7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A woman who's had an ongoing affair with her lover for twenty years, feigns a serious illness to get him to marry her after finding out that he's fallen for a younger woman.
Starring: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Puglisi, Tecla Scarano, Marilù ToloDrama | 100% |
Romance | 65% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Italian: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
You might call Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren the Tracy and Hepburn of Italian cinema. (If—and how do I put this politely?—Hepburn had more sex appeal.) The two style icons made a total of thirteen films together, frequently playing off of one another as prototypical male and archetypal female. They personified the battle of the sexes. Loren was—and is, at 77—the curvy, fertile-looking embodiment of womanly sexuality. And as she once said of her co-star, “Marcello is a man who thinks like a man, talks like a man—is a man! He has so much magnetism, he brings out the very soul in a woman.” A few of the pair’s best films were made by the famed Vittorio De Sica, who rose to prominence directing socially conscious neo-realist films in the post-war reconstruction era, and who turned increasingly to comedy as he got older and Italy got richer. The three collaborators had a massive international success in 1963 with Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow—which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film— and they followed this up with Marriage Italian Style, a comedic drama about the highs and lows of a lifelong romance.
The picture quality of a movie on Blu-ray is directly proportionate to the state of the source materials, the amount of time/money put into restoring the
print, and the fidelity with which the film is transferred into digital form. While Kino-Lorber's new release of Marriage Italian Style has no
problems with that last point—the 1080p/AVC transfer has no outstanding compression or encode issues—deficiencies in the first two items define the
film's Blu-ray debut. Kino probably used the best print available to them, but the image hasn't aged well. Along with the usual white specks—which
usually come all at once in droves—the picture occasionally suffers from some strong color fluctuations. Within single shots, the hues will shift from
cooler to warmer and back again, often multiple times. This is caused by the degradation of the print, not a faulty transfer, but it does point out the fact
that little has been done to restore the film in any way. Black levels also have a tendency to look slightly washed out and reddish at times. Still, the film
is a pleasure to watch in high definition, warts and all. Even though sharpness too is variable—some scenes are quite crisp and others look noticeably
muddier—clarity gets a significant all-around boost from standard definition editions. It should also be noted that neither DNR nor edge enhancement
make an appearance. Could the film look better? Absolutely, but it would require a major restorative overhaul and you might be waiting a long time for
that to happen. There's no real reason not to enjoy this beautiful film right now.
Do note that the 1.85:1 image has been slightly windowboxed, presumably to prevent overscan.
As with Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Kino-Lorber has given Marriage Italian Style a true-to-source Dolby TrueHD 1.0 track. Obviously, given the limitations of the recording process and low-budget sound design at the time, you shouldn't expect miracles from this mono mix, but for the most part, the film—which, overall, is very quiet—sounds wonderful. Dialogue isn't quite as clear as what you'd hear in a more contemporary film, but everything is intelligible at least, with no hissing, pops, or drop-outs. And despite a rather squashed dynamic range, Armando Trovajoli's score has a nice presence, and lacks the tinny high-end you sometimes expect from 1960s films. No substantive complaints here. The disc includes optional English subtitles.
For their second collaboration together, De Sica, Loren, and Mastroianni made an already established Italian classic even better. Marriage Italian Style is a battle of the sexes that's sexy, wonderfully acted, and spans the gamut of emotions. Sure, it's a total melodrama, there's no doubt about that, but it's never syrupy, and besides—Mastroianni's tyrannical character keeps the sweetness in check. Kino-Lorber's Blu-ray is sourced from a less- than-pristine print, and there are no special features to speak of, but Loren fans and followers of Italian cinema in general should consider this a must- have release. Highly recommended.
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