Identification of a Woman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Identification of a Woman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 9, 2011

Nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or Award and winner of the 35th Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Michelangelo Antonioni's "Identificazione di una donna" a.k.a. "Identification of a Woman" (1982) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The only extra on the disc is the film's original theatrical trailer. A 28-page illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film critic John Powers and an interview with director Michelangelo Antonioni conducted by film critic Gideon Bachmann is also included with the disc. In Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Niccolo and Mavi

Niccolo (Tomas Milian, Don't Torture a Duckling, The Designated Victim) is a successful Italian film director whose wife has recently left him. While reevaluating his life and looking for a subject for his next film, he begins seeing two women - Mavi (Daniela Silverio, Oriana), an unprejudiced and unpredictable aristocratic beauty, and Ida (Christine Boisson, Emmanuelle, The Mechanics of Women), a talented and emotionally available young actress. Both manage to fill large voids in his life but fail to replace his wife.

Eventually, Niccolo’s frustration hurts his relationship with Mavi and she quietly disappears -- first temporarily, then permanently. While searching for her, his relationship with Ida begins to deteriorate and he becomes seriously depressed. A stranger also warns Niccolo to stay away from Mavi.

Realizing that Niccolo is on the road to self-destruction, Ida comes up with a brilliant plan that allows him to track down Mavi. However, when the two finally meet again, he discovers that it wasn’t his lover that he had been obsessed with but something else -- something very real yet elusive, meaningful yet meaningless.

Michelangelo Antonioni’s Identification of a Woman has some interesting similarities with Federico Fellini’s 8½. In both films, the main protagonists are film directors who struggle enormously and make important discoverers. In both films reality and fantasy are closely intertwined, forcing one to continuously guess where the former ends and the latter begins. The two films also share a degree of honesty that is admirable.

What separates the two films are the women the directors meet and have relationships with. In 8½ they are beautiful and seductive, admired by the director but almost always seen and treated like beautiful objects. In Identification of a Woman they are real, insatiable, difficult to predict, and perhaps even dangerous. They can inspire and, as the director eventually discovers, be inspired to take risks and challenge perceptions.

Unsurprisingly, what is identified in Antonioni’s film is actually the gap that separates the two sexes. The various outdated expectations the director has about the women he sees are in fact what turns his world upside down -- he is so out of sync with reality that nothing makes sense to him other than making love, which is why he nearly loses his mind after Mavi disappears. On the other hand, it is during the lovemaking scenes where the women are identified -- their personalities, desires, insecurities.

The massive fog which engulfs the director and Mavi halfway through the film symbolizes the strange disconnect between the two sexes -- they feel their presence, as in real life, but are left without familiar signs to follow, frustrated and scared, mad at each other.

Identification of a Woman is not an easy film to like. It requires some patience and willingness to follow its story even if at times it looks impossible to fully comprehend. The manner in which reality and fantasy overlap in particular could be quite frustrating. Ultimately, however, the film’s honest and at the same time remarkably atmospheric depiction of the ever-evolving relationship between the two sexes and their insecurities is indeed quite fascinating to behold.

*In 1982, Identification of a Woman was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or Award and won the 35th Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Identification of a Woman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.84:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Michelangelo Antonioni's Identification of a Woman arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:

"This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K from the original 35mm camera negative. Thousands of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS system and Pixel Farm's PFClean system, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.

Telecine supervisors: Lee Kline; Antonio Salvatori/Technicolor, Rome.
Telecine colorist: Guerrino Di Benedetto/Technicolor, Rome."

Last year, I imported the R2 UK DVD release of Identification of a Woman, courtesy of Mr. Bongo Films, since this was the only Michelangelo Antonioni film I did not have in my library. Now having seen Criterion's Blu-ray release of the film, I could not be any happier with the upgrade in quality. The DVD release is by no means poor, at least for a standard definition presentation of the film, but it truly looks frustratingly disappointing next to Criterion's Blu-ray release. Actually, the entire film looks quite different in high-definition.

In addition to dramatically improved detail, Criterion's Blu-ray release boasts a color-scheme that substantially enhances the film's unique atmosphere. The fog sequence, for instance, now really sticks out, and one can easily appreciate Michelangelo Antonioni's vision and execution. On the DVD the fog sequence feels like a nuisance - it looks fuzzy, unstable and genuinely flat. The various close-ups also convey excellent depth (see screencapture #11) and balance (screencapture #17), while the nighttime footage has tremendous clarity (see screencapture #14). Furthermore, edge-enhancement is never an issue of concern. The film looks sharp and vibrant but there are no traces of post-production sharpening. Some extremely light noise is occasionally present, but grain is well resolved and stable. Lastly, there are absolutely no stability issues to report in this review. All in all, Identification of a Woman looks beautiful on Blu-ray, and Criterion's presentation of the film more than likely will remain its definitive presentation for a very long time. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Identification of a Woman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Italian LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:

"The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original soundtrack negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation."

Even though the dialog is pleasingly stable and never suffering from problematic distortions, there is a small dose of background hiss which appears to be evenly distributed throughout the entire film. Its presence is not overly distracting, but I wonder if there might have been a way to tone it down a bit. On the other hand, John Foxx's atmospheric score is far more prominent and effective than it appears on the R2 DVD release of the film Mr. Bongo Films produced. For the record, there are no problematic audio dropouts or sync issues to report in this review.

Identification of a Woman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - in Italian, with optional French subtitles. (4 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - a 28-page illustrated booklet featuring John Powers' essay "The Women in the Window" (the author is the film critic at Vogue and critic at large for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross) and an interview with Michelangelo Antonioni conducted in Rome by critic Gideon Bachmann on July 22, 1982, shortly after the Cannes premiere of Identification of a Woman (the interview originally appeared in the summer 1983 issue of Film Quarterly).

Identification of a Woman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Michelangelo Antonioni's Identification of a Woman is a beautiful and very atmospheric film about a film director looking for inspiration and the ever-evolving relationship between the two sexes. As is the case with practically all of the Italian director's films, Identification of a Woman will appeal primarily to those who do not demand concrete answers at the end of each film they see. Criterion's high-definition presentation of the film is very good, but the only extra on the Blu-ray is a theatrical trailer. RECOMMENDED.