7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
An urban fantasia interweaving recollections of Federico Fellini's young adulthood in the era of Mussolini with an impressionistic portrait of contemporary Rome, where he and his film crew are shooting footage of the bustling cityscape.
Starring: Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence, Britta Barnes, Pia De Doses, Marne MaitlandForeign | 100% |
Drama | 87% |
Surreal | 13% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: 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.
Roma is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. 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:
Roma was restored from the 35 mm negative held at the Cineteca di Bologna. After its first screening in Rome in 1972, Fellini, in agreement with the producer and the screenwriter Bernardino Zapponi, shortened some scenes for the international market. Traces of that footage remain only in the production documentation and the positive print archived at the Deposito Legale. This is the version made for the international market. The film was restored in 2010 by L'Immagine Ritrovata.While this information is couched slightly differently than the insert booklet information Svet reproduced in his review, I'm assuming this has to be the same transfer, since so many of the data points between the two informational spiels align. For more information, consult Svet's original review.
Roma features an LPCM Mono track which to my ears is interchangeable with the original Criterion release which Svet reviewed. That said, I continue my curmudgeonly ways by slightly downgrading Svet's score since this is another entry where there's a decidedly boxy and reverberant quality at times, as with so many post-looped Italian films. That said, there are no huge issues here, and once again Nino Rota provides an absolutely knockout score, which seems to quote or at least allude to everything from Bolero to circus music. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
Aside from the lack of an insert leaflet, this release seems to duplicate the same supplements as Criterion's earlier release. More detail on some of these is available in Svet's review of that release.
Roma is kind of a typically gonzo Fellini love letter to the city that has been featured in so many of his films, and if it's a little (a lot?) on the outré side at times, isn't that what you come to a Fellini film for? Technical merits are solid and the supplements very appealing. Highly recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Fellini's Intervista
1987
Lo sceicco bianco
1952
The Swindle
1955
1953
E la nave va
1983
Luci del varietà
1950
Giulietta degli spiriti
1965
Le notti di Cabiria
1957
1954
1973
1969
1960
Otto e mezzo / Federico Fellini's 8½
1963
Scener ur ett äktenskap
1973
Kvinnors väntan / Secrets of Women
1952
La città delle donne
1980
Io la conoscevo bene
1965
The Easy Life
1962
Nära livet
1958
Kvinnodröm
1955