Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Voice of the Moon Blu-ray Movie Review

Snap out of it.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 22, 2017

The films of Federico Fellini often attempt to bypass the rational mind, instead communicating directly with the subconscious or Collective Unconscious or whatever lizard (or other creature) brain is able to process information without “thinking” too much about it. I’ll never forget my first viewing experience of a Fellini film, long (loooong) before the days of home video, in a college Film Theory course where the teacher screened 8½. I of course had heard and read a lot about Fellini by then, but nothing really prepared me for the sheer quasi hallucinatory impact of seeing Marcello Mastroianni “floating” away from an already patently bizarre Italian traffic jam. Sure, a sequence like that can be “explained” by saying “it’s all a dream”, but there’s a visceral impression delivered by Fellini’s imagery that eludes any mere description, at least in my estimation. That inability to properly articulate Fellini’s (literal) vision may be one reason why The Voice of the Moon has never really received its due, at least on this side of the pond, a lack of recognition that seems especially odd given the fact that it was the venerable auteur’s last film before he died in 1993. Dealing as it does with (again, literal) lunatics, i.e., those under the magical sway of that glowing orb in the nighttime sky, the film may simply inherently be too “non verbal” to conform to traditional methods of analysis, let alone any stodgy “criticism”. The Voice of the Moon is in fact very much like a poem, a seemingly random aggregation of images and ideas that swirl hypnotically, rather like tides under the influence of that aforementioned nighttime satellite.

Though the two films are manifestly different, as odd as it may sound, The Voice of the Moon reminded me tonally at least of Terry Gilliam’s outrageous fantasy The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. The Voice of the Moon at least seems to be grounded in something more “realistic” than the Gilliam film, though as with many Fellini outings, there’s a dreamlike quality to the imagery and storyline that threatens to float away at any moment like a Mastroianni cut loose from his moorings.

As such, it’s a little difficult to craft a meaningful “plot summary” for this film, though the basic setup involves Ivo Salvini (Roberto Beningni, Life Is Beautiful), who may or may not be suffering from mental illness, but who at least appears to be hearing voices coming from the wells he regularly inspects. Ivo becomes infatuated with Aldina (Nadia Ottaviani), whom Ivo associates with the moon. The film is a vignette laden enterprise, with many sequences simply given over to Ivo’s “adventures” with other eccentrics in what is almost an alien landscape that Fellini and his collaborator, production designer Dante Ferretti (who replaced Danilo Donati), craft.

There are a number of referents to other Fellini films populating The Voice of the Moon, including both plot elements and images, but there’s also a rather bracing originality to this film, one which manages to include everything from some then relatively current popular music to the outlandish idea of a bunch of crazy townspeople “capturing” the moon. Fellini’s camera drifts in and out of these storylines like a veritable eavesdropper, and the film really doesn’t have a lot of narrative momentum, content instead to coast on the considerable charm of Beningni, as well as Paolo Villaggio, who portrays Gonnella, a conspiracy theorist who enlists Ivo to confront what he perceives as rampant scheming.

While I’d be hard pressed to say The Voice of the Moon is prime Fellini, in my estimation it’s a good deal better than some “dismissers” have claimed. It features some of the most consistently ravishing imagery of Fellini’s late career, and the almost Commedia dell'arte ambience of much of the film is almost bizarrely evocative, reaching around the rational mind to speak directly to something that’s perhaps even more powerful than the subconscious, the Collective Unconscious or the lizard (or any other creature) brain: the heart.

The Voice of the Moon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Voice of the Moon is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:

The Voice of the Moon (La voce della luna) has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 with Italian mono audio.

All restoration work was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin- registered Arriscan and was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master.

Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. Image stability was also improved.

The mono Italian language track was remastered from the optical sound track negatives. There are times in which audio synchronisation will appear slighlty loose against the picutre, due to the fact that the audio was recorded in post-production.

The Voice of the Moon is bathed in slate grays and pale yellows, making it appropriately "lunatic", and the mist strewn environments combined with sometimes fairly heavy grain and dark shooting conditions can sometimes lead to slight deficits in fine detail levels, but otherwise this is a really ravishing looking transfer that preserves the film's rather unique look. The more brightly lit sequences, as in some of the rooftop moments or the "tourist" moments, pop with an accurate looking palette and commendable detail levels. There are a lot of nighttime sequences in the film, as may be gleaned from its very title, but shadow definition is really rather good throughout this presentation. Whatever restoration efforts were undertaken have ameliorated any major signs of age related wear and tear.

The Voice of the Moon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Voice of the Moon features a fine if pretty narrow sounding LPCM 2.0 mono track in the original Italian. As noted above in Arrow's "liner notes", post-dubbing has made this another exercise in near surreality, since lip movements quite often don't match the sounds emanating from them (this was actually part of what made my first viewing of 8 ½ years ago so memorable, as the sound design seemed detached from the imagery at times, something I didn't then realize was due to Italian films almost always being shot silently, with sound added later). There is a playful quality to the sound design here, with odd effects intruding at times, but with rather forceful renderings of some of the unexpected cues (I won't spoil one of the funnier ones). Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

The Voice of the Moon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Towards the Moon with Fellini (1080i; 58:07) is a sweet archival "making of" piece that offers some great candid footage of Fellini on set as well as lots of looks at scenes being shot. This is sourced from some fairly ragged looking video. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Felliniana Archive Gallery (1080p) offers a set of images from the Felliniana Archive, founded by Texas collector Don Young in 1994. While there's no "Auto Play" selection offered, this does chapter skip ahead automatically through a series of stills (you can also use the chapter skip button on your remote to speed up the process if you want). This had no problem loading on my standalone players, but encountered a bit of difficulty in my PC drive.

As usual, Arrow has also provided a nicely appointed insert booklet with an essay, information on the transfer, and stills.

The Voice of the Moon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Voice of the Moon may not be prime Fellini, but it's still very good Fellini, and Benigni own peculiar and rather distinctive charms add an enjoyable layer to this outing. The "narrative" is intentionally discursive, building "meaning" out of sometimes disjunctive imagery and dialogue. As such, this is one of those films where it's probably best to just let go and accept the fact that you've entered Fellini's dream and that he's in charge. Technical merits are strong, and The Voice of the Moon comes Recommended.