8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Marcello is a third-rate reporter who lives a playboy's life as he pursues a shabby career of scandal mongering. His increasingly amoral interest in the "sweet life" of high society takes him to hedonistic parties and orgies throughout modern day Rome, as days and nights blur into one another.
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali NoëlDrama | 100% |
Foreign | 94% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Essential
Fellini.
It may not quite match the treatment Criterion afforded a certain iconic Swedish director with their frankly almost overwhelming Ingmar Bergman's Cinema release, but
Essential Fellini should pretty easily serve as either an absolutely first rate introduction to or a nostalgic reacquaintance with one of Italy's most
legendary filmmakers. Fourteen beloved if sometimes controversial Fellini films have been aggregated in this set, along with a bonus disc offering a
special devoted to Marcello Mastroianni, and while Criterion only provided check discs for the purposes of this review, from the looks of things online,
this is another beautifully packaged set from the label with a number of non-disc swag packaging bonuses.
La Dolce Vita is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Criterion only sent check discs for purposes of this review, and so I'm not privy to any verbiage about the transfer that may be included in an insert booklet, but the actual film includes some introductory text which offers the following information:
This digital restoration was carried out starting from the original camera negative -- which was shot in Totalscope (2.35:1) on Dupont film stock and scanned at 4K resolution. Some sections of the film showed clear signs of decay. Some frames, particularly at the beginning of each reel, were seriously damaged and irreparably affected by mold; therefore, a lavender print was scanned for those sections. Following scanning, the images were digitally stabilized and cleaned to eliminate signs of age such as spotting, scratches, and visible splices. In order to bring back the original splendor of the film, the digital grading was executed with particular care, using a vintage copy as a reference, as well as a copy restored in the mid- 90s for Mediaset - Medusa under the supervision of Vincenzo Verzini. The contribution of Ennio Guarnieri, DP Otello Martelli's camera assistant, was invaluable at this stage.As with some other text introductions in this set of films previously released by Criterion, the verbiage here is a bit different than what Svet reproduces from the insert booklet of the 2014 release, though this is assumedly the same transfer. More information is available in Svet's review.
The original sound was digitally restored using the 35 mm optical soundtrack, from which a positive track was printed. Following the acquisition of this element, digital cleaning and background noise reduction were applied.
The restoration has generated a duplicate negative and a new soundtrack for preservation. A complete backup of all the files was produced by the digital restoration was also made, using several data storage media.
The restoration was carried out a L'Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory in 2010.
La Dolce Vita features an LPCM Mono track that sounds interchangeable to my ears with the earlier Criterion release, though I'm once again slightly downgrading the score Svet gave, as with virtually all of these films, I'm not particularly fond of the somewhat hollow boxy sound and occasionally overly reverberant mix, though as Svet rightly describes in his review, fidelity here is fine and all dialogue and score aspects are presented without any issues. Optional English subtitles are available.
Aside from the absence of an insert leaflet, this release appears to duplicate all of the supplements that were included with Criterion's earlier Blu-ray. More details can be found in Svet's review.
La Dolce Vita is one of those films that only helped define its era, it helped define what cinema means and how much impact film can have (and continues to have). Technical merits are solid and the supplements very appealing. Highly recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1953
Lo sceicco bianco
1952
Otto e mezzo / Federico Fellini's 8½
1963
1954
Le notti di Cabiria
1957
E la nave va
1983
1973
The Swindle
1955
Fellini's Roma
1972
1969
Fellini's Intervista
1987
Luci del varietà
1950
1960
Giulietta degli spiriti
1965
La grande bellezza
2013
1961
1966
1962
Ladri di biciclette
1948
À bout de souffle
1960