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Just got the German La Luna DVD. Print is superb - image is very sharp and colors are strong (and what gorgeously fluid camera movement!) English soundtrack is excellent and no forced subtitles. It is still for me a very strange movie, difficult to watch at times since it veers from the sublime to the (campy and) ridiculous quite jarringly. I adore Bertolucci's work, but unlike, say, Before the Revolution or The Conformist which I can watch again and again, La Luna (and 1900 as well, for me) can be tough-going.

Those caps look decent enough even though in my VHS copy, the scene of the lake with the ducks has more vivid colors than the one represented here. Let's hope a R1 is forthcoming. Or R2, for that matter.

La Luna comes out in Italy on the 16th of this month

La Luna is available on you tube in 15 parts (!).

Besides, "Luna" is definitely not a film you can do justice to watching on Youtube. It looks absolutely gorgeous and should be watched on a television, especially since a wonderful-looking DVD is available.

DVDBeaver reviews the german edition of La Luna.

Caught Luna last night at Film Forum in a ravishing print (paired, naturally, with "White Dog"). One of BB's best films.

The Spider's Strategem and Luna are BB's best films period. Not Conformist. Not 1900. Not Paris. Not Emperor.

Sorry for the shout out.

I might agree. Those two are certainly the most enjoyable of the 5. What an amazing run of 5 films over a 10 year period.

Oops--don't put Emperor in that list.

I saw La Luna last night as well and thought it was a pretentious piece of shit. I hated that film. I would have walked out if not for White Dog. A fucking bore. 1900, The Conformist, The Grim Reaper and Last Tango are leaps and bounds better than this film.

I'm in between on La Luna. At times it certainly feels pretentious and forced, and the acting isn't always the strongest, but the film has a strange, indescribable pull, and it is certainly beautiful to watch. I don't think it is Bertolucci's best, but it is far from terrible. Still, to me, The Conformist, Last Tango, and Spider's Strategem are the better films.

I would have walked out if not for White Dog.

Perhaps the first time that "White Dog" has kept an impatient viewer in their seat for "Luna".

I might argue that "LTiP" is the most pretentious piece of shit ever made. I won't, but I might. At least "Luna" has some remote bearing on reality. Plus you gotta love the way BB revisits scenes from virtually all of his previous movies.

I received an e-mail from Emilio Oliveira of New Yorker Films:

New Yorker Films no longer distributes THE SPIDER'S STRATAGEM, and I'm afraid I don't know who currently distributes the film.

I had contact from Vittorio Storaro and he is more than happy to supervise the HD transfer of the film whenever a DVD distributor is interested.

Ovader wrote:I had contact from Vittorio Storaro and he is more than happy to supervise the HD transfer of the film whenever a DVD distributor is interested.

I heard Storaro is happy to supervise the transfer of any film, whether or not he originally shot it, and whittle it down to 2:1 as his personal contribution to cosmic transcendence. I'm really looking forward to his forthcoming Ambersons.

Sorta feels icky when one of your personal heros turns into a total weirdo. Who knew that 2.0 was a secret branch of SCientology?

It is 2.0 ver2.0

Once again, I'll advise anybody on here not to watch "Luna" on Youtube, it looks like crap compressed to their online file size and doesn't do justice to Storaro's cinematography (well, and one of my favorite shots, where the kid skates down the hallway, is cut in half!).

Am I the only one on here who doesn't think Storaro's crazy? Revisionist? Debatable on The Last Emperor, but I agree with his decisions/reasoning in regards to Apocalypse (the DVD is basically the 70mm framing and I can live with that). And personally, on some deep level, I understand his Univisium proposal.

Tango in Univisium 2.00:1




Fuckin' gorgeous.

Ovader wrote:I received an e-mail from Emilio Oliveira of New Yorker Films:

New Yorker Films no longer distributes THE SPIDER'S STRATAGEM, and I'm afraid I don't know who currently distributes the film.

I had contact from Vittorio Storaro and he is more than happy to supervise the HD transfer of the film whenever a DVD distributor is interested.

I just sent an email to Criterion's "suggestions" email address urging them to consider picking up the rights to this one if they haven't already.

But here's my completely speculative take on this: if it's correct that New Yorker doesn't have the rights to it any longer, and if no one else has optioned them already, then Criterion has already picked up the rights for THE SPIDER'S STRATEGEM or is seriously considering it. Criterion obviously knows who Bertolucci is, and they just finished working with Storaro on THE LAST EMPEROR. There's no way they can't be aware of the situation.

I'm just praying that some cut-rate outfit (I won't name any names!) hasn't beat Criterion to the punch and is nurturing their own nefarious plans to forever soil the mysterious beauty of THE SPIDER'S STRATEGEM by releasing an inferior Region 1 transfer on the cheap.

Coffret Bertolucci: Coming from Gaumont Columbia Tri-Star on 28 March 2008. This set is "La Luna" and "Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man". Unfortunately there are no English subs on "Tragedy", but there are French.

jsteffe wrote:

Ovader wrote:I received an e-mail from Emilio Oliveira of New Yorker Films:

New Yorker Films no longer distributes THE SPIDER'S STRATAGEM, and I'm afraid I don't know who currently distributes the film.

I had contact from Vittorio Storaro and he is more than happy to supervise the HD transfer of the film whenever a DVD distributor is interested.

I just sent an email to Criterion's "suggestions" email address urging them to consider picking up the rights to this one if they haven't already.

But here's my completely speculative take on this: if it's correct that New Yorker doesn't have the rights to it any longer, and if no one else has optioned them already, then Criterion has already picked up the rights for THE SPIDER'S STRATEGEM or is seriously considering it. Criterion obviously knows who Bertolucci is, and they just finished working with Storaro on THE LAST EMPEROR. There's no way they can't be aware of the situation.

Agreed entirely. I would say they are working on this now, how could they pass it up if they had the chance? I'm sending them an email now!

Thanks for the tip Dr. Amicus.

But I agree with his decisions/reasoning in regards to Apocalypse (the DVD is basically the 70mm framing and I can live with that).

No its 2.1 Not 2.2 or 2.35:1. Didn't you see this in the theatre last time and notice the sides of the frame?

Nothing wrong with 2.1 if he shoots it that way, but to crop the sides of AN or the Emperor just because his new bag is 2.1 is insane.

As for "Tango" the problem isn't Storaro, it's the Director, he has no eye.

in the March/April issue of Film Comment they have La Luna and Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man as forthcoming from a company called "Opening". Can anyone confirm this? Where is this company from?

It's a new French release available here

It's also mentioned on the previous page of this thread.

I'm sure that I read sometime last year that Tango would be getting an Anniversary Special Edition in 2008. Well, it's almost September 2008. Does anyone has an update on this? Thanks

This edition of Tango:

http://www.italica.rai.it/eng/principal ... /tango.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

is already OOP.

Any new about UK or US editions coming?

Artificial Eye will be releasing Me and You on DVDand Blu-Ray July 8th.

I contacted Arrow regarding The Spider's Stratagem seeing as they released The Conformist and they informed be that they tried to get it but the rights are a "mess". So it appears that it isn't uninterested distributors to blame for its absence on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Blu-Ray of The Spider's Stratagem out in Japan next week, from a new 2K restoration from the original negative.