7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A businessman finds himself trapped in a surreal hotel surrounded by hostile women.
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Donatella Damiani, Bernice Stegers, Silvana Fusacchia, Hélčne CalzarelliForeign | 100% |
Drama | 72% |
Surreal | 13% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Any parent will tell you that there comes a time when behaviors which were tolerated or even encouraged in their children suddenly become a “no no” as the kids age, due to either social propriety or simply the fact that it’s time to “move on”. Could something at least slightly similar be analagous to responses to the latter day films of Federico Fellini? The excesses that made 8˝ one of the most iconic films of its era (and probably beyond) became increasingly tiresome for at least some viewers as Fellini moved on to the late sixties and then the seventies, with films like Fellini Satyricon (frankly one of my personal favorites) leading even some longtime fans to say, “Well, now he’s really gone off the deep end”. It’s not hard to see 1980’s City of Women as a kind of 8 ˝: The Next Generation, as it were, with an addled Marcello Mastroianni once again portraying a man who is both surrounded by and completely confounded by those of the opposite gender. City of Women has much of the same dreamlike quality as 8 ˝, but it’s filtered through a more cynical middle aged ambience that seems to want to make The War of the Sexes into a carnival ride. The film is so rife with stereotypes that it would be facile to call it misogynistic or frankly anti-chauvinist, depending on how ironically one feels Fellini is offering up the almost (gender appropriate) Alex in Wonderland-esque adventures of a man who has gone down a veritable rabbit hole to confront the vagaries of his own Id.
City of Women is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Cohen is usually not shy about promoting new transfers and/or restorations, and without any such comments attending this release, I tend to think this is probably culled from the same master as the French release from Gaumont which Svet Atanasov reviewed for us several years ago. That said, I noticed little if any of the sharpening Svet mentioned, though a bit of high frequency filtering may have been applied. What I did notice were some minor occasional and fairly tangential hurdles in compression and/or grain resolution (see screenshot 7). That said, the bulk of this release boasts a very natural looking and nicely suffused palette, with an organically resolving grain field and a good, stable image. Detail levels are generally very commendable, with some of the more outré production design elements popping quite nicely, especially in close-ups.
I joked a while back that someone at Cohen needed to start paying attention to my reviews and stop authoring their discs to default to lossy Dolby audio instead of also included lossless options, something that finally did occur (well, they started authoring their discs to default to lossless audio, anyway). Well, now for the second time in as many releases (the first being The Films of Maurice Pialat: Volume 1), Cohen has released a Blu-ray that has only a lossy Dolby track, in this case a Dolby 2.0 mono mix in the original Italian. Since the French release of this title boasted not one but two lossless tracks, I have to believe that this is some kind of QC problem in the production chain where somehow available lossless audio is not being included on releases. So, again, I (kind of) joke: Cohen! Wake up! The lossy track is not a huge letdown, though the boxiness of the score may have been ameliorated in a lossless environment. As is the case in many Italian films, much of the production was post-looped and there are attendant sync issues which are obviously neither helped nor hurt by the lossy audio. Fidelity is fine if a bit underwhelming.
I'm not quite as in love with City of Women as Svet seemed to be (based on his 5.0 score for the French release). The film is a typical Fellini-esque riot of imagination, but I found a lot of the proceedings overly forced and ironically less "dreamlike" than merely chaotic. That said, Mastroianni is superb as the put upon hapless male, and the supporting cast is wonderfully eccentric and colorful in traditional Fellini fashion. Video has a few temporary obstacles to overcome, but the lack of lossless audio is a disappointment. Along with lossless audio, the French release also evidently includes a lengthy documentary on the making of the film which is not included on this release. Therefore, I'm recommending that those with a region free player consider the French release. For others who are not put off by lossy audio and the lack of at least one supplement, this release (with caveats) comes Recommended.
Fellini's Roma
1972
1969
The Easy Life
1962
Fellini's Intervista
1987
Otto e mezzo / Federico Fellini's 8˝
1963
1960
The Swindle
1955
1961
La luna
1979
1953
Adua and her Friends
1960
La grande bellezza
2013
2012
2017
Uccellacci e uccellini
1966
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
1972
Ladri di biciclette
1948
Il Conformista | 4K Restoration
1970
Cristo si č fermato a Eboli
1979
1962