7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
Amidst the outbreak of World War II, Renato, a young Sicilian boy, becomes infatuated with beautiful war widow Malena. Malena is leered at by men, reviled by women and eventually suffers greatly for her beauty. Ever-watchful Renato does not come to her aid but, nevertheless, learns a valuable lesson about courage.
Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana, Pietro NotarianniForeign | 100% |
Erotic | 85% |
Romance | 62% |
Drama | 55% |
Coming of age | 19% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Italian: LPCM 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Winner of Best Cinematography Award at the David di Donatello Awards and Silver Ribbon Award for Best Score granted by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, Giuseppe Tornatore's "Malena" (2000) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Studio Canal. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailer and making of featurette. In Italian, with imposed English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The most beautiful legs in Sicily
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Giuseppe Tornatore's Malena arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Studio Canal.
Despite the presence of some extremely light denoising, the Blu-ray release represents a dramatic upgrade in quality over the old R1 DVD release, which Miaramax produced back in 2001. Detail and especially depth are very pleasing, with many of the panoramic vistas from the beach making the DVD release look like a second generation VHS (see screencaptures #4 and 5). Daylight close-ups also look very good (see screencapture #13). Color reproduction is also convincing - the soft browns, greens, yellows, blues, and grays look natural and healthy. There are no traces of problematic sharpening corrections either. As a result, the film does have a relatively stable organic look. This being said, some very light banding pops up during the final third of the film. A couple of tiny flecks can also be seen, though they are never distracting. All in all, though not perfect, the high-definition transfer is indeed one of the best I've seen used by Studio Canal for a catalog Miramax title. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Italian LPCM 2.0. For the record, Studio Canal have provided imposed English subtitles for the main feature (they cannot be turned off). The subtitles split the image frame and the black bar below it.
The Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gives Ennio Morricone's beautiful score a tremendous boost. There are entire sequences that are so much better now because of the wide range of nuanced dynamics. Admittedly, this isn't an aggressive loseless track that is likely to test your audio system, but if you compare it to the lossy track from the R1 DVD release, you will immediately notice the improved depth and fidelity. Also, the dialog is exceptionally crisp, clean, and easy to follow. There are no sync issues, distortions, or audio dropouts to report in this review.
In an ideal world we should have a Blu-ray release of the uncut version of Giuseppe Tornatore's beautiful Malena. And perhaps one will eventually appear in Italy, though I highly doubt it would be English-friendly. Sadly, I think it is fair to say that an uncut version of Malena in the United States is virtually guaranteed never to appear, for reasons I'd rather not talk about. Naturally, I think that fans of the film who wish to see it uncut ought to pick up a copy of the Korean DVD release, while it is still relatively easy to track down. I also believe that this cut Blu-ray release of the film is very much worth owning - it looks good and Ennio Morricone's beautiful score sounds great. RECOMMENDED.
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