Red Desert

[Particle Zoo]

Michael won't like this - the only review posted on amazon.co.uk for the DESERTO ROSSO BR...

The reviewer makes no mention of what equipment he watched the film with. It could have been a postage stamp of a computer monitor. You won't see a difference at that size.

[MichaelB]

Yes, that review is so out of step with the general consensus that I'm curious as to how the disc was actually viewed. Certainly, on a properly calibrated 42" plasma the differences between the DVD and Blu-ray should be obvious, and there's nothing "banal" about the transfer at all - as David Hare points out with some considerable authority (having seen a 35mm Technicolor print not long after the original release), the BFI went to great lengths to ensure that the picture was as accurate as could be achieved in the absence of either the director or cinematographer.

I remember about ten years ago there was this amateur critic who used to keep praising cheap Hong Kong-label DVDs to the skies while slagging off the British Hong Kong legends label - whose transfers were usually so much better that there was no comparison. Curious as to why he was in a minority of one, I e-mailed him, and it transpired that he'd been comparing non-anamorphic NTSC and anamorphic PAL discs using a 17" 4:3 CRT television.

So not only was he completely unable to appreciate the rather substantial improvement in resolution, but there's every possibility the anamorphic discs genuinely did look worse on his system, as they'd have to have been downconverted to letterboxed 4:3 by what I suspect (given his choice of screen) was a pretty cheap and nasty player!

[ellipsis7]

After the filming of RD...

Harris on Antonioni...

I certainly would not suggest that Antonioni's a great director; he's a marvellous director. He understands Monica Vitti well, and Monica needs to be wound up, like a doll, and then let loose, then she goes through all the emotions of acting, what she is told to do. I think that something very important here is that participation of the actor. Serious actors would like to break away from the conventional idea of going into square one, and to participate in the work from the very conception. You find this very difficult in a multi million dollar production. There are studio made carbon copies of a succesful formula of twenty years ago.

With Antonioni I believed at the beginning of THE RED DESERT that he would give me this participation, because he is a great artist. I assumed he had great respect for my talent because he picked me for it out of THIS SPORTING LIFE, he wrote me many long letters afterwards asking me to do it. When I got to Italy I felt quite the opposite. I felt that Antonioni, after about five weeks, through his own insecurity, found a new formula for making the picture. I think Antonioni's pictures have this particular formula and style and he is edging towards something different. But he sort of panicked, and I was then playing a part that I didn't particularly like, I had no symapathy with it at all, and lack of co-operation set in between us.

Antonioni on Harris, as told by John Francis Lane....

An Antonioni film is not made on a normal 'professional' basis. This was something that the male lead, Richard Harris, was to find out the hard way. He should have known what he was letting himself in for once he agreed to make an offbeat film. The star of THIS SPORTING LIFE chose to make the Antonioni film at a time when his box office quota in distributor's eyes was rather low, following the financial flop of Lindsay Anderson's film in both Britain and America. But when Harris's contract with Antonioni's producer expired some time before Antonioni had finished with him, Harris couldn't stay on in Italy. He had to go to Mexico to co-star with Charlton Heston in a big budget epic, restoring his 'box office prestige'. La Fuga di Harris, Harris's flight, as the Italian papers called it, was not the actor's fault. Contracts are contracts. But it made Antonioni mad at the time. He needed Harris for a crucial love scene. Now Antonioni is grateful to Harris. The rewriting changed a lot of things. Some other Harris scenes also came out. The 'story' has apparently benefited from the Fuga

Michael, or Particle, you should post a contrary and corrective review on Amazon so... As I said, David is indeed authorative and persuasive and I am now picking up the BR... I also said previously, on the basis of the excellent SDVD (from the same HD master) the BFI's transfer is both beautiful and true to my eyes, with colour palette matching the photographs in the original Italian poster, promotional booklet, and published script I have in my possession... Along with Renoir, Antonioni tops my personal pantheon, and some 50 books by and on Antonioni sit on the shelf in front of me along with countless articles etc., and including scripts of all his films, many in several versions (I have 5 for L'AVVENTURA)...

[Particle Zoo]

Michael, or Particle, you should post a contrary and corrective review on Amazon so... As I said, David is indeed authorative and persuasive and I am now picking up the BR... I also said previously, on the basis of the excellent SDVD (from the same HD master) the BFI's transfer is both beautiful and true to my eyes, with colour palette matching the photographs in the original Italian poster, promotional booklet, and published script I have in my possession... Along with Renoir, Antonioni tops my personal pantheon, and some 50 books by and on Antonioni sit on the shelf in front of me along with countless articles etc., and including scripts of all his films, many in several versions (I have 5 for L'AVVENTURA)

Ellipsis, I have done as you suggested.

[Matt]

Ellipsis, I have done as you suggested.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001 ... s_prod_img" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now everyone click on the "Yes" button where it asks if this review was helpful and the "No" button for the other review (you have to have an Amazon account, but who doesn't?).

[Particle Zoo]

I doubt anyone is interested, but the Amazon reviewer has shifted his tone, going so far as to change his original review. At least he is more nuanced now.

[Matt]

DVD vs. Blu-Ray discussion moved here.

[MichaelB]

It'll only reveal some more region-free Blu-rays Michael - We're simply not releasing anything on Blu-ray unless we can release them region-free. Region-coding is anti-human (of course). Someone's got to make a stand, and I'm very, very happy to see that AE seem to be doing so.

Large organisations like Criterion and the BFI simply have no choice in many cases. I completely understand, and it guts me that they have to impose restrictions on their releases. I still think there's a lot more could be done in this area.

Sorry to take so long to get back to this: I was waiting for reliable confirmation about the region status of the first BFI Blu-ray release not to be handled by the rightsholder of the old United Artists catalogue (i.e. Red Desert, the Pasolinis and the Woodfall titles).

And I'm delighted to confirm that the Jeff Keen set will indeed be region-free, as will all other BFI Blu-rays where it's not a specific contractual imposition or considered necessary for other strategic business reasons. (For instance, even if the BFI owns the world rights outright, it may be necessary to region-code if that means concluding a licensing deal with a foreign distributor - and since such deals often dictate whether a new HD transfer is affordable in the first place, it's a bit of a no-brainer!)

Peerpee's post was also very interesting, as it proves that compromise of one sort or another is currently unavoidable. If you polemically set out to be region-free (like MoC claims to be with its Blu-ray catalogue), you basically shut off access to a substantial chunk of material: he knows full well that several rightsholders and sales agents are currently unbudgeable on this issue. On the other hand, if you're more pragmatic (as MoC used to be with its DVD line-up), you'll inevitably have to region-code from time to time.

I really hope this makes everything clear. I'm genuinely not seeking to be confrontational over this, which is why I very much appreciated the tone of Peerpee's post. He at least is well aware of the underlying business realities!

(Believe me, despite that unsubtle dig, I do have a lot of sympathy with Nothing's position - even though this is my twentieth year in the business, I'm still a utopian idealist at heart, and the same is true of the vast majority of my colleagues. That's why I go to such lengths to big up my favourite labels, like MoC, Second Run, PWA or Christopher Nupen's largely one-man operation, as I know from countless personal conversations with the people involved just what genuine labours of love their releases are, and what lengths they go to to try to squeeze maximum quality out of less than felicitous budgets or source materials. But we also know that, unlike our armchair critics, we actually have to go out and pitch for production funds, calculate likely returns on investment and negotiate with foreign rightsholders to minimise risk - and, of course, get it right more often than not in order to stay afloat. And that's true regardless of whether you're a huge Hollywood-based multinational or a tiny shoestring outfit.)

[MichaelB]

A belated but very welcome rave from Glenn Kenny (The Auteurs), in which he says "I rate this at the very top of all the Blu-rays I own".

[Will Barks]

ma purtroppo ci sono i sottotitoli in inglese non eliminabili

Someone at amazon wrote this which reads the subtitels are not removable. Is that true?

[Sloper]

It certainly isn't true of the SD edition - indeed, you can choose between dialogue subtitles, commentary subtitles, or no subtitles. Can't think why it would be different on the Blu-ray.

[Will Barks]

Can't think why it would be different on the Blu-ray.

Could somebody give a statment on the subject who owns the Blu-ray?

[MichaelB]

The kids are hogging the HD telly at the moment so I can't check my copy - but DVD Times' separate reviews of the DVD and the Blu-ray both say that the subtitles are removable. DVD Beaver also says that the Blu-ray subtitle options are "English" and "none".

So that's three different authors reaching the same conclusion - and if subtitles are optional on one format, there's no conceivable contractual reason why they'd be compulsory on another.

[Will Barks]

Ok, thanks for your answer! In this case I might consider bying this title.

[MichaelB]

OK, I've now had a look at the Blu-ray myself, and I think I can see where the confusion lies - when you play the film, it defaults to Italian with English subtitles, and there's no subtitle option on the menu. But where our Italian friend went wrong is that he didn't think to try the audio and subtitle buttons on the remote. I've just done this, and am happy to confirm that everything's switchable on the fly.

Audio options: original Italian soundtrack/David Forgacs commentary
Subtitle options: English (film)/English (commentary)/no subtitles

Any combination is possible, so if you fancy watching the film with its original soundtrack and the commentary presented as onscreen text, that's absolutely fine.

I hope that's a definitive answer!

[Will Barks]

Thanks for the clarification!

[Yojimbo]

Red Desert



Antonioni's mid-career masterpiece - his first film in colour - tells the story of Giuliana (Monica Vitti), a young woman suffering a mental and emotional crisis and embarking tentatively on an affair. Vitti - Antonioni's lover and muse, and the star of his earlier films L'avventura, L'eclisse and La notte - gives a magnificent, startling performance. She is ably accompanied by Carlo Chionetti as her unemotional husband Ugo, and Richard Harris as Corrado, the restless associate of Ugos who finds himself drawn to her.

Red Desert is a stunning film from the great Italian auteur, deserved winner of the Golden Lion at the 1965 Venice Film Festival and a high point in modern cinema.

This is a brand new restoration with new improved English subtitle translation

Extras
* New full-feature commentary by Italian scholar David Forgacs
* Original trailer
* Fully illustrated colour booklet containing newly commissioned essays, notes, and Antonioni's recollections of making Red Desert

I watched it for the first time with English subs last night; I also have the Carlotta French-subbed which I'd watched a year or two back.
I watched this time with the commentary track on and glad to hea that I hadn't missed too much when depending on my almost 40-year old Leaving Cert French.

I think its probably his greatest achievement, even greater than the concensus 'L'Avventura' , although its quite a difficult watch.
As for the DVD itself: excellent quality; stunning colour reproduction

[Bürgermeister]

Dual format coming next week(October 17th)

[MichaelB]

Dual format coming next week(October 17th)

Actually, it's October 24th.

[Bürgermeister]

all the sites at that time had it as 17th most still do but show 1-3 week dispatch.

At least it's finally listed on Amazon. But still no listing for loneliness of the long distance runner.

[ellipsis7]

I already have both the DVD & BR in separate packaging, but no chance of obtaining just the box and the cover of the new dual format edition to make my own combo...

UPDATE: However just sorted, thankyou...

[ellipsis7]

RED DESERT getting a timely theatrical release by the BFI to mark the Centenary of Antonioni's birth...