The Films of Michael Powell: A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven) / Age of Consent

Lots of fun watching!!

At first, I didn't pay any attention to this American Sony edition, because I really dislike "double features", but you mustn't be as foolish as I was. Actually, this is truly a GREAT GREAT edition of Michael Powell's "AGE OF CONSENT". I can only say good things about this DVD:- It is indeed a "director's cut", as stated on the cover: we are allowed to see for the first time several new scenes that were cut from the theatrical release. Among them, there is a long scene in the art gallery where James Mason is selling some of his work, and that takes place prior to the conversation between Mason and Frank Thring, as seen in the theatrical release. Also, there are several scenes that expand upon the character of Jack Macgowran. Besides, the original score by Peter Sculthorpe is reinstated, instead of the one composed by Stanley Myers that was forced upon Powell by Columbia Pictures when the movie was first released.- The image has also been restored, and it looks very good, without a single scratch. The original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85 is respected, and has been enhanced for 16:9 TV sets.On top of that, there are some aditional features of interest, all of them produced specifically in 2009 for this edition:- a "making of" (16')- an interview with star Helen Mirren (12')- an interview with Ron & Valerie Taylor, the renowned Australian underwater cinematographers, who shot some scenes for this movie, as well as for "Jaws" and many others.- an audio commmentary by critic Kent Jones.I can only find one minor problem: the only subtitles available are in English, and just for the movie. The additional features have no subtitles at all.As for the movie itself, I won't try to sell it to you. If you're reading this, you must be a Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger fan, so you already know that this has to be a great film. (It really is).Unfortunately, the other feature presented in this package, "A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH", has been not so well treated by Sony. It has only a brief interview with Martin Scorsese, and an audiocomentary by Ian Christie. But the main problem is that the colors are very pale (the British edition by Carlton is far much better in that respect) and they don't do justice to cinematographer Jack Cardiff's astounding work.Forget about "A matter of life and death" and concentrate on "Age of consent": this package is a MUST HAVE. And the price is very affordable too!

Back in 1969, this slight movie was apparently considered controversial and needed trims to be shown in polite cinema company. Today? If you wanted to find controversy, it wouldn’t be for the fairly tame nudity. This film verges on the long-gone genre of “naughty movies” but does have pretensions towards classiness. Tortured artist, reconnecting with his true nature, inner self, muse, ah….casting off the shackles of convention.Seen today with today’s sensibilities, there’s also a tinge of Lolita-ing here, and what some would call an awkward pass and others will label an attempted rape. Back in 1969, maybe this sort of thing was unexceptional.For me, "Age of Consent" comes off mostly as a kind of older guys’ wish fulfillment fantasy. In which James Mason, a wannabe Gauguin, runs off to the South Seas, or maybe to North Australia, lives like a beachcomber (except for having a steady supply of supplies and liquor from the mainland) and finds his muse in an innocent island nymph. Or, in this case, Helen Mirren as manic pixie wild child.Kind of strange to see distinguished British big time important actor James Mason doing a sort of pre-Hugh Jackman; a bearded, bare chested (rather too bare chested; he doesn’t appear to have worked out much for this role) artistic type trying to sound Australian. Jackman comes by his Oz accent naturally; James Mason seems to drift between Blighty and Oz from scene to scene.Right off the bat, Mason gets to do a semi-nude bedroom scene with an anonymous Australian woman, an inexplicable bit that’s either more middle aged wish fulfillment or maybe a way of letting us know that this famous artist, unlike so many others, isn’t gay. Which might be important since for the duration of the movie, Mason’s character will be either oblivious or hostile to the charms of nubile and somewhat less-nubile available women.So, James Mason doesn’t convince me as either a successful but blocked artist or as an Australian. But I’ve never been Down Under, so what do I know? At the risk of being crass, and I have never resisted the temptation to be crass, my only reason to check out “Age of Consent” is Helen Mirren. Honestly, if someone had shown me a headshot from this movie and then told me that this is “The Queen”, I very much doubt I’d have recognized her.Here, she’s in her twenties and playing a seventeen year-old. Again, not convincing me. She doesn’t have the bloom of youth on her. Maybe it’s that pitiless Australian sun? Anyway, despite her advanced years in “Age of Consent”, I have to say she looks plenty good in her fleeting undressed shots. Which are photographed in that odd manner of the conventional British studio pictures , when old line directors wanted to see what they could get away, while at the same time that they were really constrained in what they could get away with.If it’s a brief flash of topless, maybe they could sneak it by. Bum shots in motion? Probably get past the censors. Full frontal? Only suggested in a tenth of a second of hastily covering up. That sort of thing. Miss Mirren affirms her membership in the Nice Backsies Club, and a few glimpses of her up top are perfectly well performed. She also has some lines in the script.As a sunburnt sea nymph, she looks fine. Mirren acts….adequately. We’re not talking the Royal Shakespeare Company here. This is a lightweight role made more so with silly lines to read. Oh, and if you’re into unshaved legs, check out Mirren’s in her nude bedroom scene. Downright furry. Which makes sense. A snorkeling chicken-stealing child of nature would not waste her time shaving her legs while living outdoors on a semi-desert island.Semi-desert in that there’re a lot of colorful local characters coming and going. Most of them are more amusing and entertaining that the stolid Mason, who doesn’t seem to know if he’s in a comedy or drama or what. Of course, the plot, such as there is, also meanders from the comic side to the other. Character actors come and go constantly. We’ve got an inept cop, a randy next door neighbor, a studly barely dressed Australian whose attempt at maybe raping Mirren seems to be laughed off rather easily, by today’s standards at least. He shows up later to be seen as a not that bad bloke, just overenthusiastic. Kinda creepy. And there’s Mirren’s terrible grandmother, whose character causes another strange diversion for the lighthearted story. And again, is dismissed offhandedly.The soundtrack is seriously dreadful. Like music bought by the yard and tossed in wherever there was a blank spot. Tootling flutes and strummed guitars. Think inexpensive travelogue or soft core “naughty” movie of the 1960’s. There’s even an unbelievably awful song over the credits. Laughably bad, like Anthony Newley bad. Simultaneously smarmy and inept. The photography also looks odd by today’s standards; the color is lurid, oversaturated. I assume that’s intentional. Kind of like overcorrected Technicolor, erring on the side of More Color! And the framing and editing? 1969 was a big year in movies. “Easy Rider”. “Midnight Cowboy”. “Butch Cassidy”. “The Wild Bunch”. “Medium Cool”. Everything from “Alice’s Restaurant” to “Z”. Compared to any of the new wave of filmmakers, “Age of Consent” looks like something from an earlier age. Which it was.As a mark of that earlier age, James Mason’s painter is shown to be a big success as an artist because his pictures are selling for five thousand dollars. I guess that was more money in ’69 than now, but even allowing for inflation…. Reminds me of Dr. Evil and his demand for One! Million! Dollars! Those paintings, by the way, are pretty awful pseudo-Gauguin hard-edged tropical shapes in jarring colors. Looking like what you’d see stenciled on the walls of a 1970’s airport loading gate, if they were trying to sell an exotic vacation vibe. And daubs depicting exotic vacation scenes are also seen, both back in the gallery and in Mason’s island studio.Still, it’s an interesting period piece, a relic from earlier era of British movies made even as younger English directors were coming into their own. Kind of quaint, I’d call it. And, a chance to see Helen Mirren in her formative years when she was really in good form. And, it's scenic and an entertaining relic. I'm throwing in an extra star because the dog is cute, and who doesn't like dogs?A side note: it’s kind of tragic that we get to see the Great Barrier Reef in all its splendor, with Mirren swimming among lavish corals and sea fans. The same reef is now dying, and our kids will probably never see anything like it.

Helen Mirren dans ses débuts

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Wonderful movie. Would recommend this film for those with a romantic spirit. James Mason was superb, and you get see “ Helen Mirren” I in her debut film, I believe.

Product description above states there is 10 minutes difference in versions, whereas it is only 7. These are from early on before James Mason arrives on his island retreat, meaning it takes 18 minutes for Helen Mirren to appear in longer version, 12 in the studio cut. As Ridley Scott found out a few years later the directors vision can be cruelly altered with new music soundtrack, cuts and even captions spelling out where new locations where (supposed to be). It was interesting to learn the connection to a later Australian film SIRENS whose main character was the artist whom wrote the book that this film is based on. Have watched the visual extra's, mainly from a 2009 release but a few newer ones. My only surprise is that there wasn't a female perspective on the character of Cora, whom I suspect would now be a strong role model. When a young man tries to molest her a quick knee to the groin then pushing him in the ocean soon cooled his ardour. The fact she was aware and proud of her body image and wanted her own life away from the overbearing grandma. Shocked though some were by the brief nudity it was soon surpassed by Nic Roegs Walkabout. Watch this for the fine lead characters including Lonsdale the dog !

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