Book: Raffaello Matarazzo. Materiali, vol. I, Movie Club, Torino, 1976.
Filmography enlists two "remakes": Buonanotte, avvocato (Giorgio Bianchi, 1955) and a later one, in Spain (1963). I wrote a short essay (1600 words) about adaptation and remakes for RHV L'avventuriera coming soon DVD booklet, and I had already found the ABC articles, but still I couldn't name the Spanish 1963 remake. Was the filmography wrong?!
(I have the 1956 book with Spanish translation.)

My source has asked to Filmoteca Nacional. Let's wait.

Some Liliana Cavani films are released by Medusa. I cannibali

Al di la del bene e del male (excellent film about Niescthe with explicit gay cruising) was announced but not released. Why?
Franco Brusati's masterpiece Dimenticare Venezia is at my place, from Medussa too.

Saimo, Has you ever been able to wath de Santi's Una strada lunga and Le garçoniere?

Raro video escono Il conformista e Chi lavora è perduto da Tinto Brass. Non lo so per Chi lavora ma Il conformista esce in ottobre...

Yes, Il conformista is scheduled for October 19 (both DVD and BR). It will feature an exclusive one-hour making of.

Arrow seems to be preparing its own edition of The Conformist for roughly the same time (they haven't named an actual date, but they've said "autumn" in the past). Presumably it's coming from the same master.

Monicelli's impressive masterpiece (another one) Caro Michelle finally getsa DVD release + book. I don't know if "book" means novel or if it is an essay.

I highly recommend Cineteca di Bologna 2 books about Italian cinema told by their protagonist. This is THE Bible for us, the Italian film buffs, L'avventurosa storia del cinema italiano. There will be 3 other books: Volume 1 & Volume 2.

Saimo, what's wrong with Blasetti on DVD ? is RHV going to do anything?

Let's remember that Ben Gazzara has got a very good role in Monicelli's commedia all'italiana Risate di Gioia with Anna Magnani, Totò and the beutiful Rome in New Year's eve. Of course, it's another Monicelli's masterpiece, loved by Spanish critic Miguel Marías (brother of the famous Javier Marias) among others.

RHV has released 12 DVDs, but I don't know how soon they will publish other films...

Released
Terra Madre
Resurrectio
La Tavola Dei Poveri
Palio
Nessuno Torna Indietro
Retroscena
Contessa di Parma
Un'avventura di Salvator Rosa
1860
4 passi fra le nuvole
Petrolineide
Altri tempi (out of print?)

Yet to be released
La cena delle beffe
Assisi
Aldebaran
L'impiegata di papà

For Straub/Huillet and Pedro Costa Fans I highly recommend this.

I can second this, there's even a DD5.1 remix of the soundtrack as an alternative to the original mono which is also available... Overall a really superb quality release well worth picking up (especially as the New Year 2011 'clue' from Criterion seems to have turned out as SUMMER WITH MONIKA rather than RISO AMARO/BITTER RICE)...

This 12 minute documentary is on the Palio DVD. No subs, but stunning video quality.

My Blasetti request was La corona di ferro. What's wrong with its releases? And with Bolognini's La notte brava

La notte brava was released by NoShame, but now the disc is out of print.

La corona di ferro was released by KLF many years ago, but the master was awful, I wonder if that was an official release or simply a bootleg from VHS... I don't know if RHV is going to re-release this (even if at RHV office there is a HUGE poster of the film, so they certainly love it).

Grazie.
Something is wrong with many Dino de Laurentiis' films. For example, Le streghe that has been released on a poor DVD in Spain; or the Antonioni film with Princess Soraya (that is bad, BTW) or La mia signora (that's excellent). Is there any conflict with the rights?

I wasn't aware TRE VOLTI (IL PROVINO episode) - 'the Antonioni film with Princess Soraya' - was available on DVD anywhere... I'd be interested to know where it might be sourced on a home video format...

Tre volti, I saw a dowloaded print from an Italian television. The film is very, very bad. I saw Le sorelle Materassi last night. Very interesting 1943 film, far away from Mussolini's comedies.

I want a release of Noi vivi, adaptation of Ayn ne Rand's anti-communist novel We the living. I own the American 3 hours cut and it's amazing, but the Italian runs one hour more.

By Ferdinando Maria Poggioli (1897-1945), a fine director.
His best works (not on DVD...): Addio Giovinezza, Sissignora, Il cappello da prete.

Just on a small but significant Vittorio de Seta kick...

His 10 compelling short colour documentaries from the 1950s IL MONDO PERDUTO I picked up from Carlotta, with French subs on the Sicilian etc. dialects...

Spurred on by Martin Scorsese's piece for the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, On Vittorio de Seta I also sought out BANDITI A ORGOSOLO, his remarkable first feature, dubbed into Italian on the insistence of the distributor, and available in a decent barebones edition from Medusa DVD with Italian subs...

The man has an unique sense of space and environment... A contextualising docu , DETOUR DE SETA, shown @ Tribeca, is now streamed online with English subs...

I don't own this set, but Italian DVD is reported to have several shorts in improper aspect ratio... Does Carlotta box feature 2.35:1 video for Isole di fuoco, Contadini del mare and Parabola d'oro?

The Carlotta box presents a non anamorphic letterboxed image in a 4:3 academy ratio frame... The image throughout the 10 docs looks to be consistently European widescreen ratio (1.66:1), there's nothing at 2.35:1...

The restoration of these was undertaken by Cineteca di Bologna, there's an inlay about them & they are credited in the animations/logos at the head of the collection...

I think De Seta himself was involved in the restoration...

I suspect Cineteca di Bologna supplied the same transfer of the 'new restored master' for this and the Italian Feltrinelli DVD, although I haven't seen the latter myself...

OK, so you have the master from Italian DVD, with all films framed at 1.78:1... This is a highly questionable choice, since some films were originally 1.37:1 or 2.35:1 intended.

The filmmaker himself made the decision, when the films were restored...



He may then have conformed them all to the same aspect ratio, so they could run as a single consistent 35mm scope programme... To be honest, there doesn't look like anything that has been cropped from 2.35:1, the images look well balanced and framed...

Saimo, what is your source? Surely it is the actual filmmaker's prerogative to present the films as he wishes?

One suggestion is that the films were shot in open matte, and then matted in the projector to match the aspect ratio of the features they preceded, leading to confusion as to the intended framing...

That Kent Jones piece with a couple of framegrabs from the Feltrinelli DVD...

I have a catalogue from a 1996 retrospective, listing original formats. Also, you just have to look at the print in order to check the correct ratio: for example, Isole di fuoco (filmed in december 1954) was shot in Cinepanoramic, a scope format.

Very interesting indeed, I've put the disc on the deck, and, yes, all the films are framed 1.78:1...

However, if you measure your title framegrab above too, it actually is also in ratio 1.78:1 not 2.35:1...

I'd be fascinated to see that 1996 catalogue info (Saimo, any chance you might PM or post me a photocopy/pdf scan?)...

I don't know how much work De Seta did in the restoration, certainly the soundtrack sounds as if it might have been remixed and reworked to an extent...

That title frame (with the words 'En Cinepanoramic') did not survive to the restored version of ISOLE DI FUOCO... In fact all 10 films have the titles in an uniform typeface superimposed over the first frames of each film...

This is the restored version of ISOLE DI FUOCO on Youtube, to give you an idea...

An Italian newspaper article on the digital restoration of IL MONDO PERDUTO... Doesn't cast much more light, but clearly, from your information, some decisions maybe were made to rationalise and regularise the aspect ratio across the 10 films... Making the restoration possibly a partial reworking of the material, albeit following the filmmaker's revised and updated intentions...

I found that screenshot on an Italian website, so I don't know if that was in OAR, but surely the film was in Cinepanoramic (also my 1996 catalogue confirmed so).
I also have an unofficial DVD with some De Seta shorts, and for example Parabola d'oro was filmed in CinemaScope (...and stereophonic sound!).

Here a shot from the very beginning: if you grab the same frame from your DVD we can check if the image composition was significantly cropped...

Additional screenshots from Pescherecci (1.37:1)...


...and Surfarara (Cinepanoramic).