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Roma



One of the maestro Federico Fellini's greatest '70s works (between Satyricon and The Clowns and Amarcord), Roma [Rome] erupts volcanically as a state-of-the-world pronouncement on what was not only happening within Rome at the tide of the hippies' organic birth and the post-Boom-set that made up his characters of the 1960s films, but also where, and how, his city would move feverishly forward into one of potential futures.

As Fellini himself travels with his crew to document the ring-road circling Rome, with all the natural diversions that might inherently divert a traditional film shoot, we move into episodes that chart the wartime difficulties of Roman life across those fleeting times that chronicle love and life within the modern-day Rome-time, themselves pitted against the archaelogical vestiges of the great city, - and the Catholic church rears its dominance, and we come into a midpoint that positions itself, indeed, between the memory-cinema of Satyricon and Amarcord.

One of the great and bountiful colour-spectacles of Fellini's cinema, almost leapt off toward from the moment of Giulietta of the Spirits, Fellini's Roma remains a passionate testament both to the city that finally claimed him as its son after he left small Rimini, and to the final stage of cinema that he himself would work till the day he died. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Fellini's Roma in a Blu-ray edition for the first time in the UK.

BLU-RAY ONLY EDITION

• Gorgeous restored 1080p HD transfer of the film
• Italian, English or isolated music & effects tracks
• Optional English subtitles
• Chris Wagstaff on Roma
• Deleted scenes
• Italian and international trailers
• 32-page full colour booklet featuring a new essay by critic and scholar Pasquale Iannone, and rare archival imagery

This is really superb news... ROMA has only been available to date on a rather inferior letterboxed DVD... It's possibly Fellini at his most freeform & freeflowing...

From the Fellini Filmmakers thread years ago:

Lino wrote:I didn't know there was a longer version. What was cut out from the one it's currently being sold by MGM?

From IMDB:

The Italian version has only a few voiceovers by Federico Fellini at the beginning of some scenes. The english-language version features an additional first person narration through most of the film giving more background information to help non-italian viewers. This voiceover starts immediately during the title credits informing the viewer that the film they're about to see doesn't have a 'story' in the traditional sense with plot and characters, but is a semi-documentary about a city.

Scenes featuring appearances by Marcello Mastroianni, Alberto Sordi as themselves (being interviewed during the "Trastevere" segment) have been removed from most non-italian versions and from the italian TV version. They are also missing from the R2 DVD published in Italy by Istituto Luce.

I wonder if these excised scenes will be considered as outtakes from the film or will be placed back in the film proper and the outtakes mentioned in the description refer to other footage never included in the original longer version?

I revisited the MGM dvd and I was surprised by how good it looks.
Even I could change audios because Spanish (and French) dubbing has got the Off voice over the images, in spite the Italian version that doesn't; so I could enjoy Fellini's introductions to each episode in the poor Spanish dubbing and change after the Off voice to the very, very Roman slang Italian audio (I think new and better subtitles are required, MGM are not perfect neither exactly). In other words: the Off voice option is much better to the "Italian domestic" without.

Will this MoC Roma has got the English audio? Are there two different Italian audios with or without off voice? I remember watching the film in Italian with Fellini's voice in a Madrid 2000 re-realese; but may I dreamt all.

The MoC definitely has the English audio (alongside the Italian).

This will be a good opportunity to revisit this film, which has always been one of the maestro's lesser works for me. I know I have an ancient VHS from the year 1734 buried away somewhere, and whenever I'd put it on I'd switch it off to watch bukkake or something. I rarely made it thru the film.

HerrSchreck wrote:This will be a good opportunity to revisit this film, which has always been one of the maestro's lesser works for me. I know I have an ancient VHS from the year 1734 buried away somewhere, and whenever I'd put it on I'd switch it off to watch bukkake or something. I rarely made it thru the film.

When I first saw Fellini's Roma at age 15 or so I really wasn't into it either. That said, I re-watched it about nine years later and I loved it. I would definitely give it another shot when this new release comes out.

By the way, I feel like Fellini hardly ever gets brought up on this forum (even on the decades project - I don't believe most of the more consistent posters here are fans, which might explain it), so it'll be cool if these MoC releases generate some Fellini discussion again.

I've seen it a couple of times but want to revisit it again. It is a lesser work, but interesting to see him trying something different, blurring fiction and nonfiction. It seemed to me that the main thing it's about is the city's awareness of itself as a place that's simultaneously ancient and modern. (I mean, how could it not be?) That was something that struck me about Rome, which is the oldest city I've visited that's still a city. It's interesting to see it through Fellini's eyes, though most of the scenes fall flat. My favorite segment is the runway show of clerical couture.

I prefer by far Roma to the most famous and glorified Amarcord. Almost half Intervista can be considered a Roma sequel when the young Fellini goes to Cinecittà for 1st time.
My preferred episode is the metro works, when a house of frescoes appear (and disappears) by the "modern" corrupted air (and dust).

Is it possible on MoC Blu to change audios with remote control? I want the narrator descriptions but the Italian- Roman slang audio.

When are we going to get the full specs on these and the other Q1 releases?

Pretty sure that will be it. It's been the trend.

TMDaines wrote:Pretty sure that will be it. It's been the trend.

Kevin says on the bluray.com forum that there may be a few extra things, though.

Awesome. I've already got it preordered so I'm in anyway.

Pushed back a week to 24th Feb according to Amazon...

I have a checkdisc that presumably reflects the final specs (since it has MoC menus and everything), so here goes:

• Main feature (2:00:29, framed at 1.85:1);
• Italian, English or isolated music & effects tracks (I'm inordinately pleased about the latter);
• Optional English subtitles;
• Chris Wagstaff on Roma (16:27)
• Deleted scenes (17:30)
• Italian and international trailers.

MichaelB wrote:I have a checkdisc that presumably reflects the final specs (since it has MoC menus and everything), so here goes:...

I received my disc today and although I haven't watched it the specs on the back confirm what MichaelB said above plus of course a "32-page full colour booklet featuring a new essay by critic and scholar Pasquale Iannone, and rare archival imagery".

Anyone know why this has not been released today (24 feb) movemail has changed the release date from 24th feb to TBC

...And Amazon has it listed as "out of stock.' Not sure but the bumping of release dates seems to happen quite often with MoC.

Sometimes bumping release dates can affect supply logistics. If you hit the original upload deadlines with Sony DADC, everything should proceed like clockwork, but if you need to change them for whatever reason (usually an unforeseen last-minute QC-related problem), this can cause various glitches at any point in the supply chain.

And the reasons for the delay can often be outside the label's control. For instance, Arrow's The Night of the Hunter was delayed by a few weeks purely because the master of the main feature didn't include the UCLA logo and restoration credits that were contractually necessary. But because this wasn't spotted until the QC stage (since the master contained the UCLA restoration, there was no reason to assume that it wouldn't also include the credits), they had to be added. And this necessitated a complete re-encode of the main feature, which in turn meant that the original Sony upload deadline was missed.

It would be much easier if everyone involved worked in the same building or at worst within a few blocks of each other, but it just doesn't work like that in the independent sector!

I gather MoC were running a bit behind with ROMA, however they expected delivery of the discs to them mid last week, and indeed I see the BR is now 'In Stock' at Moviemail...

frankiecrisp wrote:Anyone know why this has not been released today (24 feb) movemail has changed the release date from 24th feb to TBC

On a related note, why is it that the releases from the niche labels - MoC, BFI, Arrow - always have the same release date for the last week of the month? Is there a sales strategy behind this? Always around the 20s or 30th/31st - it's very frustrating to find all the BDs you want to get all out on the same day and not spaced apart.

doc mccoy wrote:On a related note, why is it that the releases from the niche labels - MoC, BFI, Arrow - always have the same release date for the last week of the month? Is there a sales strategy behind this? Always around the 20s or 30th/31st - it's very frustrating to find all the BDs you want to get all out on the same day and not spaced apart.

I don't know - sales and marketing aren't my area at all. I'm basically given a release date and a Sony upload date upfront - I have very little involvement in setting it unless there's a need to tie in with something (for instance, the Borowczyk project and the concurrent retrospectives/exhibitions at the BFI and ICA).

DVD Beaver.

This looks a lovely bargain even at release, given the relatively low pre-order/current price on Amazon.

Just saw this yesterday. I'm not a big fan of his later films, and I still have strong reservations about this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's one of two later films that I actually like, the other being Amarcord which I still prefer (the lyricism and nostalgia there connects more).