Luchino Visconti

[norrareal1968]

I'm keen on picking up the BFI edition of La terra trema but would like to see some screen grabs first. Does anybody have any to post or can refer to a link elsewhere? I can't find any on the internet. Thanks.

[TMDaines]

I'm keen on picking up the BFI edition of La terra trema but would like to see some screen grabs first. Does anybody have any to post or can refer to a link elsewhere? I can't find any on the internet. Thanks.

In comparison to the RHV version from Italy it is terrible.

[norrareal1968]

thanks a lot!

[Jack Phillips]

I'm a bit surprised to see no further comments on the Italian disc of "Vaghe stelle dell'orsa..."

Well, where can I purchase it?

[Tommaso]

I bought it from deastore.com. Didn't know them before, but thought I'd give them a try as their shipping costs are far more reasonable than most other Italian e-tailers. Received the disc in about two weeks, absolutely no problems.

[ellipsis7]

Some specs on the SENSO Blu - no info on region coding & subs, and the aspect ratio surely wrong (should be 1.33:1)!...

Informations Produit :
Livret intégré rédigé par Philipe Kemp, historien du cinéma et critique de films (20 pages)
Public:
Tous publics
Format vidéo:
1.66 (16/9)

Zone: n/a
Spécificités produit:
Couleurs
Suppléments:
"Visconti, mon Maître" : interview de Francesco Rosi, assistant de Luchino Visconti sur le film (56'26")
Marco Tullio Girdana : "Visconti entre cinéma et opéra" (41'08")

[Tommaso]

Beware of the Italian DVD of "Vaghe stelle..." that came out in 2009 - pan and scan means that you won't watch the film as Visconti intended you to see it. (The same applies to the Brazilian DVD, by the way.)
Just compare it with the Japanese DVD and you will discover how much of the image you are missing!
Such a shame...
Hopefully the image will be restored when an American or British or French DVD is released...

Dammit, I didn't know about this, but was surprised that Visconti apparently had turned back to academy ratio when I watched that disc. It seems the Japanese disc is 1.66, which seems correct, but as I of course haven't seen it, I was wondering whether the Italian disc was perhaps just open matte. But if you say that indeed something is missing, then the Italian disc should be avoided, however strong the image quality is.

[justeleblanc]

Cropped or open matte? Sony has been known to release open matte on DVD before (R1 Anatomy of a Murder) whereas I don't know if they've ever released a cropped film that was originally projected with a matte.

[Tommaso]

Okay, I think this seals it.

Japanese dvd:



My cap from the original Italian disc:


And off to ebay it must go...

[4LOM]

Screenshots of the German "StudioCanal Collection" Blu-ray (region "B" only) of Visconti's "Senso". Only French and German subtitles, no English ones, with Italian, French and German audio tracks. It's from the "StudioCanal, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia/Cineteca Nazionale and Cineteca di Bologna L’Immagine Ritrovata" restoration.

[Nothing]

Agh, look beautiful. So Studio Canal don't have the UK rights to this (hence no English subs?) One for Masters of Cinema then, perhaps?

[tojoed]

Agh, look beautiful. So Studio Canal don't have the UK rights to this (hence no English subs?) One for Masters of Cinema then, perhaps?

They do. It was released by Optimum on SD and it will get a Blu release later this year.

[ellipsis7]

Maybe, let's see... I went for Studo Canal SENSO Blu, and have just watched it through this evening (with French subs) on the big screen - a truly magnificent experience!.. It is such a great film, and Visconti on such top form, his operatic style manifest in a quality only second to THE LEOPARD... Noticed in the HD image a marvellously composed shot at the beginning - in the theatrical box, the Countess adjusts herself in the mirror, various officers are apparent in the reflection, and suddenly the curtain on the stage rises across the entire background of the reflection, as the next act starts... Never noticed that before...

[ellipsis7]

David, it's not absolutely perfect -there's occasionally very slight edging when the 3 strips are not exactly aligned, and the colours are still slightly desaturated at times, black levels not always completely optimum -but there's a really tactile texture to the Blu, and the experience is so much richer than the Optimum DVD, and I guess also the improved Cristaldi dvd, which I've not seen... With the Blu you get the full operatic experience...

[tenia]

From Carlotta :

August 18th :

[Rupert Pupkin]

Okay, I think this seals it.

Japanese dvd:



My cap from the original Italian disc:

Too bad for the Italian Sony DVD. The restoration was excellent, but with this unforgiven cropped version we lost all the beautiful cinematography of this movie. For instance, when Jean Sorel tries to "borrow" Sandra (Claudia Cardinale)'s ring, all the architectural backrgound of this scene is totally ruined because of the cropping.

but...
Sony/Criterion gave us a stunning Repulsion... there's no chance of a Sony/Criterion Sandra on blu ?

[Saimo]

Ossessione € 6.99 (film and bonus with English and French subs)

[Toby Dammit]

Medusa (Italy) has announced Visconti's "The Leopard" for BD in November 17th. I'm curious to see if they will use the 2010 restoration from The Film Foundation

Il Gattopardo [Italy, 1963]
Tratto dal romanzo di Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
Regia: Luchino Visconti
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Romolo Valli, Terence Hill, Pierre Clémenti



La Sicilia del 1860 viene sconvolta dall’annuncio dello sbarco garibaldino. Il principe don Fabrizio di Salina sceglie per l’annessione del proprio feudo di Donnafugata allo Stato Sabaudo. Inoltre favorisce il fidanzamento del nipote Tancredi con la bella Angelica Sedàra, figlia di un ricco parvenu. Il nipote inizia così la propria scalata sociale nel nuovo ordine, mentre lo zio preferisce restare legato alla tradizione. Unico baluardo di un mondo in via di dissoluzione, il principe sente forte il senso della fine, e quando durante il ballo, per festeggiare la scongiurata rivoluzione, si vede attorniato da gente ormai troppo diversa da lui si rassegna a morire. Critica al trasformismo della classe politica, pronta a indossare l’habitus nuovo per inscenare la solita storia, “se vogliamo che tutto rimanga com’è, bisogna che tutto cambi”, il film di Luchino Visconti è perfetto nella ricostruzione storica. Palma d’Oro al Festival di Cannes.

Lingue principali: Italiano / Audio Italiano: 2.0 DTS-HD
Sottotitoli principali: Italiano per non udenti, Inglese per non udenti
Rapporto schermo: 2.35:1 Anamorfico

Extra
Intervista esclusiva al produttore Goffredo Lombardo
Speciale: Il Gattopardo - Un viaggio nella memoria
Documentario sul restauro con intervista a Giuseppe Rotunno
Cinegiornale
Cinecronaca
Galleria dei bozzetti dei costumi di Piero Tosi
Galleria fotografica
Galleria fotografica delle scenografie di Mario Garbuglia
Libro de "Il Gattopardo" di Tomasi di Lampedusa.

PD: How they made that cover so poorly designed!!??

Rocco and His Brothers Blu-ray Coming Up




This winter, French distributors TF1 Video will release on Blu-ray Luchino Visconti's acclaimed Rocco e i suoi fratelli a.k.a Rocco and His Brothers (1960), starring Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot, and Nino Castelnuovo. In 1960, the film won Special Prize and FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Street date is December 7th.

In the U.S., Rocco and His Brothers is currently out of print (the last DVD release was produced by Image Entertainment). In the UK, the film is distributed by Eureka Entertainment and is currently available on DVD as part of the Masters of Cinema series.

[ellipsis7]

An opportunity for MoC to upgrade to dual format?

[perkizitore]

Any reviews of the Australian blu-ray?

[John Edmond]

Australian reviewers are slack. I'll keep an eye out for it in my local rentals (they're reasonably good) if it pops up I'll let you know how it looks in comparison.

[Toby Dammit]

Any news on Rocco's BluRay?

Does anyone know when this will be released?

[rohmerin]

Le streghe (THE WITCHES, United Artist) has been released on a poor DVD here in Spain by a strange company that we don't know where they get their films. Review

Le streghe is on USA ala demande !

[Fred Holywell]

Caught the beginning of "Rocco & His Brothers" on TCM tonight in the hope that it would bear a Janus logo at the start, but unfortunately it did not. In fact, the print shown looked like the rather lousy Milestone laserdisc master; blurry, spliced, and yellow-subtitled, to boot. Any chance that this title might turn up as a Criterion release seems pretty slim.

[rohmerin]

Magnificent aprox. 80 minutes BBC documentary about Visconti with interviews to the actual family and visiting Lake Como villa, and family palazzi. BBC marks the difference when they make a documentary all doors are open. For RAI and Carlo Lizzani, not so much.

Part 8 is missing, probably Fox complained about The leopard. But the rest 11 parts works well.

Excellent doc.