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Saimo wrote:

Ashirg wrote: Alberto Lattuada's Overcoat will get a DVD release also December 6.

If you are interested in Italian post-neorealist cinema this is a must have, a comedy with fantasy elements. Inspired by Gogol's story, it's much better than Aleksey Batalov's 1960 adaptation.

... But not as good as Jack Clayton's The Bespoke Overcoat.

Ashirg wrote:Psst! Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection is heading to Blu-ray in December... Only 3 discs, so not sure which film is not getting HD treatment. Alberto Lattuada's Overcoat will get a DVD release also December 6.

Official announcement:

Independent distributors RaroVideo U.S. have revealed that they will release on Blu-ray The Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection, which includes the following four films: Caliber 9 (1972), The Italian Connection (1972), The Boss a.k.a Wipeout (1973), and Rulers of the City a.k.a Mr. Scarface (1976). Exact technical specs and region coding status for the collection are unknown at the moment, but the preliminary release date set by the distributors is December 6th.

DVDBeaver's review of Fellini's I Clowns is up. It looks great, for a release that uses the same telecine as the DVD, this is probably the biggest jump in quality I've ever seen.

Pretty sure it's not made from the same master. The BD looks great.

Conversation Piece DVD 2/28/2012

The Automobile (aka L'Automobile) DVD 2/28/2012 (no idea what this film is)

peerpee wrote:Pretty sure it's not made from the same master.

You're probably/almost certainly right. Just something about Beaver's phrasing, and the fact that this upgrade happened within 6 months of the original DVD release led me to think otherwise.

Ashirg wrote:The Automobile (aka L'Automobile) DVD 2/28/2012 (no idea what this film is)

Probably an Anna Magnani vehicle shot for television in 1971. Directed by Alfredo Giannetti, former screenwriter for Pietro Germi (Divorce Italian Style).

I wish they'd update their website so I could buy certain stuff from them. The Italian website has been updated for years though.

March
Young, Violent, Dangerous DVD
The Visitor / La Visita DVD

April
Conversation Piece Blu-ray
Murder Obsession Blu-ray
Ubaldo Terzani Horror Show Blu-ray

Ashirg wrote:Ubaldo Terzani Horror Show Blu-ray

A metacinematographic horror. I have a bit part as a party guest.

Amazon states that the blu-ray release of Conversation Piece/ Gruppo di famiglia in un interno is with Italian audio. Could it be so?

Kauno wrote:Amazon states that the blu-ray release of Conversation Piece/ Gruppo di famiglia in un interno is with Italian audio. Could it be so?

Both versions on the Blu-ray I believe. English only on the DVD. At least that's what their website states.

Thanks for your answer, TMD. I love Burt Lancaster in anything, especially in "speaking" Italian.

Maybe this won't have technical glitches on La Mala ordina.

This is the BR cover on Amazon - specifies only English audio, 2 mixes...

I spoke to them about it and they said it has both tracks.

Have the disc, and Raro's CONVERSATION PIECE BR appears to be region free...

Thanks, TMD, yes it has indeed the option of Italian or English soundtracks, both DTS HD MA 2.0 mono mix...

So the cover image I posted above was a provisional version...

Just received Raro's Conversation Piece Blu-ray. This is only my opinion, and, somewhat surprisingly, none of the reviews I've read have come to this same conclusion, but I think it looks terrible. It's not quite those infamous caps of Le Samouraï but it doesn't seem to be far off. It's absolutely DNR'd to hell - and I'm not usually that sensitive to this or particularly fussy over technical standards. It now looks like it was filmed with one of those "oil paint effect" settings you get on some cameras. Jump one chapter to where the woman comes out onto the balcony: is that a fur scarf?!

Has anyone else got this yet?

Completely agree with you. I can't see how this could be any better than the DVD, unless that too is loaded with issues. I found it unwatchable in this state, however I demoed it on a projector, where it looked more like a cartoon than a live action fillm.

By the way, Italian Rarovideo has released The Conformist on blu-ray and that too resulted in a DNR affected video...

While it's not exceptional, I found the Raro CONVERSATION PIECE BR perfectly acceptable & it projected pretty nicely on my system, so I have few complaints!...

In fact we thoroughly enjoyed the film, not least noticing how AS GOOD AS IT GETS was clearly influenced by Visconti's piece...

I don't doubt you did enjoy it as most people have given it a positive review. Sadly that doesn't seem to correlate with the disc I was watching yesterday. It was close to unwatchable in my opinion. I'm tempted to try and get ahold of the old Italian Raro/Minerva DVD and see how that compares as they didn't DNR everything so heavily back then.

TMD, I find with the Overscan Off setting on my Sony Bravia HD TV, thus receiving the direct HDMI signal from the BR Player, and all the DNR, Contrast, Colour fiddle tools etc. turned to off makes quite a difference to the picture from a wide range of discs, same applies to my HD projector, which is Italian made (Sim2) and delivers an even better picture... Under these conditions CONVERSATION PIECE looks (to me) acceptably fine...

I'll try on my PC next week as that's where I usually watch stuff - but I've never had problems with stuff on my parents TV as that's calibrated to a basic degree.