Stromboli

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Stromboli

#1 Post by antnield » Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:27 am


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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Stromboli

#2 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:51 am

Excellent! Really looking forward to this, especially after seeing Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy.

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repeat
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 am
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Re: Stromboli

#3 Post by repeat » Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:19 am

Very exciting indeed! Isn't this the first digital home video release of the complete version? I almost bought the Italian Blu but luckily noticed it only contains the 80-minute RKO cut :shock:

A heretofore unavailable Rossellini film on Blu from BFI hardly needs any additional endorsement, but fwiw, this film was a key influence on Christian Petzold's Barbara

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GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK

Re: Stromboli

#4 Post by GaryC » Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:42 am

Stromboli was cut by the BBFC last time it was passed (1998), on animal cruelty grounds, so it's not unlikely to be cut still.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
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Re: Stromboli

#5 Post by TMDaines » Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:55 am

Great news. I can't see the BFI releasing it unless they were were confident it would be passed uncut. Perhaps it is only a small, vocal minority that care but I doubt too many of us are going to be interested if it isn't uncut.

Between this and Underground, BFI are really playing a strong hand in giving overlooked films their first bonafide releases.

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MichaelB
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Re: Stromboli

#6 Post by MichaelB » Sun Jan 27, 2013 12:07 pm

Well, if they've cut it before, they'll obviously have consulted their records in advance of the resubmission, so there's no chance of crossing fingers and hoping they won't notice!

It really depends on their current interpretation of the Animals Act, which has an escape clause regarding cruelty that would have happened regardless of the cameras' presence. It might be possible to argue that this is true of the tuna sequence in Stromboli (which I assume is the contentious material), but it really depends on how it was shot.

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Peacock
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:47 pm
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Re: Stromboli

#7 Post by Peacock » Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:50 pm

This is just painfully fantastic news. Let's just hope it's the english dub included. Time to call in Tag Gallagher and find out if he had a helping hand in recommending which cut for this release... (?) Hope so! Maybe even a visual essay?

Love surprise releases like this! And fingers crossed on the tuna sequence being passed, although I don't see why it wouldn't when almost all of Cannibal Holocaust's killing of animals were allowed.

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ellipsis7
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
Location: Dublin

Re: Stromboli

#8 Post by ellipsis7 » Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:07 pm

Great news, at last I can now replace my off air VHS recorded from the BBC circa 1989... That cut by the BBFC in 1998 was for just 10 secs, hopefully they will be more lenient this time... A possible extra on the BFI package could be the recent docu WAR OF THE VOLCANOES...

Surely now JOURNEY TO ITALY in the new resto screened @ the last BFI LFF must be shortly due for a dual format upgrade...

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GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK

Re: Stromboli

#9 Post by GaryC » Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:56 pm

According to the Melonfarmers site, the cut was to a sequence showing a ferret being goaded into killing a rabbit.

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: Stromboli

#10 Post by antnield » Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:52 pm

Amazon give a running time of 107 minutes - ie, not the RKO version.

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Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Re: Stromboli

#11 Post by Tommaso » Mon Jan 28, 2013 4:36 am

Wonderful news, and yes, high time to upgrade "Journey to Italy", too. Somehow I've got the feeling that if the BFI is releasing this, the much-fabled or only wished-for CC Bergman/Rossellini set can't be too far away. Hopefully there won't be any 'exclusive' films on either side of the Atlantic, then.

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Peacock
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:47 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Stromboli

#12 Post by Peacock » Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:44 am

Hmm I'm fairly convinced (just) the most famous 3 of the Bergman-Rossellini films are coming pretty soon to the US... So this would be a good opportunity for BFI to compete by including Fear and Joan on their own releases. Pretty please?

JonasEB
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 3:02 am

Re: Stromboli

#13 Post by JonasEB » Mon Jan 28, 2013 3:21 pm

Peacock wrote:Hmm I'm fairly convinced (just) the most famous 3 of the Bergman-Rossellini films are coming pretty soon to the US... So this would be a good opportunity for BFI to compete by including Fear and Joan on their own releases. Pretty please?
Fear is also a Janus title...or it appears so anyway (highly likely) - it's going to be on U.S. TV with Stromboli, Europe 51, and Voyage to Italy in March (part of a 14 film Rossellini tribute on TCM - perhaps the big Criterion announcement will be during that month?) No sign of Joan though.

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MichaelB
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Re: Stromboli

#14 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jan 31, 2013 7:33 am

Confirmed as Region B.

The BBFC has yet to deliver its verdict, so fingers crossed...

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ellipsis7
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
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Re: Stromboli

#15 Post by ellipsis7 » Thu Feb 07, 2013 1:27 pm

Image

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
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Re: Stromboli

#16 Post by TMDaines » Thu Feb 07, 2013 6:33 pm

Not their worst cover but just use one of the original posters already!

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Stromboli

#17 Post by zedz » Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:02 pm

TMDaines wrote:Not their worst cover but just use one of the original posters already!
You mean like this one?
Image

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
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Re: Stromboli

#18 Post by TMDaines » Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:06 am

Yes. Why not just go all the way and use the original poster? Why have the obviously modern fonts floating over the top?

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tubal
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:52 am
Location: Zürich, Switzerland

Re: Stromboli

#19 Post by tubal » Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:55 pm

This is great news. Hopefully this is the year that all the Rossellini-Bergman films get a decent release. Would love to be able to upgrade my Journey to Italy DVD too but the one for me would be Europa 51.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Stromboli

#20 Post by zedz » Fri Feb 08, 2013 3:01 pm

TMDaines wrote:Yes. Why not just go all the way and use the original poster? Why have the obviously modern fonts floating over the top?
Because that's the house style, and having a brand associated with quality is commercially valuable in a highly competitive marketplace?

Just a wild guess.

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swo17
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
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Re: Stromboli

#21 Post by swo17 » Fri Feb 08, 2013 3:07 pm

Yes... because they were forced to get into that specific house style. The one that they kind of drew up. The poor guys, they had no choice!

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Stromboli

#22 Post by zedz » Fri Feb 08, 2013 3:13 pm

Post of the year!

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Stromboli

#23 Post by TMDaines » Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:32 pm

zedz wrote:
TMDaines wrote:Yes. Why not just go all the way and use the original poster? Why have the obviously modern fonts floating over the top?
Because that's the house style, and having a brand associated with quality is commercially valuable in a highly competitive marketplace?

Just a wild guess.
I thought that people generally didn't like the BFI house style on the whole, no?

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Stromboli

#24 Post by zedz » Sun Feb 10, 2013 3:33 pm

What's that got to do with the point I was making?

Meanwhile, back in the real world. . .

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Peacock
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:47 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Stromboli

#25 Post by Peacock » Sun Feb 10, 2013 10:16 pm

Michael, any news on the cut and dub for Stromboli yet?

Here's a handful of old comments from another thread made by Gallagher about the different versions and dubs:
There are three editions of Stromboli.

The first released was in the US by RKO, which reduced it to 82 mins, added a voice-over changed the editing, etc. All against RR's will. So forget about this one.

The next version was Rossellini's own English-language edition, variously cited between 102 and 107 minutes, but all the same version. It was shot with most of the people speaking English. And this was distributed internationally.

About a year later, Rossellini released an Italian dubbing just for Italy (but with Bergman's own voice), which added a short portion of a scene in the cemetery and altered the miracle at the end to make it more explicitly religious, and reduced the running time to about 97 minutes.

My preference is for the English edition (#2 above).
Stromboli was shot in English. Bergman dubbed herself in Italian. The two editions differ slightly in editing, because the Italian version (about 7 minutes shorter) was made about a year after the English one, so the miracle, for example, is more explicitly religious. Dramatically English makes more sense, because the heroine's problem is that she cannot communicate with the locals, and obviously much of that is lost if she's speaking fluent Italian. (There's also a 3rd edition, the 84-minute RKO US release, which was butchered totally.)
it was the English-language edition of STROMBOLI that Rossellini had exhibited in Paris and everywhere outside of Italy (as far as I know); and in fact it was the English-language edition that Rossellini showed, in the film's premiere, at the Venice Film Festival, Aug. 26, 1950. The Italian-dubbing wasn't released until Mar 9, 1951, and bore a new title, STROMBOLI TERRA DI DIO.
Well, I hope you see Stromboli soon and in the English edition. I'm not dismissing Stromboli terra di Dio; it too is interesting. But I do think the "real" Stromboli is the English one -- which in Italian archives is referred to as the "multi-lingual" edition.
I'm just nervous this is just going to be a port of the Italian BD! I guess BFI did Journey to Italy right so I should expect them to do the same with this one.

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