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Amarcord



In this carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the Fascist period, Federico Fellini’s most personal film satirizes his youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political subterfuge, all set to Nina Rota’s classic, nostalgia-tinged score. The Academy Award–winning Amarcord remains one of cinema’s enduring treasures.

SPECIAL FEATURES

- Restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary by film scholars Peter Brunette and Frank Burke
- Fellini’s Homecoming, a 45-minute documentary on the complicated relationship between the celebrated director, his hometown, and his past
- Video interview with star Magali Noël
- Federico Fellini’s drawings of characters in the film
- Felliniana, a presentation of ephemera devoted to Amarcord from the collection of Don Young
- Archival audio interviews with Fellini and his friends and family, by longtime radio film critic Gideon Bachmann
- Restoration demonstration
- Deleted scene
- American release trailer
- Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Sam Rohdie and Fellini’s 1967 essay My Rimini

Original DVD:
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In the DVD Times review of the 2-disc R2 French edition of Amarcord (released in October 2004), comparison screenshots are made with the Criterion. Despite the fact that this early CC release is non-anamorphic, its picture quality is clearly superior to the anamorphic R2. The extras sound great, but for those planning to upgrade for better picture quality, you might want to wait for a (hoped-for) Criterion re-release.

It happened the same thing to me. It simply stopped playing! I've tried on different players and even on different computers but nothing happens... I thought I was the only one!

This was my very first Criterion that I bought ages ago and I sure hope this isn't going to start happening to all the other older ones...

You should try contacting Mulvaney and see if they will send you a new disk if you send your defective one. I know some companies do, it would be nice to know if Criterion does.

My Amarcord also stopped playing after a couple years, no matter which player I tried. I figured I'd scratched it or something, but now that I see others are having the same problem, I wonder if Criterion can do something about it . . .

That's if I didn't throw it away recently when I was moving all my DVDs to a new shelving system. Bleh.

I had a defective copy of The Vanishing (no scratches) and contacted him about it last year and he was quite happy to send out a replacement if I sent him the defective one. He did mention though that he was only able to send replacements within the US and Canada ... which doesn't really help me here in the UK, so I didn't get round to doing anything about it unfortunately. He was very good about it though and should probably be able to help those of you in North America.

I had the same problem with my Amarcord DVD. I sent a letter to Jon Mulvaney and he told me to ship it for exchange. Now I can't find where I put that disc....

After reading this thread I threw mine in to make sure it was okay. It was and I ended up watching the whole thing again. Forgot what a delightful little film it is and one of the few Fellini's I really really enjoy.

Thanks to all for freaking me out about whether it plays or not, forced me to watch it again.

Mcarver at DVDTalk.com is listing Amacord along with the Third Man, and several Kurosawas as going Out of Print. Are they going OOP or is it just Image changing the UPC?

Here is the linkwith the listing saying that is OOP.

The soon-to-be-upgraded Kurosawas will need to be going out-of-print pretty soon, but there haven't been any inklings of an upgraded Amarcord - though apparently it could do with it. I thought the current Third Man disc was good, but it's been some time since I've watched it. A disc that should be going OOP in the near future is Grey Gardens.

I smell an anamorphic, special edition upgrade (and about time, too). Very interesting development.

dx23 wrote:Mcarver at DVDTalk.com is listing Amacord along with the Third Man, and several Kurosawas as going Out of Print. Are they going OOP or is it just Image changing the UPC?

Good question. Here is the complete list of discontinued titles that I managed to pull up from Michael's Movie Mayhem.

Akira Kurosawa: Four Samurai Classics: The Seven Samurai / The Hidden Fortress / Yojimbo / Sanjuro VAR Foreign Criterion/Voyager Discontinued
Amarcord 1974 Foreign Criterion/Voyager Discontinued
Sanjuro 1962 Foreign Criterion/Voyager Discontinued
Seven Samurai (Special Edition) 1954 Foreign Criterion/Voyager Discontinued
Third Man (Special Edition/ Criterion/Voyager) 1949 Mystery/Suspense Criterion/Voyager Discontinued
Yojimbo 1961 Foreign Criterion/Voyager Discontinued

About time. Amarcord is one of the most overpriced DVDs ever.

I'll buy an anamorphic one, even though I just picked up the original release a month ago.

Amarcord could really use a new edition. But The Third Man? I still think the DVD is excellent. The picture is still pretty damn good and the supplements are fantastic. I don't know how they could top it really.

I was speculating about a new SE of The Third Man a few months back. It's a good set and could be improved upon, but really, we need new editions of Andrei Rublev; Walkabout; High and Low; Diabolique; The Red Shoes and, to as lesser degree, Picnic at Hanging Rock. The next newsletter may divulge more info, of course.

I agree, the transfer of The Third Man leaves little room for costworthy improvement, but I guess it could be beefed up slightly in other areas.

I really want High & Low to get a re-release, and Andrei Rublev.

new edition specs:

* All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer
* Commentary by scholars Peter Brunette and Frank Burke
* New 45-minute documentary, "Fellini's Homecoming"
* Video interview with star Magali Noel
* Fellini's drawings of characters in the film
* "Felliniana" collection devoted to the film
* Audio interviews with Fellini, his friends and family
* New restoration demonstration
* American release trailer
* Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
* New and improved English subtitle translation
* A book featuring Fellini's memoir La Mia Rimini and essay by Sam Rohdie

What an impresive list of extras. Can't wait.

The new artwork is really great.

You know, I no longer seem to mind the artist. I did with the Lubitsch, but now I kinda dig him or her.

release of the year.

along with Joan of Arc, this is probably my favorite film in the collection, and it's the disc I've watched the most. I'm very, VERY excited about this!

Talk about atoning for past sins - this is a sensational upgrade. Criterion are becoming newfound saviors of lost film literature at the moment - first the long-absent Six Moral Tales, now Fellini's La Mia Rimini, which has been going on Ebay for up to 150 Euros recently.

I'm worried about the fact that the films running time is listed as 123 minutes! 4 minutes shorter than what it is supposed to be...

With the release of this new two disc edition is this going to make the single disc worthless? Is there anyone who is interested in buying my copy?