Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (The Criterion Collection) [4 DVD9s] [Re-post]
Classics | 1.33:1 | Black & White | English Dolby Digital | English Subtitles
4 Full Original DVD Images (.ISO) + 300dpi Scans = 30.2GBs | 1GB RARs | NL/FSe/FSo
All-American athlete, scholar, renowned baritone, stage actor, and social activist, Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was a towering figure and a trailblazer many times over. He was perhaps most groundbreaking, however, in the medium of film. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson managed to become a top-billed movie star during the time of Jim Crow America, headlining everything from fellow pioneer Oscar Micheaux’s silent drama Body and Soul to British studio showcases to socially engaged documentaries, all the while striving to project positive images of black characters. Increasingly politically minded, Robeson eventually left movies behind, using his international celebrity to speak for those denied their civil liberties around the world and ultimately becoming a victim of ideological persecution himself. But his film legacy lives on and continues to speak eloquently of the long and difficult journey of a courageous and outspoken African-American.
Body and Soul (Oscar Micheaux, 1925, 75 mins)
Although the 1920s brought him acclaim as a stage actor and singer, Paul Robeson still had to prove himself as a viable screen performer. Mainstream avenues were limited, however, and his first films were made on the peripheries of the film business. Body and Soul, directed by the legendary African American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, is a direct critique of the power of the cloth, casting Robeson in dual roles as a jackleg preacher and a well-meaning inventor.
Borderline (Kenneth Macpherson, 1930, 65 mins)
Although the 1920s brought him acclaim as a stage actor and singer, Paul Robeson still had to prove himself as a viable screen performer. Mainstream avenues were limited, however, and his first films were made on the peripheries of the film business. Borderline, the sole feature of British film theorist Kenneth Macpherson, boldly blends Eisensteinian montage and domestic melodrama, and features Robeson and his wife, Eslanda, as lovers caught up in a tangled web of interracial affairs.
Disc Features:
* New, digital transfers of Body and Soul and Borderline created from the best surviving elements
* Audio commentary for Body and Soul by Oscar Micheaux historian Pearl Bowser
* Musical scores by jazz recording artists and composers Wycliffe Gordon (Body and Soul) and Courtney Pine (Borderline)
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
The Emperor Jones (Dudley Murphy, 1933, 105 mins)
Of all Paul Robeson’s eleven starring film performances, by far his most iconic was his breakthrough in the big-screen adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones (1933). He was already a legend for his stage incarnation of Brutus Jones, a Pullman porter who powers his way to the rule of a Caribbean island, but with this, his first sound-era film role, his regal image was married to his booming voice for eternity. With The Emperor Jones, Robeson became the first African-American leading man in mainstream movies and, he said, gained a deeper understanding of cinema’s potential to change racial misconceptions. Previously censored, The Emperor Jones is presented here in its most complete form
Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (Saul J. Turell, 1979, 30 mins)
Saul J. Turell’s Academy Award-winning documentary short Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist, narrated by Sidney Poitier, traces his career through his activism and his socially charged performances of his signature song, “Ol’ Man River.”
Disc Features:
* New digital transfer of The Emperor Jones, created from the best surviving elements
* Audio commentary for The Emperor Jones by historian Jeffrey C. Stewart
* Our Paul: Remembering Paul Robeson, a new video program including interviews with filmmaker William Greaves and actors Ruby Dee and James Earl Jones
* Robeson on Robeson, a new interview with Paul Robeson Jr. about his father’s career and art
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Sanders of the River (Zoltán Korda, 1935, 91 mins)
Seeking out new avenues for his artistry, Paul Robeson moved his family to London in 1928. During the next twelve years, he headlined six British films, pioneering uncharted territory for black actors and reaching a level of prominence unthinkable in Hollywood. Robeson’s first British production, Zoltán Korda’s Sanders of the River, however, ended up being an embarrassment for the actor, its story of an African tribal leader transformed into a celebration of the British Empire.
Jericho (Thornton Freeland, 1937, 75 mins)
Seeking out new avenues for his artistry, Paul Robeson moved his family to London in 1928. During the next twelve years, he headlined six British films, pioneering uncharted territory for black actors and reaching a level of prominence unthinkable in Hollywood. Robeson’s first British production, Zoltán Korda’s Sanders of the River, however, ended up being an embarrassment for the actor, its story of an African tribal leader transformed into a celebration of the British Empire. As a result, Robeson sought more artistic control, eventually achieving it with Jericho, which features Robeson in what turned out to be his most satisfying film role, as a World War I officer who escapes his fate as a black man by fleeing to Africa and creating a new world for himself.
Disc Features:
* New, digital transfers created from the best surviving elements
* True Pioneer: The British Films of Paul Robeson, a new video program featuring interviews with Paul Robeson Jr. and film historians Stephen Bourne and Ian Christie, and including film clips from Song of Freedom (1936), King Solomon’s Mines (1937), and Big Fella (1937)
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
The Proud Valley (Pen Tennyson, 1940, 76 mins)
By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. As David Goliath, in the popular British drama The Proud Valley, Robeson is the quintessential everyman, an American sailor who joins rank-and-file Welsh miners organizing against the powers that be.
Native Land (Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand, 1942, 89 mins)
By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. Robeson committed his support to Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz’s political semidocumentary Native Land. With Robeson’s narration and songs, this beautifully shot and edited film exposes violations of Americans’ civil liberties and is a call to action for exploited workers around the country. Scarcely shown since its debut, Native Land represents Robeson’s shift from narrative cinema to the leftist documentaries that would define the final chapter of his controversial film career.
Disc Features:
* New, digital transfers of The Proud Valley and Native Land created from the best surviving elements
* “The Story of Native Land,” a new video interview with cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, son of Frontier Films cofounder and Native Land codirector Leo Hurwitz
* 1958 Pacifica Radio interview with Paul Robeson (Courtesy of Pacifica Radio Archives)
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
DVDs:
DVD RELEASE: 2007
STUDIO: Criterion
CATALOG: 369
SYSTEM: NTSC
SCREEN: 1.33:1
COLOUR: Black & White
AUDIO: English Dolby Digital mono
SUBTITLES: English SDH
Extraction:
ENGINE: MacTheRipper/DVD Decrypter
DVD: 4 Full Dual-Layer DVDs
FILE EXTENSION: .ISO (Image)
FILE SIZE: 7.4/7.47/7.52/7.72GBs
SCANS FILE SIZE (300 DPI PNG): 114MBs
TOTAL FILE SIZE: 30.2GBs
DVDs ripped from DVD-Rs burnt from the long-retired CerealRipper's original .ISOs.