7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The exploits of two pansexual young men—the handsome scholar Encolpius and his vulgar, insatiably lusty friend Ascyltus—as they move through a landscape of free-form pagan excess.
Starring: Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, Max Born (I), Salvo Randone, Mario RomagnoliForeign | 100% |
Drama | 87% |
History | 3% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Winner of Pasinetti Award for Best Italian Film at the Venice Film Festival, Federico Fellini's "Fellini Satyricon" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The only supplemental feature on the disc is an original trailer for the film. Also included on this release is a 36-page illustrated booklet with a new essay by Pasquale Iannone and more. In Italian or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
"Who is more fortunate than we who can witness our divine Caesar's new miracle?"
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Federico Fellini's Fellini Satyricon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.
The release uses as a foundation the same terrific 4K restoration of Fellini Satyricon, supervised by director of photography Guiseppe Rotunno, which Criterion introduced in the United States earlier this year (you can see our review of the Region-A release here). The basic characteristics of the two presentations are virtually identical -- detail, clarity, and especially color reproduction are now vastly superior. I suppose viewers with larger screens and especially projectors, however, will be most impressed with the terrific image depth. Indeed, many of the darker sequences now boast excellent shadow definition and large parts of the film actually look substantially different. Fluidity is also greatly improved and when the camera moves around the larger panoramic shots look absolutely terrific. Some minor sharpness fluctuations remain, but these fluctuations occur when some unique decors are used or light is captured in a special way. There are no traces of problematic degraining adjustments. However, there are parts of the film where the grain could be slightly underexposed because of different stylistic enhancements. Still, the high-quality 4K scanning has ensured that it the grain is evenly distributed and well resolved. There are no stability issues. Lastly, there are no encoding anomalies to report in this review. All in all, thus far this is the year's biggest and most impressive new restoration that I have seen released on Blu-ray. A real stunner, indeed. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Italian LPCM 1.0 (with portions of Latin and Neapolitan) and English (Dub) LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles have been provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
I can only echo the comments I left in our review of the Criterion release of Fellini Satyricon. It is very easy to tell that various stabilization enhancements have been performed as the music and the dialog are now very well balanced. Some minor dynamic fluctuations remain, but they are clearly part of the film's original sound design. More importantly, in select parts of the film the syncing can be fluid, but this is also a production limitation -- some actors were overdubbed and the sound simply does not always match the movement of their lips. You should also keep in mind that the Latin/Neapolitan exchanges are intentionally not translated in English. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in this review.
The new 4K restoration of Fellini Satyricon is simply astonishing. There are other big restorations that will soon arrive on Blu-ray -- the recent restorations of Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour, King Hu's Dragon Inn, and Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy, among others -- but I have a good feeling that Fellini Satyricon will remain my favorite this year. I think that it is tremendously well done and, more importantly, looks magnificent on Blu-ray. Eureka Entertainment's release does not have any substantial supplemental features, but I urge you not to wait and consider adding it to your collections now. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
1953
Lo sceicco bianco / Vintage World Cinema
1952
Giulietta degli spiriti
1965
Le notti di Cabiria / Vintage World Cinema
1957
Vintage World Cinema
1954
The Swindle / Masters of Cinema
1955
Masters of Cinema
1972
1960
Otto e mezzo / Federico Fellini's 8½
1963
Skepp till India land
1947
Tystnaden
1963
Såsom i en spegel
1961
City of Women / Masters of Cinema
1980
1969
Viskningar och rop
1972
Nära livet
1958
Kvinnodröm
1955
Hamnstad
1948
Törst
1949
Efter repetitionen
1984