The Art of Love - Walerian Borowczyk

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'Ars amandi')

Directed by Walerian Borowczyk
France / Italy 1983

In his 2006 obituary, The New York Times called Walerian Borowczyk “the internationally known filmmaker described variously as a genius, a pornographer, and a genius who also happened to be a pornographer.” And for the final film in his ‘Immoral Trilogy’, Borowczyk created one of the most lushly bizarre erotic tales of our time and perhaps the most ambitious work of his entire career. The setting is Rome, 8 A.D., where the poet Ovid watches over an epoch of forbidden seduction and unnatural acts among maidens, centurions, servant girls and the occasional farm animal. Marina Pierro (Behind Convent Walls), Laura Betti (Pasolini’s Teorema), Milena Vukotic (Andy Warhol’s Dracula) and Massimo Girotti (Last Tango In Paris) star in this sumptuous art/smut classic, now fully restored – including the Roman Orgy sequence – and presented uncut and uncensored for the first time ever in America.

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 7th, 1983

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DVD Review: Severin Films - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Severin Films - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:36:24
Video	1.78:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.55 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Severin Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Trailer (2:22) DVD Release Date: November 23rd, 2009 Keep Case Chapters: 16

Comments:

This is a pretty weak DVD - single-layered but both progressive and anamorphic. Colors are faded and there are light speckles.

The English DUBBED version film is entitled 'The Art of Love' not 'Art of Love' as stated on the box cover. It also looks cropped next to the Dutch Region 2 PAL edition (thanks Pepsi!)

From TimeOut: "The choppy editing is made choppier by the BBFC, characters hardly exist as individuals. And any sense of the past is overwhelmed by the dubbing and lines like 'Swear it on the privates of your favourite god!'

Despite the quote "You can't tear your eyes away from the screen for a second" on the back of the box - ummm, I sure did. My interest was held to a point but I began to drift near the completion. I can't even determine if it is unusual damage on the very last capture - or some artistic input? I think I preferred Terry Gilliam's quote “Borowczyk was a twisted man whose films were infused with a unique cruelty and weirdness.” Yea.

Anyway, for a single-layered transfer offering, inaccurately advertised, with no supplements (talk about a film that could have used some post-discussion!) aside from a trailer, this is over-priced to all but a few who would dare to venture to "Offbeat erotica is all we can now expect from the once highly regarded Borowczyk."