I'd love to see Criterion or MoC release one of Risi's films. Una vita difficile is a film that I have wanted to see for a long time.

I highly recommend the Sony-Italia release of Le Bambole...a true miracle it came out English-friendly.

Ciao,
Pro-B

Optimum has just recently released another group of Western Classics in the UK. There is Tourneur's Canyon Passage and Nicholas Ray's True Story of Jesse James, both of which have also recently been released in R1. Then there is Peckinpah's Deadly Companions, which I know has seen release before, but frankly forget where and when. And, finally, there is Budd Boetticher's Seminole. It is not one of the famously missing-on-DVD titles by Boetticher, but the synopsis does not sound half bad, and it stars both Rock and Quinn.

Starman, the customer reviews have got the cuts biz all wrong. The producer inflicted substantial cuts on Visconti's original longer cut (almost entirely the battlefield scenes and some "political" material with Massimo) but these have never been restored or been seen by anyone in any Italian language print. In all likelihood the elements don't exist any more. And then there is the American dub cut, The Wanton Countess which is even shorter (around 80 minutes,) which also removes a couple of scenes between Farley and Alida. There is or was, however an absolutely glorious IB print of Countess which has screened over the years in the States. I'm afraid I have to disagree with ellipsis, the source for this Optimum disc is a big disappointment. To me it looks like a very "thin" textured second gen Eastman positive which has been given a chroma boost for blue and red. I don't like it at all.

Optimum will be releasing Godard's ALPHAVILLE as a stand-alone disc on January 7th. Presumably this will be the disc from their Jean-Luc Godard Volume One set, which is a good thing, as it had a fine transfer, a Colin McCabe introduction and a documentary: Alphaville, Peripheriques. So until Criterion revisit it...

Apparently it's out. So, has anybody gotten a look at this? It would be nice to know if the colors came out any different than the Criterion, given the firm points on the subject David Hare made regarding the Criterion.

From Optimum, early 2008...

MADE IN USA/GODARD - 07 Jan

L'AMORE IN CITTA/ANTONIONI, FELLINI et al - 18 Feb

ERA NOTTE A ROMA/ROSSELLINI - 18 Feb

I had a chance to see Era notte a Roma earlier this year, and personally think it's better than Geoff Andrew's review makes out. Some interesting use of space: much of the film takes place in a concealed attic, and the ethnic stereotypes of the main characters (including the stiff-upper-lip Brit) are amusing without being ridiculous. Hints of Michael Powell, actually.

Also coming on 18 February:

Cassanova '70 (Mario Monicelli/1965)

(Sorry, Is this an Optimum forum question or a technical support forum question?)

Has anyone had any problems running older Optimum DVDs on multi-region players?

I had La Chinoise a while back and putting it into my player resulted in Error appearing on my screen (never seen that before, usually duff discs either freeze and skip a bit or just get ejected 'No Disc'). Funny thing was it worked perfectly well on the computer.

I've since replaced it with the box set version which, although it seems like the same disc, works perfectly well as do other my other (newer) Optimum discs. So I didn't think any more about it until I received 'Ten' for Christmas and now that's doing the same thing.

I thought I might solve the problem by copying the disc but I get an 'Invalid structure' error when I try that. Which is odd.

Funny sex comedy with Mastroianni and Virna Lisa. If it's a good print, I'll import it.

Era notte a Roma is on DVD here in Spain but I did not love the film so much.

Amore in città, I've seen it today from Raro, Italian dvd. It's an absolute masterpiece.

Has anyone bought the Optimum standalone Killing of a Chinese Bookie? If so, does it contain both versions as in the box set or just the long one? Bought it on Amazon UK at 60% off, but obviously their details of the release are minimal. Thanks.

DVD arrived so I can answer this myself now in case anyone's interested. It's a double-disc set with both versions.

The film is fascinating, but Optimum's source print is dreadful - the optional electronic subtitles are just about the only positive thing I can say about it. I suspect this film needs a full restoration, but whether it will get one given the extremely limited commercial appeal is anyone's guess.

L'AMORE IN CITTA has actually been restored (in 2001) - 'The scene negatives and inflammable soundtrack conserved at Studio Cine where they were preserved in 2001 for restoration by the owners Studio Canal Image and Minerva International Group... ' And in the 2005 NFT Antonioni programme his episode was screened from a- '...copy printed from materials restored by Scuola Nazionale di Cinema Cineteca Nazionale'...

God knows why Optimum could not lay their hands on the restored version, but Minerva Classics have it out in Italy in a lovely DVD complete with good Eng subs...

Also worth checking out is Minerva's release of Antonioni's I VINTI, also restored complete with Italian or integral soundtracks, Eng subs, and extras including the censored version of the Italian episode not seen since 1953 and several script versions and documentation on DVD-Rom...

Both available from www.dvd.it ...

Optimum's disc of Rossellini's ERA NOTTE A ROMA arrived... It's 16:9 (still shaved on either side) non-anamorphic transfer producing a really soft picture... Absolute bare bones, only plus are optional subs... A pretty poor DVD of a fascinating entry to his filmography... Sloppy!...

Wait, how is it 16X9 AND non-anamorphic?

I suspect 16x9 refers to the aspect ratio, though it would be clearer if it was written 1.77:1 to avoid confusion.

Ah. I'm glad I chickened out at the last moment and canceled my order last week after the warning in this thread about the quality of the other Rosselini film. Really disappointing to still see non-anamorphic transfers in 2008!

It declares itself as 1.66:1 aspect ratio on the box, but is that ratio in a letterbox (which also crucially cuts off some left and right of the original frame) not as an an anamorphic widescreen transfer, so you have to 'zoom 16:9' to fill the screen with quite a blurred picture resulting from the inferior material... I suspect the original film aspect ratio was something like 1.85:1, but it is hard to tell on sloppy goods like this...

Nevertheless if you prevail, there are some riches revealed... As Dave Kehr writes in Chicago Reader...


Optimum's releases are so variable!...

On the other hand their disc of MADE IN USA is nigh on perfect - a beautiful transfer, aspect ratio 2.35:1, anamorphic...

If you're a fan of Eastern European cinema, anamorphic transfers are still a rare luxury...

Unfortunately it doesn't stop there. Just recently I bought two discs released within a year; April and November 2007 and found both non-anamorphic. Fabian Bielinsky's The Aura - a film made in 2005 with a rather strong visual style - and Dmytryk's Bluebeard, which does have some glaring color design. Both discs non-anamorphic I was so mad that I almost started a thread for this some time ago...

The problem is, if a transfer already exists at the time of licensing, and it's a niche-market item, it's almost impossible to justify doing a new anamorphic transfer in economic terms. And in many cases - particularly East European ones, of which I have some experience as producer as well as consumer - the deal is basically "our Digibeta or nothing", because the rightsholder won't offer you alternative materials (I was once told that 35mm materials were "too fragile" to access) and you probably won't have independent sources.

I was exceptionally lucky with the BFI's Jan Švankmajer set - the rightsholder sent me a non-anamorphic transfer of his only 2.35:1 film, and with dreadful sound to boot. I complained that it wasn't up to our technical standards, and they basically said "tough".

Fortunately, it turned out that the BFI had a 35mm print in its vaults, and it turned out to be in more or less pristine condition - and, even more luckily, the film doesn't need subtitles so we didn't have to worry about them being burned in. And because it was only ten minutes long, a new anamorphic transfer didn't break the bank. (A further stroke of luck is that virtually every other Švankmajer film is in 4:3, though I did have to accept a non-anamorphic transfer of a Scope film on the extras disc).

But I really sympathise with people like Second Run who work on a shoestring and who don't have alternative sources. In their case they're stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place, either forced to release what they're well aware is a substandard version, or not release it at all. And what separates that label from, say, Facets, is that they genuinely do try to do the best job they can, but in many cases they're effectively polishing turds.

Looks good!