6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
An alcoholic journalist finds himself on the trail of a murderer after the police make him a suspect in their investigation.
Starring: Franco Nero, Silvia Monti, Wolfgang Preiss, Ira von Fürstenberg, Edmund PurdomMystery | 100% |
Thriller | 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: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
One of the cool byproducts of Arrow Video’s almost relentless mining of the giallo genre for releases is that they’ve repeatedly highlighted directors who perhaps never quite rose to the ranks of, say, a Mario Bava or a Dario Argento. Luigi Bazzoni probably belongs firmly in that category, and in fact as is gotten into in some of the supplements accompanying another recent Arrow release of a film co-directed by Bazzoni, The Possessed, Bazzoni tends not to be overly recognized for any of his directorial efforts (co or otherwise), whether or not they happen to be in the giallo genre. The Possessed featured some incredibly striking black and white cinematography by Leonida Barboni, and in one sign of Bazzoni’s perhaps underappreciated acumen as a director (and one assumes at least one of the hirers of various crew members), one of The Fifth Cord’s most memorable features is its striking color cinematography, courtesy of multiple Academy Award winner Vittorio Storaro (The Conformist, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Apocalypse Now*, Reds*, The Last Emperor*), who just happens to be Bazzoni’s cousin.
The Fifth Cord is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:
The Fifth Cord / Giornata nera per l'ariete is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono audio. Scanning and restoration work was completed at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm camera negative ws scanned in 2K resolution on a pin- registered Arriscan. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, picture instability and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. The mono Italian and English language tracks were remastered from the original sound negatives. The audio synch will appear slightly loose against the picture, due to the fact that the dialogue was recorded entirely in post- production, as per the production standards of the period.This is another great looking transfer of a fairly obscure film from Arrow, one with a well resolved and very natural and organic looking grain field, and one which ably supports the almost lurid palette that's frequently on display. The stylistic conceits of the film can mean that individual shots look (intentionally) soft, even diffuse, and so detail and especially fine detail levels can vary pretty substantially. There's also a prevalence of pretty dark (as in dimly lit) material throughout the film, where grain can spike noticeably and again fine detail levels are at least minimally affected. But there's a really appealing appearance to this transfer, with nicely suffused colors (albeit with still a few density fluctuations), and in close-ups where stylistic tweaks don't intrude, really commendable fine detail levels. The restoration gauntlet has removed any major signs of age related wear and tear, but eagle eyed videophiles may still spot some minor occurrences of specks, dirt and the like.
The film was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master at R3Store Studios, London.
All materials used in this restoration were accessed from Surf Film.
The Fifth Cord features nice sounding Italian and English LPCM Mono tracks, though my advice is to stick with the Italian, even if it doesn't really address the "loose synch" issue mentioned above any better than the English language track does. I'm not sure who handled the voice casting for the English language track, but to my ears the voices sounded pretty unnatural and some of them are distinctly different "types" than on the Italian track. The film boasts a kind of "pop"-py score from Ennio Morricone, and that sounds fine throughout. Dialogue is rendered cleanly, though with that certain boxy quality that seems to afflict a lot of Italian post-dubbed features.
The Fifth Cord could have used a little clearer exposition in terms of some of its story elements, but the film is so strong in the style category that what might have been unmanageable hurdles are at least partially surmountable. The film has some great performances, and there's a slightly smarmy, even unseemly, subtext here that may appeal to those with more jaded sensibilities. Technical merits are first rate, Arrow has assembled their typically impressive slate of supplements, and The Fifth Cord comes Recommended.
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