![SOKUROV: EARLY MASTERWORKS (Whispering Pages / Stone / Save and Protect) [Blu-ray and DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81FazBvNP+L.jpg)
Product Description A deluxe collector's set featuring three early masterworks by visionary Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov in newly translated and restored director's cuts: WHISPERING PAGES, a brooding, beautiful film inspired by nineteenth-century Russian literature, primarily Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment; STONE, a mysterious fable about a young night watchman's encounter with the ghost of Chekhov; and SAVE AND PROTECT, a visually sumptuous adaptation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Review "An indispensable box set." --Film Comment"Highly recommended. Sokurov: Early Masterworks is a triptych of unburied treasures, each more extraordinary and inspiring than the last, that should stand as a landmark home video release and a cause for celebration among all North American cinephiles worth their salt." --DVDTalk"Along with an impressive array of documentaries, shorts, and an invaluable audio commentary, this is essential viewing…. This presentation of Whispering Pages is one of the more revelatory home-viewing experiences I can remember." --Slant
M**E
A superb director but where to begin?
Let it be known that I have preordered this item from Amazon but to my knowledge these films by Sokurov have never actually been available to American audiences on home video form much less in blu-ray. Speaking of which thank you people at Cinema Guild for realizing what an important films/director this is. Again, to my knowledge these are the first films of Sokurov to get a blu-ray release in America. So, for the record I have not actually seen any of these films but many others by the famed director and highly anticipate them.Sokurov is the equivilent of Russian greats in films as Tarkovsky in the 1960s and 1970s as well as Eisenstein in the 1920s 30s and 40s. In America he might be compared with such greats as Kubrick, Speilberg, or what Bergman did for Sweden/Kurosawa for Japan Sokurov has done for Russia especially since the end of the Cold War.Sokurov came to international fame in the late 1990s (although he did many films,documentaries before this period) for Russian Ark an uninterrupted single shot that takes place entirely in the Hermitage Museum and covers 300 years of Russian history. A few years back he took on the German tale of Faust which distinctly marked a possible new angle in his work (although it has yet to get an American DVD/blu-ray release...i bought my copy from England). A word of warning to those who do not know Sokurov. His work is almost bitterly slow but amazingly beautiful except for the pre-said Faust which clips along at quite the faster pace. Sokurov won the top award at the Venice Film Festival for best film for Faust which also saw Michael Fassbender win for Best Actor for his performance as sex addict Brandon in Steve McQueen's Shame. Also amazing but McQueen's Hunger was better.If you are an extreme film fan or expert as I declare myself to be Early Masterworks is a near MUST especially since $60 is not bad for three films on blu-ray that to my knowledge have never gotten the American home video release that they deserved.
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