The Edge of the World
on DVD
The DVD of The Edge of the World (1937) has been completed
and will be released in Dec '03 or Jan '04.
It will be released in the UK by
the BFI
as a Region 2 DVD and in the US by
Milestone Film & Video
as a Region 1 DVD.
DVD extras include:
|
Both editions
|
|
Commentary featuring Thelma Schoonmaker
(Michael Powell's widow and Martin Scorsese's favourite editor)
and film critic and Powell & Pressburger scholar
Prof. Ian Christie
|
|
Daniel Day-Lewis reading extracts from
200,000 Feet on Foula,
(Michael Powell's book of their adventures on the island).
These extracts are interspersed in the commentary track at
appropriate points.
|
|
The documentary:
Return to the Edge of the World (1978)
made for BBC TV when Powell and some of the surviving cast
and crew returned to the island 40 years later.
|
|
BFI edition
|
Milestone edition
|
|
Travelogue:
St. Kilda - Britain's Loneliest Isle (1928)
|
Powell's short propaganda film
An Airman's Letter to his Mother (1941)
|
Michael Powell's home movies
8mm film of Michael, Bill Paton & Seton Gordon in the Highlands of Scotland. Also available on the Criterion DVD of IKWIG
|
Original press kits & Milestone press kit
(DVD-ROM feature)
|
|
Stills gallery
|
Stills gallery
|
|
Biographies of Michael Powell and producer Joe Rock
|
Subtitles for the hard of hearing
(or those who have difficulty understanding the Scottish/Shetland accents)
The main film and the commentary track are subtitled as are all the additional features included on the DVD.
|
Shot over four arduous months in the wild, windswept Shetland Islands, Michael Powell’s first independent production establishes the daring techniques and experimentation that would later become familiar hallmarks of his career.
The Edge of the World tells the moving story of a remote island and its inhabitants, whose traditions and way of life are threatened by a rapidly industrialising world. To settle an argument over whether the islanders should give up their livelihood and move to the mainland, two childhood friends follow an ancient tradition and climb the island’s highest cliff face. The outcome shatters the island’s peace and splits the two clans apart.
Restored by the National Film and Television Archive in 1990 and with its picture and sound further restored by bfi Video for this DVD release, The Edge of the World has been admired by directors such as Martin Scorsese.
Making the film proved so demanding and sensational that its 32-year-old director was moved to write a full-scale book about his obsession with the tragic grandeur of Scotland’s Outer Isles and his struggle to film it, 200,000 Feet on Foula, which actor Daniel Day-Lewis reads from on this DVD.
UK / 1937 / black and white / 74 mins + extra material / Academy Radio
UK release date: 12 January 2004
