Your IP has been blocked. Please perform the action below to regain access.
75.126.130.58-
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
love is like a butterfly ...
a true psychological horror movie, with terrance stamp as a nouveau riche sociopath who abducts a confused and confounded samantha eggar in this late william wyler adaptation of the john fowles novel. the movie is sinister and off-putting, yet oddly seductive -- just like its title character.
Rating: 
-
BAD BAD Video Transfer - Shame on you Sony/Columbia
One STAR is too many, but there was no goose egg!
I really hate to slam this beautiful movie, but after buying it, I felt betrayed and wanted to try to prevent others from having the same problem.
Wyler's work is always fabulous, which makes it especially hurtful to see his film butchered in this fashion - yes I said BUTCHERED.
I just purchased "The Collector" on DVD (Columbia 07893 - ISBN 0-7678-8288-1) after already owning the same title on LaserDisk.
I have criticisms of both the TRANSFER, and the CONTENT.
Transfer:
IMDB Lists the original film as "Spherical 1.78:1 aspect ratio" - If this is true, then the DVD has been way over-masked because the LaserDisk version has a mask that shows about 30% more picture content on the top and bottom of the field. It appears that the studio simply took a 4:3 version of the film and transferred it to DVD by cutting off the top and bottom to make it 16x9, rather than finding an original widescreen print to transfer. Compare it with anything... even video tape to see what I mean. Horrible. They have a lot of nerve advertising "Preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio" on the DVD package.
The print they started with is not in very good condition. It exhibits signs of sprocket wear (side to side picture shifting) as well as specks of dirt on the film and splice jumps.
In short, the film was given the "quick and dirty" transfer, not the "lovingly carefull" one it deserves.
Content:
As others on this forum have noted, the seduction scene is highly mutilated. Gone is the tender moment of frontal nudity, as well as side angles - thus stripping the scene of it's innocence and impact almost completely. All have been cunningly "panned and scanned" away. The DVD box claims the film is "not rated" - it should really say "Why Bother".
I cannot recommend this version at all, I am sorry to say.
Rating: -
"I just have to have you here a little longer."
"The Collector" (1965) directed by William Wyler and based on the John Fowles' novel is a very impressive, chilling, and disturbing film that tells the story of a shy London bank employee, Freddie Clegg (Terence Stamp in a performance that won him Best Actor Award at Cannes Film Festival), an avid butterfly collector who became obsessed by a young beautiful Art Student, Miranda (Samantha Eggar, also Cannes Film Festival winner and Academy Award nominee) and decided to kidnap her and keep her as a part of his collection in the basement of his secluded house in the country side. What makes the movie truly memorable - is the fact that Freddy is not a predictable villain and the girl is not always sympathetic. The Collector is more than just a thriller in the way it shows the relationship between a prisoner and her jailer. All Freddie wants from Miranda is to get to know him and to love him and he is happy to fulfill her every desire only denying returning her freedom. The most memorable scene in the movie is the dialog between Miranda and Freddy after he had read Miranda's favorite book, "Catcher in the Rye" and they discuss it and the discussion turns into a very heated argument about the social and cultural differences between two completely different worlds they belong and why Freddie's of this world would hardly have a chance with girls like Miranda.
Not widely known, the film is a real treasure and I highly recommend it. My only problem is the musical score by Maurice Jarre - it simply does not work very well in this movie and that surprised me knowing how effective Jarre's score was in "Les Yeux sans visage" (1960) aka "Eyes Without Face".
I was so impressed with the movie that I checked out Fowles' novel (it was his first published book) from the public library and I will read it in the next few days
Rating: 
-
The suspense here was in the interplay of two characters...
William Wyler once again examined the limits of suspense by confining them when he directed "The Collector," based on John Fowles' remarkable novel...
The story was rather different... Freddie Clegg (Terence Stamp) was an insignificant, ill-adjusted London bank clerk with the hobby of collecting and mounting butterflies...
From a safe distance, he was fascinated by the young art student Miranda Grey (Samantha Eggar). Then, when he won the football pools, he decided to add Miranda to his collection... He bought a house with a strong cellar in a quiet district... He furnished the room in his own atrocious idea of good taste: a record player, lots of classical discs, art books, plenty of clothes in Miranda's size... And then he kidnapped Miranda and dragged her to his cellar...
The suspense here - and suspense there was in awaiting the unguessable consequence - was in the interplay of the two characters shut up in those four walls for two long months...
The unbelieving Miranda tried every woman's artful method of persuasion, every appeal to reason; while the insecure Clegg, subtly her social inferior, determined to keep her there until she came to love him... Shades here of "Phantom of the Opera," oddly enough, when misfit Lon Chaney told his victim: "I have brought you five cellars deep... because I love you."
Rating: 
-
A great Classic
I actually remember seeing this movie when I was around eight years old. The entire premise just blew my mind and the ending was so tragic. Fast forward twenty-odd years and I'm describing the movie to my best friend and her husband and lo and behold, he knew the name of the film. (I didn't). For a while we searched and was told the film was just simply unavailable. So imagine my surprise when I found it available on amazon.
Watching the movie now-doesn't have the same effect on me. Maybe because during the years more chilling and more disturbed characters have been introduced to me on film. Now, most of the dialogue is cringe worthy and the music, I don't know, too upbeat. I almost expected Julie Andrews to appear and start singing.
The chill factor isn't as potent as Hitchcock-most of his thrillers still have that edge to them despite the time passage. This one-doesn't. So overall, it's a film good for it's time, but certainly could be updated.
