Topkapi [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2004-06-24

With a Hadjidakis musical score as sunny and refreshing as a Mediterannean landscape and top-notch performances by Peter Ustinof and Melina Merkouri, Topkapi is the pinnacle of Hollywood entertainment: fast, light, technically faultless. A nostalgic piece.

excellent light-entertainment.......2002-01-14

Here you have a cast including some of the best actors of the 50's and 60's. Melina Mercouri, more beautiful than ever, is the woman, who wants to steal a dagger with diamonds from the Instabul museum. The group of persons that will help her is Maximillian Shell,her lover,and some amateurs thefts including Peter Ustinov, who is hilarious in his attempts to escape from the police.
The music of Manos Hadjidakis is excellent, and the direction of Mercouri's husband Dassen is even better than you could imagine. The scene where the group is trying to steal the dagger from the museum, may remind to some filmlovers a scene from the Mission impossible movie with Tom CRUISE.

A team of thiefes try to steal the TOPKAPI jewels........2001-02-02

The superb Melina Mercouri stars in this first rate entairtainment, that her husband Jules Dassin produced and directed. She is playing the role of a passionate woman who's aim is to steal a diamond dagger in the TOPKAPI Museum in Instabul. Peter Ustinov puts the laughs, Maximilian Schell the romance, and Manos Hadjidakis the excellent exotic music of the titles. The scene where Akim Tamiroff gets lowered down from the ceiling of the museum via a system of ropes, may remind you the Mission Impossible movie. That's because TOPKAPI was the inspiration for the famous TV series Mission Impossible.

You willlove it...

Average customer rating:

Gripping film; enthralling and revealing

Mountain men

The Beckoning Silence
Director: Louise Osmond
Manufacturer: Channel 4 DVD
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain That Killed My Father

ASIN: B000W668QC
Release Date: 2007-11-05

Customer Reviews:

Gripping film; enthralling and revealing.......2007-10-23

The north face of the Eiger has long been an infamous climb, and this excellent film explains why. It goes a long way towards explaining why young men take such extreme risks for a short-lived success; why they risk death over and over again. For anyone who is interested in high-risk sports, be it mountaineering, solo yachting, motorsports or such, this is compelling viewing.

The film tells the story of an ill-fated expedition to conquer the Eiger which took place back in the 1930s. Joe Simpson is the narrator and he has a personal stake in the story, because his own climbing career nearly ended in an appalling accident. Through sheer grit and determination, Simpson didn't die on a mountain. He's the perfect person to explain what the climbers must have been thinking and feeling as they struggled up the Eiger some 70 years ago.

The film reconstructs the 1936 attempt, and shows the skilled and heroic achievement of that team's best climber in crossing one particularly difficult rock face. It also explains their downfall; how one rope might have saved them, and how a rockslide doomed them. It's a heart-stopping story -- four men, desperately trying to get down the mountain -- and it ends with one man hanging on a rope with his resucers just 50 feet below him...

Against it all, we can contrast Simpson's personal experiences. He reveals what inspired him to climb, and why that challenge still tugs at him. If you've ever wondered why people still return to the mountains, when the odds are stacking up against them, then Simpson's look of longing towards the Eiger reveals much. There are probably very few mountaineers who can claim to be both 'old' and 'bold', but the desire to take on just one more great climb is obviously near-impossible to resist. Simpson's narrative is as compelling as that of the 1930's team, and it makes this more than 'just another' documentary.

On top of that, some of the filming is simply stunning. It's hard to visualise a mountain climb, and the photography of the Alpine range is majestic. You can see why it lures men and women to their deaths... and the graphics also explain how and why they run into trouble. The path up the north face is clearly mapped, so even a casual viewer can understand how appallingly difficult that climb is to master.

Thrilling, thoughtful viewing. Even if you've seen the programme on TV, it's worth watching the dvd for the extras. A good disc to buy and pass on to your friends too. You don't need to have any special knowledge of mountaineering or climbing to appreciate this film; if you're interested in the human spirit then it's a compelling film.

Mountain men .......2007-10-23

As someone who gets dizzy if he wears an extra thick pair of socks I am awe of people who climb mountains . In fact I am in awe of people who can climb ladders, but they as a rule aren't at risk from frostbite , sudden changes in the weather , falling rocks , avalanches and the numerous and terrifying pitfalls that can befall mountain climbers at any given minute.
Nowhere is there more chance of this happening than on the north face of the Eiger. This mountain and more specifically the route up the north face has an irresistible pull for serious climbers and this film attempts to explain why while also giving a superb dramatic reconstruction of an attempt in 1936 that ended in tragedy. While the story itself is remarkable and ultimately very moving it's the eloquent commentary and thoughts of mountaineer Joe Simpson that give this film it's vital empirical heart. Joe Simpson from the film "Touching The Void" survived a near tragedy on a mountain in Peru which of course is what that film was about and so is an ideal person to give insights to what the climbers were thinking and how they would have reasoned and overcome the dilemmas presented to them.
In 1936 the north face of the Eiger had yet to be conquered, indeed the previous year two climbers had perished attempting the climb .Simpson visiting the mountain explains that the north face can be viewed from the town below and thus people with telescopes or binoculars can track the progress( or otherwise) of the climbers . This had happened in 1935 till during one of the storms that descend with rapid ferocity on the mountain face the two climbers disappeared from view . A year later a group of four talented and enthusiastic climbers led by Toni Kurz made an attempt of their own but an unfortunate accident and one decision made it must be said out of unawareness, resulted in their time on the mountain becoming a fight for survival. It's a tale of extraordinary courage , resolution and a sheer will to live . Who better to comment than Simpson ( Who admits he hasn't climbed for three years ,yet after spending some time on the north face for the purposes of the film admits he can feel the pull of the mountain resurfacing ) and his measured conversant tones give this film an even more piquant tone than the story itself would have provided which is saying something .
The DVD has extras to provide further insight and the film itself while being around a hundred times more involving and riveting than any Hollywood blockbuster is also stunning visually with some truly breath-taking shots of the Eiger and the surrounding mountains. This is that rare thing -a film that is both moving and educational ., a quite superb piece of film-making . If you're prone to vertigo it will make you feel dizzy once or twice and that's as near to replicating what these remarkable people do as I'm ever likely to get.

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