6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.7 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.7 |
In World War II Italy, four fascist libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental, and sexual torture.
Starring: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Hélène Surgère, Caterina Boratto, Aldo VallettiForeign | 100% |
Drama | 88% |
Erotic | 19% |
War | 7% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Italian: LPCM Mono
English: Dolby Digital Mono
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Piere Paolo Pasolini's "Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma" a.k.a "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include English-language trailer; "Salo": Yesterday and Today, a documentary film produced for Carlotta Films; Fade to Black, a documentary feature; video interviews with set designer Dante Ferretti and filmmaker and scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin; and more. The disc also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring essays by Neil Bartlett, Catherine Breillat, Naomi Greene, Sam Rohdie, Roberto Chiesi, and Gary Indiana, as well as excerpts from Gideon Bachmann's on-set diary. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. Region-A "locked". Please be advised that the film contains disturbing and graphic footage that is not appropriate for minors!
The beginning
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:
"This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS system and Pixel Farm's PFClean system, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
Telecine supervisor: Maria Palazzola.
Telecine colorist: Gregg Garvin/Modern Videofilm, Los Angeles."
Criterion's presentation of this most controversial film is without a doubt a lot more pleasing than BFI's. However, I believe that it is important to point out that BFI's Blu-ray release arrived in 2008, it was their first, and at the time represented a substantial improvement in terms of quality over the R1 SDVD release Criterion had produced. I remain convinced that in 2008 it was well worth obtaining it.
The most notable improvement here is the almost complete elimination of the light machine noise that is present on the BFI release. In 2008, I was not particularly bothered by it as it was rather easy to tolerate in motion, but as encodes matured and the studios greatly improved their compression efforts, it is obvious that quality standards also evolved, including mine.
It is also more than obvious now that the existing Italian master which the BFI and, I assume, Criterion have worked with has various limitations that can be weakened but not convincingly addressed. In other words, I believe that it isn't right to judge how Salo looks in absolutely terms. This is strictly my opinion but for the time being I am convinced it makes the most sense, particularly because we have economic conditions under which best presentation and best possible presentation I must speculate mean the same to virtually all distributors releasing films on Blu-ray.
Detail and especially clarity are obviously better on Criterion's release. Contrast levels are also a lot more pleasing, particularly during the darker sequences from the final third of the film. Brightness has been effectively toned down and then plenty of the machine noise mentioned earlier carefully removed. But it isn't completely eliminated, and during selected close-ups (see screencapture #2) it is easy to see small traces of it. All things considered, however, I believe that this is the best Criterion could do to weaken it.
Some traces of mild sharpening remain (see screencapture #8). The majority of them, however, are easy to tolerate when the film is viewed in motion. Additionally, grain is present, but it is not always well resolved and occasionally it is mixed with various doses of light noise.
Criterion's release also has a different color-scheme, which follows a trend to favor stronger and warmer reds over colder greens and blues (see also Criterion's releases of Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge and Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert). I am not particularly bothered by it as it is well balanced, but I expect different viewers to have different reactions to it. Finally, aside from a few minor flecks popping up here and there, there are no large cuts, warps, and damage marks. There are no serious stability issues to report in this review either. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Italian LPCM 1.0 and English Dolby Digital 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.
The Italian LPCM 1.0 is excellent. When compared to the lossy track from the SDVD release, the sound clearly has more depth and fluidity. This is fairly obvious when during the various solos (strings and woodwinds). There are no balance issues with Ennio Morricone's soundtrack. I also did not detect any problematic distortions in the high-frequencies to report in this review. The English translation is very good. However, it is not identical to the English translation from the BFI release.
Despite claims to the contrary, Pasolini's Salo is not a pornographic film. It is about man's obsession with power, the kind that incorrigibly corrupts the soul, and pure evil, which destroys it. It is a difficult film to endure, but necessary to see. Criterion's presentation of Salo is clearly stronger and more satisfying than BFI's, which is the only other English-friendly presentation of the film. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED only for mature viewers.
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