7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A businessman finds himself trapped in a surreal hotel surrounded by hostile women.
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Donatella Damiani, Bernice Stegers, Silvana Fusacchia, Hélène 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: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Federico Fellini's "La città delle donne" a.k.a. "City of Women" (1980) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include French and Italian trailers for the film; video interview with director Tinto Brass; video interview with production designer Dante Ferretti; on-set documentary film; and a new documentary film by Dominique Maillet. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet containing writing on the film, vintage excerpts, and rare archival imagery. In Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
Studying the collection...
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Federico Fellini's City of Women arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.
The foundation for this release is the same remaster which Gaumont produced and used for their Blu-ray release of Fellini's legendary film in France. However, the high-definition transfer is not identical to the one Gaumont used. The exact same traces of mild denoising are present and once again most of them could be spotted during the daylight sequences, but brightness levels appear to have been slightly elevated (compare screencapture #12 with screencapture #1 from our review of the Gaumont release). As a result, there are additional sequences where it becomes even easier to see the effects of the denoising (see screencaptures #8 and 11). Still, in motion the film looks a lot better, especially where light is subdued or restricted. Furthermore, there are no traces of sharpening corrections. Color reproduction is also satisfying, though clearly there is room for improvement. Finally, there are no large damage marks, cuts, warps, or stains. To sum it all up, I was hoping that Eureka Entertainment's release will represent a minor upgrade in quality over the French release - possibly by eliminating the denoising corrections - but this isn't the case. Regardless, I definitely think that it is worth owning because all previous DVD releases of the film have been remarkably poor. (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 is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Italian LPCM 2.0. For the record, Eureka Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.
The lossless track eliminates all of the issues from the old OOP R1 DVD release of City of Women. Balance and dynamic levels, in particular, are dramatically improved. As a result Luis Bacalov's score is better exposed (the solos are easier to recognize) and easier to appreciate. The English translation is very good.
Eureka Entertainment's release of Federico Fellini's City of Women uses as a foundation Gaumont's recent restoration of the film. There are some minor differences in image quality between this new release and the French release (which we have reviewed here), but they are not substantial enough to pick one of them as a clear winner. The one clear advantage the Eureka Entertainment release has is the fact that all of the supplemental features from the French release are included on it with optional English subtitles. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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