This is an old BFI DVD with a really good Laura Mulvey commentary track...
Cannes Classics have just announced the screening of a new restoration of JOURNEY TO ITALY...
In 2011, Cannes Classics welcomed the ambitious Rossellini Project, the result of a collaboration between Instituto Luce Cinecittà, Cineteca di Bologna, CSC-Cineteca Nazionale and the Co-Production Office (head of international sales). After presenting The Machine that Kills Bad People (1948, 70’) in 2012 we will present, as a restored print, VIAGGIO IN ITALIA / JOURNEY TO ITALY (1954, 97') by Roberto Rossellini. Print restored by Cineteca di Bologna with L'Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with Istituto Luce Cinecittà, CSC-Cineteca Nazionale and The Co-Production Office.
Maybe an opportunity for the BFI to consider to consider an upgrade to dual format BR/DVD from these new materials?...
We can only hope but a new restoration doesn't necessarily guarantee an upgrade. I know that A River Called Titas, for example, was restored by the WCF in 2010 but the BFI haven't upgraded the ancient DVD.
andyli wrote:There is already an Italian blu-ray. It should be based on the same restoration.
In case any other non-Italian speakers go off searching for this like I did (I've never seen the film and have held off on the BFI DVD for years assuming that an upgrade must be due) according to a post on blu-ray.com it unfortunately doesn't contain the original English audio track, just Italian.
I wonder what it is about the Bay of Naples that makes it so popular for screenplays about foreigners arriving to deal with the estates of deceased relatives - Journey to Italy, Avanti! and It Started in Naples all have a similar plot device. Just a thought.
Matango wrote:I wonder what it is about the Bay of Naples that makes it so popular for screenplays about foreigners arriving to deal with the estates of deceased relatives - Journey to Italy, Avanti! and It Started in Naples all have a similar plot device. Just a thought.
I don't know the ins and outs, but Madman may simply not want to license them, especially if they give their own product a unique commercial advantage.
As I'm bumping this thread, I'm sure a few people will get excited, thinking that a Blu-ray from the BFI has been announced, but I couldn't resist posting this error from the Rossellini biography on the DVD:
"Rossellini's first three feature films were made during World War 11..."
ellipsis7 wrote:LA NAVE BIANCA (1941), UN PILOTA RITORNA (1942) & L'UOMO DALLA CROCE (1943) surely...
Yes, absolutely - I can't imagine what else could have been intended. Unless TMDaines was making an obscure point about World War Eleven?
Yes! The biography says World War 11 as opposed to World War II. Presumbly the font the draft was written in didn't have serifs on the 1s. I would have liked to have seen Rossellini tackle World War 11 though.
We surely won't be waiting too long on the BFI or Criterion to announce something hopefully.
If Criterion announced the fascist films with shorts as extras that would easily make my day. For as gross as the material can be The Man from the Cross is really gorgeous.
I thought all three of them were pretty dull and works of little artistic or drammatic value. They're interesting as evidence of how neorealism wasn't simply a clean break with the past, instead being an evolution of many of the asthetics in the Italian fascist-era cinema, and a testament to Rossellini's political naivety or indifference, but not much more than that.
Also "The Man from the Cross" would be a mistranslation of the Italian title. I don't know if there ever was an official English title but the closest translation would be The Man of the Cross.
