355 Hands Over the City

[What A Disgrace]

Hands Over the City

[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/1142/355_box_348x490_w128.jpg[/img]

Rod Steiger is ferocious as a scheming land developer in Francesco Rosi's Hands over the City, a blistering work of social realism and the winner of the 1963 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion. This expose of the politically driven real-estate speculation that has devastated Naples's civilian landscape moves breathlessly from a cataclysmic building collapse to the backroom negotiations of civic leaders vying for power in a city council election, laying bare the inner workings of corruption with passion and outrage.

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC FEATURES

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Neapolitan Diary (1992), Francesco Rosi's feature-length sequel to Hands over the City
- New video interviews with Rosi, film critic Tullio Kezich, and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
- Video discussion with Rosi, co-writer Raffaele La Capria, and film critic Michel Ciment
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Plus: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Stuart Klawans and a 2003 interview with Rosi

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[kinjitsu]

At this point, any film by Rosi would is welcome, however, his great crime films are so rarely seen that it's enough to make one weep. It would be wonderful to see such films as Excellent Cadavers, Hands Over the City, Lucky Luciano and The Mattei Affair on DVD...

Ask and ye shall receive!

[What A Disgrace]

This one may be the only of the four October releases (announced so far) that I plan on buying. The price seems a bit steep, though...unless those interviews are extensive little guys, requiring a second disc to house them.

[Gigi M.]

This one may be the only of the four October releases (announced so far) that I plan on buying. The price seems a bit steep, though...unless those interviews are extensive little guys, requiring a second disc to house them.

Me too.

[kinjitsu]

This one may be the only of the four October releases (announced so far) that I plan on buying. The price seems a bit steep, though...unless those interviews are extensive little guys, requiring a second disc to house them.

Same here, though maybe it's a bit early to chide Criterion about this being light on special features since they are likely to update them sooner or later. I'm more than happy about this, in fact overjoyed, and although it's been a distinct possibility, it still comes as a welcome surprise. Let's hope that it leads to more Rosi somewhere down the line...

[colinr0380]

This one may be the only of the four October releases (announced so far) that I plan on buying. The price seems a bit steep, though...unless those interviews are extensive little guys, requiring a second disc to house them.

There is actually an entire second film Neapolitan Diary from 1992 on the second disc as well as new interviews with Rosi, Tullio Kezich and Jean-Pierre Gorin which will probably be accessible separately.

Plus a video discussion would seem to make this one of the more packed 2 disc releases.

EDIT: Sorry kinjitsu, my using the word 'actually' and bolding 'as well' was more because I was excited at two films in the package. I apologise as I didn't mean to make it sound like an attack.

[kinjitsu]

Neapolitan Diary, and runs about 82 minutes, was added only a short while ago.

This is what was posted earlier today:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
New video interviews with director Francesco Rosi, film critic Tullio Kezich, and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
Video discussion with Rosi, co-writer Raffaele La Capria, and film critic Michel Ciment
Plus: A new essay by film critic Stuart Klawans and a 2003 interview with Rosi

Hence my comment about waiting for an update... Anyhow, this is a wonderful addition because I love Napoli!

Neapolitan Diary (1992), Rosi's feature-length sequel to Hands Over the City

This documentary hardly qualifies as a proper sequel since it's more a reflection on Rosi's much-beloved hometown, its existing physical and political condition, and its transformation (or lack thereof) some thirty years after he made Hands Over the City. To call it a sequel is entirely misleading. Nevertheless, I'm especially looking for to this set, as much for Neapolitan Diary as for Hands Over the City.

NEAPOLITAN DIARY / DIARIO NAPOLETANO (1992; 90 minutes) Returning to Naples, the place where he was born, some 30 years after making Hands Over the City (1963), Rosi records the transformations of his city has undergone in three decades of change, shady dealings, and criminal violence. With overwhelming beauty and honesty, his cinematic diary investigates history, current events, memory, ancient architecture, and hope. Tullio Kezich heaps praise on Rosi's 16th film, "shot with all the sacraments of great cinema... perhaps his most beautiful, revealing the heart of his poetics... " --Film Society of Lincoln Center

The frame of the story has Rosi coming back to Naples to attend a 30th anniversary screening of Hands Over the City at the School of Architecture. Rosi holds forth for the students; so do various professors. Then Rosi wanders off in one direction, his two young assistants wander off in another, and the film becomes a peripatetic meditation on change, in both the city and the generations. The sense of futility that has hung over Rosi's work since Illustrious Corpses is still present--all the authority-figures seen to agree that Naples has gone from bad to worse, with no good in sight. But there's humor as well (as when Rosi is mistaken for Vittorio De Sica), mingled with a retrospective mood that almost gives nostalgia a good name.

By the end of Neapolitan Diary, you feel as if the hemmed-in, neglected core of Naples, its historic heart, was absorbing Rosi. He too, is going to be part of the city's past; he takes pride in knowing he deserves to be remembered and worries a bit that the conservation effort might be shoddy. That much you can guess on your own. The part that Rosi tells you, explicitly, is that he still dreams and is not at all resigned. The final sequence of Neapolitan Diary? It happens in Rosi's head while he dozes on the train back to Rome. He sees the celebrated scene from Hands Over the City in which the tenement collapses--only this time, the rubble slowly rises from the street and reassembles itself into a part of the old Naples that he loves. --Stuart Klawans, Film Comment

RAI's Italica website features an Italian Political Cinema section that includes a few pages on Rosi as well as Hands Over the City.

[Gigi M.]

Specs from Press Release:

Special double-disc edition features:
€ New, restored high-definition digital transfer
€ Neapolitan Diary (1992), Rosi's feature-length sequel to Hands Over the City
€ New video interviews with director Francesco Rosi, film critic Tullio Kezich, and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
· Video discussion with Rosi, co-writer Raffaele La Capria, and film critic Michel Ciment
€ Plus: A new essay by film critic Stuart Klawans and a 2003 interview with Rosi

CAT: MAN260
UPC: 0-37429-18752-4
ISBN: 0-78002-801-5
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 9/19/06
Street date: 10/24/06

[kieslowski_67]

This is the only Oct release from Criterion I will buy. Here is hoping that "Mattei Affair" should follow suit. Any Rossi is welcome and I would be genuinely ecastatic if they release "Chronicle of a Death Foretold ".

[kinjitsu]

This is the only Oct release from Criterion I will buy. Here is hoping that "Mattei Affair" should follow suit. Any Rossi is welcome and I would be genuinely ecastatic if they release "Chronicle of a Death Foretold ".

Personally, I can wait on the Márquez since it never left much of a lasting impression, while Christ Stopped at Eboli, Hands Over the City, Illustrious Corpses, The Mattei Affair and Salvatore Giuliano, have persistently lingered over the years. Given my druthers, my top choice would be either Mattei Affair or Illustrious Corpses (Sciascia fan here), and at some point, an uncut Christ Stopped at Eboli, if someone can get it right the next time around, that is.

[yoshimori]

Saw most of these Rosi at the UCLA retro a few years back. Illustrious Corpses and The Mattei Case are absolutely gripping, but for me, the most incredible movie in the series was Uomini Contro... Truly bizarre. Mesmerizing!

[kinjitsu]

Saw most of these Rosi at the UCLA retro a few years back. Illustrious Corpses and The Mattei Case are absolutely gripping, but for me, the most incredible movie in the series was Uomini Contro... Truly bizarre. Mesmerizing!

Sadly not seen (along with everything before Salvatore Giuliano)... perhaps this was an antidote to C'era una volta.

I forgot to mention Lucky Luciano, most likely because I consider it a few notches below Illustrious Corpses and Mattei Affair, but it certainly deserves an honorable mention.

[kieslowski_67]

I forgot to mention Lucky Luciano, most likely because I consider it a few notches below Illustrious Corpses and Mattei Affair, but it certainly deserves an honorable mention.

I have a Japanese DVD of "Lucky Luciano". It was letterboxed presentation (I believe) but the transfer quality is surprising decent.

[brunosh]

The supplements to this remind me that, at a very well attended screening of the Mattei Affair at the London Rosi retrospective last December, we were treated, before the film, to the semi-surreal spectacle of two very mature and quite rotund men in the garb of European intellectuals, competing with each other to be the one more likely to fall off as they tried to struggle up the steep steps onto the stage – an almost Sisyphean episode. They turned out to be Michel Ciment and Francesco Rosi himself. Ciment gave a little introduction in French without translation and then Rosi, now in his 80's and clearly having a whale of a time, spoke about the film for 10 minutes or so in French with English translation by Ciment.

In his opening remarks (if I understood correctly), Ciment said that Paramount (then owned by Gulf & Western, the oil co) had picked up US rights to the film on its completion, and had never allowed it to be distributed in the States – perhaps not surprising in that, even though Mattei is not presented as an unblemished hero, the film comes out in his favour whereas the Seven Sisters are shown in a uniformly bad light.

Rosi explained in his remarks that, rather than making a “geographicâ€

[ellipsis7]

The very same Ciment on Rosi here...

[tavernier]

This is one terrific set! Let's hope Criterion continues putting out more Rosi.

And for the record, disc 2's supplements are:

Neapolitan Diary - 89 min
New Rosi interview - 13 min
Film critic Tullio Kezitch interview - 5 min
Video discussion with Rosi, Raffaele La Capria, and Michel Ciment - 16 min
Jean-Pierre Gorin interview - 6 min.

That's substantial enough for me....

[kinjitsu]

This is one terrific set! Let's hope Criterion continues putting out more Rosi.

Agreed. Full report expected soon!

[criterionsnob]

Beaver

[Gigi M.]

Back cover and spine

[kinjitsu]

Slant and Reel

[Fletch F. Fletch]

I checked this out knowing nothing about the movie except that I had already seen and enjoyed Salvatore Giuliano and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie.

I thought that Rod Steiger was well cast as the blustery land developer Nottola. One of my favorite moments is when he gets indignant over all the bad press he's getting and how it has forced him stop construction. As he puts it, “Money isn't like a car that can sit idle in a garage. It's like a horse that has to eat every day.â€

[Ashirg]

Savant review at TCM or DVD Talk.

[ellipsis7]

Fascinating movie and package... Bring on THE MATTEI AFFAIR...

[Awesome Welles]

So, eight months and still no more Rosi news other than the rumoured release of Il Momento della verita [The Moment of Truth]?

I was going to post on the board but this seems like a reasonable place, does anyone know how the Rosi's have sold? Perhaps if they haven't sold so well Criterion won't be so keen to release more Rosi stuff.

I am dying to see a good version of Il Caso Mattei [The Mattei Affair], my unsubbed VHS is starting to die!

[kinjitsu]

So, eight months and still no more Rosi news other than the rumoured release of Il Momento della verita [The Moment of Truth]?

Re: Francesco Rosi
Mon, 30 Apr 2007

I just check with production and we don't have any plans for releasing a new title anytime soon, at least throughout 2007.

Sorry about that, but will take note that you asked about it.

Thanks,
Cleo