Ripley's Home Video

[TMDaines]

Received a shipment from dvd.it today that included, amongst other things, Ripley's excellent Per un pugno di dollari Blu-ray release:



This is honestly the best Blu-ray release I think I've got my hands on so far. Beautifully packaged and one of the booklets is seemingly repeatedly hand-signed by someone (not sure by whom). They do appear to be phasing this release out though in favour of one in a standard Blu-ray case, with none of the paper extras I guess, so anyone who wants one does need to move quickly.

[TMDaines]

Siamo donne seems to be going out of print (or perhaps needs a new print run). Multiple big stores have delisted it or stated that it's not available (ibs.it, dvd.it, deastore, lafeltrinelli.it). Only fnac.it has it still on the five or six sites I checked.

[Saimo]

Ripley's HV has been changing distribution partnership and some DVDs have been out of print for a while, but in June RHV will be back in action.

[Perkins Cobb]

All of the RHV titles in my Amazon.it cart appear to be back in stock (and in most cases a few euros cheaper than the last time I checked). Now all I need is a strong dollar, and a few of them to spend.

Do they have a website yet? Anything new on offer?

[Saimo]

Yes, most of their titles are now cheaper... This new distribution seems to work better in this regard!
RHV told me they are working to put up a new website, intended not just as a catalogue of their releases but also as a sort of "web-zine".

[djvaso]

I'll be very disappointed if the forthcoming Blu-ray release of Città Violenta is not English friendly.

[Saimo]

RHV told me it will be English friendly.

[TMDaines]

RHV told me it will be English friendly.

The DVD was English-friendly too, only that was with an alternate English audio track unfortunately and there was no English subtitles for the Italian track.

[Torrente]

So can anyone confirm if there is an English track and/or English subtitles on the Italian Blu Ray of Città violenta?

Any confirmation would be very appreciated. I don't find anything sure about this. Back cover pic would be perfect.

[djvaso]

My copy is on the way so stay tuned.

[Saimo]

I asked RHV a few weeks ago and they said it has the English soundtrack.

[Torrente]

So can anyone confirm if there is an English track and/or English subtitles on the Italian Blu Ray of Città violenta?

Any confirmation would be very appreciated. I don't find anything sure about this. Back cover pic would be perfect.

My copy is on the way so stay tuned.

Yeah!!! That way we could all have your views on the PQ

[djvaso]

A postal service is a bit slow here, so there is a report of demented_uk, a respected member of Lovelockandload forum:

Just given it a quick look. The film looks great in HD, very colourful in the outdoor sequences. For a film over 40 years old I doubt it could get any better.

This is the complete version of the film and English subtitles are provided for the Italian audio only scenes. The English audio track sounds fine.

[Torrente]

Thanks a lot!

I will wait for your views also and then probably buy it

[TMDaines]

Just got finished with Una donna ha ucciso and once again with Ripley's it's another stunning transfer. I swear they must use some sort of magic to fit that good an image onto a mere DVD-5. The better news is that the disc has English subs. The film itself is a decent enough little noirish melodrama. It was kind of strange to see the British in it constantly speaking and writing in Italian, even amongst themselves! I didn't entirely understand why the film was bookended the way it was, it didn't particularly add much to the story. I'll definitely be interested in seeing more of Cottafavi's work. I understand Ripley's are in the process of releasing more of his work. He seems to be another much like Matarazzo who has been swept away by the test of time.

[Saimo]

I didn't entirely understand why the film was bookended the way it was, it didn't particularly add much to the story.

The film is inspired by a true story, and in fact the older woman you see in the prologue and in the ending is the woman who had actually killed her British lover. That was a very famous case in the 40s, also because of its diplomatic effect. I edited the DVD booklet and we have included some articles from the newspapers: the woman was hailed by Italian as an heorine, since she killed to revenge national pride against British insults.
By the way, I like the film very much, and I think Cottafavi's work is much better than Matarazzo. He started his career with rather ambitious projects, but political attacks addressed to his Fiamma che non si spegne (1949) ruined his life, so he had to work in very low budget productions. The true story behind Una donna ha ucciso didn't interest Cottafavi much, and he changed a lot from the original concept, but he accepted to shot the film because he felt the female leading was a close snapshot of Italian women at that time, and in fact he decided to work with Lianella Carell, the wife in De Sica Ladri di biciclette. Unfortunately, the producers started the film without money, and in two weeks they had to stop shooting. Cottafavi finished the film working for free, just on weekends, and he edited the film by himself, without any assistant or collaborator.

[TMDaines]

I didn't entirely understand why the film was bookended the way it was, it didn't particularly add much to the story.

The film is inspired by a true story, and in fact the older woman you see in the prologue and in the ending is the woman who had actually killed her British lover. That was a very famous case in the 40s, also because of its diplomatic effect. I edited the DVD booklet and we have included some articles from the newspapers: the woman was hailed by Italian as an heorine, since she killed to revenge national pride against British insults.

Ahh, I understood all real events behind the story but didn't appreciate that it was the actual woman herself starring at the beginning and end of the film.

[Saimo]

An Italian Matarazzo release by RHV, L'intrusa (The Intruder), with French subtitles.

[TMDaines]

An Italian Matarazzo release by RHV, L'intrusa (The Intruder), with French subtitles.

I actually ordered this with some other things just recently. I think it's waiting for me at my post room whenever I get chance to get it.

Have you watched this one Saimo?

[Saimo]

Years ago, on TV... This is a rarely seen film, even Matarazzo Italian experts haven't written anything about it, but in my memory it was one of Matarazzo's more "ambitiuos" melodramas: in 1950s Italy it wasn't easy to make a film about suicide and abortion and get away with that.

Here a nice artwork, unfortunately not used for the DVD cover...

[TMDaines]

I didn't entirely understand why the film was bookended the way it was, it didn't particularly add much to the story.

The film is inspired by a true story, and in fact the older woman you see in the prologue and in the ending is the woman who had actually killed her British lover. That was a very famous case in the 40s, also because of its diplomatic effect. I edited the DVD booklet and we have included some articles from the newspapers: the woman was hailed by Italian as an heorine, since she killed to revenge national pride against British insults.

Ahh, I understood all real events behind the story but didn't appreciate that it was the actual woman herself starring at the beginning and end of the film.

I just read the newspaper articles on the real shooting and it's quite interesting to see the deviations from reality in the film. If I understood correctly the real British guy had a wife and kids. I wonder why this was changed for the film.

[Saimo]

I think Cottafavi tried to avoid the easiest means to affect his naive audience. In fact he also omitted the religious and patriotic implications. Example: in the newspapers, the lady (Lidia Cirillo) had talked about the promises her lover had made her in front of The Madonna at Sanctuary of Pompeii. I guess Matarazzo and other melodrama directors like Mario Costa would probably have filmed the dialogue at the Sanctuary (by the way, a place frequently filmed in those years), but Cottafavi didn't, even if he knew for sure that it would have been very effective with his Catholic audience. Instead he preferred to insert a scene from Madame Butterfly, even if it was very very hard to obtain permission to shoot in the theatre... Why?
In my opinion, because Una donna ha ucciso is also a subtle spoof of Italian melodrama. Do you remember the scene when Roy writes on his mirror the tricks for picking up Italian girls? Songs, Naples seaside and sad stories about your family... It's exactly Matarazzo formula, isn't it?

[Saimo]

About the website... A few years ago they had one, and they are now working to put up another, but it's a long term project, so I don't know when it will be on-line and whether it will be entirely English friendly. It will be not just an on-line store, but also a sort of webzine, with original essays. I have already contributed with a short piece about Peter Weir's Australian films.

However, they already have a Facebook page.

[TMDaines]

Maybe I am being dumb here but has something gone wrong with the authoring of the Blu-ray of Citta' violenta? There's clearly some form of English subtitles on the disc as they can be seen as one of the three subtitles choices in the subtitles menu, however there appears to be no way to turn them on. On the main menu the choices of audio and subtitles are: Italian, Italian w/ Hard of Hearing subtitles, English, English with Italian subtitles. Even if I select the Italian audio I can't turn the English subtitles on during the film as it has been prohibited. Maybe I've missed something here but it doesn't seem possible to watch in Italian w/ English subtitles.

The transfer looks really beautiful though. A lovely seventies grainy film feel.

[Saimo]

No English subtitles for the Italian version. You only have subtitles for the scenes missing from the American cut. I guess this is because they consider English to be the original language, and in fact of course the film was shot with an English speaking cast.

By the way, the HD presentation is pretty strong and the film surely has its moments (and a great ending), but I have never really loved it. If you like this kind of film, you should try Assassination, also put on DVD by RHV. This is an unusual noir, with a nearly incoherent plot but really amazing camera style. I wonder if this was intentional, since the main charachters are named Chandler and Lang!
Have a look at the trailer...

My favourite Sollima is La resa dei conti (aka The Big Gundown), a very good western, written by Sergio Donati (Once Upon a Time in the West).