7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A beautiful ingenue joins a tawdry music hall troupe and quickly becomes its feature attraction.
Starring: Peppino De Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, Giulietta Masina, John Kitzmiller, Dante MaggioForeign | 100% |
Drama | 83% |
Romance | 18% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
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.
Variety Lights 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:
Luci der varietà was restored in 4K by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Turin's Museo Nazionale del Cineman, from the original camera and soundtrack negatives. Some shots were restored from a 1st generation combined dupe positive held at Istituto Luce Cinecittà and made available by Studio Cine.This is an impressive looking transfer, perhaps made especially commendable since this is the oldest film in the set. Fine detail on aspects like the showgirls' costumes or even things like cobblestone streets and masonry walls is often exceptional, and the presentation also benefits from some nicely deep black levels and expressive, consistent contrast. Grain also maintains an organic appearance throughout. There are still a few niggling issues, including some minor frame instability in some transitions and occasional very slight fluctuations in densities, but for anyone who had the kind of questionable DVD that Criterion put out a lifetime ago, this will be something of a revelation.
The restoration work was carried out a L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2020.
Variety Lights features an LPCM Mono track in the original Italian. Some of the reviews I'm doing for this set may get to sound like a broken record, but quite a few of the older tracks in particular have an undeniably boxy, hollow sound, and in that regard Variety Lights is the first example. The bizarre opening music for the production masthead (is that a theremin?) struck my ears as being a bit brittle, and even the main theme by Felice Lattuada (there's your non-Nino Rota trivia datapoint for future use) can sound just slightly distorted and crackly, but once the film actually gets underway, there are no huge issues to report other than the aforementioned overall boxy sound. Dialogue and the song and dance moments are all rendered without major issues, and any age related wear and tear other than some slight background hiss has been nicely ameliorated. Optional English subtitles are available.
There are some who probably consider Variety Lights to be "lesser" Fellini (whatever that means), and others who may think this isn't "really" a true Fellini film at all (whatever that means), but I've always been fond of this (bitter)sweet story of those bitten by the showbiz bug, but sometimes not knowing how to deal with it all. Criterion is offering a release with generally nice technical merits (video probably more than audio), and very appealing supplements. Highly recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
E la nave va
1983
Lo sceicco bianco
1952
Fellini's Intervista
1987
1953
Le notti di Cabiria
1957
1954
The Swindle
1955
Giulietta degli spiriti
1965
Fellini's Roma
1972
1969
1973
1960
En lektion i kärlek
1954
Sommarlek
1951
Törst
1949
Kvinnodröm
1955
Skepp till Indialand / A Ship Bound for India
1947
Otto e mezzo / Federico Fellini's 8½
1963
Tystnaden
1963
Gycklarnas afton
1953