The Actuality Dramas of Allan King (Warrendale / A Married Couple / Come on Children / Dying at Grace / Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company) (Eclipse Series 24)

I am so glad I took a chance on this set. All of the films included were completely unknown to me. They are beautiful works and each has an elegant unflinching honesty. If you are on the fence, I would urge you not to hesitate. These are deeply meaningful films which have the power to move viewers in profound ways.

This is one of the finest box sets from the criterion collection. My wife and I were enraged by the audacity of the idiot who stamped his one star review on such an incredibly enlightening set of films. Allan King is not only one of the greatest documentary filmmakers (among Morris, Maysles, and Wiseman), but also in my opinion one of the top 25 greatest directors of all time. This set has long since been due. I only hope criterion releases more of his films. Imagine if Cassavetes and Wiseman were the yin and yang of a singular vision, and you just might skim the surface in identifying the brilliance of Allan King. THIS IS ESSENTIAL CINEMA!!!

Interesting set of fly on the wall type documentaries.The stand out here though is Dying At Grace. Having been well acquainted with hospitals & having watched a family member go through the dying experience, watching this documentary was a reminder of that devastating experience.Shot on video, it's very plain looking & simply presented, no narration, or musical soundtrack. Through editing, it just shows you the last few weeks in the lives of several patients at a hospital, culminating in the camera capturing the moment of death of some of these terminally ill people.

I agree. These are really fine. I have watched but two, but I will see all of them! He is the Canadian Frederik Wiseman!

At the time of my initial review, I have only seen the documentary entitled Dying At Grace. Five terminally ill individuals were admitted to a palliative care center, Grace Health Centre, & the filming takes course over 1 winter. I was very impressed with the realism. A Health Care Worker told one of the patient's loved ones that dying was hard work-just like labor. One terminally ill woman told her social worker that she would like to just sit in a corner with her legs crossed until it was all over. Sadly, this is impossible because there are many decisions yet to be made by the terminally ill & many issues that need to be resolved such as letting go of your indepence & becoming totally reliant on others for basic care; the amount of pain medication administered; catheterization; living wills, DNR; reduction of benefits & monetary worries; determining what visitors you will allow & when; who will be present at death; mending relationships; & spirituality. These terminally ill patients have a sense of finality & have only a few ahort weeks to wait for the enevitable, but it seemed like a lifetime. They had endless hours to face & feared the manner in which they might die. Those patients who entered with no faith refused to alter their beliefs. Even those with faith felt fear & despondency at times alternating with a sense of peace. A strong sense of faith did bring a greater sense of comfort to the families at the end. The staff were excellent in that they treated each patient with dignity & sought to carry out their wishes. The dying did not suffer from alienation or lack of touch by the staff. Each patient was gently cared for after death. Life goes on & sadly another patient is admitted as a vaccancy comes available. It was stressful & difficult to watch this doccumentary. I wish that their had been a summation at the end.

I am a general practitioner who has worked in hospitals with dying patients and who has gone through a divorce with child involved. I also worked in psychiatry for a decade as a doctor. With these experiences, I pretty much cover all the fields that these films are about. For those who haven't lived at all and certainly never in misery, these film may have some ingredient of novelty, for me, however, they drag, offering no novelty at all and are as inspiring as a wet sock.You may question the authenticity of "a married couple" and, hiring some porn performers out of work, you could have done a quite interesting movie along the same line, giving these porn performance something meaningful to do for the first time in their "career", but that would still be exploitative and highly questionable.My dvd-player would not accept "memory for..." so this comment excludes that film. Otherwise I can however claim that this box was quite a dull experience offering no surprises whatsoever.I guess films like these can go under the umbrella of being "social porno". They are exotic for the rich and spoiled but for us others, the wage-slaves, they are just dull life.How much more rewarding would it not have been if Alan King would have filmed his rich and influential friends instead (he must know people like that as a b-s-artist or maybe rich himself). Then we could maybe understand why these people are so utterly evil uttering phrases (while themselves doing nothing) like "the poor are poor just because they are lazy", which would be a most fantastic experience for someone poor working 2 full-time jobs and still just barely getting by.But if Alan King did movies like that he would most certainly be silenced and would surely get no money.By the way, "Dying at Grace" was done with cheap video-equipment and anyone could do a movie today of better quality for practically no money at all.

DISAPPOINTED IN THIS SERIES. WHY AGAIN ARE HIS FILMS ACCLAIMED? I FIND NOTHING ENRICHING IN PROFANITY FILLED MOVIES LIKE 'A MARRIED COUPLE.' IS THIS REALLY HOW PEOPLE ARE TO EACH OTHER? I REGRET THE MONEY I WASTED ON THIS PARTICULAR SERIES.