Three Brothers
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Synopsis
"A wonderful film that moves on waves of feeling. Francesco Rosi, who has one of the greatest compositional senses in the history of movies, keeps you in a state of emotional exaltation. A simple image has the kind of resonance that most directors never achieve." (Pauline Kael, New Yorker) Francesco Rosi established himself as one of the greatest chroniclers of Italy's stormy postwar history with such riveting classics as Salvatore Giuliano, The Mattei Affair and Illustrious Corpses. Three Brothers (Tre fratelli) explores similarly knotty social and political territory through the seemingly straightforward story of three siblings returning to their native southern Italy to pay homage to their late mother. However, their various professions - a judge in Rome (Philippe Noiret), a spiritual counsellor in Naples (Vittorio Mezzogiorno), a factory worker in Turin (Michele Placido) - have a profound effect on their response to this reunion. Arrow Academy is proud to present this powerful, Oscar-nominated film in a brand new 2K restoration
Picture 9/10
Francesco Rosi’s Academy Award winning film Three Brothers makes its debut on Blu-ray through Arrow Academy’s new dual-format edition. Coming from a new 2K restoration performed by Technicolor in Italy (no details about the print materials used are provided in the notes) the 1080p/24hz high-definition presentation is shown in the film’s original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
The restoration work looks impressive and Arrow delivers a wonderful final image on the disc. There are a handful of moments where the frame jumps around ever so slightly or the image pulses a slight bit, and there is a spec that appears here and there but the restoration work has been quite extensive, and there’s nothing truly glaring remaining.
The digital presentation and encode itself is pretty much flawless. As far as encodes go this is about as filmic as you get. The film’s grain is rendered beautifully, without a hint of blocking or noise present. Black levels look strong and the darker scenes are still easy to see, crushing not being evident. Objects are crisp, detail is razor sharp, even in the smaller, finer details, with long shots of fields delivering a lot of information, and Colours also retain a natural look and saturation is spot on. It’s quite impressive and I was pretty wowed by it in the end.
Audio 7/10
Arrow includes the film’s original Italian track, presented here in LPCM 1.0 mono. Dialogue does come off somewhat flat but the rest of the track, including sound effects and what music there is, has a bit more fidelity and range to it. Damage also isn’t a real concern, the track sounding clean and free of distortion.
Extras 6/10
Disappointingly Arrow only includes one significant on-disc feature but it’s at least an incredible one, an audio Q&A with director Francesco Rosi, recorded at the National Film Theatre in London on June 1st, 1987, after a screening of his then-new film, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Because it follows a screening a lot of the discussion between Rosi and moderator Derek Malcolm revolves either around his work as a whole or Chronicle of a Death Foretold specifically, and the same happens when the audience starts asking questions; I don’t recall Three Brothers itself ever coming up. This doesn’t end up mattering at all, though, and we’re treated to a fascinating discussion about Rosi’s work, the ins-and-outs of international financing of a film, the politics in his films over the years, shooting in specific locations, and some interesting tidbits about filming in Colombia (where Chronicle of Death Foretold was filmed and takes place). This is all wonderful and the audience questions (ranging from questions about the film just screened to the dangers in making films about corruption) are great, well, most of them anyways (there’s a rambling one that neither Rosi nor Malcolm can make heads or tails of) but it’s how Arrow presents this feature that makes it a superb one. Most of the audience questions are inaudible so Arrow does provide text notes where they can (some questions are entirely inaudible), and Arrow breaks up some of the monotony that can come from a 72-minute audio-only feature by using still overlays and clips from the film, but the addition I found most invaluable were text notes that Arrow provides throughout to offer some context to what is being discussed. It’s a great inclusion on Arrow’s part, but their work and additions to the feature make it an absolutely invaluable feature.
The disc then closes with the theatrical trailer. I was admittedly a bit bummed these were the only on-disc features (though again that Rosi interview is fabulous), but thankfully Arrow also includes a rather lengthy 44-page booklet. It first opens with an introduction by Francesco Rosi, written in 1981 and is then followed by a very lengthy essay by Millicent Marcus, looking at how Rosi presents the politics through the brothers (a more subtle way in comparison to his older political films) among other aspects. Arrow also includes another collection of contemporary reviews, most are good, though one in particular wasn’t pleased with the film. The booklet then closes with the reprint of an interview between Rosi and Michel Ciment, discussing his work and this film, including some possible autobiographical elements (Rosi recalls his own mother’s death). It’s a wonderful booklet and since it’s apparently only limited to first printings I would say pick this one up soon to make sure you get it.
Overall, not a stacked edition, somewhat surprisingly, but there’s real meat to everything they’ve added here.
Closing
Though a bigger special edition would have been welcome I still found it a really solid release. The presentation is superb and the interview and booklet are both great. Highly recommended.
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