Three Brothers (Tre fratelli)

[antnield]

“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.

Although Oscar-nominated at the time, Three Brothers has never previously been released on any video format in the UK. Arrow Academy is proud to present it here in a brand new 2K restoration.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- Brand new 2K restoration from original film materials
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional newly translated English subtitles
- Archival interview with Francesco Rosi
- Original theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
- Booklet featuring an essay by Professor Millicent Marcus, a 1981 interview with Rosi and a selection of contemporary reviews (first printing only)

[Drucker]

This is superb news. Salvatore and Hands Over the City are such perfect films, I've wanted to see other works by Rosi but find them mostly hard to come by on home video.

Please bring on The Mattei Affair next!

[MichaelB]

Arrow would love to do more Rosi and indeed Elio Petri - it's just a case of working out the most opportune combinations of available rights and materials.

But Three Brothers is a major work that's been neglected for far too long - it was a very big deal at the time, but sadly was a little too early to cash in on the arthouse video market, which only really took off a decade later when the film (and to a large extent Rosi himself) had been forgotten. But Pauline Kael's review is like that pretty much all the way through: it was one of her absolute favourite films of the early 1980s.

Incidentally, I was absolutely thrilled with the cover when Matt Griffin sent in the roughs - it's a very tricky film to sum up in a single image, but I think he's nailed it. The fact that the brothers have shadows pointing in different directions is of course deliberate.

[ellipsis7]

It would be great to see IL CASO MATTEI and/or CADAVERI ECCELLENTI on BluRay as both are hard to source in an anyway decent form... Rosi's debut film LA SFIDA is however out in a beautiful Italian BR from Cristaldi Film, so there is an HD master there for the taking...

[tomN245]

I've been wanting to see this film for years.

I am really happy right now

[RossyG]

Lucky Luciano would be top of my wants list, but I'm up for any Rosi on Blu-Ray.

[Altair]

Incredible news and a very easy buy; all of Rosi's films I've seen so far have been exceptional. Raro have a not-too-bad region free BD of the very fine Many Wars Ago for those who want to see more of his work.

[Aunt Peg]

The first great release news of 2016!

I can now get rid of my video sourced US dvd. Can't wait to get hold of this. Three Brothers is my favourite Rosi film.

[Stefan Andersson]

Arrow/MichaelB: Great news, thank you very much for releasing this wonderful film!

Here´s a vote for Christ Stopped at Eboli - - a great film also. Hopefully both the theatrical and TV can be sourced sometime. Personally, I wouldn´t mind if the longer cut was presented in SD (branching?), just to have it available.

[ellipsis7]

Looking forward to receiving this release next week, just slightly surprised no reviews posted as yet...

[MichaelB]

I assume copies have been sent out to the usual suspects, as mine arrived last week.

But hopefully it'll go down well - I'm particularly proud of the booklet for this one, a nearly 15,000-word epic that technically breached the official page limit for a standard Amaray case (technically 40, although I seem to have got away with 44).

[tenia]

Some might have gotten theirs earlier, but Arrow's PR only sent the official press release offering checkdiscs last week, so this might explain that (I'll probably only get mine early next week).

I'm particularly proud of the booklet for this one, a nearly 15,000-word epic that technically breached the official page limit for a standard Amaray case (technically 40, although I seem to have got away with 44).

Nothing that thinner paper and small print font can absorb.

[MichaelB]

Nothing that thinner paper and small print font can absorb.

The font is as small as I'm comfortable with (about half a point smaller than normal), and I'm not going down the "thinner paper" route again after being very unhappy with how the BFI's Jan Svankmajer booklet turned out. The contents are great, but the paper was obviously too thin for a full-colour production, and you don't really find this out for certain until it's too late.

The basic problem was that Millicent Marcus's essay was about four times the length of a typical Arrow commission, and because it was so exhaustively thorough it was very hard to cut! On its own it would have been fine, but I also found a superb 1981 interview with Rosi that was specifically about Three Brothers, and which tackled it in much more detail than any video or audio interview that I could find. There was a French TV interview from 1981, but it overlapped so massively with the print one that it felt like a redundant précis, and because I could only afford to license one AV interview it made much more sense to me to go for the BFI's 73-minute epic, even if the latter only mentioned Three Brothers once in passing.

[ellipsis7]

Looking forward to reading Millicent Marcus' piece - sounds typically incisive & informative from her...

[domino harvey]

Seeing as how I only paid a premium via preordering for the first edition booklet, I say make it as long as possible!

[MichaelB]

Beaver.

[nitin]

Beaver.

transfer look astonishing! Must buy.

[MichaelB]

I'm very happy with how this one turned out. There may not be that many Rosi BDs in circulation right now, but at least the quality threshold is gratifyingly high.

[What A Disgrace]

That interview with Rosi turned out to be very meaty indeed. I'm stoked.

[MichaelB]

Yes, that was a real find - and despite the fact that it followed the UK premiere of Chronicle of a Death Foretold and the first ten minutes are therefore exclusively devoted to that film, it then becomes much more wide-ranging, with virtually all his films getting at least a namecheck right back to La sfida. Inevitably, some of the audience questions later on are specifically about Chronicle, but plenty of others aren't.

It's also in English, which came as a major surprise when I first played the tape.

My only regret is that this dates from before the BFI introducing roving wireless microphones, and some of the audience questions were therefore inaudible even when turning the volume up to painful levels - but it's easy enough to pick up the gist from the answers.

[ellipsis7]

There may not be that many Rosi BDs in circulation right now, but at least the quality threshold is gratifyingly high.

Agree totally, and congrats on TRE FRATELLI which has just arrived , although I have to add that the Rosi BD count is now starting to look pretty respectable (6 across the various regions), which is a compliment to the quality work...

LA SFIDA (Cristaldi)
SALVATORE GIULIANO (Arrow)
LE MANI SULLA CITTA (MoC)
IL MOMENTO DELLA VERITA (Criterion)
UOMINI CONTRO (Raro USA)
TRE FRATELLI (Arrow)

[TMDaines]

You've forgotten my favourite: Carmen.

[MichaelB]

A woman I will permanently associate with Margaret Thatcher from now on.

(Listen to the BFI interview to find out why!)

[MichaelB]

A typically exhaustive review from DVD Compare.

[AK]

Have to say that DVD Compare really know how to write reviews. I have yet to see the film, and this looks so good in all respects. I'm stoked, to say the least! I'm expecting it to arrive today (sale orders sent the day before this arrived on Tuesday).

Edit: Nice to be right once in a while, I have it here keeping me company until tomorrow when I have time to watch it. Gorgeous-looking release, I really loved the cover from the day it was announced, and the booklet looks to be stacked with great stuff. Beyond Cinema Politico looks epic. Many thanks to Michael and all involved! This is another winner from you guys.