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That's interesting about the compression - I suspect Arrow will be using the same master, but there would appear to be obvious scope for improvement there.

It's also quite surprising since, even if it's only a BD-25, there's probably a healthy video bitrate to begin with (a 95 minutes main feature with only 2 LPCM 2.0 tracks, and probably 2 Gb of SD extras, that's not a lot of material).

Hoberman's article on Raro's Liliana Cavani's I Cannibali, Francesco Rosi's Uomini Contro and Sergio Garrone's Hanging for Django.

I CANNIBALI also gets a decent review in the March ish of Sight and Sound... My copy of the BR arrived this morning - a splendidly crisp transfer of a rather intriguing film of its time and place...

Gang War In Milan's menu on YouTube. Looks appalling - wax city.

Graham wrote:Gang War In Milan's menu on YouTube. Looks appalling - wax city.

Now we're reviewing blu-ray transfers based on youtube menu clips, huh?

That's indeed particularly disastrous.

I vinti (1953) and Le soldatesse (1965) on Blu-ray later this year.

Ampersand wrote:

Graham wrote:Gang War In Milan's menu on YouTube. Looks appalling - wax city.

Now we're reviewing blu-ray transfers based on youtube menu clips, huh?

Did you actually watch it? Even on YouTube, it looks absolutely dreadful. Of course, I'd love the blu-ray to look great, but it's not looking likely based on the action visible in the menu - just look at the faces.

Graham wrote: Did you actually watch it? Even on YouTube, it looks absolutely dreadful. Of course, I'd love the blu-ray to look great, but it's not looking likely based on the action visible in the menu - just look at the faces.

It's worth noting that nearly every recent Raro blu-ray has some sort of ugly filter over the video footage used on the menu screen. I don't think it will be clear whether that's the case here until it's released. Let's not settle on our assessments prematurely, is all.

That said, I don't have lots of hope, either. I received their blus of Meet Him and Die and Hallucination Strip in the mail today and they're huge disappointments. Imagine those ugly, noisy transfers out of Italy from a few years ago but botched to the nth degree. I'm not even entirely certain that Meet Him and Die is coming from an HD source.

However, their recent blu-ray of Death Occurred Last Night is impeccable, so maybe all is not lost.

Ampersand wrote:It's worth noting that nearly every recent Raro blu-ray has some sort of ugly filter over the video footage used on the menu screen.

That's exactly the info I was looking for, thanks. So there's still a chance this release might be OK.

And thanks for the feedback on the other Raro titles. The only blu-rays they've released that I own are the first Di Leo box, which on La Mala Ordina dubbing even more out-of-sync than it should be, and Shoot First, Die Later.

Monte Hellman has posted on Facebook that Raro will soon be releasing his 1988 film Iguana.

Monte Hellman wrote:Josep Civit, who's been my cinematographer since IGUANA, has been working for the last two days in Rome on the color correction for the upcoming Raro blu-ray. This will have the restored lost two minutes, and may just be the definitive edition.

Here is the Raro FB page post -
https://www.facebook.com/#!/18511583153 ... =1&theater

Raro's The Conformist promises some unique extras in comparison to the Arrow release, but I think we'll be wondering as to what the image is going to look like (I thought Arrow's release of it on Blu was very good but I know some people had issues with its image quality and colour).

They already put out a subpar Blu-ray in Italy. Is there any reason to believe this release will feature a different transfer?

They do say director approved, so that's something.

captveg wrote:They do say director approved, so that's something.

The Arrow transfer was already approved by Storaro, so pretty safe to assume it's the same master/transfer.

But Storaro was not the director.

I stand corrected.

For clarity on my part, Raro's FB Post says:

"New Restored version supervised by Vittotio Storaro."
"Director approved."
and Arrow's website reads:

"HD restoration supervised by Director of Photography Vittorio Storaro in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio"

My money's on it being exactly the same master.

Most likely.

Pro-b seems to confirm the old master, unless Raro is receptive to enough protestations.

Raro have done a nice job with the restored I VINTI materials in their new BR package... L'AMORE IN CITTA to follow likewise based on the evidence of the TENTATO SUICIDIO episode included on this disc...

ellipsis7 wrote:Raro have done a nice job with the restored I VINTI materials in their new BR package... L'AMORE IN CITTA to follow likewise based on the evidence of the TENTATO SUICIDIO episode included on this disc...

Not according to DVD Beaver, they haven't.