The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For/The Classic Collection

Description

In four decades, Zagreb Film of Yugoslavia produced 600 animated films, winning more than 400 international awards. The studio quickly became famous for a unique animation style that became known as "the Zagreb school." One of the pioneering distinctions was that its filmmakers wrote, designed, and directed their own films, resulting in boldly entertaining cartoons unified in design, tone and message. This volume includes Be Careful What You Wish For, fourteen stories of irony, double cross, and mystery. Some are hilarious, some poignant, all memorable. The Classic Collection includes seven animated films representative of Zagreb's most unique offerings.

Customer Reviews:

Quality Stuff.......2006-08-20

This selection of Yugoslavian animation is enjoyable viewing. I noticed a review for one of the other collections gripes about this work not coming close enough to shows like "The Simpsons". This disc is not recommended for an audience expecting American TV animation. It is, however, potentially very interesting viewing for students of international animation and fillm.

tla anonymous review testing.......2004-02-21

tla anonymous review testing

Steve Howe - Live Legends - Careful With That Axe

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Steve Howe - Live Legends - Careful With That Axe
Starring: Steve Howe
Manufacturer: Classic Rock Legends
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0006HC0H8
Release Date: 2004-12-14

Product Description

STEVE HOWE:LIVE LEGENDS-CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE (DVD)

Average customer rating:

Keep an Eye on Guy
campy, ultra goofy, grossly arty and dull
Recommended by Leni Reifenstahl!
Snowy Surrealism
Uh... Bizarre, beautiful, but...

Careful
Starring: Kyle McCulloch , Gosia Dobrowolska , Sarah Neville , Paul Cox , and Brent Neale
Director: Guy Maddin
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00004Z4TE
Release Date: 2000-10-17

Amazon.com

Watching Guy Maddin's Careful is like stepping into a mutating time warp of cinema history, where German alpine dramas of the 1920s are gene-spliced with Daliesque surrealism, Murnau's silent melodrama, and--in an uncannily precise act of stylistic homage--the hypnotically skewed universe of German Expressionism. Filmed in gloriously filtered colors that cross Maxfield Parrish with Peter Max, this stylistic hybrid virtually defies description and must be seen to be truly appreciated. Suffice it to say, the fictional mountain village of Tolzbad--where silence is golden, and extreme measures are taken to avoid a sound-induced avalanche--is one of the strangest and most outrageously amusing locations in the history of film. You think that's an exaggeration? If anything, it's an understatement.

The villagers of Tolzbad have developed repression into an art form: nearly every sentence begins with "Don't," and they slavishly follow a litany of safety guidelines. Desires are equally suppressed, and this precarious equilibrium is fractured when a young villager's Oedipal dreams collide with his dysfunctional family reality. Pandora's box is opened, Tolzbad-style, and Careful turns into a fever-dream of sibling rivalry, forbidden romance, suicide, murder, and delirious cinematic ecstasy. This is Maddin's best and most coherent film, but even so it's hardly for everyone; only the truly adventurous film lover will eagerly follow Maddin on this demented journey, but the rewards are plentiful for those who dare. Many films strive for enduring uniqueness, but few can make that claim as triumphantly as Careful. This is filmmaking on another plane of consciousness--quite simply, a work of art like nothing you've ever seen. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Keep an Eye on Guy.......2004-04-14

I'll never forget the first time I saw a Guy Maddin film--it was "Tales from Gimli Hospital." When it ended I sat quietly for a few moments and just muttered "Holy Cow" over and over. "Gimli" is an early and very low budget effort. "Careful" shows Guy nearing a peak that hopefully will go on for a few more decades.

Guy somehow (and miraculously) manages to sum up the entire history of cinema in his work. While there's much chatter about his obvious retro style, few have noticed his nods to Godard and more recent filmmakers. He may seem to mimic early films with missing frames and soundtrack problems but these "affectations" are ultimately as expressive as the equivalent jump cuts and soundtrack dropouts in Godard's "Alphaville." They're richer too because of the inevitable multiple associations. His amazing short, "Heart of the World" (one of the best shorts I've ever seen) owes as much to modern MTV editing styles as it does to early Soviet cinema (and creates a bridge and dialogue between two seemingly unrelated creative eras). Guy's not an artsy filmmaker, he's just a "guy" who loves movies passionately and works, unselfconsciously, with film's full lexicon.

"Careful" is a beautiful (often breathtakingly gorgeous), complex, unique, and very funny film. He's made a disturbing comedy about tragic and sensitive issues or maybe a tragedy about comic issues--there's something almost Shakespearean about his output. He also has a knack for getting memorable performances from his actors.

No this film isn't for everyone--right now at least--but I'm convinced we are currently witnessing the appearance of one of film's truly great creative geniuses. His films make one realize how stunningly shallow so many modern movies are, overburdened with flashy technologies like CGI, mandatory pop-cultural references, pretty people, and consumerism. His output is also a challenge to the equally bankrupt "underground" or "counter-culture." By avoiding every modern cliché, trend, anti-trend, technology, anti-technology, and pretense in his work he's giving us, in this film and others, timeless and (a rare thing these days) sublime works that are, even after all this lofty commentary, still pretty damned funny!

campy, ultra goofy, grossly arty and dull .......2003-12-27

Interesting looking, but mostly dull art film. What I gather that the filmmakers are trying to convey - from the title and the movie - is that incest runs rampant - and if it were brought into the open - would cause a metaphorical societal avalanch.

But its torture to sit though this very slow moving, harebrained film for that message. I found this expensive looking purposely choppy film's acting, color photography, story, characters, dialogue dubbing and sound effects to be grossly arty, annoying and not compelling or funny (goofy does not equal funny)...although I will say that a few of the Lynchian style jokes were mildly amusing.

As for an original art film? - Pop psychology, extensive symbolism, intentional camp, and sets that imitate German expressionism have already been done ...ad-nauseum. What might be considered original here is that the director chose to parody the style and mood of European mountain climbing films. Frankly I've never watched an entire one of these but let it be clear that European mountain climbing films are extremely esoteric - so who is Careful made for...15 people?

The most preposterous thing is that the guys that made the goofy Careful thought so much of themselves that they had the nerve to make fun of someone else's film.

I'd recommend Careful for art students, but why? When you can still see all the original films that Careful imitates. Without being able to recommend Careful to anyone - Id still give Careful four stars in that - the techinical people such as set designers, photographers, film and sound editors were obviously talented and meticulous about their craft. Also that the producers and the director had the nerve, talent, gall or perseverance to capture their warped vision on celluloid. But I take away 2 stars for being monotonous, dull and one more of thousands of pretentious, blurry, out of focus, over budgeted student art film projects.

By the way - did I read the end credits right? Is this the kind of thing Canadians are spending their tax dollars on?

The quality of the film stock, sound and extras provided by Kino Video are excellent.

Recommended by Leni Reifenstahl!.......2003-05-03

When Maddin showed this homage to kitschy, proto-Nazi German "mountain films" (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, see Susan Sontag's essay "Fascinating Fascism) to their one-time star and later Nazi propogandist filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, she proclaimed it brilliant--high praise coming from a demented genius. Maddin is also a demented genius, though not of the same ilk as Reifenstahl. Maddin and regular screenwriting collaborator George Toles, the cerebral bad boys of Canadian cinema, are at their naughtiest and cheekiest here, paying tribute to racist kitsch, promoting repression, and playing with Freud's concept of family romance. Although after you see this movie you may need to re-think the concept of "bad boys"...

The film's homage to German expressionism has been widely noted, but Maddin and Toles, no typical film students, are also deeply versed in studio-era Hollywood melodrama (if you don't believe me, see Toles's book of film criticism, "A House Made of Light"), and there's an intriguing family melodrama here underneath the multiple layers of stylization, allusions to the history of cinema, and Maddin's quirky obsessions--with ritual, for example. In other words, it's not all a postmodern in-joke, so if you like your nihilism old-fashioned, based in the self-destructive human psyche--get it here.

This is Maddin's best feature film, in my opinion, because it has an hilarious and lucid premise from which the absurdist tragedy logically unfolds, which is also a brilliant psychological trope: in the isolated mountain village of Tolsbad (a metaphor for Canada, duh) the citizens must be careful not to raise their voices above a whisper or cause any other kind of disturbance for fear of causing an avalanche. After watching this film, if you have children or small siblings you may become disturbingly aware of how many times per hour in how many contexts you use the word "Careful!" Should be seen as a double-bill with Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers" for anyone who wants to understand the Canadian psyche--but then again, believe me, you don't.

Snowy Surrealism.......2003-04-11

One of Guy Maddin's best-known films, Careful is naturally, extremely bizarre. The inhabitants of a mountain village must be careful not to make a noise loud enough to trigger an avalanche, which would bury them all. Naturally ther are all repressed, sexually as well as literally.
The film is often very funny, with great lines of dialogue such as "here is all the hair I've lost in the past few weeks." Even the Oedipal elements are so melodramatic they're pretty chuckly. The colour scheme is pretty painful on the eyes, and often irritating, but it does make the film what it is.

Uh... Bizarre, beautiful, but..........2003-01-31

Great sets & costumes, like a beautifully odd dream. But it is slow and there's no reason to care for any of these characters, so I lost interest.
I'm glad to have seen it, but much more glad that I didn't buy it.

Average customer rating:

careful, he might hear you
A strange, textural film
Australian soap opera.
Careful He Might Say Dickensien
An Aussie fairytale in the Grimm Bros. mode

Careful, He Might Hear You
Starring: Wendy Hughes , Robyn Nevin , Nicholas Gledhill , John Hargreaves , and Geraldine Turner
Director: Carl Schultz
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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ASIN: B00005OCKW
Release Date: 2001-10-16

Description

During the turmoil of the Depression, a young boy becomes a pawn in a bitter family rivalry. Estranged from his father and orphaned by his bohemian novelist mother after bequeathing her newborn with the name PS, "a postscript to her ridiculous life," six-year-old PS is caught in an elaborate web of deceit and torn between his two feuding aunts, an average suburban housewife and a wealthy socialite. Based on Sumner Locke Elliott's dramatic novel, this award-winning Australian film is a poignant tale of a young boy's coming of age. Heart-rending and compelling, Careful, He Might Hear You is a powerful story of how one child's love and courage triumphs over his family's painful past.

Customer Reviews:

careful, he might hear you.......2006-05-04

I must say, I have read many reviews on this website about this movie, yet no one has talked about the movie itself, but just about the music and bits and pieces of the movie are being torn apart by most viewers. I saw this movie when it first came out. It's a good story. It's about two sisters trying to get custody of their 7 year old nephew. One sister is single, and in love with the boy's father, and thinks by raising him, she'll win the father's heart. The other sister truely loves the boy along with her husband, they have raised him so far. This sister, who loves the boy, is middle-low class and has medical problems which the rich sister tries to use against her in court. When the rich sister wins custody of the boy, she finds that the boy doesn't like her, and wants to go back to the other sister. It's a real battle, with the rich sister not even considering what the poor little boy wants, which is to live with his other aunt. It's a sad movie, really, if you have kids, it makes you think about what your kids might go through if you don't have a will in tact. Anyway, when all is said and done, dear old dad doesn't want custody of little P.S., and the rich sister drowns in a accident, so P.S. gets to live with who he wanted to begin with! Long time coming you must say. It's a good movie, if you like foreign films. My kids don't like accents, so I have a hard time getting them to watch this movie. I myself liked it and recommend watching it.

A strange, textural film.......2003-11-04

Schultz' "Careful, He Might Hear You" wholly evokes a city of contrasts [Sydney] in the 1930's and 40's and the intricate personalities of the characters entwined in a complex family custody battle of a young boy. More a psychological study of the leading female widow, the supporting cast are all exceptional.

Particularly successful in the leading female role is the fine Australian actor Wendy Hughes (most recently seen in the magnificent Melbourne Theatre Company 2003 production of Edward Albee's "The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?" with Phillip Quast) Also an undoubtable standout, I think, is Geraldine Turner, the irrepressible Australian performer with bewildering versatility, (recently see in Cameron Mackintosh's production of "The Witches of Eastwick" at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne, Australia)

This beautiful period film will certainly not disappoint.

Australian soap opera........2002-12-08

Though with some shocking, dirty twists. The title and the rather kinky cover-art for this DVD prove correct your darkest suspicions about this movie: yes, "you-know-what" really happens in *Careful, He Might Hear You*, though with a quite different aftermath than you might expect. It's about two sisters in a custody battle over their 7-year-old nephew (a startling, talented Nicholas Gledhill) in 1930's Australia. The mother has died from the birth, but not before pegging the poor little bugger with the name "PS", e.g., "a postscript to a ridiculous life". Robyn Nevin is the lower-middle-class auntie whom PS would prefer to live with; Wendy Hughes is the very wealthy auntie who suddenly takes an interest in the boy, for frightening psychological reasons that will be made clear soon enough. Hughes is just marvelous as the rich, beautiful, and sexually sociopathic aunt Vanessa. This character is a whole new variation on the wicked stepmother archetype. Her abusive behavior stems from a fearful frigidity -- though WHY she is frigid is left unexplained by director Carl Schultz, as is the reason for Vanessa's much vaster wealth in comparison with her working-class sister. At face value, everything remains on the surface in *Careful* -- any psychological or philosophical nugget-hunting in these characters' lives will have to be done by the viewer. Indeed, the movie is very much a latter-day Sirkian (is that less offensive than "Dickensian"?) melodrama, complete with an over-the-top score that takes some getting-used-to, but which also fits the material grandly, especially after you accept the film's logic. The image is overflowing with profuse flora, fauna, trinkets, details -- anything that's colorful. Recently, *Far from Heaven* has tried to mine this same vein -- it failed, because it was too overt in its copycatting. Here, Schultz goes for the feel of old melodramas, but rather than re-hash something like *All that Heaven Allows*, he relies firmly on an obscure novel by Sumner Locke Elliott. The originality of the subject-matter helps Schultz to avoid being a pale imitator. Instead, he emerges as an ENLARGER of Sirk's style, themes, and characterizations. Indeed, it is a measure of Schutlz' subtlety that by movie's end, you realize that you feel pity for Vanessa, whom you thought you had reviled, while simultaneously thinking that the "decent", poorer aunt is more tiresome -- and limiting -- than at first seemed apparent. Meanwhile, the boy's a hero through all this, easily demonstrating the petty insanity of the adults who unfortunately determine the courses of his life. *Careful, He Might Hear You* is quite simply a modern classic that demands to be discovered. [The DVD, by Image Entertainment, looks pretty good, but there are zero features -- not even a trailer. I guess Image goes broke just by securing the rights to masterpieces like this; hence the lack of any effort put into the product. I guess I should be glad they took the trouble to put it on DVD in the first place.]

Careful He Might Say Dickensien.......2002-10-05

This is one of my favorite movies ever. I was thrilled to search for it on DVD at a whim and find it is available. It's an excellent drama to get lost in. "Careful..." is one of those movies you can sink into. It's a book of a movie. The first clue is that it's all about character development. I highly recommend this movie as an avid movie goer. My advice is,ignore the review that uses the word "Dickensien". Dickensien?!

An Aussie fairytale in the Grimm Bros. mode.......2002-03-01

I'm afraid we have a difference of opinion here for CHMHY,split between pro and con. Well let me throw in my vote for the pro side.Ever since I first viewed this film it has haunted me,I knew I had to own it-so I got a copy of the tape,now I think I have to get the DVD.The performances all around are impeccable,Hughes,Nevin,and especially the child actor,Gledhill.I wonder whatever became of him? Was this just a flash in the pan role for him or did he go on acting regionaly?It is a performance of remarkable sensitivity and naturalism.That said the film itself looks great.Lush and golden the colors pop out at you.The musical score is one that I also had to seek out for its singular delicate beauty-is Ray Cook another regional talent, I can't think of another score that he has composed?It has a sort of P.Glass-like hypnotic quality.Then there is the story itself a shameless tearjerker I'll admit but so real, and skewed with a sense of unreallity-an almost supernatural quality near the end.(The Wendy Hughes boat departure scene,short as it is has a flash of "Titanic" terror about it,and at the same time a sad irony.Anyway this duality is what keeps me coming back to this film again and again.It's a small classic.

Average customer rating:

Good fun!

Wish Kid - Be Careful What You Wish For
Starring: Wish Kid
Manufacturer: Sterling Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007TKP18
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Customer Reviews:

Good fun!.......2005-09-27

This dvd features 4 episodes from the short "Wish Kid" tv series which starred the voice of a young Macaulay Culkin. The episodes featured are: "Gross encounters", "Lotto trouble", "A matter of principal", and "Top gun, will travel". If you're a fan of Mack and "Home Alone" style stories, and of '90s Saturday morning cartoons, you'll love it!

Average customer rating:

Great short film with a creative idea.

Be Careful What You Wish (2007)
Starring: Melissa Ross , Kim Erickson , Josh Berger , Danilo Mancinelli , and King Stuart
Director: Kirk Bowman
Manufacturer: Far Out Movies
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000RABSCM

Product Description

Charity, a precious, angel-faced blonde is granted a wish. It backfires, turning her into a crude, screaming redneck. She and her fiancé meet with their wedding planner but Charity causes a scene when she spits glops of chewing tobacco on the delicate bride and groom ornaments. She must have the spell reversed. Charity's roommate leads the search for the mysterious old Wizard before she's stuck as a redneck forever.

Customer Reviews:

Great short film with a creative idea........2007-05-27

This was a very fun short film. I thought that the characters of Garth, a rowdy redneck, and Buster, and old Wizard, were great. I overall enjoyed it.

Careful [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - France ]

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Careful [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - France ]
Director: Guy Maddin
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000II19S6

Product Description

France released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), French (Subtitles), SYNOPSIS: Careful takes place in the remote Alpine village of Tolzbad, where everyone speaks in whispers for fear of starting an avalanche. This self-inflicted noise control to the overall suppression of emotions and impulses. Entering this rarefied atmosphere is aspiring butler Brent Neale. Remaining as silent as his companions, Neale bears witness to all sorts of muted aberrations, from incest to surreptitious suicide. Director Guy Maddin stages Careful in the manner of an early German Expressionistic talkie, replete with subtitles, hand-tinted color sequences, heavy-handed symbolism and a "popping" soundtrack. SPECIAL FEATURES: Teaser(s), Storyboards, Short Film, Interactive Menu, Documentary, Commentary,

Incredible Story Studios (Written for Kids By Kids) : Be Careful What You Wish For

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Incredible Story Studios (Written for Kids By Kids) : Be Careful What You Wish For

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000IMNODA

DVD:

DVD

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