Charles Burnett's 1977 indie-film legend "Killer of Sheep" on DVD

ya i just got the screener. missed it while it was in theatres here. psyched.

a rare piece of greatness this movie s

I first saw it at a museum maybe 15-20 years ago, and it's still my favorite film of 2007.

yeah, this was wonderful. so glad i caught it when it was playing

Has anyone seen Black Sheep?

My Brother's Wedding is disappointing.

I saw it soooo long ago and can't disagree, but what wouldn't after a first film like KOS?

Anyway, out today.

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/004894.html

Got it at home. Thoughts later.

ya it's pretty fuckin' amazing!!!

i really liked watching this movie... it felt like i was in a sort of dream-state or something

yeah it was great ... the music was fantastic, I loved the scene where the little girl sang along with the record player ...

I saw it when it played at IFC in new york

I can see how David Gordon Green might have taken a long look.

Am watching My Brother's Wedding tonight; thoughts later.

I knew this title sounded familiar when I saw it on the new answers page.
I bought the dvd in August for my library (I'm in the Acquisitions dept at a University library). It's on reserve for a film class. I was able to check it out for tonight, though. Looking forward to watching it.

So many things I loved about this movie - the kids playing in the trainyard, leaping between buildings. OTM dmr re: the little girl + record player, singing to her doll. But especially the incredible scene when they are carrying that engine down the apartment stairs. Indelible images.

"I'm not poor."

i liked the kids riding down the hill as the truck pulls up.

Anyone have the list of songs on the soundtrack. IMDB doesn't, and neither does the official website.

"But especially the incredible scene when they are carrying that engine down the apartment stairs. Indelible images"

OTM.

this little story within the whole movie is masterpiece of it's own,it's the most rememberd piece of the movie for me

My Brother's Wedding was a disappointment: stilted acting and overexplicit script.

how does it compare to my best friend's wedding?

or my big fat greek wedding?

it's better than Tony n' Tina's Wedding

Is that the play they always have on Vandam Street?

http://www.theage.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1061059712548_2003/08/17/four_weddings,0.jpg

xp

I dunno the street, but yeah it's the audience-participation thing. Which is now a 4-year-old film taken off the shelf, where the a.p. may be setting fire to the theater.

Has anyone bought the Burnett box? What's the cheapest it's going for?

CB's The Glass Shield and To Sleep with Anger are somewhat more conventional but well worth seeing.

Looooove To Sleep with Anger -- the only justification for Danny Glover's existence.

I dunno the street, but yeah it's the audience-participation thing. I've wasted too many weekends of my life sitting through endless conspicuous consumption NYC weddings- "Your Chicken Waterloo is now served, put your hands together and get up, SIT DOWN for the lucky couple!" - to ever want to go to a reanactment of one.

reenactment

"you as tasteless as a carrot"

s1ocki OTM about KoS' dreaminess

i read about this film/burnett in a zine quite a long time ago. sounds very cool, i'll have to check it out

Watched My Brother's Wedding.

It has some of the same visual poetry of Killer of Sheep and a lot of scenes/sequences that work great as stand-alone vignettes, but the film is overlong, the pacing is atrocious, a lot of the acting is wooden, and the attempt at a plot feels strained.

That's too bad. Did you watch Burnett's short about Katrina?

I saw The Exiles at the Castro earlier this year and can highly recommend that if you ever get a chance to see it.

no, might watch it tonight.

Also, I watched the original cut of the film, fwiw. Is it possible that the new director's cut is better? I usually expect director's cuts to be even longer and more plodding but maybe that's not the case here?

Apparently it's a half hour shorter.

http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=184977&mainArticleId=184971
Due to tepid reviews, My Brother's Wedding was never picked up for distribution and it languished for almost 25 years ("a catastrophic blow to the development of American culture," according to film critic Armond White) until Milestone (the studio that finally cleared the song rights for Killer of Sheep and distributed it to great acclaim in 2007) acquired the rights and enabled Burnett to finally finish editing the film. Trimmed by more than half an hour, the 82-minute "Director's Cut" was released in 2007.

Complete NYC MoMA retrospective of Burnett (lots of cable stuff and shorts I haven't seen):

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1163

rewatched To Sleep with Anger at MoMA -- i assume from the new-looking DCP that it's going to recirculate.

Danny Glover's never been better, right? I tend to think so.

maybe on Broadway, in Master Harold... and the Boys

Killer of Sheep is so brilliant. I watched To Sleep with Anger decades ago when it was screened on the Alex Cox Moviedrome series but can't find it anywhere now. Some piss-taker is trying to sell it for thirty quid on ebay and it is nowhere on the torrents. Some of it reminds me of Germany, Year Zero even though it is 70's Watts, LA.

it's being restored i think? milestone? i think i heard this

excuse my drunkenness, is To Sleep with Anger getting restored?

http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/restored-new-version-of-charles-burnetts-to-sleep-with-anger-to-screen-at-venice-film-festival-in-september-20150721

Burnett in NYC this weekend for Q&As:

http://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-glass-shield/

http://www.filmlinc.org/films/to-sleep-with-anger/

Oscar for CB

http://www.oscars.org/news/academy-honor-charles-burnett-owen-roizman-donald-sutherland-and-agnes-varda-oscars-2017

After alluding to it when thinking about BlacKkKlansman, I rewatched The Glass Shield. Garish, overplotted, not quite in Burnett's mode, and, perhaps as a result, in its last third unfolding like a TV movie, I still found it bracing.

According to Jonathan Rosenbaum, the studio forced him to change his original ending, which may account for the TV-movie qualities of the final third.

(I don’t know if Burnett’s idea was actually filmed, or what it was.)

it's hardly 'comforting' as is, i think? rewatched a year or two ago.

When it ended, I couldn't figure out why M. Emmett Walsh and Michael Ironside were necessary.

"Danny Glover's never been better, right? I tend to think so."
talk about actorly presence, there was deffo something DG was doing in To Sleep With Anger, that he hasn't done much of since.

via Film Comment:

Charles Burnett is developing a new film with Amazon Studios. Titled Steal Away, the story follows Robert Smalls and his daring escape from slavery in Charleston, South Carolina. (In other Burnett-related news, Criterion is releasing To Sleep With Anger on DVD and Blu-ray at the end of February.)

https://deadline.com/2019/01/amazon-charles-burnett-steal-away-robert-smalls-escape-from-slavery-1202540339/

Burnett on folkloric narrative in To Sleep with Anger (full version is on the CC)

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6231-charles-burnett-calls-forth-the-ghosts-of-the-old-world

To Sleep with Anger, streaming free on Prime, is quite something; I hadn't watched it since the mid nineties at least. I forgot its mythopoetic touches. It's as if Burnett wrote it in blank verse.

it's an astonishing movie. and Danny Glover is a tour de force in it.

Only saw it once, in 1990, but certain shots, scenes, moments, just a glance from one of the actors, have stayed with me ever since.

Anyone seen Bless Their Little Hearts (1983), written by Burnett?

https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6336

god this is the best movie ever

ok i just saw to sleep with anger and actually THAT is the best movie ever

my brother’s wedding was also fantastic

Feel incredibly lucky to have seen this when it was restored and released to theaters.

Still haven't got round to seeing My Brother's Wedding, wtf!

i loved to sleep with anger so completely and immediately i just ordered the blu ray

incredible danny glover performance, so much emotional and historical and textual depth, i've rarely felt so nourished by a work of art

he's never put in such an electrifying performance since, truly his greatest turn.

I first ever caught it on moviedrome and on the intro Cox said something like: this is probably the best movie I'll introduce in this series and he wasn't wrong.

In 2003, Charles Burnett asked Milestone to acquire The Annihilation of Fish and distribute it. It took some time, but we always keep our promise! pic.twitter.com/vxE9MRsvdg

— Milestone FIlms (@MilestoneFilms) January 30, 2024

Wow - that's pretty big news! Has this ever been shown since then? (MoMA had a career retrospective for him over ten years ago, but I don't think it was part of the program.)

Probably not? Pretty tangled history as explained in this press release a poster shared over on the Milestone thread at the Criterion Forum:

UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Film Foundation, Milestone Films, and Kino Lorber
Celebrate Charles Burnett’s 80th Birthday with the Restoration of the Filmmaker’s Long-Lost Feature
The Annihilation of Fish
A Film by Charles Burnett

The Annihilation of Fish will be released for the first time ever
in celebration of the film’s 25th anniversary and the
80th birthday of director Charles Burnett

Milestone Films and Kino Lorber are proud to announce the 4K and analog 35mm restoration and release of Charles Burnett’s long-lost feature, The Annihilation of Fish, starring James Earl Jones, Lynn Redgrave, and Margot Kidder. The restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation of the acclaimed independent filmmaker’s missing movie will have its world premiere at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio on March 2, 2024 as part of the 10th annual Cinema Revival: A Festival of Film Restoration. Mr. Burnett will be in attendance. UCLA Film & Television Archive will host the film’s Los Angeles premiere on April 5, as part of their 25th anniversary Festival of Preservation.

“Charles Burnett is one of the finest filmmakers in this country,” said Martin Scorsese, Founder and Chair of The Film Foundation. “His pictures speak in a cinematic voice that is uniquely and completely his own. For much too long, The Annihilation of Fish has been in limbo. It took many years and endless persistence to rescue this beautiful, delicate picture and get the original materials properly restored and preserved. It required the combined efforts of multiple organizations — Milestone Films, UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Film Foundation, and the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation — to see this restoration through, and I’m so happy that it’s finally ready for the world to discover.”

Shot in 1999, The Annihilation of Fish screened that September at the Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired for distribution. But following a single bad review in Variety, the distributor canceled the film’s release. For almost a quarter of a century, The Annihilation of Fish has been unavailable on all media — it has never been distributed on 35mm, DCP, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, television, or streaming — anywhere.

In 2003, Mr. Burnett asked Milestone Films (distributor of his features Killer of Sheep, My Brother’s Wedding, and The Final Insult plus five short films) to try to acquire the rights for his lost film, The Annihilation of Fish. Thus began a 19-year-long odyssey that included hundreds of phone calls, faxes, and emails contacting distributors, producers and heirs, archives, labs, lawyers, the US Treasury Department, and finally the US Bankruptcy Court for the State of California. Even after finally acquiring the rights for The Annihilation of Fish, Milestone spent six months battling a lab to get the master film materials transferred to the UCLA Film & Television Archive — which now holds the film’s 35mm original A/B picture negative, 35mm internegative, 35mm interpositive, 35mm original track negative, 35mm prints and various sound masters.

Charles Burnett’s feature films Killer of Sheep (1978) and To Sleep With Anger (1990) were both named to the prestigious US National Film Registry. In 2022, Killer of Sheep was also listed in Sight and Sound’s international poll as one of the “100 Most Important Films of All Time.” The filmmaker has also made groundbreaking work for television, including Nightjohn; Selma, Lord, Selma; and Warming By the Devil’s Fire. In presenting him with an honorary Oscar® in 2017, filmmaker Ava DuVernay described Mr. Burnett as “A giant, a legend, an icon, a true artist… one of the most significant American directors in the history of cinema of any color.” He is also a past recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

Adapted from a short story by Anthony C. Winkler, The Annihilation of Fish (1999, 108 minutes) is a tender comedy about two eccentric humans (James Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave) finding love later in life. With extraordinary performances from a stellar cast, the film tackles such issues as race, mental illness, and aging with anarchic humor and energy.

On the acquisition and restoration of his film, Charles Burnett has written:

“The Annihilation of Fish was written by Anthony Winkler, produced by Paul Heller and Kris Dodge, edited by Nancy Richardson, cinematography by John Demps, Jr., sound by Veda Campbell, music by Laura Karpman, production designer Nina Ruscio, production supervisor Ed Santiago, and starring Lynn Redgrave, James Earl Jones, Linden Chiles, Margot Kidder, and Tommy Hicks. There are so many people whom I have to thank who worked over the years to get The Annihilation of Fish restored and released. Releasing the film conveys a great deal to everyone involved, particularly the cast and crew, especially the late Paul Heller, who spent ten years producing the film. I want to thank Milestone Films, UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Film Foundation and the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, who found the funding to restore and release it so that cinema lovers can enjoy this story about two distinctly different, lonely people who find love in the crazy world while still holding on to their bizarre outlooks on life.”

The Annihilation of Fish will premiere March 2, 2024 at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. UCLA Film & Television Archive will host the Los Angeles premiere on April 5, as part of their 25th anniversary Festival of Preservation. Milestone Films and Kino Lorber will handle the film’s long-awaited international theatrical release of the film and later in 2024 will premiere the first-ever release of The Annihilation of Fish on DVD, Blu-ray, SVOD, and streaming services.

Milestone Films presents The Annihilation of Fish. A Paul Heller Production in association with American Sterling Productions. A Charles Burnett film. With Lynn Redgrave, James Earl Jones, Margot Kidder. Director of Photography: John L. Demps Jr. Editor: Nancy Richardson, ACE. Costume Designer: Christine Peters. Line Producer: Arlen Albertson. Music by Laura Karpman. Production Designed by Nina Ruscio. Associate Producer: Kris Dodge. Written by Anthony C. Winkler. Produced by Paul Heller, William L. Fabrizio and John Remark. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Directed by Charles Burnett. ©1999 Gold Fish, LLC. A Milestone Film and Kino Lorber Release. Running time 102 minutes.

There are a little over 70 stills and poster images for the film over on IMDb, along a handful of user reviews dated from 2000 to 2004.

The one critical review they have up (not the Variety pan): https://filmthreat.com/uncategorized/the-annihilation-of-fish/

I went to go see this in 2007, dropped my now-wife off at the theater while I looked for parking ... and then could NOT find parking for so long that I decided it wasn't worth missing the first 15 minutes or whatever it was. So she saw it without me, and I still haven't seen it!

*this = Killer of Sheep

4K/Blu: https://www.criterion.com/films/34233-killer-of-sheep

https://silver.afi.com/Browsing/Movies/Details/f-0100004904

The Annihilation of Fish at AFI Silver; I plan to go to the 3/2 screening. Anyone else interested?

This is coming to a local theater later in the year!

i muuuust see the annihilation of fish

Saw it at BAM with Charles Burnett present. Said hello to him afterwards, as did many others in the audience. What a sweet and kind gentleman.

Man, it's about time. Day-one purchase.

Annihilation of Fish is available on Kanopy!

^^and I screened it from there last night!

Such a peculiar film. Burnett's humanism carries this very sympathetic portrait of three older people dealing with varying degrees of mental illness: Jones with his literal wrestling with an unseen demon; Redgrave with her delusional full-on relationship with Puccini; and Kidder's continual settling of scores with her long-dead husband. The script could almost be a play.

I can say that as fine as this film is, it wouldn't have stood a chance in theatres in '99. Given the climate at the time, it would have slipped out for some very short engagements in Art Houses and the occasional dying "Critic's Corner" ghetto at the googleplexes. It might have done better if they'd tried to sell it to pay cable or something.

Blu/DVD June 17th: https://kinolorber.com/product/the-annihilation-of-fish-2

Includes Burnett's 1997 short The Final Insult

Saw a trailer for it at Film Forum recently

Burnett's going to be at Film Forum. Saturday night's Q&A may still have tickets. Sunday afternoon (intro only) probably does since that's a less busy time.

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/charles-burnett-in-conversation-with-barry-jenkins

My cousin was a preacher in Mississippi, in Vicksburg. My parents just refused to go back. When they left Mississippi, they said, “That’s it.” He had all these stories that mystified the South and made it more attractive and interesting. It was this folklore element. One of the comments that people made about people from Vicksburg was that they were all either storytellers or liars. Everyone would tell these stories about the past and living in Vicksburg or Jackson, so they created these images and this life that was so different and in some ways attractive and in other ways very frightening, because there’s so much violence there.

I remember we took the Sunset Limited train, which was an integrated train from L.A. to New Orleans, and from New Orleans we took the Jim Crow train to Jackson and then the Greyhound bus down to Vicksburg. My brother and I were in the train station in New Orleans, we had a layover to catch the Jim Crow train to go up to Jackson and we saw this game room and we didn’t realize that we weren’t supposed to be in there. We were the only Black people in there. Next thing we knew, the police had us surrounded until we had to get out of here. My grandmother had to come fetch us and warn us not to do that again. It was kind of embarrassing, and it took me years to get over that experience. I would go back to the South, if I took a train I would stop in New Orleans or be invited to speak at one of the schools in New Orleans or the South. I’ve always had problems with going back. When I drove cross country, I always took the short way across Texas because there were so many things that happened there that it was still this image of unfairness and racism and brutality.

This snippet in combination with seeing Sinners yesterday is weirdly appropriate in terms of timing. (Said film is set in Mississippi and there's more connections from there.)

A bit late, but in a few hours at 6:30 p.m., Lincoln Center is screening a 35mm print of Billy Woodberry's great film Bless Their Little Hearts - Burnett is credited for both the screenplay and cinematography - and if you go to this link, you can get two tickets free.

This is part of their series on the L.A. Rebellion, which has been showing plenty of great films both old and new - not just core works of that movement, but the films that inspired them and the recent films they inspired. Reportedly attendance hasn't been great which is sorely disappointing, people are really missing out.