100 La signora di tutti

[What A Disgrace]

La signora di tutti



With the Nazi terror on the ascent, master filmmaker Max Ophuls fled to Italy in 1934 and made La signora di tutti [Everybody’s Lady] — an exuberant, desperate melodrama that, although arriving early in Ophuls’ body of work, ranks comfortably alongside Letter from an Unknown Woman, Madame de…, or Lola Montès in the hierarchy of the director’s achievements.

Isa Miranda, one of Italy’s greatest stars, plays the role of a star revisiting her life in flashback after a suicide attempt leaves her comatose. From the record revolving on a turntable in the picture’s opening moments, Ophuls sets into motion one of those roundelays with fate that he alone could pull off with such eminent elegance.

A precursor to the romantic themes that would culminate in Lola Montès, Ophuls’ vertiginous La signora di tutti serves brilliantly as both an empathetic portrait of the femme fatale, and as an elevation of her glacial femininity to the level of sublime fetish. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Max Ophuls’ luminous La signora di tutti for the first time on DVD in the UK.

Special Features:

• Beautiful new transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio
• New and improved optional English subtitles
• New 30-minute video-essay, So Alone…, produced for The Masters of Cinema Series by writer-critic-scholar Tag Gallagher
• 44-page booklet featuring a new essay by filmmaker and critic Luc Moullet, and newly translated testimonials from Max Ophuls, Isa Miranda, and filmmaker Alfredo Guarini

[bigP]

I can't think of a better choice to fill the 100 mark. Great news; thanks MOC.

[swo17]

I see your thumbnail and raise ya



Yea Ophuls!

[John Edmond]

Congratulations on reaching 100. I'm guessing this is a buffed up version of the Ripley's Home Video transfer? In which case it's going to look spectacular.

[Peacock]

Great stuff! Any idea of a release date? November?

[knives]

Surprised you didn't go Blu on this, still wonderful news.

[HerrSchreck]

Indeed, Dave-- the image on the disc is absolutely spectacular, and really has been buffed to a high shine as it stands... which promises that the MoC is going to look equally excellent!

Great choice, guys.

[Matt]

For the first time, I feel happy that I never pulled the trigger on the Italian disc.

[John Edmond]

Likewise, thank you previous problems with Italian post.

David, and Schrek - you're right, I remember being impressed, but re-checking beaver's screen captures left me astonished.

Who knows why they didn't go blu, maybe MoC didn't want to celebrate their 100th DVD release with the kind of relatively weak image that would fit in with their current approach to their DVD line, maybe there are licensing or technical difficulties. It's their 100th, MoC can release La Signora Di Tutti on DVD if they want to.

And if they release it on blu-ray later....well my local library's Ophuls collection will infinitely improve.

[HerrSchreck]

I absolutely LOVE seeing the rounded corners of the negative borders. For some reason Gary Tooze at the beev dislikes seeing them-- I actually prefer it, as it makes me feel (and I've said this before) that I have the actual reels in my posession... that you have the full neg in your collection, with the full freedom that a projectionist would have in terms of how much you want to incrementally zoom in on the image, if your desire is to NOT see the full frame.

I never crop them out-- I love feeling like I have the filmstrip in my hand and am holding it up to the light to view the full exposure. Such Complete Telecine gives the greatest viewing flexibility, and allows big fans of cinematography, and the art of framing and composition, the ability to see precisely what the DP saw when he looked thru the viewfinder.

Gary says in his review that, owing to the flatlining bitrate, the transfer appears to be analog sourced. If so-- if that's really the case (and all other evidence, i e based on the image itself, and certain kinds of artifacting that should be--but are not--resident therein, indicates otherwise... perhaps they just put the pedal to the floor for the steadiest possible bitrate owing to the SL discing of the telecine?) it's the most astonishing analog transfer on the face of the earth... clean and completely devoid of haloing and stereotypical analog noise you'd expect to see in even the finest old school transfer.

[Tommaso]

Great news indeed! I also never got around to buying the RHV, so this is a no-brainer. And as it's spine #100, I hope there's a good bit of extra stuff here to celebrate the occasion. For example a bonus disc with "Liebelei"....

[TMDaines]

Disappointed... but naturally only because I have the Ripley's disc already!

[feckless boy]

Although the RHV disc is single layer the image is outstanding.

I'm hoping for a progressive transfer this time (the RHV disc is unfortunately interlaced).

[What A Disgrace]

Specs are up on MovieMail. November 15 release date.

[Cash Flagg]

DVD Extras:

* Beautiful new transfer from pristine film materials in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio
* A new and exclusive video essay about the film by film scholar Tag Gallagher
* Optional English subtitles
* A lengthy booklet containing a new and exclusive essay on the film by filmmaker and critic Luc Moullet
* and newly translated excerpts of an interview with star Isa Miranda, and remarks by director Max Ophuls.

[hangman]

Gallagher on Ophuls is always more than welcome - this just bumped up my priority list. I was already wondering after the announcement whether MoC would get him to make a video essay for this looks like they have the bases covered.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Luc Moullet! That's a bit of a coup! I wonder if this means we'll see some of his work on MoC? A collection of his shorts would play on infinite loop in my household.

[MichaelB]

I am guessing there's no HD telecine available. In any case I hope they honor the Italian presentation and keep the curly corners! I love the curly corners.

Although it's been impressed upon me that the Eureka checkdisc that I have is not a final version, the image does have curly corners, and I'm guessing that they'll survive the last authoring stage.

It looks fabulous, too - I can well believe the "pristine source materials" claim.

[evillights]

The catalogue page at the MoC site has gone live: here.

[broadwayrock]

Beaver

[antnield]

The Digital Fix

[MichaelB]

The booklet included with the release runs 44 pages. It has a 2010 essay written by Luc Moullet and translated from French into English by Craig Keller. Moullet's appreciation is loaded with references to other films, a practice I do not find to be endearing.

Why would anyone find it "endearing"? I'd have thought the only criterion here was usefulness.

As luck would have it, I also have a copy of the booklet, and can confirm that Moullet's namechecks either refer to other films on which members of the production team on La Signora di Tutti also worked (especially Ophuls' own later output), or to other, usually later, films that make use of similar motifs. Both seem to me to be entirely legitimate, and indeed very useful in tracing how the same generic motifs (both visual and thematic) appear in other films on both sides of the Atlantic.

Seriously, does anyone else actually find this approach annoying? Here's a sample:

Oppressive modernity is also evoked by the betrayal of the journalist who, as in Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance [1962], will scribe an extremely fabricated version of Gaby’s life that conforms more to public standards than the real life as it was lived. We get a better hold on the performance of Isa Miranda who, like Martine Carol in Lola Montès [Max Ophuls, 1955], is no longer just a pretty, characterless, and bland cogwheel subjected to the hardships of life. She’s a dry-run for the character of Madame de... [Max Ophuls, 1953] even more marked by futility: the grandeur of frivolous souls ennobled by their suffering, their destruction, their deaths...

[RossyG]

I must admit I'd find it annoying if it carried on like that. I think it's because I'm unfamiliar with the films he's talking about and the effect is quite alienating. He namechecks films in such a throwaway manner as though there's no doubt that his readers have seen them.

If he was talking about If... and brought in Zero De Conduit, O Dreamland and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, I personally would not find that as problematic as I have seen all those films and could see the link. I suppose it depends on who he thinks his audience is: newcomers who need to have their interest aroused, or people who already have a good grasp of the subject. It's probably possible to address both types by expanding on the references rather than just tossing them into the mix.

Disclaimer: The above is based purely on the quoted paragraph, not the whole booklet.

[knives]

If that paragraph is truly indicative of the whole booklet, that could get tiresome fast. If you can make your point without bringing up other films, especially mostly unrelated Ford westerns, than do so. Otherwise things could become needlessly incomprehensible or Armond white-ish. Those sentences could make their point equally as well even if you had erased the references, like so:

Oppressive modernity is also evoked by the betrayal of the journalist who will scribe an extremely fabricated version of Gaby’s life that conforms more to public standards than the real life as it was lived. We get a better hold on the performance of Isa Miranda who is no longer just a pretty, characterless, and bland cogwheel subjected to the hardships of life. She’s a dry-run for the character of Madame de... [Max Ophuls, 1953] even more marked by futility: the grandeur of frivolous souls ennobled by their suffering, their destruction, their deaths...

[MichaelB]

Well, I've just filed a review of A Serbian Film, and make no apology for namechecking a couple of other contemporary Serbian films, even though it's overwhelmingly likely that most readers won't have seen them (and probably won't even have heard of them before) - because how else do you encourage them to seek them out? Granted, I restricted my citations to just two, as I only had 600 words total, but I make no apology for trying to broaden people's horizons. Not least because it's easy enough to tune this stuff out if you're not interested.