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Thank you very much for the info! I luckily do speak both Italian and French so I guess things does not look that bad after all. However it is really a shame that the restored version of Paisà is being held back because of some rights dispute, shame on whoever it is...

It surprises me that his fascist-era documentaries have been released I thought they were impossible to find... would really like to see them as they "haunted" him by influencing him in a way throughout his whole career (at least that's what I've been letting people tell me...).

I was actually at the screening in Bologna at Il Cinema Ritrovato last year as well, but could not make much sense from the film to be honest as I was a Rossellini-rookie back then having only seen "Roma...", but definitely good fun watching Sandra Milo in person speedtalking in Italian forgetting that the translator had to follow her...

By the way Otis; in the thread that you refer to that shows the screen captures from Il Generale della Rovere you also posted some captures from the Ripley DVD edition of "La Terra Trema" would you prefer that one to the Image and BFI? You seem to know what you're talking about...

definitely good fun watching Sandra Milo

She was quite something in Vanina Vanini! Impossible to take seriously with those big boobs and bouffant hair! Fellini cast her better...

The Italian DVD is stellar by the way. Don't hesitate!

I haven't seen the Image disc, but RHV's restored La terra trema is about 1000 times better than the knackered old BFI version (and has both Italian and English subs for those who aren't fluent in Sicilian dialect). I read somewhere that Ossessione was coming from them too, but there's no sign of it at the moment.

Madonna!

Don Lope de Aguirre wrote:Madonna!

Even worse than Madonna!

Besides Bicycle Thieves, we haven't got anything else that is Italian this year. Hopefully, they are pulling a Rossellini boxset in the works.

Wow, still going strong in 1990! Complimenti! =D>

No new DVD news, sorry.

Could anyone tell me anything about the DVD and/or film Rossellini did for TV in 1970 called Socrates? I found the DVD on xploited but literally know nothing about it. My interest is piqued to say the least. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I wasn't sure if we should start a new topic about the upcoming Rossellini films that were on last month's newsletter, but here's what I gather so far.

Istituto Luce released 6 films in "I Grandi della Storia" collection:

Socrate (1970)
Blaise Pascal (1972)
Agostino d'Ippona ( Augustine of Hippo ) (1972)
L'età di Cosimo de Medici ( The Age of the Medici ) - released on 2 discs at 124 minutes + Leon Battista Alberti at 88 minutes.
(I'm not sure if it's 2 different edits or part 1 and part 2)
Cartesius (1974)
Anno uno (Year One) (1974)

3 of them were confirmed in a clue, so the rest is also a possibility. They may also include Il Messia ( The Messiah ) (1976) which was released on DVD in Italy by San Paolo.

I saw several of these many years back, when I did a Rossellini course at Uni - all projected on 16mm!

The Medici - IIRC this is 3 parts, each around 90 mins. The last part concerns Battista. My personal favourite of the history films - even sitting through parts 2 & 3 in one session in a lecture theatre that was far from comfortable.

Anno Uno - I have to say, much as I would like to see it available, I think this is the least likely of all the history films to make an appearance in the Eclipse box. Unlike the others, this was made for the cinema (again, IIRC) and concerns itself with postwar Italian politics. I did like it, and the opening WW2 sequence is extraordinary (zooming in and out of different groups in a hilltop battle) - but it would be out of place next to the others.[/b]

Ashirg wrote:I wasn't sure if we should start a new topic about the upcoming Rossellini films that were on last month's newsletter, but here's what I gather so far.

Istituto Luce released 6 films in "I Grandi della Storia" collection:

Socrate (1970)
Blaise Pascal (1972)
Agostino d'Ippona ( Augustine of Hippo ) (1972)
L'età di Cosimo de Medici ( The Age of the Medici ) - released on 2 discs at 124 minutes + Leon Battista Alberti at 88 minutes.
(I'm not sure if it's 2 different edits or part 1 and part 2)
Cartesius (1974)
Anno uno (Year One) (1974)

3 of them were confirmed in a clue, so the rest is also a possibility. They may also include Il Messia ( The Messiah ) (1976) which was released on DVD in Italy by San Paolo.

It's 4 surely in the clue, PASCAL, SOCRATE & CARTESIUS verbally checked, while the graphic Hippo suggests AGOSTINO!.... Fact that Criterion in their blog have referred to the set as 'Rossellini History Films' might also point to MEDICI being included, but makes ANNO UNO unlikely...

That would make a 6 disc Eclipse set!....

The Istituto Luce Anno Uno has English subtitles. Still haven't got round to watching it. One of these days I'll post caps.

Make that 7 discs.... Blaise Pascal anyone?

Well, the most we've ever gotten in an Eclipse set is 5 discs (and no more than five films unless some were shorts), so I wouldn't get one's hopes up for more than five of these. The hippo, alas, being cute but not standing up in court as a contractual obligation to deliver Augustine, by my reckoning.

the most we've ever gotten in an Eclipse set is 5 discs

The Louis Malle Eclipse was 6 discs. I reckon Augustine is a given; they - why else would they have a hippo as the animal?

they - why else would they have a hippo as the animal?

Preach.

MadJack wrote:why else would they have a hippo as the animal?

Just because they needed to pick an animal for the cartoon and a hippo was the obvious choice for that period of Rossellini? But, hey, maybe you're right and they have figured out by now that a bunch of internet weenies will jump all over 'em if they give us a hippo but no Hippo. I hope so.

Just because they needed to pick an animal for the cartoon and a hippo was the obvious choice for that period of Rossellini

Well, every wacky animal relates back to a film in, or soon to be in, the collection, thus seven seals for Bergman, twelve monkeys for Marker, locusts for Days of Heaven. Unless you can point to a hippo already in the CC, then it seems to be a lock for Augustine.

Really? I thought the consensus was that the wacky animals were sometimes irrelevant. What did the gourd turn out the be?!

The animals (or objects) are not always relevant to the release they are announcing, but they can always be linked to a previous/forthcoming DVD (the mask in the recent newsletter being a perfect case in point: Ophuls + a mask = Plaisir).

What did the gourd turn out the be?!

Life of Brian.

Has anyone noted the obvious concerning Augustine in the Rossellini set - that Augustine was the bishop of Hippo?

Yes.

Okay, I'm sorted out with the wacky animals now. Thanks.

Maybe stingy with the Shepitko will = generous with the Rossellini...?

Practically speaking, there's no reason *not* to include the Augustine film (and I'm definitely in the camp that thinks the hippo is a dead give-away) since a perfectly-fine DVD transfer already exists in Italy and all they have to do is port it over and add subtitles. I certainly hope it is included because it's the one that's been the hardest to see in the US for a long time.

My guess, purely speculative but based on what's already available elsewhere, is that we'll get a large, more or less comprehensive box along the lines of the Louis Malle documentaries one, although Louis XIV and The Messiah might get their own releases. The Age of the Medici certainly deserves a proper release, but the sound is a big problem and for people who aren't willing to meet Rossellini halfway, it's a major stumbling block. It's still a masterpiece, of course, but not one that's particularly accessible to people unfamiliar with Rossellini's late style.