The all-region DVD available of «Porgy and Bess» is definitely not a good representation of the motion picture released in 1959, as directed by Otto Preminger. It is also pertinent to say that, as far as cinema goes, this is not the great motion picture some persons say it is. It is neither a remarkable film adaptation of a stage play. Many persons exalt the motion pictures for reasons that are foreign to it.
For whatever reasons Preminger decided to make it entirely in long takes, and as if we were witnessing a live performance on a stage, the filmmaker turned a passionate tale into a too cold experience, keeping the characters too distant from us viewers, even in the most intimate moments. It must have been very good to watch this «Porgy and Bess» screen version in a wide, huge screen, but even in this case the end product is still filmed theater.
On the other hand, as long as purists and defenders of Gershwin's legacy interfere with people's right to access American film heritage, the poor copies, which keep the wide-screen format, are one of the few options we have to watch Otto Preminger's «Porgy and Bess». It takes some imagination to compensate for the lack of definition and color of the images, but it gives you an appreciable idea of what everybody, artists and technicians, did.
Perhaps with a fine, restored copy I would rise one star or two.
For whatever reasons Preminger decided to make it entirely in long takes, and as if we were witnessing a live performance on a stage, the filmmaker turned a passionate tale into a too cold experience, keeping the characters too distant from us viewers, even in the most intimate moments. It must have been very good to watch this «Porgy and Bess» screen version in a wide, huge screen, but even in this case the end product is still filmed theater.
On the other hand, as long as purists and defenders of Gershwin's legacy interfere with people's right to access American film heritage, the poor copies, which keep the wide-screen format, are one of the few options we have to watch Otto Preminger's «Porgy and Bess». It takes some imagination to compensate for the lack of definition and color of the images, but it gives you an appreciable idea of what everybody, artists and technicians, did.
Perhaps with a fine, restored copy I would rise one star or two.