6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A girl is murdered in a park. The man is tried and convicted for the crime but afterwards the killings continue.
Starring: Helmut Berger, Giancarlo Sbragia, Ida Galli, Silvano Tranquilli, Evelyn StewartHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 73% |
Mystery | 22% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
It’s probably at least a bit of a stretch to categorize The Bloodstained Butterfly as a true giallo, as even this Blu-ray release’s commentary and supplementary documentary state. While there are certain elements of giallo at play, the film is actually probably more in the poliziotteschi mode, as (again) a documentary on this Blu-ray release speaks to. The police procedural aspects of The Bloodstained Butterfly are one of the film’s more prevalent elements, tending to focus attention on how the cops go about catching their man rather than more lurid gialli approaches like gruesome and graphic murders made by a killer wearing a trenchcoat and gloves. This version of The Bloodstained Butterfly evidently restores at least some footage that is missing from some international versions (again, going by the informative if pretty chatty commentary on the disc), which includes some introductory beats for a few characters before the murder that is at the core of the film takes place. That event is handled almost discursively, at least for a giallo, with very little in the way of blood and/or guts, and an emphasis on the after effects of the killing rather than the killing itself. A young woman is viciously stabbed in a park, and her lifeless corpse then rolls down a hill where it’s discovered by a little girl playing in the rain. The assailant high tails it out of there, but is seen by several passers by (not to mention the audience itself). The police show up and the first half hour or so of the film is taken up with a number of nascent CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: The First Season-ish technologies like taking plaster casts of footprints and analyzing fingerprints. By the end of the first half hour of the film, a suspect has been apprehended and tried, and it’s not much after that the he’s sent away to life in prison. That might lead some perspicacious viewers to suspect that director Duccio Tessari is going to ply a kind of Hitchcockian The Wrong Man approach toward the story, and while that is in fact kind of what happens, it’s notable that The Bloodstained Butterfly indulges in several twists and turns along the way that may keep even devoted armchair sleuths guessing as to what’s really going on.
The Bloodstained Butterfly is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's typically informative booklet contains the following information about the provenance of the master and the restoration process:
All restoration work was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm 2-perf Techniscope camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan with a wetgate and was graded on Digital Vision's Nucode Film Master.While this is a somewhat variable looking presentation in terms of color space, clarity and detail levels, generally speaking this is a very nice looking transfer that is virtually damage free. The palette still looks slightly drab to my eyes, though it should be noted that Duccio Tessari and cinematographer Carlo Carlini are certainly not trying for any of the lurid color choices that tend to inform Bava films, for example. That said, flesh tones look a little brown at times, and even some outdoor imagery is less vividly suffused than some of the rest of the film (see screenshot 5 for an especially nice looking outdoor moment in terms of color). Contrast is a bit anemic at times, especially in some interior scenes (see screenshot 6), but again generally speaking things look very good, maintaining decent levels of shadow definition even at night. There are some curiously soft looking sequences during the courtroom scenes where it almost looks like there might have been a malfunctioning lens (see screenshot 12). There is also variable clarity and sharpness from scene to scene (contrast screenshot 1 with screenshot 2 for one example). Grain looks great throughout the presentation, resolving naturally and giving the transfer a nicely organic appearance. My score is 4.25.
Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image stability and instances of density fluctuation were also improved.
The Bloodstained Butterfly features DTS-HD Master Audio Mono tracks in both Italian and English. Arrow's booklet has the following information:
The original Italian and English mono soundtracks were transferred from the original 35mm optical sound negatives using the Sondor OMA/E with COSP Xi2K technology to minimse optical noise and produce the best quality results possible. There are times in which the films' [sic] audio synchronisation will appear slightly loose against the picture, due to the fact that the soundtracks were recorded entirely in post-production. This is correct and as per the film's original theatrical release.Both of these tracks sound very similar in terms of score and effects, though it seemed to me the English version was just slightly "warmer" sounding, with just a bit less stridency in some of the higher frequencies. Gianni Ferrio's score is one of this film's nicest assets, and its treks from Tchaikovsky to cool jazz all segue effortlessly and sound nicely full bodied. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly, though as the Arrow booklet notes suggest, there's more than just a little "looseness" on display in terms of synching dialogue to lip movements, as tends to be the case in many Italian films.
Is The Bloodstained Butterfly "really" a giallo? I'll leave an authoritative answer to that question to more formidable experts, but will state that in a way it really doesn't matter. This film may not in fact easily fit in any given genre category, but that doesn't mean The Bloodstained Butterfly isn't quite effective as a mystery tale. The story may in fact take a few too many twists and turns for its own good, but the film is generally quite compelling. Technical merits are generally strong, and as is their usual tendency, Arrow has put together an appealing supplementary package. Recommended.
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