152 Illustrious Corpses

[Finch]

When a series of Supreme court judges are murdered, inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura, Army of Shadows) is sent to discover the truth. A procedural noir soon turns into a labyrinthine conspiracy thriller as corruption and institutional power converge. An investigative mystery by a titan of the form, Francesco Rosi’s (The Mattei Affair) urgent adaptation of Leonardo Sciascia’s (The Day of the Owl) novel is set to a haunting score by Piero Piccioni (The Tenth Victim) and features legendary stars Charles Vanel (The Wages of Fear), Max von Sydow (The Exorcist) and Fernando Rey (The French Connection).

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES

4K restoration of the film by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata and The Film Foundation
Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
Audio commentary by filmmaker Alex Cox (2021)
Archival interview with director Francesco Rosi (1976)
Archival interview with Francesco Rosi and Lino Ventura (1976)
New interview with Gaetana Marrone, author of The Cinema of Francesco Rosi (2025)
Trailer
Gallery
Optional English subtitles
Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Atkinson, and newly translated writing by and interview with Rosi
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Released in the UK/US: 27th/28th January

[ellipsis7]

Whoops!... Spelling mistake - should be CADAVERI ECCELLENTI !

Like so...

[MichaelB]

I imagine it's very easily fixable, but have you contacted them directly?

[domino harvey]

Interesting that this is US/UK… is this the first US upgrade of a KLSC title from Radiance?

[ellipsis7]

I imagine it's very easily fixable, but have you contacted them directly?

Yes, have done already, Michael... Will be fixed when it goes into production...

[beamish14]

Interesting that this is US/UK… is this the first US upgrade of a KLSC title from Radiance?

I was THIS close to buying it in the KL sale. It even has the Alex Cox commentary

[domino harvey]

They must be confident in their release, as KLSC never sold out of its clearance copies of this at $7.99

[Finch]

Stephen Horne confirmed elsewhere that they have carried out their own grading on their release of Illustrious Corpses.

[Stephen C. Horne]

Stephen Horne confirmed elsewhere that they have carried out their own grading on their release of Illustrious Corpses.

Colour correction, to be precise - unfortunately we couldn't grade this from scratch, as we just had the existing pre-graded master to work with. But we did our utmost!

[Matt]

Would this be a safe blind buy for a fan of Hands Over the City and The Mattei Affair?

[yoshimori]

Would this be a safe blind buy for a fan of Hands Over the City and The Mattei Affair?

Very much of a piece with The Mattei Affair.

[Marwood]

They must be confident in their release, as KLSC never sold out of its clearance copies of this at $7.99

I think they are. Radiance aren't just selling to the UK , they also have a significant market in the rest of Europe as well. There are still lots of people in Europe who aren't region free and have been waiting for films like this on blu. I see that specialist film stores in The Nordic countries, The Netherlands etc often import UK releases of European films that only have English subtitles for sale, so that has to be at least a few hundred extra copies sold as well. As for my self, even though I am region free, and own quite a few Kino releases my self, I often prioritize old classic Hollywood from Kino, and wait for UK boutique labels for the Euro arthouse stuff.

I guess one would have to ask Radiance, but my feeling is that their release of Illustrious Corpses would have the potential to do better numbers than Kino's.

[domino harvey]

Kino’s recent inadvertent reveal of how many copies they press of a given title shows their numbers are far higher than any other boutique label, but I don’t doubt this copy will be more appealing to importers

[Grand Wazoo]

Kino’s recent inadvertent reveal of how many copies they press of a given title shows their numbers are far higher than any other boutique label, but I don’t doubt this copy will be more appealing to importers

Curious about this, could you link to the info?

[domino harvey]

From KLSC’s Blu-ray.com forum response to their Night of the Juggler error

We had printed 10000 4K discs, 5000 Blu-rays and 3000 DVDs.

I imagine not every title gets a run this large but it does give some insight into their overall numbers

[Never Cursed]

From KLSC’s Blu-ray.com forum response to their Night of the Juggler error

We had printed 10000 4K discs, 5000 Blu-rays and 3000 DVDs.

I imagine not every title gets a run this large but it does give some insight into their overall numbers

"I'm assuming you did the typing, Dee, yes?...."

[Stefan Andersson]

Screenshots from the Kino Lorber and Colored Films (in France) releases:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film10/blu-ray ... lu-ray.htm
https://www.dvdclassik.com/test/blu-ray ... ored-films

Will be interesting to compare with Radiance´s colour-corrected version.

Interesting fact: this film was shot on colour reversal (inversible in French) stock.
From DVDBeaver:
"cited as being from a "4K Restoration from the Original Camera Negative". An initial screen describes "Restored by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna at Limmagine Ritrovata laboratory and The Film Foundation in 2019. Funding provided by George Lucas Family Foundation. The 4K restoration of Cadaver' eccellenti used two first generation reversal elements and the Italian magnetic sound mix, both provided by MGM. Two 35mm vintage prints, preserved by the British Film Institute, were used as reference for the color grading." I have heard the term "Titrovat'ed" and this 1080P image is extremely dark and green - notably in indoor sequences."

"Peter tells us in email: "I ran a vast series of Rosi restorations in 1997 at PFA from then-brand-new prints, with Rosi in person, and the 1970s titles in particular tilted green. You'll note that there's some French pictures from around this time which also looked a little like this (Melville's ARMY OF SHADOWS 35mm revival prints had this look). No doubt this is a result of the fact that the film was originally printed and released from (and this was restored from) color reversal – and color reversals tend to have a greenish-bluish cast "built-in" to a degree – plus the fact that the DP and lab at the time made choices because of that fact."

[tenia]

Maybe it's a typo, or maybe Gary knows so little about what he's been writing about for 25 years, and is so used to barely adding anything to press releases that he seemingly doesn't release it's Ritrovata'd, as in the name of the lab he wrote 20 words before.

0 doubt what we're seeing here mostly is from the lab's signature, since it looks pretty much exactly like the other 200+ concerned movies, not all of them being from the 70s and/or from Rosi.

[DeprongMori]

I really don’t understand the pervasive hostility here against Gary Tooze. It doesn’t seem deserved, unlike the well-earned scorn against Svet.

The “T” key is right next to the “R” key. It is simply a typo. Why can’t we leave it at that?

[Drucker]

Stephen Horne confirmed elsewhere that they have carried out their own grading on their release of Illustrious Corpses.

Colour correction, to be precise - unfortunately we couldn't grade this from scratch, as we just had the existing pre-graded master to work with. But we did our utmost!

Now visible on caps-a-holic.

[Matt]

I missed the earlier mention of his review—and I don't bear him any ill feelings—but "Titrovat'ed" is an extremely funny typo for Gary in particular to make.