Magnifica Presenza Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Magnifica Presenza Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 23, 2012

Winner of Italian Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, Ferzan Ozpetek's "Magnifica presenza" a.k.a "Magnificent Presence" (2012) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Italian label 01 Distribution. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer; audio commentary with director Ferzan Ozpetek and scenarist Federica Pontremoli; making of featurette; and deleted scenes. In Italian, with optional English and Italian SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

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There is something missing in Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek’s latest film, Magnifica Presenza a.k.a Magnificent Presence. It has the exotic flavor and colorful personalities the director’s previous films have, but it feels too unfocused, unsure whether it wants to be a comedy, drama or fairytale for grown-ups.

The main protagonist in Magnificent Presence is a young man named Pietro (Elio Germano) who has just moved to Rome to pursue an acting career. He is shy, intelligent, and willing to work hard to have his dream come true. Pietro also prefers to date men.

Pietro’s cousin, Maria (Paola Minaccioni), helps him rent a large house in a decent area of the city. Overwhelmed with joy, he immediately cleans it up and invites an old friend to visit him. But before the friend appears, Pietro discovers that he is actually sharing the house with a large family of ghosts. All of them are former actors who years ago disappeared while touring the world. Now they are stuck in the house and looking for someone to help them leave. Almost all of them are convinced that Pietro is their man.

After he gets used to the ghosts, Pietro befriends them. They teach him how to act and then how to impress when he auditions. The problem is, modern auditions are quite different; directors and producers are now looking for actors with unique personalities, and a personality is something Pietro apparently does not have. Needless to say, he is repeatedly rejected by prospective employers.

While trying to figure out how to polish his acting skills, Pietro accidentally meets a crossdresser who turns out to be someone with a lot of knowledgeable friends. One of them, Abbess (Platinette), a strange character who acts like the godfather of all transvestites and crossdressers, agrees to help Pietro find an actress the ghosts have been looking for.

It appears that Ozpetek intended Magnificent Presence to be an exotic fairytale with something meaningful to say about tolerance and identity. The first half of the film certainly suggest so. The second half, however, pushes the film in a territory where most politically correct films crash while trying to look original. There are a ton of melodramatic sequences here that serve absolutely no purpose other than reinforce the impression that Pietro is simply someone who can’t choose a direction in his life and stick with it.

The roles the sad ghosts have are also quite strange. Bits about their past are occasionally revealed, but none of them are put together into something coherent that explains why they have suffered. Also thrown in the mix is a pretty large segment about Italy’s political past that further destabilizes the narrative. With so many underdeveloped themes, the film really never manages to take the viewer on a meaningful journey – yet it feels like this is precisely what Ozpetek wanted to accomplish with it.

The thematic inconsistencies aside, Magnificent Presence looks very elegant. As it is almost always the case with the films Ozpetek directs, food, food rituals, and light have important roles. Lush colors are also everywhere.

Magnificent Presence was lensed by cinematographer Maurizio Calvesi, who also collaborated with Ozpetek on the terrific Mine vaganti.

The film is complimented by a beautiful soundtrack courtesy of Pasquale Catalano. It was nominated for Best Music Award at the David Di Donatello Awards (the Italian Oscars) earlier this year.

Magnifica Presenza Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Ferzan Ozpetek's Magnificent Presence arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Italian label 01 Distribution.

The presentation is excellent. From start to finish detail, depth, and clarity are excellent. Even the footage from inside the house, where light is restricted when the ghosts appear, looks terrific. Color reproduction is also solid - there is a variety of warm, natural looking browns, greens, blues, dark yellows, and blacks. There are no traces of problematic lab corrections. There are no serious purely transfer specific issues to report in this review either. Only once I spotted light banding in the upper right corner of the frame, but this isn't something that will affect one's viewing experience. To sum it all up, this is yet another very solid presentation of a contemporary Italian film from the folks at 01 Distribution. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Magnifica Presenza Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, 01 Distribution have provided optional English and Italian SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The lossless track has a wide range of nuanced dynamics that should impress viewers who pay attention to detail. There are random noises popping up here and there when the ghosts are around that are very effective. The supporting soundtrack also gets a strong boost from the lossless treatment. The dialog is exceptionally clean, stable, and very easy to follow. The English translation is excellent.

Magnifica Presenza Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - audio commentary by director Ferzan Ozpetek and scenarist Federica Pontremoli. In Italian, not subtitled.

• Making of - standard featurette with raw footage from the shooting of the film and comments by cast and crew members. In Italian, not subtitled. (20 min, 1080/50i).

• Scene tagliate - a gallery of deleted scenes. In Italian, not subtitled. (19 min, 1080/50i).

• Scene tagliate - a gallery of deleted scenes with commentary by director Ferzan Ozpetek and scenarist Federica Pontremoli. In Italian, not subtitled. (19 min, 1080/50i).

• Trailer - original Italian theatrical trailer for Magnificent Presence. In Italian, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080/50i).

Magnifica Presenza Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am a big admirer of Ferzan Ozpetek's work and have seen everything he has directed since Steam: The Turkish Bath (by the way, this film is now back in circulation thanks to Raro Video U.S.), but Magnificent Presence failed to impress me. It tries to be too many things at once and as a result it never manages to complete the journey it starts. The talent, style and energy are definitely present, but the right script is missing. RENT IT.