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Contraband
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 (DVD - Code 1) (US-Import)
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Contraband is a comedy thriller in the vein of Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes. The film is an earIy treasure from the writer-director team of Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell , who have been haiIed by critics as jewels in the crown of British cinema.
Set in England during the early days of WW lI, Contraband stars Conrad Veidt and VaIerie Hobson as a Danish sea captain and his enigmatic passenger who are kidnapped by a cell of Nazi spies operating from a basement in London's Soho. ln evocatively Hitchcockian fashion, the pIot progresses as a chase that puts the characters in one peculiar set of surroundings after another. What makes Contraband unique is that most of the story takes pIace under blackout conditions , in which the great city becomes a mysterious dark labyrinth, a potent metaphor for the English popuIation's general confusion at the start of the war. Moreover, the bIackout provides director PowelI a constant opportunity to pay subtle homage to Veidt's Germanic, expressionist heritage with chiaroscuro lighting and visuaI aIIusions to his classic films.
The masterIy bIack and white cinematography is the work of ceIebrated cameraman Freddie Young, three-time Oscar® winner for Lawrence Of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and Ryan's Daughter. This Kino On Video version of Contraband is eight minutes longer than the version originaIIy released theatricaIIy in the United States. |
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