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10 Years of Rialto Pictures 10 Discs Box Set

 

The Third Man (1949)       Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)       Rififi (1955)

Mafioso (1962)       Billy Liar (1963)       Band of Outsiders (1964)


Au hasard Balthazar (1966)       Army of Shadows (1969)


The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)       Murderous Maids (2000)

 

Since 1997, Rialto Pictures has been helping to keep classic cinema alive and invigorated by bringing the world’s greatest films to theaters across the United States, in phenomenal restored 35 mm prints. This special gift box set, in celebration of Rialto’s tenth anniversary, features ten films that display the breadth of its collection, including works by Rialto favorites, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Bresson, Luis Buñuel, and Jean-Pierre Melville.

 

 


Titles

 

 


 

The Third Man (1949)
In rubble-strewn postwar Vienna, Joseph Cotten’s pulp Western writer Holly Martins arrives to meet up with his old friend Harry Lime only to find that he’s dead — or is he? Winner of the Academy Award for best cinematography, Carol Reed’s The Third Man is a triumph of atmosphere, with Robert Krasker’s tilted camera angles and deep shadows, and Anton Karas’s unforgettable zither theme.

Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)
Jean Gabin is aging gangster Max le Menteur, whose plans to retire following a huge heist are curtailed when his partner Riton tells his two-timing dame, played by Jeanne Moreau, about the cash. Jacques Becker’s Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands Off the Loot) took the gangster film to new heights of realism by portraying the criminal class as a larcenous sub-bourgeoisie and introducing authentic underworld slang to screen dialogue. And, as per the San Francisco Chronicle, “Gabin, voted ‘actor of the century’ in an end-of-the-millennium French poll, is perfection here.”

 

Rififi (1955)
Four ex-cons plot to crack a Parisian jewelry store’s safe—it’s one last heist, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans. Blacklisted, Bronx-raised Hollywood exile Jules Dassin, then living in France, turned a Spillane-esque potboiler by Auguste le Breton into an existential heist film, which earned him the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival and set the standard for screen robberies for decades to come.

 

Mafioso (1962)
Alberto Sordi (The White Sheik, I Vitelloni) is a Fiat factory foreman in Northern Italy who returns to his hometown in Sicily with his wife and children, only to find himself unwittingly tapped as a hit man by the local Don. Alberto Lattuada’s Mafioso is one of the darkest, most authentic––and funniest—movies about the mob, which the Village Voice’s J. Hoberman called “a blueprint for The Godfather in sardonic, compressed, anecdotal form.”

 

Billy Liar (1963)
John Schlesinger’s adaptation of the smash-hit West End play stars Tom Courtenay as a feckless aspiring comedy writer whose dream life helps him momentarily escape from an endlessly nagging family and a dead-end job. Also starring Julie Christie in her enchanting film debut, the honestly hilarious Billy Liar is one the finest films of the British New Wave, which the New York Times called “one of the great movies of the 1960s.

 

Band of Outsiders (1964)
Young layabouts Franz and Arthur meet the ravishing Odile (Anna Karina), with whom they plan on stealing a stash of cash hidden in her aunt’s mansion. In the hands of Jean-Luc Godard, a crime caper becomes pure pulp poetry. Pauline Kael called this French New Wave classic as “a reverie of a gangster movie... perhaps Godard’s most delicately charming film.

 

Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
A little donkey is suckled by its mother, then baptized Balthazar. It moves from owner to owner, some kind, some cruel, some drunkenly careless. In a body of work known for its purity and transcendence, Balthazar is perhaps the most wrenching of Robert Bresson's visions, voted nineteenth in the 2002 BFI Sight & Sound critics and filmmakers poll of all-time great films, and ninth in the Village Voice's poll of the greatest films of the twentieth century.

 

Army of Shadows (1969)
Lino Ventura, Simone Signoret, and Paul Meurisse go underground to face the German occupation in gangster-film legend Jean-Pierre Melville’s World War II French Resistance masterpiece. Army of Shadows was never released in the U.S. until 2006, when it became the most acclaimed film of the year, winning awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Society of Film Critics.

 

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
A group of stylish, elegant friends—portrayed by Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stephane Audran and Jean-Pierre Cassel—find their dinner plans constantly going awry; whether they find they’ve got the wrong day or the cops are intruding while performing a sting operation, they’re never able to sit down to eat their meals. Luis Buñuel’s surreal and cutting masterwork of social satire won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

 

Murderous Maids (2000)
More than seventy years on, the case of the Papin sisters, the servants who murdered and mutilated their mistress and her daughter in pre-World War II Le Mans, remains an enigma. Jean-Pierre Denis’ film is the definitive screen version: at once a stunning dramatization of the events leading up to the tragedy, and a compelling interrogation of the class issues that are believed to have contributed to the incident.
 

Theatrical Releases: 1949 - 2000

  DVD Reviews

 

DVD Review: 10 Years of Rialto Pictures 10 Discs Box Set - Region 1 - NTSC

 

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

 

 

 

Distribution Criterion Collection (no spine #) - Region 1 - NTSC
Bitrates: Respective bitrates - 7.3 - 7.8mb/s
Audio Original
Subtitles English, None
Features

Release Information:
Studio: Criterion Collection

Aspect Ratio:
All Original Aspect Ratios 

Edition Details:

  •  Four pages (for each film) of liner notes in the transparent case

  •  Four trailers


DVD Release Date: October 28th, 2008

10 Slim Transparent Keep Cases inside a Slipcase cardboard box (see image above + below)

 

 

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: All 10 features of this boxset are housed in individual slim transparent keep cases (see image above + below) and they are also separately at this time in the more complete stand-alone versions. Purchasing via this package, albeit with fewer extras,  would certainly be a savings over individually - rounding out at about $14/film.

All DVDs are dual-layered + progressive - anamorphic where widescreen, and each coded for region 1 in the NTSC standard. All offer optional English subtitles, and original language audio (mono.) Only one, The Third Man, is pictureboxed.

Quality is consistent with assuming they are exactly the same transfers as the existing Criterion, and one HomeVision (Murderous Maids), release. I did some comparisons and I couldn't identify any differences. Bitrates are consistent - most being exactly 7.38 mb/s or around that healthy transfer speed.

The only extras, aside from the liner notes comments, are that 4 of the films have trailers.

I like the covers and the package has Criterion's expected professional look and feel. It's a beauty! 

So aside from the lack of viable supplements these are virtually the exact same SD, video and audio, transfers as we have currently covered (see our review links).

The films can speak for themselves and this package is an excellent purchase dependant on how many of the Criterion DVDs that you don't already own - and of course if you aren't overly concerned with the valuable extras features included in the stand-alones. Funny, in our last DVD of the Year poll - we reported that most who replied don't even bother to listen to commentaries. Well, the more reasonable option is available in this 10 Years of Rialto Pictures Set.

Gary W. Tooze



DVD Menus



 

Poster

 

 

In rubble-strewn postwar Vienna, Joseph Cotten’s pulp Western writer Holly Martins arrives to meet up with his old friend Harry Lime only to find that he’s dead — or is he? Winner of the Academy Award for best cinematography, Carol Reed’s The Third Man is a triumph of atmosphere, with Robert Krasker’s tilted camera angles and deep shadows, and Anton Karas’s unforgettable zither theme.

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: YES

Extras: None

Bitrate: 7.38

Chapters: 24

 

Comments: Appears to be the exact reissue same transfer as compared HERE

    


 

Poster

 

 

 

Jean Gabin is aging gangster Max le Menteur, whose plans to retire following a huge heist are curtailed when his partner Riton tells his two-timing dame, played by Jeanne Moreau, about the cash. Jacques Becker’s Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands Off the Loot) took the gangster film to new heights of realism by portraying the criminal class as a larcenous sub-bourgeoisie and introducing authentic underworld slang to screen dialogue. And, as per the San Francisco Chronicle, “Gabin, voted ‘actor of the century’ in an end-of-the-millennium French poll, is perfection here.”

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: None

Bitrate: 7.38

Chapters: 24

 

Comments: Appears to be the exact same Criterion transfer as reviewed HERE

    

 


 

Poster

 

 

Four ex-cons plot to crack a Parisian jewelry store’s safe—it’s one last heist, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans. Blacklisted, Bronx-raised Hollywood exile Jules Dassin, then living in France, turned a Spillane-esque potboiler by Auguste le Breton into an existential heist film, which earned him the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival and set the standard for screen robberies for decades to come.

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: None

Bitrate: 7.38

Chapters: 24

Comments: Appears to be the exact Criterion transfer as compared HERE

   

 


 

Poster

 

 

 

Alberto Sordi (The White Sheik, I Vitelloni) is a Fiat factory foreman in Northern Italy who returns to his hometown in Sicily with his wife and children, only to find himself unwittingly tapped as a hit man by the local Don. Alberto Lattuada’s Mafioso is one of the darkest, most authentic––and funniest—movies about the mob, which the Village Voice’s J. Hoberman called “a blueprint for The Godfather in sardonic, compressed, anecdotal form.”

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: Trailer (1:55)

Bitrate: 7.38

Chapters: 21

Comments: Appears to be the exact same anamorphic Criterion transfer as reviewed HERE

   

 


 

Poster

 

 

 

 

John Schlesinger’s adaptation of the smash-hit West End play stars Tom Courtenay as a feckless aspiring comedy writer whose dream life helps him momentarily escape from an endlessly nagging family and a dead-end job. Also starring Julie Christie in her enchanting film debut, the honestly hilarious Billy Liar is one the finest films of the British New Wave, which the New York Times called “one of the great movies of the 1960s.”

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: None

Bitrate: 7.36

Chapters: 16

Comments: Appears to be the exact same anamorphic Criterion transfer as reviewed HERE

    

 


 

Poster

 

 

 

Young layabouts Franz and Arthur meet the ravishing Odile (Anna Karina), with whom they plan on stealing a stash of cash hidden in her aunt’s mansion. In the hands of Jean-Luc Godard, a crime caper becomes pure pulp poetry. Pauline Kael called this French New Wave classic as “a reverie of a gangster movie . . . perhaps Godard’s most delicately charming film.”

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: trailer (2:10)

Bitrate: 7.38

Chapters: 24

Comments: Appears to be the exact same Criterion transfer as compared HERE

    

 


 

Poster

 

 

A little donkey is suckled by its mother, then baptized Balthazar. It moves from owner to owner, some kind, some cruel, some drunkenly careless. In a body of work known for its purity and transcendence, Balthazar is perhaps the most wrenching of Robert Bresson's visions, voted nineteenth in the 2002 BFI Sight & Sound critics and filmmakers poll of all-time great films, and ninth in the Village Voice's poll of the greatest films of the twentieth century. 

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: None

Bitrate: 7.37

Chapters: 24

Comments: Appears to be the exact same 1:66:1 anamorphic Criterion transfer as reviewed HERE

    

 


 

Poster

 

 

Lino Ventura, Simone Signoret, and Paul Meurisse go underground to face the German occupation in gangster-film legend Jean-Pierre Melville’s World War II French Resistance masterpiece. Army of Shadows was never released in the U.S. until 2006, when it became the most acclaimed film of the year, winning awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Society of Film Critics.

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: trailer (1:47)

Bitrate: 7.8

Chapters: 27

Comments: Appears to be the exact same anamorphic Criterion transfer as compared HERE 

    

 


 

Poster

 

 

A group of stylish, elegant friends—portrayed by Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stephane Audran and Jean-Pierre Cassel—find their dinner plans constantly going awry; whether they find they’ve got the wrong day or the cops are intruding while performing a sting operation, they’re never able to sit down to eat their meals. Luis Buñuel’s surreal and cutting masterwork of social satire won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. 

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: None

Bitrate: 7.38

Chapters: 21

Comments: Appears to be the exact same anamorphic Criterion transfer as reviewed HERE 

    

 

 


 

Poster

 

 

More than seventy years on, the case of the Papin sisters, the servants who murdered and mutilated their mistress and her daughter in pre-World War II Le Mans, remains an enigma. Jean-Pierre Denis’ film is the definitive screen version: at once a stunning dramatization of the events leading up to the tragedy, and a compelling interrogation of the class issues that are believed to have contributed to the incident. 

 

Screen Capture

 

 
Slim Transparent Keep Case Cover:

 

Disc: Dual-layered

Pictureboxed: NO

Extras: trailer (2:18)

Bitrate: 7.35

Chapters: 16

Comments: We will assume it is the same anamorphic Home Vision transfer available HERE 

 


 

 

DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution Eclipse / Criterion Collection - Region 1 - NTSC




 

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