The Chess Player

Reseña del editor This powerful drama of patriotism, betrayal and suspense combines gorgeous decors and thousands of extras. In 1776 Poland, nobleman Boleslas Vorowski heads a secret liberation movement against Russia and learns his childhood sweetheart, Sophie, loves his friend, a Russian officer. When Vorowsky is wounded in battle, his mentor, the inventor Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen, constructs a marvelous chess- playing automaton which, when summoned by Catherine the Great, holds the fate of Polish independence by a single, suspenseful chess game. Like Abel Gance's Napoleon, director Raymond Bernard "Demands a veritable ovation: the cavalry charge reaches heights never before reached in film. So magnificent... So splendid!" - Cinemagazine Tienda In his landmark history of silent filmmaking The Parade's Gone By..., Kevin Brownlow praised "the imaginative and powerful historical dramas" of Raymond Bernard and regretted their neglect. Now Brownlow has restored Bernard's The Chess Player, a truly epic film in the Abel Gance tradition. Its allegory of Poland's 18th-century struggle for independence from Russia also aspires to a Gance-like dynamism in the camerawork--occasionally handheld, it would seem--and editing, which in two sequences reaches for nothing less than visual music. Still, the film's most audacious, and enduringly weird, dynamics involve one character's penchant for constructing automatons. These include a Turk in a box "who" can beat anybody in Europe at chess--to the royal pique of Empress Catherine the Great. The final reels pose the question, "How many Polish automatons does it take to unscrew a tyranny?" The haunting answer must have made this film a favorite with the Surrealists. --Richard T. Jameson

Detalles del producto Descatalogado por el fabricante : No Clasificación de MPAA : NR (Not Rated) Dimensiones del producto : 7,5 x 5,5 x 0,75 pulgadas; 3,84 Onzas Director : Raymond Bernard Formato multimedia : Blanco y negro, Mudo, Pantalla completa, NTSC, Subtitulado Tiempo de ejecución : 2 horas y 15 minutos Fecha de lanzamiento : Julio 29, 2003 Actores : Pierre Blanchar, Charles Dullin, Édith Jéhanne, Camille Bert, Pierre Batcheff Idioma : Unqualified (DTS ES 6.1), Inglés (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) Estudio : IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT ASIN : B00009Q4W8 Escritores : Henry Dupuis-Mazuel, Jean-José Frappa, Raymond Bernard Número de discos : 1 Clasificación en los más vendidos de Amazon: nº18,543 en Películas y TV (Ver el Top 100 en Películas y TV) nº74 en Películas Extranjeras (Películas y TV) nº226 en Guerra y Militar (Películas y TV) nº278 en Fantasía (Películas y TV) Opiniones de clientes: 4.0 4.0 de 5 estrellas 6 calificaciones Descatalogado por el fabricante : No Clasificación de MPAA : NR (Not Rated) Dimensiones del producto : 7,5 x 5,5 x 0,75 pulgadas; 3,84 Onzas Director : Raymond Bernard Formato multimedia : Blanco y negro, Mudo, Pantalla completa, NTSC, Subtitulado Tiempo de ejecución : 2 horas y 15 minutos Fecha de lanzamiento : Julio 29, 2003 Actores : Pierre Blanchar, Charles Dullin, Édith Jéhanne, Camille Bert, Pierre Batcheff Idioma : Unqualified (DTS ES 6.1), Inglés (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) Estudio : IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT ASIN : B00009Q4W8 Escritores : Henry Dupuis-Mazuel, Jean-José Frappa, Raymond Bernard Número de discos : 1