ADDITION: Kinowelt - Region 2, 8 PAL - June 06': A moot comparison for many as the German edition has no English subtitles.

The image of the Kinowelt is obviously superior - It is anamorphic, where the Infinity is not, and I trust the colors more - the Infinity appear to have a brownish haze over them and are artificially brightened in many segments. The Infinity is cropped on all 4 sides.

We have a time difference of about 20 minutes on these but the Kinowelt includes the title screen indicating which of the 5 parts you are watching plus the closing credits for that particular section so I am not 100% convinced that the Infinity has left anything out... although it is possible. The divided segments are helpful in viewing as one tends to need the breaks in my opinion.

Extras - The Kinowelt has the same Visconti documentary (German subtitles) as the Infinity, but the UK disc includes two others AND they all have English subtitles.

If you understand German or Italian then we suggest the Kinowelt - but the Infinity has excellent extra features and, we'll assume for the time being, that it shows the entire film uncut (excepting title segments and respective closing credits).

***

For a film with occasional handsome visuals it is really a shame that this Infinity Arthouse DVD is NOT anamorphic. There is also a border circumventing the frame reducing the horizontal resolution. So there is some weakness inherent in the transfer - skin tones can tend to look too red at time, there is digital noise and some visible artifacts. On the positive some close-ups have decent detail. Overall the lack of 16X9 enhancement is unfortunate but not totally fatal for enjoying the film. Another complaint would be the optional subtitles which are quite large and intrusive - it appears as though Infinity Arthouse did not do their homework to bring out the beauty of Visconti's lengthy masterpiece. The very low bitrate supports these inferiorities. If disc space was the excuse then I personally would rather have seen this film spread over two DVDs.  

I understand that this film was originally cut by 30 minutes and I can't quite be sure which version this represents. The longest version listed at IMdb would be roughly 4 hours and this would coincide with this DVD at 3:47 (being reduced by 4% for PAL speedup). Regardless, it is a very long film. 

The best thing about this DVD package are the 2nd disc of extras. 3 features about Visconti are included.... and they are all interesting. The documentary on Visconti is almost an hour long and goes through Visconti's films with many short clips  - Burt Lancaster and others make some comments in between. We also have a portrait (Suso Cecchi DAmic) and The Scent Of A Primrose, which although only 30 minutes I enjoyed the most with many talking heads reminiscing about Luchino, his films and other Italian filmmakers including Pasolini. All 3 features are in Italian and subtitled in English. 

RE: the film - Visconti appears obsessed with the darker side of bourgeoisie decadence. I really got into parts of this film but for me, personally, it was quite long with some tedious and uninteresting segments. Much of the atmosphere is very dark with many close-ups and those appreciative of this style of filmmaking will have a better chance of lasting through in one session. It might be advisable for those who are not familiar with the film to prepare themselves to view over 2 segments. I certainly don't think this is Visconti's best film but it does have merit as an intelligent exploration of madness. Those keen on classical music will love the score that is almost constantly playing Wagner and Schumann throughout.

Gary W. Tooze