Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983)

[Tommaso]

A new dvd of "Nostalghia" will be released by the German alamode label on April 30, 2010. See amazon. It will also contain a 90-minute documentary by Dmitry Trakovsky, and the sole amazon reviewer speaks of an improved sound quality over previous editions and correct OAR. Well, we'll see whether they got the image right in the first place ( 3 1/2 hours all in all doesn't sound too promising in this respect I'm afraid, why didn't they do a double-discer?), but fingers crossed that we might finally get to see this masterpiece in a good edition. Only German subs, though.

[JacquesQ]

A new dvd of "Nostalghia" will be released by the German alamode label on April 30, 2010. See amazon. It will also contain a 90-minute documentary by Dmitry Trakovsky, and the sole amazon reviewer speaks of an improved sound quality over previous editions and correct OAR. Well, we'll see whether they got the image right in the first place ( 3 1/2 hours all in all doesn't sound too promising in this respect I'm afraid, why didn't they do a double-discer?), but fingers crossed that we might finally get to see this masterpiece in a good edition. Only German subs, though.

Well, strangely enough (or not so strangely, as we shall see...), while the film was to be released on April 30, the first (and enthusiastic) comment on Amazon Germany (http://www.amazon.de/Nostalghia-Andrei- ... 381&sr=1-1) was written on March 24, i.e. 5 weeks before the release - but OK, people sometimes get excited in advance. Then on May 2 (2 days after the release) someone else posts a comment, saying that the image is comparatively OK though many dust particles are to be seen as blinking white spots you can't help from badly being aware of, especially when they keep showing up on the very same place on the screen, but the sound is pretty bad, like a very very old soundtrack that played much too often, and with a constant background buzz (or kind of "breath"). Though he hasn't seen any other DVD version he thinks, from what he read about the other DVDs, that this one is an improvement, but does leave quite a bit of room for much more improvement. And he goes on to notice that the guy who wrote the positiive review long before the release has written 5 reviews so far, all of them very positive, and all of them related to films distributed by one and the same (small, not as if it were Warner Bros.) company, so make your own deductions.
So while I might give it a try from France (cheap shipping costs on Amazon Germany), I don't think it's worth for American cinephiles (in spite of tne presently ascending dollar value !) spending their money on this item - and a pity it is, too : when does someone at last face the job of restoring this film seriously ? Not sure we'll live to see that day. Oh well, maybe we'll get a really good Nostalghia DVD just after we get an offciial relaease of Greed...

[Tommaso]

So while I might give it a try from France (cheap shipping costs on Amazon Germany), I don't think it's worth for American cinephiles (in spite of tne presently ascending dollar value !) spending their money on this item - and a pity it is, too : when does someone at last face the job of restoring this film seriously ? Not sure we'll live to see that day. Oh well, maybe we'll get a really good Nostalghia DVD just after we get an offciial relaease of Greed...

I actually have this dvd now, but was reluctant to post about it because I haven't managed to watch it yet. I took a look, though, and worst things first: it's non-anamorphic 1:66. That said, they were at least intelligent enough to put the German subs into the picture area so that you can zoom in to fill the screen even if you need the subs. The Italian audio is still rather crackly, I'd say, from the first two minutes that I watched. I won't say more about the image quality, because that would be unfair without me having watched it in its entirety. But it didn't look like a disaster from my first impressions, though the fact that it's non-anamorphic and that it shares the disc space with a 90-minute documentary isn't actually promising. That documentary, though, seems to be rather interesting and also seems to be in English originally (don't shoot me if it isn't, or isn't entirely), so that might be the main selling-point for the disc, as this is the only release of it I think.

I'll report back when I've watched it, which might take me some weeks, but for now I share the sentiment that we still have to wait for a really good "Nostalghia". Dammit, is it so difficult to release a 1983 film in adequate fashion?

[petoluk]

There's a very good Czech release of Nostalghia - I posted some info & screencaps in the Screen Captures thread here...

Cheers!
Peto

[Tommaso]

Thanks, Peto, that Czech release looks indeed excellent. And it proves that there's an anamorphic transfer in existence, so one wonders why alamode didn't license that one. If that Czech release only had subs....

[perkizitore]

How about the Ruscico? Does it utilize the same transfer with the Czech release?

[petoluk]

How about the Ruscico? Does it utilize the same transfer with the Czech release?

It appears not to be the case - based on this review (in Czech, sorry) of the RusCiCo disc, their transfer is non-anamorphic, and not really an improvement over the previous editions (there's also a screenshot comparison w/ the other editions (not the Czech one)). Moreover, in this review of the Czech edition, the reviewer (a close friend of the disc's producer, and the co-author of the booklet) states that the Czech edition is based on a newly created master, supervised by the film's DoP Giuseppe Lanci...

Cheers!
Peto

[Tommaso]

the Czech edition is based on a newly created master, supervised by the film's DoP Giuseppe Lanci...

Criterion, where art thou??!

[Tommaso]

Okay, have watched the disc now in its entirety. Thankfully, it's not the major disappointment I originally thought it might be. Despite being non-anamorphic, sharpness and detail are actually quite good, though not quite matching the Czech release, but it's miles ahead of the blurry mess that the AE disc seems to be, judging from the screen caps in the links above only. It also seems to be slightly better than the old Fox Lorber disc in this respect. The real problem with the German disc is that it is again too colourful, especially compared to the Czech release, whose darker and more subdued colours look totally right to me. The crackly audio is another drawback, though it's only really bad in the first reel and gets much better with the course of the film. So I'd say: if you can understand Italian, get the Czech release; if you can understand German and need subs, get the German disc. If you need English subs, though, you really have a bad time choosing between paying high amounts of money for the OOP Lorber disc (which is at best average) or getting the AE disc which looks like a real desaster.

The 90-minute documentary as an extra is indeed great, focussing mainly on Tarkovsky's late years and being composed of various highly interesting interviews with his collaborators like Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephsson or Tarkovsky's son Andreij Andrejevitch. These give a fascinating glance at the director's personality and working methods, and I find the film pretty indispensible in this respect, despite there being no lack of other documentaries on Tarkovsky. Be aware though that while the voice-over commentary is in English, all the interviews are in their original languages (mostly Italian, Russian and Swedish) and that these are also only subbed in German. But this is a documentary that should definitely be picked up by any company which might want to produce a new and hopefully English-friendly disc of "Nostalghia".

[JacquesQ]

Strange, though, that (the original Italian not being a problem to me) in spite of the supposed European market, try as I may, I can't get my hand on a copy of the Czech DVD. Actually, googling Nostalghia + Zona and/or Aerofilms (who released it) hardly brings up anything at all. I wish the guy(s?) who make(s?) the rather well-documented http://www.dvd-basen.dk/uk/home.php3 would enrich that already fine site with more Eastern European releases (I already, quite by chance, found some rather rare movies that have been released only in Poland, for instance - and they were not Polish films).
Now of course if Petoluk (whose name sounds Czech, maybe he lives in the Czech Republic) would be willing to buy it there and ship it to me vs. refund via PayPal (or shipping of some French DVD difficult to obtain there, but I guess that shouldn't be the case very often), that would be the nicest idea...