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THE BEATLES: THE FIRST U.S. VISIT
A film by Susan Froemke, Albert and David Maysles, Kathy Dougherty Film synopsis… Reviews…
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DVD
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THE BEATLES: THE FIRST U.S. VISIT
A film by Susan Froemke, Albert and David Maysles, Kathy Dougherty Film synopsis… Reviews…
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Ed Sullivan Presents The Beatles The Beatles' live debut appearance on American television, February 9th, 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show has topped a list of the 100 greatest rock and roll moments in TV as named by The 100 Moments That Rocked TV by VH-1. An estimated 73 million Americans tuned in to watch the Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles performed All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Every one of these songs is included on
our limited edition video collection, all part of 20 live
performances and 7 number one hits! Did you know that the crime rate in US cities dropped dramatically during the show's broadcast time? To find out why... - |
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| The Beatles Anthology LONDON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 31st, eight years after The Beatles themselves told the story of the world's greatest rock and roll band in The Beatles Anthology, EMI will release the complete work on DVD -- but now featuring the final chapter; never-released footage of the last jam session of Paul, George and Ringo, playing non-Beatles material. The Beatles Anthology DVD boxset features all of the original eight episodes that candidly reveal the story of how the four lads from Liverpool changed everything. The Beatles Anthology was shown in 1995, when John, Paul, George and Ringo told The Beatles' story for the first time. At that time the Anthology project caused a worldwide sensation as it launched a TV series, three double-CD sets that each topped the album charts in the USA, plus Free As A Bird and Real Love -- the first new Beatles recordings in 25 years. All 10 hours of the original Anthology series will now be released across four DVD discs, plus an additional disc with 81 minutes of Special Features. Nearly all of the material included on this 5th disc has never been seen before. For years, rumour has been rife among fans of the existence of intimate footage of Paul, George and Ringo jamming together during breaks in the making of the Anthology. This session and other get-togethers were filmed over a 12-month period when the three Beatles met in private and at Abbey Road studios. It includes the trio warmly remembering personal moments from their early days, reflecting on how they made their music and footage of them shot in the studio as they recorded Free As A Bird and Real Love. David Munns of EMI Recorded Music said: "We are really pleased to be releasing The Beatles Anthology, which tells the story of their lives and careers in the medium of DVD. This was always a great series and the Special Features Disc will be a huge addition to the collection of any music lover and Beatles fan -- it provides an intimate and fascinating chapter to the story that continues to captivate the world." Technically, the DVDs offer a spectacular audio/visual experience, featuring re-graded picture quality and new audio mastering including 5.1-surround sound and a new stereo PCM soundtrack.
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| A Hard Day's Night It was clear from the outset that ``A Hard Day's Night'' was in a different category from the rock musicals that had starred Elvis and his imitators. It was smart, it was irreverent, it didn't take itself seriously, and it was shot and edited by Richard Lester in an electrifying black-and-white, semi-documentary style that seemed to follow the boys during a day in their lives. And it was charged with the personalities of the Beatles, whose one-liners dismissed the very process of stardom they were undergoing. ``Are you a mod or a rocker?'' Ringo is asked at a press conference. ``I'm a mocker,'' he says. Musically, the Beatles represented a liberating breakthrough just when the original rock impetus from the 1950s was growing thin. The film is wall to wall with great songs, including ``I Should Have Known Better,'' ``Can't Buy Me Love,'' ``I Wanna Be Your Man,'' ``All My Loving,'' ``Happy Just to Dance With You,'' ``She Loves You,'' and others, including the title song, inspired by a remark dropped by Starr and written overnight by Lennon and McCartney. The Beatles were obviously not housebroken. The American rock stars who preceded them had been trained by their managers; Presley dutifully answered interview questions like a good boy. The Beatles had a clone look--matching hair and clothes--but they belied it with the individuality of their dialogue, and there was no doubt which one was John, Paul, George and Ringo. The original version of Alun Owen's Oscar-nominated screenplay supplied them with short one-liners (in case they couldn't act), but they were naturals, and new material was written to exploit that. They were the real thing. The most powerful quality evoked by ``A Hard Day's Night'' is liberation. The long hair was just the superficial sign of that. An underlying theme is the difficulty establishment types have in getting the Beatles to follow orders. (For ``establishment,'' read uptight conventional middle-class 1950s values.) Although their manager (Norman Rossington) tries to control them and their TV director (Victor Spinetti) goes berserk because of their improvisations during a live TV broadcast, they act according to the way they feel.
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Help ! It's a visual and aural treat, crammed
with gags, puns, sly absurdist humor, spoofs of film, literature, music,
and mores, and, of course, stunning Beatle tunes. What more can anyone
want? Entertaining fun AND a classic piece of British filmmaking. BTW,
keep an eye open for the eerie harbingers of the Beatles' future
lives/careers. Indian influences, mystical Stonehenge, tigers, bagpipes,
psychedelia, the cameo appearance of the 1969 Beatles, a gun pulled on
John (but uselessly, since it's British), thugs invading Beatle homes --
all this and more. Kali is the goddess of change, death, rebirth, and so
it is fitting that after this movie, which even takes the mickey out of
the Great Goddess, nothing would ever be the same for the Lads.
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Yellow Submarine Click Here to See Flash Animation A reportedly stunning remix of the Beatles songs was done in London from the original masters. The new film mix was done at POP audio in Santa Monica, in Dolby Digital 5.1. This release restored Yellow Submarine to its original English length, which by Savant's measure is three and a half minutes longer (Sources place the English at 90 minutes, and the US at 85). What will be restored, and seen for the first time by American fans, is the entire Beatles song, Hey Bulldog. The tune has been an issue since 1968: it was featured on the original soundtrack album even though it went missing in the movie itself. The best source Savant can find says Hey Bulldog was removed from the film for all non-British exhibition. Hey Bulldog is not only one of the better new songs, its reinstatement smooths out the flow of Yellow Submarine. Like the rest of the 'fantabulous, psychedelic' feature, the footage is better seen than described. The scene deals with one of the four-headed dogs the Blue Meanie troops use like bloodhounds. Viewers with even casual memories of the earlier release will have no trouble spotting the new footage when it jumps out at them (and barks, too). The animated Pop graphics are bright and colorful, without a trace of film dirt; a huge improvement over all earlier releases. Savant remembers Yellow Submarine from screenings where the frequent white screens showed not only film scratches but also flaws in the theater screen! The whites on the new transfer are as clean as a whistle. One of the extras pegged for the disc is the contemporary making-of short subject The Beatles Mod Odyssey. It's an amusing time capsule that shows some really gear animators who look suspiciously like fashion models. The short has wonderful copy: "It's a truly Mod World where medium and message meld! - The New Art of the Psychedelic sixties!" It also boasts clips of the Beatles posing with their animated counterparts. The color on the short has faded badly, which helps one appreciate the sparkling hues on the feature itself. Designer Heinz Edelmann and director George Dunning are heard in voiceovers.
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| THE BEATLES WITH TONY SHERIDAN The Beatles early years are relived and remembered in this fascinating look at the Hamburg Star Club-era of the band. Amongst those recollecting the innocent days of the Fab Four are former Beatles manager Allan Williams; Star Club Manager Horst Fascher; And of course Tony Sheridan, who performed with The Beatles in Germany and was instrumental in getting Ringo into the band after the wayward Pete Best was unceremoniously fired. A fascinating and important artefact, THE BEATLES WITH TONY SHERIDAN offers a warmly nostalgic glance at the beginnings of a band who defined an era.
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