Pier Paolo Pasolini on DVD

[Soothsayer]

That's why God invented the Torrent

For what it's worth, this is a bit higher than Facets' normal dismal standards(it beats the Dekalog or Heimat watermarks, thank goodness).

[Tommaso]

I would definitely recommend the Italian dvd of his 1964 documentary "Sopralluoghi in Palestina". This film is about his looking for suitable locations for filming "Vangelo", which was then eventually made in Italy, of course. It is his first film dealing with the problems of the Arabian/Third world (and Palestine at that time was pretty much underdeveloped indeed), showing his visits to various places of historical and cultural importance and his meetings with people there. A fascinating and very beautiful film, totally unknown, but thankfully now available in an excellent restoration, and the dvd has removable English subs!! All packaged with a thick booklet (in Italian) and an excellent 2 hour documentary on Pasolini on the second disc. Have a look here.

[HerrSchreck]

But I'd rather eat my mother's ass than buy a DVD bearing the Facets moniker. They can't have my money.

You're a sick man, skuhn. You're quite the charming nut lately, actually.

[MichaelB]

But I'd rather eat my mother's ass than buy a DVD bearing the Facets moniker. They can't have my money.

You're a sick man, skuhn. You're quite the charming nut lately, actually.

I have a review copy of the first Tartan Pasolini box sitting on my desk, and I have to say that it's a whole series of pleasant surprises all the way.

It's in a cardboard slipcase with three slimline plastic DVD cases inside (very much like Optimum's Bunuel box), though half the space is taken up with a reprint of William Weaver's translation of A Violent Life, Pasolini's 1959 novel, rebranded to match the box artwork. That's the only significant extra (bar original trailers), but it's a pretty hefty one.

The individual DVD cases are very attractive too, the designs largely based around (I assume) original poster artwork on a strong red background. Complete Italian posters take up the top half of the rear box artwork.

As for the discs themselves (which are Region 2 only), first impressions are very positive indeed - RoGoPaG and Love Meetings are anamorphic (1.78:1 and 1.66:1 respectively), with Accattone in Academy, and all are sourced from very clean-looking prints, with optional subtitles. I was particularly impressed by the quality of the colour sequences in La Ricotta. Crucially, they also appear to be native and progressive PAL transfers - or at least I couldn't detect any of the ghosting that too often plagues discs from this label, even after stepping through them frame by frame.

I'll report back if I spot any other issues when I've had a chance to run them on a more demanding system than my MacBook - but it certainly looks as though Tartan have got it right this time.

[Soothsayer]

I have a review copy of the first Tartan Pasolini box sitting on my desk, and I have to say that it's a whole series of pleasant surprises all the way.

That Tartan boxset might be the thing that finally pushes me to get a region-free dvd player. Thanks for the info MichaelB, keep us posted!

[MichaelB]

Just to update my earlier post, I've now watched all three discs in the first Pasolini box, and see no reason to dampen my earlier enthusiasm.

The only slight niggle is that the credits for Accattone are in letterboxed widescreen (black text, white background, black bars top and bottom), yet the film itself is in 4:3 - but I couldn't see anything wrong with the framing. In all other respects, it's a gorgeous transfer from a pretty well perfectly-preserved print - I suspect the high-contrast look was deliberate, as there's plenty of shadow detail and the highlights are never bleached out.

Looks as though volume 2 is along near-identical lines: three discs plus a novel ('Ragazzo') - though in this case I'd say the films themselves are rather stronger, with two major works ('Oedipus Rex' and 'Pigsty') against volume 1 offering just 'Accattone' and two relative obscurities. The other volume 2 title is 'Hawks and Sparrows', which didn't do much for me, though the glorious opening with sung credits is almost worth it on its own. In fact, back in the days when I had a blog, I uploaded an MP3 sample, which can still be heard here.

[Tommaso]

Just for completeness sake: can you tell us which colour the subs are and whether they're removable? I'm seriously contemplating to buy Vol.2 for "Pigsty" alone, but I'd be more pushed if I knew I could get rid of the horrible yellow subs on the French 3-discer containing "Hawks and the Sparrows" (one of my favourite Pasos, incidentally) and "Oedipus" already.

[MichaelB]

Just for completeness sake: can you tell us which colour the subs are and whether they're removable?

They're white, and they're removable. The menu doesn't offer any subtitle options, and the default is subtitles on, but I'm happy to confirm that you can easily switch them off, as I've just done it myself.

As a welcome bonus, the subtitles are also removable on the trailers.

(NB: This only applies to volume one, but there's no reason to assume transfer standards and subtitle options won't be the same with volume 2)

[Tommaso]

Thanks!

[Soothsayer]

The only slight niggle is that the credits for Accattone are in letterboxed widescreen (black text, white background, black bars top and bottom), yet the film itself is in 4:3 - but I couldn't see anything wrong with the framing. In all other respects, it's a gorgeous transfer from a pretty well perfectly-preserved print - I suspect the high-contrast look was deliberate, as there's plenty of shadow detail and the highlights are never bleached out.

Can't remember where I saw this, but in an interview, Tonino Delli Colli (DP on Accatone) mentioned that there was a very nice original print, and Pasolini took a copy of the negative and marked it up, did a whole bunch of stuff to it (transfers, more markings, etc.). They watch Pasolini's treated print and Pasolini decides its much better and the version he wanted released (I believe for the Venice Film Festival, I'm probably wrong, though). I'm pretty sure this is the print that was used for all subsequent releases.

[kekid]

I am delighted by the Pasolini Volume I, particularly Accatone. However, I have a small caveat. The set is twice as big as it needs to be because of the paperback of "A Violent Life". This book can be purchased from Amazon by anyone interested. I agree with the view expressed by others that if a book is included with a DVD box, it should have a compelling reason to be there. Lack of general availability is a good reason. I do not feel there was a compelling reason to include a book in this case. It is included to partially offset the lack of extras in this important release. If so, it is a poor substitute.

I gather there is a plan to include another book with the second volume. As the release date is within a couple of months, probably the design work is all done; otherwise I would make a plea to get rid of the book and reduce the price. Those who want the book can easily get it separately.

[colinr0380]

That is great news about the second volume Michael. Porcile is the only other Pasolini film I haven't seen, and it will be great to upgrade from my videos of Oedipus Rex and Hawks and the Sparrows.

I might disagree about leaving the books out. I hadn't planned on getting Violent Life, but it makes a very good bonus. I'm looking forward to Ragazzo too (does anyone have any information about this book?). Perhaps Tartan might separate the films later on for those who already have the book separately?

[kinjitsu]

I have a small caveat. The set is twice as big as it needs to be because of the paperback of "A Violent Life" ... I do not feel there was a compelling reason to include a book in this case.

It has always been my impression that Accattone was loosely based on A Violent Life, much as Mamma Roma's Ettore evolved from certain aspects of A Boy's Life.

[MichaelB]

Personally, I think it's a terrific extra, and I'm all for unconventional additions like this - especially in the case of an artist whose creativity extended well beyond the film medium. Which is quite enough of a "compelling reason" for me.

And I also appreciate the way Tartan have matched the book cover and spine with the DVD artwork.

[foggy eyes]

DVD Times review of Pasolini Volume 1.

[Tommaso]

Reading that DD Times review and also Michael's comments there, I wondered why I was always relatively attracted to "Love meetings", though it's also not among my favourite Pasolinis. I would agree that the film doesn't provide us with a hell of a lot of new insights on how the Italians in the 60s regarded all matters sexual, and that Pasolini, for the points mentioned in the review, didn't really probe deeply into their answers, thus making it worthless as a sociological examination. But I ask myself whether this was Pasolinis main objective when making the film, or whether the film shouldn't perhaps be regarded as another outpouring of his personal obsession: the urgent drive to break up established rules and codes of morality and bourgeois society. Just the fact of TALKING publicly about sex (not to speak of so-called 'aberrant' sex practices) must have come as pretty much a blow to the conservative Catholic morality of many, perhaps quite similar to what "La Ricotta" did in its own way. The driving force here might have been similar to the reasons that eventually drove him to make "Salo".

What makes "Comizi d'amore" also interesting for me is that it in a way presents a 'lost' culture: you simply won't find those faces, those ways of looking and behaviour anymore today, not even - as far as I can see - in Italy. Thus "Love meetings" might regain interest as a piece of 'anthropology', perhaps unintentional, and thus might fit into the canon of films of his like 'Sopralluoghi in Palestina" or "Le mura di Sana'a". Anyway, I still find it's worth seeing, if only for the appearance and talking of Pasolini himself in it.

[colinr0380]

DVD Maniacs review of the Pasolini Volume 1 set.

Will this be the novel included with the second volume?

[MichaelB]

Will this be the novel included with the second volume?

Yes.

Incidentally, that DVD Maniacs review is completely wrong about RoGoPaG and Love Meetings - they're definitely anamorphic. Some of the screen grabs look distinctly weird as well (vertically stretched)

[sevenarts]

Has anybody had any problems with the Tartan Vol. 1 set? I got mine today, and my computer's DVD player really hates these discs, it glitches and freezes and won't play them at all. When the menu should be coming up, it plays music (with glitchy stops in it) but just shows a blank screen. And try as I might to get the film going, it's no go. I've never run into any problems like this before, playing all sorts of stuff from all regions. I'm pretty annoyed right now.

[MichaelB]

Has anybody had any problems with the Tartan Vol. 1 set?

All three discs played perfectly on my MacBook from beginning to end.

(and they were actual production discs, not checkdiscs)

[richast2]

Beaver review:

There was a flicker of hope for a decent English subbed version here, but the entire package amounts to nothing more than a curiosity. The dual-layered DVD offers a new colorized, progressive (and shorter) version of the film that is dubbed into English. There is also the complete original version (interlaced) in a despairingly weak transfer, black and white all right, but burnt-in subs and it may be the worst image yet. So I was interested to see this 'shorter' version with about 45 minutes cut but overall this is truly a bastardized rendition with a DUB and of course the colorization of a film that should only be seen in black and white. The color does look good - bringing up detail a shade in spots. I'm sure that some will suggest to me in email that it should be destroyed. I don't feel quite that strongly and for $10 it does have some value as a comparative piece of manipulated modern digitization but I think that some things shouldn't be messed with... but regardless the reality is that they are.

[Cinéslob]

I had never realised Clouzot's daughter had allowed The Wages of Fear to be colorized

I've seen that version and liked it a lot (to my surprise). It's about the only colourised film I've seen that looks like it might have been shot that way originally.

I'm still trying (after many years) to overcome the shock of discovering that Red River wasn't shot in colour, as per my childhood memories of the film in television broadcasts. I'd never have guessed, given how good a job was done on it - in fact, I initially thought that the VHS tape I bought of it was defective, until learning otherwise.

[colinr0380]

I just received my copy of volume 2 of the Pasolini set and thought I'd mention here that there are two short films included as extras along with the trailers, perhaps included because the combined running time of the three films is shorter in this volume than the first - they are a welcome addition either way. I'll reproduce the description from the packaging:

Notes For A Film On India (imdb): Pasolini's rare 1968 documentary features interviews on the subject of religion and starvation in India (34 mins, B&W)

The Walls Of Sana'a: Pasolini's 1971 documentary voices disgust at the demolition of old buildings in the name of modernism (13 mins, Colour)

[Tommaso]

Notes For A Film On India (imdb): Pasolini's rare 1968 documentary features interviews on the subject of religion and starvation in India (34 mins, B&W)

Damn brilliant! A true Pasolini rarity, like "the Walls of Sana'a", which however was already on the Raro "Medea". Now the only film still missing is the wonderful "Appunti per un'Orestiade africana". So then, another box set to order rather sooner than later. My credit card is beginning to seriously complain now....

I've now received my copy of Tartan's Vol.2 box set and can confirm that it is excellent all around. "Hawks and Sparrows" and "Oedipus" look superior to the French edition, though only slightly, and like "Porcile", are pretty much flawless. "Le Mura di Sana'a" looks weaker than on the Raro disc, which has far better colours and is sharper (despite being non-anamorphic), but that's a minor quibble. "Appunti per un film sull'India" is a wonderful extra (looking good though taken from a battered print), I always find it amazing how Paso managed to imbue documentaries intended to bear social criticism with such a degree of sheer poetic beauty without losing any impact. I guess it has to do with his voice, which transports both intellectual clarity and sheer melancholy at the same time.

Now, the only film I hadn't seen before was "Porcile" (as I managed to abstain from the apparently horrible Water Bearer edition). I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Although it's photographed beautifully, it basically replays themes that I found he tackled better in "Teorema" (industrial power and the bourgeois society). I found the political criticism somewhat over-simplified and too didactic (the pigs/Jews theme, or the reiteration near the end "I killed my father, ate human flesh" etc.). I'm aware that the film, although apparently talking about post-WW2 Germany, is probably as much about the Italian situation at the time, and that one could even see it as an early study for "Salo", but if it was intended to create shock amongst viewers, this has now pretty much receded. The cannibalism bit, for instance, is much more nerve-wrecking in Ichikawa's "Fires on the plain" than here. On the other hand, having the industrialist play the infamous Horst-Wessel-Lied on a harp struck me as pretty much a brilliant idea, and much more to the point than the use of 'Carmina Burana' in "Salo". Anyway, not a bad film, but barring "Canterbury Tales", probably the one that convinces me least. Any thoughts, anyone?

[Tommaso]

At this level of reading I always thought Paso's last (but not all) films were final essays in - whatever form people most often found them -a view of total despair - for the future, or human nature (as are I think RWF's.) It's not a kind read.

I tentatively agree, but one would have to impose a very special interpretation on the Trilogy of Life to maintain that idea. After all, these three films were made to celebrate an archaic utopia of poetry, sexual liberation and a world free of capitalism, and in my view this 'positive' approach is very much in the forefront at least in "Il Decameron" and "Arabian Nights". "Canterbury Tales " seems to be very similar at first glance, but certainly there are a lot of darker aspects, especially near the end (the murder episode, the demon scene). This might be seen as a foreshadowing of how that utopia was to be destroyed in "Salo", but on the other hand Pasolini as Chaucer shows us so much good-naturedness and humour that these episodes are finally not overly heavy in the context of the whole film. Also remember that he appealed to UNESCO with "Le mura di Sana'a" in order to protect that city, and the fact alone that he made the film seems to indicate that there was indeed hope left in him.

But what a gift he left us, with the image of fascism in which we all live these days as two dumb boys dancing a foxtrot.

Amazing, yes. But remember that Paso has been criticized for not having understood both fascism and de Sade. "Salo" seems in a way to indicate that fascism is an aesthetisation of the darker, unrecognized bits of the human soul (sex, power etc.). I don't think that he left out the interpretation of a bourgeois/capitalist origin in "Salo", but of course it is much more overtly evident in "Porcile". In this respect, the two films nicely compliment each other, and indeed the very 'symmetrical' compositions of fascist art and architecture are taken up in the camerawork in both films. Still, I find "Salo" infinitely superior, of course.

One more word in this respect to the Tartan box: it's nice that they put a whole book in as an extra, but why "Ragazzi di Vita", a novel from a totally different period that does next to nothing to illuminate the content of the three films? I would have wished they'd reprinted one of his late essay collections instead, the "Lettere Luterane" or the "Scritti corsare" in an English translation (is there one? I only know the German versions of these). These are must-reads for anyone really wanting to understand what Paso was aiming for in his last ten years.