British distributors Arrow Video have officially announced and detailed their upcoming Blu-ray release of Francesco Rosi's
Salvatore Giuliano (1962), starring Frank Wolff, Salvo Randone, and Frederico Zardi. The release will be available for purchase on September 29th.
The new 4K restoration of
Salvatore Giuliano will also be screened in select cinemas across the United Kingdom on September 26th.
This new re-release, featuring a truly astonishing restoration, which was completed in December 2013, will mark the Blu-ray world premiere for
Salvatore Giuliano. Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association funded a full-scale 4K makeover involving director Francesco Rosi himself, making this one of the strongest and most impressive restorations of a classic black-and-white Italian film that Arrow Video have released to date.
5 July 1950. Salvatore Giuliano, Italy's most wanted criminal, is found shot dead in a dusty courtyard. Who killed him, and why? And who was he?
The film that made Francesco Rosi's international reputation, this Citizen Kane-style investigative portrait was originally called Sicily 1943-60, as Rosi sought not so much to depict Giuliano himself as the society from which he sprang, in which the police, the carabinieri and the Mafia all have strong vested interests. Filming in the exact locations and utilising court reports as primary source material, Rosi mainly cast local Sicilians, some of whom knew Giuliano personally. The only professional actors were Frank Wolff (Once Upon a Time in the West) and Salvo Randone (L'Assassino).
Stunningly shot by Gianni di Venanzo (Fellini's 8½), the film was immediately hailed as a masterpiece, with Sight & Sound calling it "one of the most courageous things the Italian cinema has ever attempted". More recently, Martin Scorsese cited it as one of his twelve favourite films, and his Film Foundation sponsored this sparkling new 4K restoration by the Cineteca di Bologna.
Special Features:
- New 4K digital restoration from the Cineteca di Bologna
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film
- Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM Audio
- The Filmmaker and the Labyrinth, Roberto Anḍ's documentary study of Francesco Rosi's career featuring the filmmaker himself, Martin Scorsese and Giuseppe Tornatore among others
- Francesco Rosi on Salvatore Giuliano, a new and exclusive interview with the great Italian director
- The Sicilian Robin Hood, an interview with Salvatore Giuliano's nephew Giuseppe
- Salvatore Giuliano and the Mafia, an interview with journalist and Sicilian Mafia expert Attilio Bolzoni
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Pasquale Iannone, an annotated synopsis by Ben Lawton, plus a selection of contemporary reviews