At the peak of his creative powers the 29 year old Bernardo Bertolucci, eschewed the influence of mentor, Jean-Luc Godard and partnered up with Vittorio Storaro and developed his own style for one of the most visually dazzling, politically and psychologically intriguing and possibly greatest of all Italian films.
Told in a non linear structure that would go on to influence The Godfather Part II (not the only influence on Coppola’s film), the story begins in Rome, 1938. Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a young fascist who takes on the job of assassinating his former professor who has fled to Paris. With his girlfriend (Stefania Sandrelli) in tow he meets the professor and his young wife (Dominique Sanda). A thriller as well as study of Italian politics and psychological character, Bertolucci’s Oscar nominated adaptation of Alberto Moravia’s novel (an adaptation Moravia greatly admired) has gone on to influence filmmakers such as Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann and remains one of the great triumphs of world cinema.
HD restoration supervised by Director of Photography Vittorio Storaro in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Original Mono 2.0 Audio
Audio commentary with Italian cinema expert David Forgacs
Feature length documentary ‘Bernardo Bertolucci: Reflections on Cinema’ directed by Sandro Lai on Bertolucci’s career with on-set archive material and interviews
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
Der Spieler wrote:I hope (but doubt very much) that THE CONFORMIST will be region-free.
Given the Stateside connection to Paramount, I'd be very very surprised indeed if either The Conformist or the BFI's Deep End ended up region-free - but I don't know for certain in either case.
My understanding is that The Conformist is definitely still happening, but they're not announcing an official date until they're 100% certain that they'll be able to deliver. But I think they're aiming for this autumn, either directly before or after Ashes and Diamonds (which seems to be a lot more straightforward).
I've no idea if Storaro is involved, but it's worth noting that the film's theatrical aspect ratio is 1.66:1, as opposed to Bird with the Crystal Plumage's 2.35:1. So in order to create a 2:1 picture, it will have to be cropped very noticeably indeed at the top and bottom - to an extent that would be glaringly obvious with most films, never mind one of the most visually flamboyant titles of its era. I suspect even Storaro might baulk at that.
Somebody on this forum said Storaro "reportedly" supervised the Paramount Conformist and 1900 transfers, which were both OAR -- but then there's no source for that information. He definitely supervised One From the Heart and didn't whittle it down from 1.37:1, so at least there's that.
The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Somebody on this forum said Storaro "reportedly" supervised the Paramount Conformist and 1900 transfers, which were both OAR -- but then there's no source for that information. He definitely supervised One From the Heart and didn't whittle it down from 1.37:1, so at least there's that.
Wow, almost five years have gone by since that poast. Yes, a few people who worked at Paramount told me Storaro supervised those transfers, but beyond that I haven't read anything about it.
I greatly look forward to the Arrow release of The Conformist.
Even Storaro would probably baulk at cropping a 1.66:1 film to 2:1 - you can just about get away with it if the image was wider, but not if it's a lot narrower.
According to a poster at Blu-Ray.com, Arrow have said that The Conformist "looks more like end of February now as we had additional restoration work done."
I've preordered The Conformist from Arrow (risky, I know) but will cancel that if Criterion announces an edition in the meantime. Man, I hope this film is done right.
Encouragingly, those grabs suggest that DNR was not applied at the telecine stage, which has been the major headache afflicting a lot of Arrow's Italian-sourced releases. They're well aware of the problem, but it's impossible to remove DNR that's inherent in the master without making it look even worse.
That's really surprising for Raro. I usually can't fault their releases. Now's Arrow's chance to finally prove themselves and show that they aren't to blame for these previous messes with the Italian films.
Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
Awarded “Five Star” reviews during its theatrical re-release in 2008 by Empire (“Funny and frightening, seductive and satirical, ridiculous and tragic, this remains Bertolucci’s greatest film.”), BBCi Films (“One of the truly great films of the 1970s”), Time Out (“A dazzling film.”) and the Radio Times, amongst others, Bernardo Bertolucci’s undisputed masterpiece The Conformist comes to DVD and Blu-ray on 27th February 2012 for the first time in the UK courtesy of Arrow Academy.
At the peak of his creative powers the 29-year-old Bernardo Bertolucci eschewed the influence of mentor Jean-Luc Godard and partnered up with Vittorio Storaro and developed his own style for one of the most visually dazzling, politically and psychologically intriguing – and possibly greatest – of all Italian films.
Told in a non-linear structure that would go on to influence The Godfather Part II (although not the only influence on Coppola’s film), the story begins in Rome, 1938. Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a young fascist who takes on the job of assassinating his former professor who has fled to Paris. With his wife (Stefania Sandrelli) in tow, he meets the professor and his young wife (Dominique Sanda), with whom he begins to fall in love.
A thriller as well as study of Italian politics and psychological character, Bertolucci’s Oscar nominated adaptation of Alberto Moravia’s novel (an adaptation Moravia greatly admired) has gone on to influence filmmakers such as Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann and remains one of the great triumphs of world cinema.
The Conformist (cert. tbc) will be released as a dual format Blu-ray/DVD edition (£27.99) by Arrow Academy on 27th February 2012.
Special Features include: audio commentary by Italian cinema expert David Forgacs; feature length documentary Bernardo Bertolucci: Reflections on Cinema on Bertolucci’s career with on-set archive material and interviews directed by Sandro Lai (Blu-ray only); a comprehensive booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by critic Michael Atkinson, a re-printed interview with Bernardo Bertolucci from 1971 and Bertolucci’s thoughts on filmmaking, illustrated with original stills; High Definition Blu-ray and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film; HD restoration supervised by Director of Photography Vittorio Storaro in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio; original Mono 2.0 audio; Italian language with optional English subtitles.
There's some screenshots as well but I don't know if they're representative of the final product
Very impressive extras - I'm particularly looking forward to the Forgacs commentary. On the evidence of his contributions to The Leopard and Red Desert, it's hard to think of too many people who are better qualified.
The "screenshots" look like production and publicity stills to me (the mix of colour and black and white is a bit of a giveaway, as are the differing aspect ratios), so I wouldn't read anything into those.
A serious runaway release of the year contender on paper. I so hope they get this right. Arrow are really a label worth getting excited about right now.
