Tony Palmer presents "Bird on a wire"

[Puddingdale]

To answer my own question from above: Those of us with PAL DVD players rejoyce!
The backside of the DVD case can be clearly seen in one of the shots at amazon and there it says: "all regions". It's NTSC but not region coded, so those with crappy DVD players like mine should be able to view it as well

[lightning]

Your computer should be able to play it but a PAL set top player may not play a NTSC disc even if it says "All Regions." Some DVD players play both PAL and NTSC but not all of them. Check your manual.

[Chubi]

It's played in black and white on my German DVD player. I haven't tried yet to play it on my laptop. The lack of colour (the original film is partly B&W anyhow) wouldn't stop me from buying it anyhow.

[lightning]

Please don't miss the glorious color. Watch it on your laptop or buy a Philips region free player, Philips DVP-5990, around $50, which plays everything. Or, if you are a Mac User, you can rip it with Handbrake and convert too, by setting the framerate to the PAL standard or 25 frames per second. Then you have to reburn it, which will take some time.

[Puddingdale]

Yeah, my computer will play it, but I don't like watching films at my desk. And my DVD player usually plays NTSC videos.
Anyway, I just wanted to clear things up for those who might worry about the NTSC. But true, not all PAL players play NTSC, so I might have mislead people... Thanks for being more precise, lightning.
As for me, another unnecessary gadget in my living room would just give me a bad conscience as long as my old stuff works fine.

[Chubi]

It works fine on my laptop.
(And thanks to the subtitles, I've now learned that Udo Jürgens is a sailor. )

[jerry]

Here in New Jersey the dvd is out! I just saw it for sale at my local record store.

[Karren B]

Had the great fortune to attend the Screening of Tony Palmer’s ‘Bird On A Wire’ film last night at the Chichester film festival…

Tony Palmer was there to do the introduction and answer questions afterwards…

The film was brilliant and you could buy the DVD after (which off course I did!).
Tony Palmer comes across as very passionate about his work and I think he is both pleased and proud of the end result, as he should be!

It must have been exciting and frustrating trying to piece the original back together…He said it was like doing a giant jigsaw puzzle without a picture.
Glad he persevered and gave us a brilliant insight into that part of Leonards Life through his finished film… Thank You Tony!!!!

Karren B
xx

[jarkko]

We are very pleased to be featuring a story on Leonard Cohen's Bird on a
Wire on NOWNESS.com on Monday, August 30th. The story includes a short clip
from Cohen's documentary Bird on a Wire by director Tony Palmer, as well as
an interview with Palmer where he speaks about his first meeting with
Cohen. You can see the full story here on Monday, August 30th at 12:01AM
EST: http://www.nowness.com/day/2010/8/30

Kind Regards,
Wendy Furtado
NOWNESS.com

[Bird off the Wire]

From today's (Irish) Sunday Tribune
http://www.tribune.ie/arts/music/articl ... allelujah/

[Davido]

Reviews are starting to appear in the music press:
The October issues of MOJO, Q and UNCUT mags all carry favourable reviews - four/five star rated.

Dave

[lightasabreeze]

Just finished watching BIRD ON A WIRE.
Wow, thanks to all those concerned with making this film. I so loved it. Gosh Leonard must have broken a thousand hearts with those looks.
He makes your heart flip - for us ladies of course -
Those days all came back to me seeing him then. I was in tears with them at the end. Gosh, don't like to see Leonard cry.
The war scenes were very graphic, but summed up the feelings he feels about wars.
He is great now, but wasn't he great then... It won't be long before I watch it again.

[John Etherington]

That's strange..I don't remember the war scenes, even though I saw the movie at least six times in the Seventies (maybe I'm in denial?). I haven't seen the new DVD yet, so it should be an interesting experience.

[Paul Zagreb]

That's strange..I don't remember the war scenes, even though I saw the movie at least six times in the Seventies (maybe I'm in denial?). I haven't seen the new DVD yet, so it should be an interesting experience.

Yor memory doesn't fail you John, Tony Palmer added these scenes ... very graphic footage of the Vietnam war including napalm attacks ... set against LC singing 'Story of Isaac'. I cannot find my programme from Greenman festival where Tony Palmer writes an excellent text about the film. I wish I could because it is clear that to him Leonard and Dylan were both very political artists even though, in the film, Leonard makes the point that his songs are political mainly in the sense that 'loneliness is a political condition' (sorry, can't remember the exact quote now!).

cheers

Paul

[lightning]

The inclusion of VietNam war atrocities to illustrate and dramatize The Story of Isaac is part of the new footage. Tony Palmer used a similar shock technique in his 1968 masterpiece rock documentary "All My Loving." We never got to see that documentary in the states. People who thought they knew the 1960's , even the people who made the 1960's did not know of the film which I believe aired on the BBC. To find out more about Tony Palmer, I took it out of the New York Library. I was amazed. Americans who haven't seen "All My Loving" film should definitely look for it, because I think the media held it back from us because of its powerful anti-war statement. I also took out "O Fortuna" being a lover of Carmina Burana (who isn't?). I found I already had an expurgated VHS I taped off the television here, minus the illustrations of the sensuality of the work, i.e. naked ladies (we still can't have that on television over here.) This film is a complete documentary about Orff and his work,which I found less interesting than Carmina Burana, but people should definitely see it. The films of Tony Palmer are indeed something to check out.