William Klein Collection (12 Films) - 10-DVD Box Set ( Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee (Muhammad Ali, the Greatest) / Who Are You, Polly Magoo? (Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?) / Maydays (Grands soirs & petits matins) / Mr. Freedom (Mister Freedom) ) ( Festival panafricain d'Alger / Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther (Eldridge Cleaver) / The Model Couple (Le couple témoin) / The French / Contacts / In and Out of Fashion / Messiah / Broadway by Light )

William Klein Collection (12 Films) - 10-DVD Box Set (DVD) (*)

~~$98.99~~ $86.95

Original Title: Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee (Muhammad Ali, the Greatest) / Who Are You, Polly Magoo? (Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?) / Maydays (Grands soirs & petits matins) / Mr. Freedom (Mister Freedom)
Alternate Title: Festival panafricain d'Alger / Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther (Eldridge Cleaver) / The Model Couple (Le couple témoin) / The French / Contacts / In and Out of Fashion / Messiah / Broadway by Light
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
English ( Mono )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
French ( Mono )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
1160 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Box Set
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Commentary
Interactive Menu
Multi-DVD Set
Scene Access
Black & White
Booklet

Movie filmed in 1958 - 1999 and produced in:
Algeria ( Africa, Middle East )
Canada ( USA, Canada )
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )
Switzerland ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
William Klein

Written By:
William Klein
Charles Jennens

Actors:
Muhammad Ali ..... Himself
Sonny Liston ..... Himself
Angelo Dundee ..... Himself
Jack Nilon ..... Himself
Chris Dundee ..... Himself
Finlay Campbell ..... Himself
James X ..... Himself
Malcolm X ..... Himself (archive footage)
Jersey Joe Walcott ..... Himself
Jimmy Braddock ..... Himself
Floyd Patterson ..... Himself
Norman Mailer ..... Himself - in crowd
Stepin Fetchit ..... Himself
Sam X ..... Himself
George Foreman ..... Himself
Dorothy McGowan ..... Polly Maggoo
Jean Rochefort ..... Grégoire Pecque
Sami Frey ..... Le prince Igor /
The Prince ..... Miss Maxwell
Grayson Hall ..... Jean-Jacques Georges, le journaliste / Reporter
Philippe Noiret ..... La reine-mère / The Queen Mother
Alice Sapritch
Fernando Arrabal
Guy d'Avout
Roger Constant
Francis Dumoulin
Luce Fabiole
Isabelle Garçon
Violette Leduc
Michèle Loubet
Marie Marc
Daniel Cohn-Bendit ..... Himself
Renaud ..... Himself - Porte-parole du groupe 'Gavroche' de collégiens en grève
Alain Resnais ..... Himself
Delphine Seyrig ..... Marie-Madeleine
John Abbey ..... Mr. Freedom
Donald Pleasence ..... Dr. Freedom
Jean-Claude Drouot ..... Dick Sensass
Serge Gainsbourg ..... M. Drugstore
Yves Lefebvre ..... Jacques Occident
Rufus ..... Freddie Fric
Sabine Sun ..... Herself
Rita Maiden ..... Moujik Man
Colin Drake ..... Christ
Pierre Baillot ..... Marie-Rouge
Raoul Billerey
Philippe Noiret
Sami Frey
Catherine Rouvel
Nina Simone ..... Herself
Archie Shepp ..... Himself
Miriam Makeba ..... Herself
Marion Williams ..... Herself
Eldridge Cleaver ..... Himself
Kathleen Cleaver ..... Herself
Andre Dussollier ..... Jean-Michel
Anémone ..... Claudine
Zouc ..... 1ème Psychosociologiste
Jacques Boudet ..... 2ème Psychosociologiste
Georges Descrières ..... Le Ministre de l'Avenir
Eddie Constantine ..... Docteur Goldberg
André Penvern ..... Speaker à la télévision
Karl-Josef Cramer ..... Technicien 3
Roland Bertin ..... Directeur
Frédéric Pottecher ..... Pottecher
Michel Toty ..... Journaliste TV
Jean-Jacques Schakmundès ..... Commissaire
Marcel Gassouk ..... Gorilles
Marcel Lainé ..... Gorilles
Frédéric Weiss ..... Terroriste
Arthur Ashe ..... Himself
Marcel Bernard ..... Himself
Björn Borg ..... Himself
Don Budge ..... Himself
Philippe Chatrier ..... Himself
Henri Cochet ..... Himself
Jimmy Connors ..... Himself
Chris Evert ..... Herself
Ivan Lendl ..... Himself
Jean-Pierre Loth ..... Himself
Hana Mandlíková ..... Herself
John McEnroe ..... Himself
Ilie Nastase ..... Himself
Martina Navratilova ..... Herself
Yannick Noah ..... Himself
Victor Pecci ..... Himself
Fred Perry ..... Himself
Ion Tiriac ..... Himself
Thierry Tulasne ..... Himself
Guillermo Vilas ..... Himself
William Klein ..... Himself (archive footage)
Azzedine Alaïa ..... Himself (archive footage)
Anémone ..... Herself (archive footage)
Jacques Boudet ..... Himself (archive footage)
Eddie Constantine ..... Himself (archive footage)
Andre Dussollier ..... Himself (archive footage)
Sami Frey ..... Himself (archive footage)
Serge Gainsbourg ..... Himself (archive footage)
Jean-Paul Gaultier ..... Himself (archive footage)
Grace Jones ..... Herself (archive footage)
Tchéky Karyo ..... Himself (archive footage)
Claude Montana ..... Himself (archive footage)
Philippe Noiret ..... Himself (archive footage)
Donald Pleasence ..... Himself (archive footage)
Jean Rochefort ..... Himself (archive footage)
Yves Saint-Laurent ..... Himself (archive footage)
Jacques Seiler ..... Himself (archive footage)
Delphine Seyrig ..... Herself (archive footage)
Zouc ..... Herself (archive footage)
Charlotte Hellekant ..... Solistes - alto
Lynne Dawson ..... Solistes - soprano
Nicole Heaston ..... Solistes - soprano
Magdalena Kozená ..... Solistes - mezzo soprano
Brian Asawa ..... Solistes - countre-tenor
John Mark Ainsley ..... Solistes - tenor
Russell Smythe ..... Solistes - baryton
Brian Bannatyne-Scott ..... Solistes - basse
Marc Minkowski ..... Direction / conductor
Anton Steck ..... Orchestra - violins
Pedro Gandia Martin ..... Orchestra - violins
Cécile Mille ..... Orchestra - violins
Geneviève Bois ..... Orchestra - violins
Julie Neander ..... Orchestra - violins
Laurent Lagresle ..... Orchestra - violins

Synopsis:

***WARNING***Festival panafricain d'Alger, The French & Maydays do NOT contain English language***Painter, photographer, graphic designer, author of cult documentaries, director of films and commercials. After ten years of fashion, William Klein turned to the documentary filming.
List of Films:
Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee / Muhammad Ali, the Greatest (1969)
Who Are You, Polly Magoo? / Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? (1966)
Maydays / Grands soirs & petits matins (1978)
Mr. Freedom / Mister Freedom (1969)
Festival panafricain d'Alger (1969) ***Region 2***
Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther / Eldridge Cleaver(1970)
The Model Couple / Le couple témoin (1977)
The French (1982)
Contacts (1989)
In and Out of Fashion (1998)
Messiah (1999)
Broadway by Light (1958)

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee (1969)
On 25 February 1964 at Miami, Florida, Cassius Clay knocks out Sonny Liston in seven rounds to become the world's heavyweight boxing champion. "The champ of the world should be beautiful like me," Clay proclaims. "I'm king of the ring ... float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Originally backed by a group of southern millionaires, Clay is touted by Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Kingfish Levinsky, and Evil Eye Finkel. Malcolm X is proud of him--he has given pride to all blacks. Braggart, poet, philosopher--Clay creates a style that both fascinates and repels the public. His involvement with the Black Muslims deepens; he joins the Muslims, changing his name to Muhammad Ali. The rematch with Liston is banned in all major cities as the result of Ali's refusal to serve in the Army, and the fight takes place at Lewiston, Maine, on 26 May 1965. Ali retains the world championship, by knocking out Liston in the first round.
Who Are You, Polly Magoo? (1966)
In this excoriating satire of the fashion industry, Polly Maggoo is a 20-year-old Brooklyn-born fashion model in Paris, on the runway at the big shows where magazine editor Ms. Maxwell is the reigning opinion maker. The ridiculous passes for sublime. Polly becomes the subject of an episode of a vapid TV news documentary series called "Qui êtes-vous?" and is pursued by the filmmaker and by the prince of Borodine, a small country in the Soviet bloc. We watch as the documentary is shot, we await Polly's arrival in the principality, we observe a lunch in the suburbs, and we learn of her childhood. Is there more to Polly than her pretty face? Is anything below the surface?
Maydays (1978)
May '68, Paris: An extraordinary chronicle of an extraordinary moment, Maydays observes students, workers and the activities of the various assemblies and committees within the Sorbonne as the first protests begin to spill out into the streets. Lucidly detailing the heady climate of revolution, Klein follows the growing unrest as it moves beyond the city's limits. His camera captures the emergence of some of the movement's leaders, such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit, aka Dany the Red. The rawness of Klein's work generates a visceral sense of the events as they happen, conveying the complete spectrum of confusion, contradiction and urgency that marked this landmark moment.
Mr. Freedom (1969)
Mr. Freedom is a pro-American Right superhero who fights for God and country by beating, robbing, raping, and killing anyone who looks like they might disagree with him. When he hears that France is in danger of falling to the Commies, Mr. Freedom heads overseas to set things right. When the welcome he receives isn't quite as warm as he expected, he gives up hope of steering the French away from the Reds and decides to salvage what he can by destroying the entire country.
Festival panafricain d'Alger (1969)
Algiers Pan-African Festival is a documentary shot in 1969 during the first edition of the Festival. William Klein follows the preparations of this "Opera from the Third World", the rehearsals, the concerts... He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence, African culture...
Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther (1970)
In this documentary feature, Black Panther activist Eldridge Cleaver and his wife are interviewed by William Klein. Cleaver speaks from exile in Algeria, a move prompted by the state of California's decision to view criminal indictment as a parole violation. The articulate Eldridge talks openly about revolution in the United States and lists his arch rival political enemies. The names of Nixon, Agnew, McClelland are verbally sullied along with Ronald Reagan and Richard Daley. All are considered as bullet fodder for a number of revolutionary groups throughout the United States. Cleaver was not convicted of a crime, but the California decision forced him into exile.
The Model Couple (1977)
The French Ministry of the Future announces that it has computer-selected a so-called "average" French couple, Jean-Michel and Claudine (Andre Dussolier and Anemone), and will use what it finds out from them to determine how to manage housing and other government programs in the future. Overnight, they become famous and are subjected to endless questions by government functionaries. Commercial forces interested in using them for marketing research also begin to hound them. The couple is kidnapped just as they begin to rebel against their exploitation. This gives the government just the excuse it needs to drop the whole program, which had begun to develop in some awkward directions.
The French (1982)
On the circuit of grand slam events, the Roland Garros tournament is better known as The French Open, or simply The French. For two weeks, life in Paris and the whole of France is dominated by this amazing sports event where great champions are on court wherever you look and as many as 50 matches are fought out each day. William Klein and three camera crews were given total access to The French. From men and women's locker-rooms to massage tables, reception rooms to television studios, players' signing-in desk to turnstiles, stands, umpire's chairs, entrance gates and the VIP village, the cameras were given, for the first and last time, absolutely free rein. Miles of filmstock, unique footage, a thousand and one details, a many quirky anecdotes. For over two hours, the film shows the tennis carnaval as you have never seen it before. A circus with its cast of crazies, cranks, snobs, groupies, gurus, magicians, hustlers, heroes, clowns, sponsors, supermen and superwomen. And dollars, fistfuls of dollars, glory, fear and passion.
Contacts (1989)
The first episode in a series of short TV documentaries, initiated by Klein himself, in which great photographers are invited to talk about their practice as the camera pans across some of their contact sheets, thus mimicking a crucial process of image selection and self-critique usually kept behind the scenes. Eager to show what happens in between iconic shots, Klein guides us through the making of a photograph from the instant of framing and shooting through to the brutally honest dissection of a developed roll of film, mainly made of rejected shots or 'non-photographs,' and emphasizing the possibilities for further experimentation in the lab and beyond. This experience of opening up his studio practice to the public eye gave Klein the initial idea for his trademark hand-painted contact sheet blow-ups, which he sees as 'another way of dealing with and showing a photograph.
In and Out of Fashion (1998)
The Paris-based photographer-painter-actor-filmmaker William Klein looks back on five decades of his life and multi-careers in this French documentary. Born in 1926, Klein is a native New Yorker who began living in Paris in 1948, studied painting with Fernand Leger, photographed for Vogue from 1955 to 1965, dropped out of the fashion world for 15 years, and directed hundreds of commercials (from soup to hosiery). He was seen onscreen as an actor (People Will Talk, La Jetee) and worked offscreen as a visual consultant (Louis Malle's 1960 Zazie dans le Metro). Klein made both short and feature documentaries (from fighters to fashion), including and Far From Vietnam (1967) and Muhammed Ali, The Greatest. His dramatic film Who Are You, Polly Magoo? (1966) won the 1967 Prix Jean Vigo. Also excerpted here is Mr. Freedom (1968), a fable about America's intervention in Vietnam.
Messiah (1999)
Klein's irreverent eye for satire transforms Handel's Messiah, the conductor's famously jubilant oratorio, into a soaring, musical collage of humanity at the turn of the millennium. Ranging from the grotesque to the sublime, from the mundane to the tragic, from the sacred to the profane, the film documents diverse performances of the ubiquitous choral piece internationally, exploring Handel's music in relation to the lives of the people singing it in such far-flung locations as Dublin, Soweto, Jakarta and Las Vegas. Klein's cast includes Texas prison inmates, a gay choir in Times Square, the Lavender Light, the Dallas Police Choir, women boxers at the Taj Mahal, a drug rehab choir in Harlem, thousands of sobbing Promise Keepers in Detroit's Superdome, several hundred wealthy arts patrons attired for Houston's annual Hair Ball, the Ministers of Muscle and Les Musiciens du Louvre. Performed in its entirety, the oratorio bcomes a fascinating lens on the gritty reality of contemporary rituals of atrocity and exultation.
Broadway by Light (1958)
Klein's first film is a dizzying and dazzling study of a night in the life of New York's Great White Way. Focusing on the play of lights and shadows, colours and forms in motion, the camera jumps between the flashing bulbs and neons of Times Square's iconic advertising and the silhouettes of men at work on theatre marquees, as they re-arrange letters on the lightboxes, poised like acrobats on their stepladders. These concrete details are counterbalanced by more impressionistic moments of pure colour, distorted light reflections and severed fragments of words or texts, exemplary of Klein's life-long interest in typography. Illustrative of Klein's transition from photographer to filmmaker, Broadway by Light was declared by Orson Welles to be 'the first film I've seen in which colour was absolutely necessary.' Klein was encouraged by his friends Alain Resnais and Chris Marker to make the film, and Marker wrote the brief text that appears onscreen at the beginning of the film.

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee (1969)
He's the greatest fighter of all time. A sports icon that is loved throughout the world. A man driven by his ambition to be the best. Muhammad Ali is a name that to this day puts fear in the strongest of men. Hear from the people who knew him best, from experts of the world of boxing, relive the legendary fights and explore the life of boxing's greatest symbol, Ali.
Who Are You, Polly Magoo? (1966)
A model (Dorothy McGowan) tells a television crew about her dreams of a life with prince charming all while fending off the lecherous advances of a horde of men.
Maydays (1978)
The film observes both students and workers protesting in the streets and the activities of the various assemblies and committees within the Sorbonne. Although it risks reifying and fetishizing the revolutionary past, the film offers an invaluable and comprehensive vision of this rupture in everyday reality.
Mr. Freedom (1969)
A pro-America superhero destroys France to prevent Communists from taking over.
Festival panafricain d'Alger (1969)
Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.
Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther (1970)
Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther is an Algerian documentary film made in 1969, in which Black Panther activist Eldridge Cleaver spoke from exile in Algeria, where he had moved after the state of California tried to charge him with intent to murder.
The Model Couple (1977)
Two middle-class citizens are chosen for a national experiment. They will live in an apartment filled with modern appliances, and they will be filmed for six months.
The French (1982)
For the very first time, a documentary team is allowed to shoot sequences in the backstage of the French Open of tennis of Roland-Garros.
Contacts (1989)
The first episode in a series of short TV documentaries, initiated by Klein himself, in which great photographers are invited to talk about their practice as the camera pans across some of their contact sheets, thus mimicking a crucial process of image selection and self-critique usually kept behind the scenes.
In and Out of Fashion (1998)
This kaleidoscopic montage mixes excerpts from Klein's feature films and documentaries with imagery from his photographs, books, and paintings. Narrated by the man himself, it is a selective guided tour through Klein's career, shedding light onto his modus operandi by focusing specifically on his relationship with fashion.
Messiah (1999)
Photographer-filmmaker William Klein takes on Handel's Messiah and has created a gorgeous concert film that mixes the sacred with the profane. Performed in its entirety, the oratorio provides a narrative of Christ's nativity, passion and resurrection juxtaposed against images of absurdities and abuses against the human species across the world. The film reveals a wide array of worshippers from the Bodybuilders of Christ to the Lavender Light Gay and Lesbian Interracial Choir to the Dallas police choir.
Broadway by Light (1958)
William Klein's first film is a study of a night in the life of New York's iconic Broadway. It focuses on the interaction of lights and shadows, colours, shapes and forms as the camera jumps between the flashing bulbs and neon signs of Times Square's iconic advertising and the silhouettes of men at work on theatre marquees, as they re-arrange letters on the lightboxes.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 23 September, 2015.