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The Browning Version (Criterion Collection) | |||||||||||||||||
 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Studio: Criterion Catalog: DVD Release date: 2005-06-28 Media: DVD released in theatres: 1951 Running time in minutes: 89 DVD aspect ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Special Edition, NTSC DVD Region code: 1 released in theatres: 1951 Ean: 9780780029552 Book Isbn: 0780029550 Upc: 037429202227  Tip: compare prices with similar DVDsDirector:
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Written on November 7, 2005 Summary: an interesting film with an academic theme This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. The Browning Version is the story of a school teacher who is beginning to feel that he is flunking life. He reevaluates it and student of his offers his assistance. The film has some nice scenes and is well made. The DVD has some good special features also. There is part of a 1958 interview with actor Michael Redgrave, an interview with Mike Figgis who directed a 1994 remake. There is also audio commentary by Bruce Eder. Written on October 11, 2005 Summary: Definitive "Version" We all try to lead a good life but along the way labels are placed upon us. Are we considered a 'good person', 'bad person', 'happy person', 'sad person'? People will remark we are cold and heartless or sweet and gentle. The kind of person that would never hurt a fly. Sometimes we are fully aware of what people think of us other times we have no clue what people truly feel about us. Anthony Asquith's "The Browning Version" does deal with this subject among other things. Andrew Crocker-Harris (Michael Redgrave) is about to leave the school he has worked at for many years this however does not seem to bother his students. They are glad he is leaving. They claim he is a cruel, heartless man who never offered his students a fair chance. Are they right? When we see Crocker-Harris teach his class he is stern but no worse than any teacher I ever had. But in the course of the day Harris is learn much about himself, his students, his wife, his school and about life. In many ways "The Browning Version" reminds me of Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries". Both film are about a man who realize his life has not added up to what he thought. He has been in fact a failure. Lost dreams and hopes have crowded his life. There is no passion anymore. In Bergman's film though the only hope the main character has is his son. If his son would not follow in his footsteps then perhaps there is hope. "The Browning Version" is a quiet, subtle film that is very powerful. It could considered by many a "slow movie". But the imprint it left on me will last forever. It is a deep thoughtful study of who we are and how we've become this person. Many people may feel Michael Redgrave isn't doing much. You hear the same agrument against Bill Murray lately for the film "Broken Flowers", what people don't seem to realize is that is the character. They are doing something. They are in fact doing more with silence and reserve than most actors do with wild gestures. "The Browning Version" is one of the greatest movies I have seen. I love these kind of thoughtful examination about who we are and our place in the world and I realize they are not for everyone still I recommend as many people as possible make an effort to see this movie. Bottom-line: One of the greatest films ever made. A quite film that is admittedly slow but still powerful. Comparable to "Wild Strawberries".  Written on August 14, 2005 Summary: Probably Redgrave's Greatest Screen Performance In a classroom of a British public school modeled on Harrow, students are waiting for their classics master, Andrew Crocker-Harris. "I don't think the Crock gets a kick out of anything," says Taplow, one of the students. "In fact, I don't think he has any feelings at all. He's just dead, that's all...He can't hate people and he can't like people. And what's more, he doesn't like people to like him. If he'd give me a chance, I think I'd quite like him." "What"" says another student. "Well, I feel sorry for him, which is more or less the same thing, isn't it?" Crocker-Harris (Michael Redgrave) is a middle-aged teacher, pedantic, precise, not so much dead inside as numb. He has taught 18 years at the school as the lower fifth classics master. He was once a brilliant scholar and could see a wonderful career as a teacher. His wife, Millie (Jean Kent), has become a shrew. She had her ambitions, too, and they eroded in the face of the couple's incompatibility. Millie longs for passion, intensity and respect; Crocker-Harris can provide none. His view of love has been almost platonic. It is apparent their intimate life has been nonexistent for years. "I may have been a brilliant scholar," Crocker-Harris says at one point, "but I was woefully ignorant of the facts of life." In this mix of frustration and deadened emotion is Frank Hunter (Nigel Patrick), the charming, smart upper fifth science master, a colleague of Crocker-Harris, who is cuckolding him. The story takes place over two days at the end of term. Crocker-Harris is having to retire because of ill health. He'll be moving to a much smaller school, earning very little money, and is resigned to further failure. No one is particularly sorry to see him go, including the avuncular head of school, Frobisher (Wilfred Hyde-White), as supple as a snake. Crocker-Harris has no illusions left about himself. He says to the new teacher who will replace him next term, "I did try very hard to communicate to the boys...some of my own joy in the great literature of the past. Of course, I...I failed. As you will fail nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine times out of a thousand. But a single success can atone, more than atone, for all the failures in the world. And sometimes, very rarely, it is true, I had that success. That, of course, was in the early years." Things come to a head when Taplow makes a gesture of friendship to Crocker-Harris. He gives his teacher a used copy of a verse translation of the Agamemnon, the Robert Browning version. Crocker-Harris' dull shell nearly breaks. Millie takes the gratuitous opportunity to say that Taplow was merely trying to curry favor. Hunter, long looking for a way to break off with Millie, sees the cracks that have appeared in Crocker-Harris. He is appalled at Millie. He discovers a greater appreciation for what destroyed Crocker-Harris' humanity, but also for what Crocker-Harris might have been. And Crocker-Harris finally faces his own feelings when he addresses the school and the boys at the end of term ceremony. The last scene we see is of Crocker-Harris walking across the school grounds, reading anew a verse translation of Agamemnon he had begun years ago and thrown out. Taplow found it and has given it back. He tells Crocker-Harris how exciting he thought it was after reading it, that it was like a real play with real people. Crocker-Harris, we believe, is beginning to rediscover what it is to be a teacher and a human being. If any word characterizes this movie, it is restraint, and in the very best sense. Redgrave gives a superb performance as the repressed, sad Crocker-Harris. Only slowly do we see what has happened to him. Even then, as we learn more about his failures as a teacher and a husband, as pity turns into sympathy, the movie is careful not to make Millie a complete termagant. In many ways, she has become as sad and desolate as her husband. Terence Rattigan, the playwright, and Anthony Asquith, the director, have constructed a seamless story of apparent personal failure which, nonetheless, builds to a satisfying emotional ending. Redgrave, however, is what makes it work. His performance really is extraordinary. The Criterion DVD picture is in excellent shape. There are a couple of extras. Written on August 3, 2005 Summary: a powerful character study Anthony Asquith was a British filmmaker who specialized in cinematic adaptations of literature that included the likes of Pygmalion, The Importance of Being Earnest and most significantly the following plays of Terence Rattigan: While the Sun Shines, The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version. The collaboration between Asquith and Rattigan on The Browning Version resulted in a masterful, searing character study of a repressed individual plagued by a lifetime of regrets. Crocker-Harris (Redgrave) is a humourless sort of person who is a deeply repressed individual. He is a man of regrets as we learn while he tutors a student by the name of Taplow (Smith). During a discussion about the mythic tale of Agamemnon a crack in the teacher's armour appears, if only for a moment, as he talks about how as a young man he began his own translation of the story but ultimately abandoned it. Taplow reappears later on to perform an unselfish act of kindness that finally pierces Crocker-Harris' defenses and reaches an emotional part of him that has long been dormant. It also triggers a change in him that will become more apparent at the film's climax. At first, we feel no sympathy for Crocker-Harris but for his apparently long-suffering wife. Once we learn that she's been cheating on him, that because he is retiring early he has been denied his pension, and, to add insult to injury, he's told to make his farewell speech before a junior staff member who is also leaving the school (as opposed to after as befitting his tenure at the school), he becomes a much more sympathetic character. Michael Redgrave delivers a flawless performance as he gradually peels back the layers to reveal the inner life of this melancholy individual. There is an interview with filmmaker Mike Figgis who directed the 1994 version with Albert Finney as Crocker-Harris. Figgis admires the brilliance of the film and how it represents a bygone era of filmmaking. He speaks quite eloquently about the movie and Rattigan's work in general. Also included is an interview with actor Michael Redgrave that he did for a BBC TV program called Picture Parade in 1958. The actor talks about how he picks roles that he finds challenging and the difference between acting on the stage and on film. Finally, there is an audio commentary by film historian Bruce Eder who touches upon the differences between the play and the film. He also examines Asquith's and Rattigan's respective careers and how these two men's lives intersected. Eder offers excellent observations and analysis of the film in this very informative track. Written on July 30, 2005 Summary: SUPERB -- A GREAT FILM ABOUT REDEMPTION Considered among the finest one act plays as well as stage-to-film adaptation, the 1951 drama THE BROWNING VERSION (Criterion) also won Michael Redgrave best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Terence Rattigan added about 20 minutes to the introductory set-up in the screen adaptation of his hit play about Andrew Crocker-Harris, an aging, strict, emotionless and hated classics professor at a private (aka British "public") school in southern England on his last day of teaching. Redgrave's measured and subtle performance as Crocker-Harris is one of those rare embodiments of actor into character where the seams completely vanish. Crocker-Harris -- disdainfully called "The Crock" by colleagues and students behind his back -- is a man of immense pride. Once so full of scholarly promise, he resigns as man with no rapport or sympathy with his students or fellow man. Crocker-Harris and the school are a product of an era that is over. A time when the classics were taught to emphasize stoicism, to produce men with "stiff upper lips" who would go out and administer England's colonies in India, Africa and elsewhere. Now on his day of retirement, it is abundantly clear that Crocker-Harris has fallen out of time not only with his era but with himself. In ill health, his passionate, younger wife is having an affair with a colleague -- the good-looking, youthful, popular science teacher. The film follows Crocker-Harris on his last school day, a day filled with much cruelty and ends with his unforgettable farewell speech in the school's chapel. Moments of clear insight into a greater reality are rare in life and the movies. The epiphany of Crocker-Harris -- one of atonement if not redemption -- is surprising, potent and authentic. This beautifully restored black and white film is one of the greats. Don't miss it. The title, and perhaps the catalyst for Crocker-Harris' self-examination, comes from a student's unexpected, kindly gift of the Robert Browning translation of Æschylus' "Agamemnon." Crocker-Harris once wrote a translation of the Greek play and has been trying, mostly in vain, to teach his young charges to read the original Greek. (In the play, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife and lover). Extras include an informed commentary by Bruce Eder, an interview with director and fan Mike Figgis (who directed Albert Finney in a remake) and a short 1950s BBC archival conversation with Michael Redgrave. |
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| List price | $29.95 | $14.98 | $29.95 | $29.95 | - | $14.94 |
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| Catalog | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD |
| Release date | 2005-06-28 | 2003-10-14 | 2006-11-07 | 2004-02-17 | - | 2001-11-06 |
| Media | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD | DVD |
| released in theatres | 1951 | 1994-10-12 | 2006-11-07 | 1960-12-20 | 1933-11 | 1993 |
| Running time in minutes | 89 | 97 | 95 | 106 | - | 134 |
| DVD aspect ratio | 1.33:1 | - | 1.33:1 | 1.66:1 | 1.33:1 | 2.35:1 |
| Audience Rating | Unrated | R (Restricted) | Unrated | Unrated | - | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) |
| Picture format | - | - | - | - | Academy Ratio | - |
| Format | Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Special Edition, NTSC | Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC | Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC | - | Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC |
| DVD Region code | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 99 |
| DVD layers | - | - | - | - | 2 | - |
| DVD sides | - | - | - | - | 1 | - |
| Ean | 9780780029552 | 9780792194071 | 0715515020527 | 0037429185926 | 9780780022485 | 9780767848855 |
| Book Isbn | 0780029550 | 0792194071 | - | - | 0780022483 | 0767848853 |
| Upc | 037429202227 | 097363288145 | 715515020527 | 037429185926 | 037429141625 | 043396710979 |
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