Picturewise
From left to right: Paul McCartney, Walter Shenson (producer) and Richard Lester (director).
It’s about time I told you more about PICTUREWISE, my video essay / mini-documentary for the Criterion Blu-ray of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, but instead I’ll let this rather gratifying review do it. Here.
Oh, I don’t know if the review mentions it, but the voice-over in the piece was done by Rita Tushingham, which was a thrill for me.
shadowplay 
June 25, 2014 at 12:37 am
That was fab! And I just tweeted the review!
June 25, 2014 at 3:41 am
This was on TCM recently, I hadn’t seen it in over 20 years. I was knocked out by how good it is, especially how good the dialogue is. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that The Beatles first great album provided the soundtrack either……
June 25, 2014 at 5:26 am
Congrats, looks like PICTUREWISE makes a great bonus for the Criterion release. I’ll have to take a look. :)
June 25, 2014 at 8:48 am
I must check out Alun Owen’s script work on The Criminal. It’s a shame he didn’t write more films, AHDN is a great script. In the published version, many scenes are longer, and it’s all good stuff — the rhythm is fantastic, maybe even better in the long versions.
June 25, 2014 at 2:14 pm
“A Hard Day’s Night” is one film I don’t suppose I’ll ever get tired of watching. It has the conglomerate feeling of a sketch comedy and many of its scenes are little gems that could easily be set on their own, yet there’s still a unity to the whole movie that keeps it fresh and interesting. It’s not just a loose assortment of bits.
Probably it’s dangerous of me to confess here that “Help!” by contrast did nothing for me…
June 25, 2014 at 3:19 pm
Help! is a fairly brisk adaptation of “The Moonstone” by Wilkie Collins. It lacks the freshness of AHDN. That film turned the Beatles from mere pop sensations into stars the likes of which hadn’t been known before.
June 25, 2014 at 5:44 pm
I prefer AHDN too but I’m now finding I like Help! more with every viewing. And the screenplay reads like a dream too — it ought to be taught in screenwriting classes: how to write a script that’s beautiful in its own right.
July 7, 2014 at 2:09 am
….(and speaking of HELP!) I love how PICTUREWISE plays in its own way like a Lester film – great job David!!! I plan to show it to several friends and folks as to an intro (& basic primer) to one of my favorite directors!!!