The Conformist and 1900

[rwaits]

I'm passing on Conformist. I've seen it enough times. If it had white subtitles, I'd get it. But those subtitles are not just yellow, they are overlarge and grossly fonted. I'm not going to reward anyone for the idiocy of ugly yellow subtitles.

Since 1900 has an English track, I'll pick that up.

You, sir, are a fool!

[foggy eyes]

Beaver on Novecento.

[Lino]

Man those yellow subtitles look awful. Does anybody actually prefer yellow?

I don't think so but there are all sorts of people, I guess.

I'm actually going to wait for a local release in my country because portuguese Paramount's DVDs never come with yellow subs, only white. And thank the Lord for that.

[Barmy]

If only Vasco da Gama had conquered America, we wouldn't have to put up with friggin yellow subtitles.

[Lino]

Hmm, I can see that you're not that barmy as you seem to show.

So, I guess you have to put the blame on Christopher Columbus now...?

[colinr0380]

Hmm, I can see that you're not that barmy as you seem to show.

So, I guess you have to put the blame on Christopher Columbus now...?

Well he was (albeit indirectly) responsible for the creation of some terrible films: Christopher Columbus: The Discovery... Carry On Columbus...

And his namesake did make Bicentennial Man!

[Gordon]

If only Vasco da Gama had conquered America, we wouldn't have to put up with friggin yellow subtitles.

Leif Ericson would have chose white subs, too, I'll bet.

[marty]

Man those yellow subtitles look awful. Does anybody actually prefer yellow?

I don't think so, They look garish but many local distributors here in Australia use them. I think it has something to do with the fact that SBS which is a TV network that screens foreign films always uses yellow subtitles so they use this as a reference. However, I think there is a slight change as I have noticed some R4 releases now have white subtitles such as Accent's splendid, Story of Marie & Julien, and Madman's Ozu films. But one thing I won;t stand for is yellow subs on B&W films. I simply will not buy them or, if I do buy them by accident, I will throw them out.

[Cinesimilitude]

But one thing I won;t stand for is yellow subs on B&W films. I simply will not buy them or, if I do buy them by accident, I will throw them out.

For accidents in the future, can your trash can be replaced with my Post Office Box?

[Gordon]

Yellow subs on a black and white film? Solution: turn the color down to zero on your TV. The R1 La Dolce Vita caused a furore when it was released, but the deluxe box edition has white subs apparently. Aye, just turn the color doon, folks! The yella subs on the R4 Red Desert were fucking annoying as fuck, though. Fucking cunts down in that Australia.

[Cinesimilitude]

Yellow subs on a black and white film? Solution: turn the color down to zero on your TV. The R1 La Dolce Vita caused a furore when it was released, but the deluxe box edition has white subs apparently. Aye, just turn the color doon, folks! The yella subs on the R4 Red Desert were fucking annoying as fuck, though. Fucking cunts down in that Australia.

aww, well there goes my free dvds...

[skuhn8]

Yellow subs on a black and white film? Solution: turn the color down to zero on your TV. The R1 La Dolce Vita caused a furore when it was released, but the deluxe box edition has white subs apparently. Aye, just turn the color doon, folks! The yella subs on the R4 Red Desert were fucking annoying as fuck, though. Fucking cunts down in that Australia.

Nice brogue, laddie. S'a 'boot time.

Now if the Canucks here would only follow every written sentence with ',eh' we can start getting some national definition on here--

SncDthMnky: For accidents in the future, replace your trash with my Post Office Box, eh?

[Cinesimilitude]

can that forum censor be user specific? you could make it so that everytime one of us Canucks posts 'about' it turns into 'aboot', eh?

But honestly, working customer service for cingular wireless from up here has nearly removed 'eh' from my vocabulary. I only use it occasionally when asking questions, and since I'm wiser than most of my friends on the subjects we always talk about, I don't often ask questions...

PS. Sandrelli looks stunning in the Conformist caps, can't wait to get these discs.

[Gregory]

Solution: turn the color down to zero on your TV.

That's a good solution for some, but I don't have a TV and can't make that kind of adjustment on my projector.

[rohmerin]

It's weird what on dvdbeaver I've read about the running time of The conformist.

is there more information about if it's a cut or uncut film?

I saw it on cinemateque in Madrid but I can not remember its running time.

[Shahed]

Man those yellow subtitles look awful. Does anybody actually prefer yellow?

This is from Dan Schneider's Tokyo Story review on TSPDT:

The American DVD of Tokyo Story was released by The Criterion Collection on a two disk version and the print of the film on Disk One was in very disappointing quality, with streaks, murky grays and too light whites. Criterion usually does far better work than this. It is especially annoying when trying to read the white subtitles against the blanched and bleeding backgrounds. Are gold subtitles too much to ask, especially when there is no English language dubbed track to satisfy real film connoisseurs who appreciate the visual aspects of the medium?

[Lino]

I love it when he says "gold subtitles". It adds a whole new meaning to yellow on B/W.

I always see it as someone pissing on snow but hey, that's only me.

Dylan, could you make a visual comparison with the 1900 italian edition when you receive the Paramount? I am curious about just how different they would look side by side.

[Michael]

For those of you who despise yellow subtitles, The Conformist also offers closed captioning so just turn off the subtitles and turn on CC which will come out in white against black. Hope that helps.

[Lino]

Unfortunately that doesn't work with Pal TV sets or with most NTSC ones, either. Like I said above, I'm waiting for a R2 release.

[Dylan]

I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon going through these DVDs, and I'm floored. Paramount has done a remarkable job with the transfers and presentation.

As far as the audio goes for "The Conformist," if you choose the Italiano option on the menu the Italian audio will be set up for you. In fear of using too many adjectives, I'll just say that this new DVD presentation is overwhelming...the film looks and sounds brand new, and this was in turn the greatest experience I've ever had watching it. A film that definitively represents its art form, and (for me) the holy grail of DVD releases.

Now I'll move over to "1900," which has been available for a few years, but only in versions plagued with numerous visual problems. As predicted, this new DVD looks ridiculously superior to the other versions I've seen. Not only does everything finally look as beautiful as it can, but the new trasnfer even window-boxes the main titles.

One of the great surprises was that going through this new "1900" DVD has moved me to endorse the English track. I don't wholly prefer it, but I like it. Aside from the impressive American cast, the English voices for all of the principal European cast members (Stefania Sandrelli, Gerard Depardieu, and Dominique Sanda, all of whom dubbed their own voices as far as I know) are impressively in synch with the lip movements and are nicely tied with their characters.

The main problem I always had with the English dub (aside from the opening hour and a half, which is mostly disconcerting as everybody there is Italian except two cast members) was more in terms of accuracy with the story, but now I look at "1900" in more of an expressive and physical way, and not so much in terms of accuaracy. Bertolucci himself said that he had American and Soviet cinema in his mind during the preparation for this, and for some reason, that passage of the documentary made me appreciate the English dub's function, even if I'm not sure I'd recommend it over the Italian. He's trying to be transcendental with the nationality of this story...not that I didn't catch that on previous viewings, but I didn't really feel it until this viewing...in many ways, as he says, this is his "American" film.

It is important to note that the dubbing of the Italian co-stars (particularly the children) gets pretty shakey in the first half of the English dub, as do some of the translations, but with the considerably clearer visual atmosphere I found this easier to digest, although I do believe if one were to view the entire thing in English, for maximum effect (since the Italian to English ratio is so high in this part of the film) the first 90 minutes should be viewed in Italian, and the rest in English. But both dubs work.

[Lino]

Re: english dub on 1900 -- I always watched it with the actors speaking in english because as you said, the lip movements matched the words. When I bought the italian DVD, it was the first time I ever watched it with them speaking in italian and it didn't quite work for me, though.

Dylan, if you have the time I would still very much like to see a visual comparison between the italian DVD and the new Paramount, if it's not asking too much.

[Dylan]

Dylan, if you have the time I would still very much like to see a visual comparison between the italian DVD and the new Paramount, if it's not asking too much.

It's not asking too much, I'll post a few on this thread tonight (the image sizes won't be as big as the Beaver's, but you'll get the idea).

Re: English dubbing. I'm open to watching it in either English or Italian, actually, but for the moment I am interested in how the English functions. But as I said, if one were to view this film in English, I believe the film will play to maximum effect with the first 90 minutes in Italian, then the remaining 4 hours in English. I do believe the Italian track is more consistent, but the English track is an interesting and commendable diversion. I haven't listened to any of the French track yet, which features Sanda and Depardieu (both of whom are also featured in the English dub, as I noted above).

[Cinesimilitude]

I got these 2 in the mail today, and I can't really say it better than Dylan. these are excellent releases.

[Dylan]

Italian R2:


Paramount R1:


Italian R2:


Paramount R1:


Italian R2:


Paramount R1:

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

Nuit et jour

It makes those bloody subtitles all the more painful though!