Ray Pride

(Voyna I mir, 1968) I will confess that I couldn’t make the time to get through the entirety of "War and Peace," Sergei Bondarchuk’s notoriously overstuffed, four-part, nearly seven-hour epic, which apparently had no ceiling on its budget, and its battle scenes are chock-filled with members of the Red Army just checking in for a day at the office. It’s a season of singularities: The epic live presentation of Guy Maddin’s "Brand Upon The Brain!" was followed Memorial Day weekend by the twelve hours of Jacques Rivette’s "Out 1," and serial immersionists are given another chance to be transported to another world with this tapestry. Still, five hours plus a few fast forwards on visual search that amounted to a couple more hours on the preview DVD reveal a bit of stodge and stiffness, but many fascinating tableaux that CGI can never duplicate, and no budget will ever merit again. And I bet what you see on the Siskel screen will be exponentially grander than what I saw in my living room. With Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Bondarchuk himself in a leading role. 415m. North American premiere of this 35mm restoration.

"War And Peace" starts Friday at Siskel Film Center

(2007-05-29)

Also by Ray Pride

Summer Guide 2007: June Movies
June's Can't-Miss Films
(2007-05-22)

Summer Guide 2007: July Movies
July's Can't-Miss Movies
(2007-05-22)

Summer Guide 2007: August Movies
August's Can't-Miss Films
(2007-05-22)

At First Sight
Just because every movie reviewer in America is calling "Once" something like the greatest music movie of this generation and the best thing since two pints of Guinness on a sleepy Dublin Sunday is no reason not to listen to me as I grab you by the collar and tell you listen, listen to these songs, embrace this movie, because this muss of twigs and straw and strings and pixels and chords can break your heart like a four-minute-fifty-second pop song you will never get out of your head
(2007-05-22)

Tip of the Week
(2007-05-22)

One Dish
(2007-05-18)

Film Review
(2007-05-18)

How goes the Jihad?
(2007-05-15)

Tip of the Week
(2007-05-15)

One Dish
(2007-05-14)

Tip of the Week
(2007-05-08)

The Tyranny of Distance
(2007-05-08)

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