La commare secca



The brutalized corpse of a Roman prostitute is found along the banks of the Tiber River. The police round up a handful of possible suspects and interrogate them, one by one, each account bringing them closer to the killer. In this, his stunning debut feature, based on a story by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci utilizes a series of interconnected flashbacks to explore the nature of truth and the reliability of narrative. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the first realization of a legendary talent.

Special Features

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Exclusive new video interview with director Bernardo Bertolucci
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Plus: A new essay by ?lm critic David Thompson

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

One of my most eagerly awaited new releases, not to mention that this announcement couldn't have come at a better time for me (Bertolucci is one of my five or so favorite filmmakers). I can't wait to finally have this film in my DVD collection (not to mention a new interview with maestro Bertolucci). Interesting cover as well.

This makes me so annoyed! I see this error all the time, but I never expected Criterion to make it. If something has been brutalized, it has been made brutal, NOT treated brutally. Make I'm just being pedantic, but stuff like this gets to me...

I dunno, Pinback....but I understood what it said. I think it is correct English to use "brutalize" like this.

bru·tal·ize ( P ) Pronunciation Key (brtl-z)
tr.v. bru·tal·ized, bru·tal·iz·ing, bru·tal·iz·es
1. To make cruel, harsh, or unfeeling.
2. To treat cruelly or harshly.

I'm glad Pinback did not brutalize my posts as I'm from Denmark and often use the wrong wording. Grab a cup of coffee Pinback and look out for this wonderful movie in your mailbox once you ordered it. I think this is by far the best artwork CC has done in a long time. I really, really love it! Hope they will use this artist on future releases! Respect...

Looks like I got schooled...there's nothing worse than being pedantic and wrong. Sorry guys.

I heard this is unwatchably awful. And yet, I`d blind buy it right now if I had money. Strange, but that`s how things are.

I bet it's the awesome artwork that has spellbound you Cafeman!

Bertolucci is not my favorite director, but I found this far from unwatchable. While I don't remember anything being terribly distinctive about it, in terms of either performances, directorial style, or substance (as you can see from Criterion's description, the story bears a strong resemblance to Rashomon), it's enjoyable enough in its own right, and the light it throws on Bertolucci's beginnings makes it still more interesting. While I doubt I'll be picking this up (though the $30 SRP makes it slightly more tempting) I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it again. Now, "Partner," on the other hand...

Large back cover now posted at criteriondvd.com: http://www.criteriondvd.com/popup_image_back.php?p=info&item_id=332

Looks like Criterion misspelled David Thomson's name on the back cover (as "Thompson")---unless there is a film critic named "David Thompson."

Curiously, David Thomson doesn't mention La Commare secca in his entry on Bertolucci in the lastest edition of his The New Biographical Dictionary of Film.

I've been waiting for the back cover image, thanks for the heads up! Looks like a wonderful release, and this was one of my most desired releases (along with every other unreleased Bertolucci). I look deeply forward to viewing it.

I agree with Matt about "Spider's Stratagem," which I finally saw last week, and it's an amazing, lush, painterly film with some magnificent camera work (that dance scene, and those 360s...my god!). The VHS quality was pretty soft and faded (but not bad for a 1970 film released on VHS in 1990), but the visuals came through immensely. It desperately needs a DVD release...but lets get "The Conformist" out there first.

Another review of the film and DVD (very positive). Once again, sounds like a great disc! I wasn't able to find a copy today so I ordered it online...I should have it by the weekend. Very excited.

There is a critic named David Thompson - he wrote the BFI Modern Classics book on LAST TANGO IN PARIS, and he directed the two-part BBC documentary on Jean Renoir.

Thanks for the correction, iangj, you are quite right. (I should've googled it before jumping to conclusions.)

I actually enjoyed this movie except the first part that takes place in the forrest. It was a little too weird for me and almost had me hit the off button, but as with almost every Criterion DVD, it pays off to stick around. I would love a big poster with the cover or even a real painting remake - sweet!

Just received this today, and I watched it this evening. This Italian murder mystery is a beautiful debut feature for Bertolucci. A little rough around the edges (the first two vignettes in particular) but it achieves brilliance in many areas.

The quiet vignette on the lonely soldier scouring for women on the street is slow and haunting, and for me very much echoed Antonioni. What you're doing here is following this soldier around this town for a little while. Not so much happens to him, but it's the observation that is brilliant. He's passing through town, and he is very much in need of a woman to keep him company, it's both humorous and solemn to watch him quietly talk to almost a dozen women before ending up in that tunnel (what an amazing shot, how the camera back tracks to reveal so many people surrounding him in the deep, silhouetting vastness), and ultimately asleep on a park bench at night. I also recognized that actor, Allen Midgette, from other Bertolucci films.

My favorite vignette was definately the one with the two teenage boys (Francolicchio and Pepito). It's beautiful how we follow the two of them through their park encounter with the two girls (eating jelly sandwiches), to laying on the pass overlooking the entire town (singing that popular Italian song), and ultimately back at the apartment where the two girls briefly dance together. It made a great prelude to the interlocking scene in the park where the two boys steal that guy's jacket. SPOILER ahead. Though this ending does end in the most Pasolinian of the vignettes. Francolicchio is seen swimming away, not wanting to get caught from the police, while Pepito is seen beautiful mourning that he cannot swim, and suddenly, Francolicchio disappears for about five seconds under the water, and we cut back to Pepito...I'm assuming Francolicchio didn't drown, but we're never told.

While there is an ample Pasolinian feel throughout (as well as that of Italian neorealism, Rossellini, and Antonioni), the final dance scene is a fantastic establishment of the style Bertolucci came to be known for. The pacing, the cutting back to the guy searching the dancers, the use of music, the wonderful dancing (the dancing, with the couples continually passing in front of the camera with their arms around each other, echoed the slow dance scene in Visconti's "White Nights"), and the eventual capture of the murderer. Very nice! Composer Piero Piccioni provides a low key score with some fine dance pieces. All in all, a fabulous debut for Bertolucci.

Oh, and a great interview as well. Very much enhances one's appreciation for this film, and what Bertolucci's intentions were with it at such a young age.

Dylan

From today's New York Times:

I agree that "Before the Revolution" is the first completely "Bertoluccian" film (and an immortal masterpiece).

With that said, the final dance scene in "La Commare Secca" was as movingly anticipant of an artist's later work as any first work I've ever seen. "La Commare Secca," in its own right, is a great Italian murder mystery with moments of true beauty and poetry. I'm very happy it's being well received by critics and viewers (I haven't read a single negative thing about it), and hopefully this will encourage the US to distribute further Bertolucci films on DVD: Criterion is reportedly continuing their work with the master on "Prima Della Rivoluzione," (which was great news) but now Paramount must get off their asses. We must let them know that there is money to be made, and that there is a high demand in the art film world for Bertolucci DVDs. Bring on Novecento and Il Conformista!

Dylan

Great Bertolucci interview up today at The Onion A.V. Club. There's a bit of a focus on La Commare secca, and, interestingly, the intro to the interview vaguely implies that Criterion might be stumping for this disc (seems like CC might have arranged the interview or something, though that's by no means certain).

Beautiful interview, and I'm ecstatic Bertolucci is receiving so much attention for this release. You know, I've never read Bertolucci talking about Fellini before, and it's very cool that La Dolce Vita (along with Breathless and Pasolini) is what inspired him to become a filmmaker (and his description of the English/Italian/Swedish-language workprint of "Dolce Vita" he viewed at 18 is fantastic).

In the previous online interview Bertolucci said he was working on a new film, but that he was 'skeptical', so he wouldn't say anything. In any case, I greatly look forward to this great artist's new work, and his continuing participation with the releases of his previous masterpieces.

Dylan

I think that's key here. Seems to me that many filmmakers, once they've made a film and gone through the initial release hoopla, are ready to move on and never discuss that film again with anything but a passing fancy. Bertolucci's willingness to talk in-depth about his older films is really refreshing. Especially in regard to something such as La Commare Secca which could easily be seen as a minor work.

I finally watched this and am scratching my head a bit as to why Criterion released it. While it contains several wonderful sequences and definitely reveals a glimpse of the Bertolucci to come, it comes across like one of those so many bad Nouvelle Vague films (the kind we don't hear about any more). Bertolucci obviously had no dramatic control over the material, and it's very rough and sloppy stylistically. Not hard to understand, considering he was 21 and was probably given a third-rate crew to make it with. At least it served as a good training ground for Before the Revolution.

I don't think it's THAT bad. But don't you think part of the problem is the dichotomous relationship between the writer (Pasolini) and the Director?

I certainly suspect the movie would have been very different in style and probably much more effective dramatically if Paso had been the director. Just look at his assured handling (of his own material) in Accatone.

Definitely. There are two brilliant short films in there: the soldier boy episode and the mutt&jeff episode that Bertolucci made all his own. As well as the dance sequence at the end. But the rest of the material- the violence, the familial desperation, the psycho, the murder of the prostitute- were beyond the experiences of a 21-year-old from a well-to-do family. That was all strictly Pasolini territory.