that I lost count about ten minutes in, and although umpteen viewings have somewhat dulled the initial effect, I still regard it with more genuine affection than any other British film of the last twenty years or so.

So whenever I see someone calling it "overrated" or "a pile of pooh", my only honest response is to feel sorry for them, as they clearly missed out on one of the most blissful experiences I've ever had in a cinema (and a follow-up screening at the legendary Scala cinema, in a double bill with <I>Reefer Madness</I> was, if anything, even better - my then girlfriend laughed so hard she literally fell off her chair, and I swear I'm not making that up!)

[APPRIA40WR]

Brilliant film. The reason I love it so much (apart from the humour) is that the characters are so wonderful and I see bits of me in them (ooer missus) :D

A truly great experience -but certainly, not one for the numpties.

[Michael Brooke]

Apparently the test screening was such a disaster that the film was almost not released!

According to Bruce Robinson: "That was the most nightmarish piece of stupidity that I've ever been through. The people who were employed to recruit the audience - the kind of young audience that we thought would like the film - recruited a load of students who couldn't speak English. If you can't speak English you don't get <I>Withnail</I>. Even if you can speak English fluently but it's not your native tongue, you don't get it. I've got a couple of French friends who are absolutely ace at English but they don't get it because to a French ear a line like "We've gone on holiday by mistake" probably sounds perfectly reasonable. To an English ear, "We've gone on holiday by mistake" is something that can't possibly happen. How do you go on holiday by mistake? So these Germans are all sitting there and they don't know what day of the week it is with all this yak coming at them, and all they see is two ludicrous blokes tramping around in polythene bags with a tirade of dialogue that's meaningless to them. They got fired, those publicity people, and rightly so."

[APPRIA40WR]

I found that polythene bag footwear very fetching -and so practical! :D

[Adge]

It's just fantastic, it's so funny and honest, I've lost track of the number of times I've seen it.

But I do know people who hate it, maybe if you can't make a connection with that world it doesn't make sense?

[jonathan.e]

Michael you’re gonna have to start naming those girlfriends in your posts as I can’t keep track of if they’re the same girls or different to ones mentioned in other posts ;) We need a chronological girlfriend breakdown accompanied by a timeline graph which would probably illustrate the rise and decline of cinema-going throughout the 80s and 90s......probably.

[Cap'n Al]

It works far better if friends (or in my case, 'acquaintances') can be seen as similar to the characters; I have had the pleasure of being taught by a man who made Uncle Monty look non-predatory and macho, as well as knowing an ac-torrrr even less talented and more inebriated than Withnail.

As I wrote when I reviewed the Criterion disc, it's very possibly my favorite film ever made, because I can watch it at any time, in any mood, and I'll laugh, because it's such a well-made, witty and ultimately moving film that to see it denigrated as 'a big pile of poo' seems an utterly irrelevant insult.

[John Walker]

I think I'm going to sound like an idiot here: But who is (/are you) Michael Brooke?

Will the DVD explain all?

[Michael Brooke]

I imagine it'll explain that I wrote the mini-biography of Bruce Robinson that's in the Internet Movie Database!

You can get a sneak preview <A HREF="http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Robinson,+Bruce+(I)">here</A>, for what it's worth.

("What it's worth" was essentially dozens of e-mails from people assuming I was best mates with old Brucie and wanting to know his home address and various other personal details, which I wouldn't have sent complete strangers even if I had them, which I didn't!)

[phlebas]

By that token, would you happen to be best friends with all these (http://us.imdb.com/SearchBios?Michael+Brooke+%3Cmichael%40everyman.demon.co.uk%3E) people too? :)

[Michael Brooke]

Frighteningly enough, I do get e-mails from people who assume that - though Bruce Robinson and Tim Burton are the runaway winners.