criterionforum.org

Many thanks, ellipsis, that "Sight & Sound" review certainly confirms "TWC" as existing before 1968. Very much appreciated.

As for the Argentinian poster,

that poster for the (supposedly English language) Livia is in Italian

it's in Spanish, not Italian (except "un film lux"): "Una Inolvidable Historia de Amor!" ("An Unforgettable Story of Love!") and "color por technicolor" ("color by technicolor"). No indication it's an English-language version -- I'd figure it's Spanish dubbed.

Looks like I'll definitely have to get some screencaps of that video to beef up my claim about an English-language version titled "Livia". Wish me luck...

the poster is in Spanish as Ellipsis points out.

(cough, cough) That was I with the handy-dandy Spanish translation. I wouldn't mention it, but all those years of Spanish-language courses had to be good for something.

It looks like the original rights for TWC (Lux? Titanus) expired and a West Coast copyright speculator took it over, including the rubbishy Eastman reprinting.

It was Lux, and that makes much good sense, David. For the curious and/or completist, here's part of the West Coast distributor's ad. To complicate matters, they date the film as 1964 and offer a running time of 110 minutes! I, for one, am not even going to consider that for fear of wading deeper into the intercontinental movie morass.



As for Farley,

he is definitely on the wrong track with TWC as a late 60s enterprise.

we should probably forgive him any misleading statements, as even Andrew Sarris in his "Village Voice" column of June 27, 1968 says something not that unsimilar:

Luchino Visconti's "Senso" had never really been released in America before, but now the Elgin Theatre (at Eighth Avenue and 19th Street) has unveiled a version Visconti himself has approved. Sharp-eyed televiewers may have caught an abridged version of "Senso" under the lurid title of "The Wanton Countess," a tale all too typical of Visconti's films in America.

Looks pretty good. Saw the 1993 or so restoration projected the other month and the Criterion seemed to match it, and this doesn't appear far enough. A milky, white-leaning color palette affects the whole film.

Another Ritrovata'ed color grading. It doesn't seem too bad, but some shots still give it away (like at 1:06, and a sky that reminds me of their work on the King Hu's movies). But this is just a Youtube trailer.

It's probably going to be like the Hulots, where their color default color grading isn't too far off from the actual unique color timing of originals. Just a thought.

Not too different from my memories of watching the Criterion blu-ray. What makes this a new restoration then?

Not that it's worth a whooole lot to compare to a YouTube video clip, but one of the DVDBeaver caps is in the trailer, though not quite an exact frame match:
https://youtu.be/aHMzrQytQkk?t=35
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/blu-ray_ ... -ray_7.jpg

It might just be the 2009 restoration touring again, since it was already made through the Film Foundation by L'immagine Ritrovata.
I have no idea who did the previous Studio Canal restoration, but seeing how the Criterion one has SC in the technical credits ("Film restoration: Studio Canal, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia/Cineteca Nazionale, Cineteca di Bologna/L'Immagine Ritrovata. With funding provided by Gucci, the Film Foundation, and Comitato Italia 150."), and how the 2 discs seem to share the same basis and to be mostly (only ?) set apart by the color timing, it might be actually the same restoration used for both, but re-graded by Canal for their release.

This is a new restoration. When they played it on 35mm in the Visconti retro over the summer, they announced they had attempted to debut the new resto as part of the series but were denied because it would make its premiere elsewhwre.

After this and white vertigo I’m looking forward to visiting Italy some day to check out these amazing green skies that are also sometimes blue

I'm watching Scorsese's documentary My Voyage to Italy and at one point he talks about Senso. He goes over the film and then when he gets to the scene where the countess gives the Austrian officer the red chest holding the gold coins meant to fund the revolution Scorsese says, "This moment is the heart of the entire movie. Not many other directors would have had such total belief in style as Visconti has in this film. He uses it to go to dangerously emotional extremes."

I'm wondering, what do you think he meant by the last sentence? I think I know, but I want to see if we read it the same way. I'll hold my opinion for now, because I don't want this to be a leading question.

An article on Senso by Don Ranvaud in Monthly Film Bulletin, April 1983, mentions two scenes preserved in an English 16mm print /(Harris/Films) but absent from 35mm ones.
One scene is about Livia hiding Franz in a granary. Franz moves to Livia´s bedroom before her husband can find him in the granary. Approx. one minute long.
The other scene shows a meeting between Livia and a man asking for money she has in safekeeping for the revolutionaries, who are close by. Approx. one and a half minute long.

I haven´t seen any of the Senso blurays. Are these scenes included in any bluray version?

Stefan Andersson wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:50 pm An article on Senso by Don Ranvaud in Monthly Film Bulletin, April 1983, mentions two scenes preserved in an English 16mm print /(Harris/Films) but absent from 35mm ones.
One scene is about Livia hiding Franz in a granary. Franz moves to Livia´s bedroom before her husband can find him in the granary. Approx. one minute long.
The other scene shows a meeting between Livia and a man asking for money she has in safekeeping for the revolutionaries, who are close by. Approx. one and a half minute long.

I haven´t seen any of the Senso blurays. Are these scenes included in any bluray version?

They're on the Criterion DVD/Blu. Probably put back when the film was restored years ago. I've a vague memory of seeing a print where they weren't there, back in the early 1980s, then being surprised when I eventually saw them later on.

Fred Holywell wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 12:21 am

Stefan Andersson wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 8:50 pm An article on Senso by Don Ranvaud in Monthly Film Bulletin, April 1983, mentions two scenes preserved in an English 16mm print /(Harris/Films) but absent from 35mm ones.
One scene is about Livia hiding Franz in a granary. Franz moves to Livia´s bedroom before her husband can find him in the granary. Approx. one minute long.
The other scene shows a meeting between Livia and a man asking for money she has in safekeeping for the revolutionaries, who are close by. Approx. one and a half minute long.

I haven´t seen any of the Senso blurays. Are these scenes included in any bluray version?

They're on the Criterion DVD/Blu. Probably put back when the film was restored years ago. I've a vague memory of seeing a print where they weren't there, back in the early 1980s, then being surprised when I eventually saw them later on.

Hi!
OK, many thanks for confirming that these scenes are included!