The White Sheik Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The White Sheik Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 9, 2022

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.

Federico Fellini has become such a totemic name in the annals of filmmaking that it may be hard to remember he actually had a life and career before he started directing, and perhaps unsurprisingly given his protean interests and talents, one of those early jobs was actually fashioning quasi-cartoons, something that is at the center of the very charming if perhaps slightly uncharacteristic (in terms of later Fellini) The White Sheik. Much like Fellini's first foray into feature film directing (or, to be perfectly accurate, co-directing), Variety Lights, The White Sheik focuses on a star struck young woman, though in this case Wanda (Brunella Bovo) is not entranced with a traveling troupe of performers, at least not the on stage variety, but instead with a man who portrays a Rudolf Valentino type in fumetti, the "photographic" comic books that have been a staple of Italian life for generations (they also kind of hilariously play a part in the much different Bloody Pit of Horror).

Wanda's obsession with The White Sheik, who is actually an actor named Fernando Rivoli (Alberto Sordi), is complicated by the fact that she's a newlywed and is actually on her honeymoon as the story opens, with her kind of milquetoast husband Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) becoming increasingly frantic after his wife disappears, unbeknownst to him to set off in search of her desired hero. This is another early Fellini effort that already shows signs of presaging some of his future work, while also frankly echoing the film he had most recently finished, with regard to an emphasis on various characters lusting after fame and fortune, or at least some relief from their mundane, everyday lives, if only to have reality in various guises more or less slap them in the face.

In that regard, it's kind of fascinating that in this exercise, it's actually Rivoli himself who overtly attempts to seduce Wanda away to the "glamour" of it all, which ends up probably confusing the young woman even more. Meanwhile, Fernando, who has planned the entire honeymoon around Wanda meeting his family and then them all having an audience with the Pope, is understandably panicked but also unsure of how to deal with relatives who are just as obviously intent on meeting the new bride.

The White Sheik is an unexpectedly layered emotional experience that has some probably overwrought elements in terms of both comedy and drama, but which still offers believable characters in a sometimes at least slightly outlandish setting. Fellini doesn't indulge in any of the visual flights of fancy that would later become part of his hallmark, but his sense of character, especially female characters operating under some level of duress, is firmly intact even at this early stage.

The White Sheik Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The White Sheik is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. 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:

This 4K restoration of The White Sheik was undertaken in 2019 at L'Immagine Ritrovata by the Cineteca di Bologna Foundation for the Fellini 100 Project, in collaboration with RTI - Mediaset and Infinity.

The restoration was completed using the original camera negative and a 35 mm optical soundtrack positive made from the original soundtrack negative in 1993, both made available by Studio Cine.

Damaged sections of the original camera negative have, over the years, been replaced with second and fourth generation elements, such as a duplicate positive made from the original camera negative.

While there are some quality fluctuations on tap in this presentation, some I'm sure due at least in part to the damage alluded to above, this is a very winning transfer that offers generally secure detail levels and some very appealing fine detail on elements like some of the fanciful costumes the participants in shooting the fumetti don. There are some noticeable rough spots here during opticals like dissolves, and some other slight moments of instability, but any major damage has been ameliorated if not completely removed. Contrast is consistent, as are black levels, and grain resolves very nicely throughout the presentation.

The White Sheik Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The White Sheik features an LPCM Mono track which like many of the other relatively early films in this set can sound a bit boxy and hollow, as well as have occasional moments of brittleness on the high end. Nino Rota contributes a typically eclectic score than can be slightly crackly at highest amplitudes, but which is never overly problematic. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The White Sheik Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Remembrances (HD; 31:18) feature film scholar Antonio Monda speaking to actors Brunella Bovo and Leopoldo Trieste, as well as critic Moraldo Rossi. Subtitled in English.


• Gideon Bachmann Interviews offer audio interviews that play to some charming stills of Fellini as well as Don Young's collection of Fellini posters:

  Federico Fellini, 1962 (HD; 30:44) is in English.

  
  

  Friends and Family, 1962 (HD; 59:03) is subtitled in English.

The White Sheik Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The White Sheik is an immensely charming film, and it once again offers Fellini a chance to skewer both the bourgeoisie as well as those hoity toity showbiz types, but the film, while certainly comic at times, has an almost melancholic, bittersweet ambience. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements very appealing. Recommended.