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The DVD is anamorphic with black bars on the side to respect the 1.66 ratio.

Surprised Gary didn't post caps on this yet. Can any of you guys drop caps into the shack and link them in?

The DVD is anamorphic with black bars on the side to respect the 1.66 ratio.

Excellent, can't wait to see it.

Wish I could post screen grabs but don't knowe how to. I saw The Conformist at the Film Forum in NY last year and wasn't impressed by the print. The dvd really looks good.

What didn't you like about the print?-- I was there too and just curious regarding what you'd seen.

The print I saw theatrically looked good (and, although this has been addressed, I do remember it being precisely 1.66:1 now...silly me, it's only my second-favorite film in the world), if a little too soft and muted (but I was still fawning because until that point all I had seen was the awful bootleg).

Arn, when you put the DVD in and press play on the menu, the original Italian track with English subtitles is automatic, right?

Maybe I was still jetlagged, but I found it quite murky.

Are there any original theatrical trailers to be found on the DVDs?

Dylan wrote:Arn, when you put the DVD in and press play on the menu, the original Italian track with English subtitles is automatic, right?

Dylan: On 1900 actually you get an "automatic" English track...but you could easily switch to the Italian (or French).

Same on The conformist, you get the English track first, as I said before I prefer the French track.

Arn777 wrote:Same on The conformist, you get the English track first, as I said before I prefer the French track.

You prefer the French over the original Italian?

Gigi M. wrote:You prefer the French over the original Italian?

Presumably you get Jean-Louis Trintignant's own voice in the French version?

It sounds to me that it's a bit like the situation with The Leopard where Italian is clearly the most historically realistic language to opt for - but in doing so you have to put up with the lead actor being dubbed. And I've never known whether to favour French or Spanish for Luis Bunuel's Tristana...

Yes, for Trintignant Sanda and Clementi's original voice. For the rest of the cast, French dubs at the time were actually very good.

Arn777 wrote:Yes, for Trintignant Sanda and Clementi's original voice. For the rest of the cast, French dubs at the time were actually very good.

It's problematic, cause obviously Bertolucci approved of what the final italian version was. Everyone just spoke what they knew back then, and then they'd worry about the soundtrack after. I like to stick with whatever the director's preference is.

Same on The Conformist, you get the English track first

What a poor decision. For the "dance of the blind" segment, I'm assuming it switches to Italian, then? That's going to confuse almost every casual viewer.

Personally, I don't understand why anybody would want to watch "The Conformist" in anything but Italian (and the same goes for "The Leopard" and "L' Eclisse" and "La Strada" and "Rocco and His Brothers" and every other Italian film where an actor is dubbed). I could go on for about five pages about how the Italian language is integral to the success of this film, but particularly when he goes to France (where incidental French is spoken by the cast), Marcello Clerici must be speaking Italian for that part of the story to make perfect sense (the scene where Gastone Moschin is accused by a French woman of speaking Italian to French birds surely must be lost in both dubs, among other scenes).

However, I can understand watching it in French more than I can understand Paramount's decision to put the English dub on automatic.

Personally, I don't understand why anybody would want to watch "The Conformist" in anything but Italian (and the same goes for "The Leopard" and "L' Eclisse" and "La Strada" and "Rocco and His Brothers" and every other Italian film where an actor is dubbed).

Same here.

Dylan, fair point re The Conformist.

I am all for watching films in their original languages, with the exception of Italian films of the 60's-early 70s involving several French actors with key parts (and because dubbing was taken very seriously in France at the time). I watched the Rene Chateau DVD of Rocco last week which only has the French dub and it is a really fine dub.

I am all for watching films in their original languages, with the exception of Italian films of the 60's-early 70s involving several French actors with key parts (and because dubbing was taken very seriously in France at the time). I watched the Rene Chateau DVD of Rocco last week which only has the French dub and it is a really fine dub.

I can see where you're coming from, but for me alternate dubs of Italian films have never been an option (although they interest me very much as a point of reference).

To keep this "Conformist" specific, this also has to do with my rather deep adoration of the story itself, and how "Italian" it feels to me. During the film's central love scene, where Marcello asks his wife details about her first sexual experience right before he proceeds to have sex with her, the entire color scheme transforms as the train crosses borders into France. For me, part of the power here is the idea that he's going into another country (a new language, French, a new "color," blue) to carry on his mission, all the while having sex with his wife to stabilize the normality he feels he's achieved by marrying her. Needless to say, this scene is incredibly powerful to me, and for me, part of it is because the POV is Italian, and his entire world is visually and subconsciously changing as he goes into France.

I respect your point of view, it's just not one I share, particularly in the case of "The Conformist."

With that said, international films dubbing lead actors still occurs today, the first example that comes to mind being Lars Rudolph for "Werkmeister Harmonies," and I would never want to watch that film in German.

Yea I saw that run in Film Forum and though the colors had a slightly antique-y/analog hue to them, I wasn't sure that it wasn't unintentional, owing to the heavy neo-expressionistic (maybe noir, almost Altonesque) aura to those sublime images. It was the first time I'd seen the film in widescreen & in the correct language, and was thoroughly blown away. I walked out feeling like I'd taken some nuclear blasts off an opiated chong of Thai-stick.

Beaver/Conformist

no reason to complain about the image....

Absolutely exquisite.



Tuesday can't come soon enough.

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

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

I've just reacquainted myself - reluctantly - with Kino's subtitles on The Color of Pomegranates, which are not only yellow but in a serif font and with a prominent drop shadow.

Hideous isn't the word. Or rather, it is the word, but it's somehow inadequate.

The DVD looks so, so much better than the print I saw last year, although I still don't have much enthusiasm for this release. Yellow subtitles make me depressed. Yes, I am a freak.

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.