8.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
Starring: Antonella Attili, Enzo Cannavale, Isa Danieli, Leo Gullotta, Marco LeonardiDrama | 100% |
Foreign | 68% |
Period | 26% |
Melodrama | 15% |
Coming of age | 11% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Italian: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Theatrical: LPCM Mono; Director's: LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
The annals of cinema are stocked full of offerings which are either love letters to the Art of Film, or sometimes more like nasty postcards. Movies as disparate as Singin' in the Rain, The Player, Sunset Boulevard, Adaptation. , The Stunt Man, Ed Wood and Sullivan's Travels prove what a fertile ground the very industry which gave birth to these offerings has been for various filmmakers. But for the initial purposes of this review, it might be best to think about one of the most iconic (if seemingly tangential) cinematic references to the movie making business, Federico Fellini’s legendary 8½ . While there are manifest differences between Fellini’s unforgettable film and Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso, both films are unavoidably Italian in perspective and both feature a somewhat addled film director who is awash in the vagaries of memory. Tornatore’s take on this foundation is decidedly less surreal than Fellini’s (not that that would be very hard to accomplish), but both films are suffused with a really palpable sense of emotion that is often at least somewhat similar. Lionsgate released a bare bones version of Cinema Paradiso several years ago which offered only the theatrical cut of the film and next to no supplements. Arrow is back now with a beautiful new package offering both versions of the film culled from new scans of the original camera negatives, and coming replete with some excellent supplementary material.
Cinema Paradiso is presented in two versions on two discs by Arrow Video with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.67:1. As I tend to do when I'm revisiting titles I've previously written about, I highly recommend simply comparing screenshots to form your own opinion rather than relying on my descriptive powers. With that in mind, I've tried to mimic some of the screenshots from the Cinema Paradiso Blu-ray review of the Lionsgate release, especially with regard to the shared Theatrical Version (represented by screenshots 1-10 in this review). I've also attempted to repeat a few (but not all) of those screenshots in the examples of the Director's Cut (screenshots 11-20). Also, for informational purposes I've included the text card that precedes both versions of the film in position 23 of the screenshots. The typically informative booklet Arrow includes with this release contains additional information about the transfer:
The original 35mm negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin registered Arriscan at Technicolor Rome. The film was fully graded using the Nucoda Film Master colour grading system. Restoration work was carried out using a combination of software tools and techniques. Thousands of instances of dirt, scratches and debris were carefully removed frame by frame. Damaged frames were repaired, and density and stability issues were significantly improved.There's really no discernable difference (that I could see, anyway) between the footage shared by the Theatrical Version and Director's Cut on this release. There are some notable differences between this new version (and/or versions) and the Lionsgate release, however. It's obvious that this new release is darker than the Lionsgate release, with a much more clearly apparent grain field, but I now tend to think that the Lionsgate release may have had some brightness boosting applied, since I'm considerably more pleased by the overall look of the palette on this new release, especially with regard to flesh tones. As I noted in the review of the Lionsgate release, those who have never seen Cinema Paradiso theatrically or in previous home video versions may be surprised at that aforementioned "texture" that is clearly on display, especially in this new release, and while there's occasional yellow chunkiness on display, Arrow's compression regimen handles the frequently heavy grain rather well. There's a noticeable uptick in clarity in the most brightly lit outdoor sequences, notably some of the daytime scenes in the town square. Restoration efforts have delivered elements with no discernable damage. Arrow has kept their word about the lack of digital tweaking, for there are (not to state the obvious) no signs of degraining and also no signs of artificial sharpening.
Throughout the restoration process, care was taken to ensure that the film's original texture, details, grain structure and soundtrack remained unaffected by digital processing.
Unlike the Lionsgate release, which featured only a mono track, the Theatrical Version sports both an LPCM Mono and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, while the Director's Cut features an LPCM 2.0 (stereo) track along with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (kind of funnily, the trailer for the Director's Cut hawks the film as being "now in stereo"). The mono track on the Theatrical Version is very much in keeping with the track on the Lionsgate release, somewhat (unavoidably) narrow sounding, but easily supporting dialogue and Ennio Morricone's ravishing score. As I suspected in my review of the audio of the Lionsgate release where I was supposing what a surround mix might add to the film, the answer is: really not that much. Morricone's music certainly gets a bit more breathing room, though I have to say the wider spatial placement sounded a bit artificial to me, kind of like those old "reprocessed for electronic stereo" record releases that older audiophiles may recall. The 5.1 mix on both versions does add a bit of activity in the raucous scenes in the movie theater or where crowds are otherwise filling the frame. The stereo mix on the Director's Cut is fairly subtle, adding minor but noticeable separation to both Morricone's score and those selfsame boisterous scenes with large populations crowding the frame. All of the tracks sport excellent fidelity. For my personal listening tastes, I'd say stick with the original mono and stereo tracks, but that's obviously simply my personal preference.
Since one version of the film could arguably be considered a supplement by some, I've included both versions in the complete listing of what's on
each
disc in this set.
Disc One
Even those of you who sprang for the Lionsgate version a few years ago should feel no compunction about double dipping in this particular case, for the technical improvements of the Arrow release are substantial and the supplementary material is outstanding. Plus, both versions of the film are presented, and they're each manifestly different viewing experiences. I have been head over heels in love with Cinema Paradiso since I first saw it at an art house theatrical screening decades ago, and I fell in love with it (in both versions) all over again watching this excellent new release from Arrow. Highly recommended.
Nuovo cinema Paradiso
1988
Nuovo cinema Paradiso
1988
Nuovo cinema Paradiso / Exclusive Slipcover
1988
Special Edition | Nuovo cinema Paradiso | Arrow Academy
1988
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso 4K | Director's cut on BD | Arrow Academy | Special Edition
1988
1973
1953
La grande bellezza
2013
2012
Vi är bäst
2013
Il Conformista | 4K Restoration
1970
2016
1952
Novecento | Three-Disc Collector's Edition
1976
Ladri di biciclette
1948
The Easy Life
1962
2009
Jagten
2012
1960
1976
2015
Les quatre cents coups
1959
Fellini's Roma
1972
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
2001
2012