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L'Assassino aka The Assassin [Blu-ray]
(Elio Petri, 1961)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Vides Cinematografica Video: Ar row Video
Disc: Region: 'B' (as verified by the Oppo Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:38:14.763 Disc Size: 39,701,411,573 bytes Feature Size: 28,682,235,456 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.83 Mbps Chapters: 13 Case: Transparent Blu-ray case Release date: July 21st, 2014
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: LPCM Audio Italian 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles: English, none
Extras: • Elio Petri and L'Assassino, an introduction by Italian cinema expert Pasquale Iannone (9:41)• Tonino Guerra: A Poet in the Movies: Nicola Tranquillino s documentary about the great Italian screenwriter (51:15) • Theatrical Trailer (3:45) • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw • Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Elio Petri expert Camilla Zamboni, plus a selection of contemporary reviews DVD of the feature + extras
Bitrate:
Description: THE LADYKILLER OF ROME
The Film:
Among the great wave of film debuts in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
that of Rome-born director Elio Petri is often overshadowed by those of
his contemporaries both in Italy and abroad. Even in terms of Petri’s
own body of work, later films such as the Oscar-winning Indagine d’un
cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (Investigation
of A Citizen Above Suspicion, 1970) and Todo modo (1976)
are undoubtedly much better-known than his earlier work, especially
outside of Italy.
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. L'Assassino gets a 1080P transfer to Blu-ray from Arrow Films. The presentation starts with a screen, in Italian: translated as "The digital restoration of L'Assassino was made from the original camera negative which was missing the first and last roll, and from a first-generation interpositive. These two elements were scanned at 2K resolution for the restoration. The grading was carried out by referring to the original print version that was held by the production company Titanus in the archives of the Cineteca di Bologna. The sound was extracted from a 35mm negative and digitally remastered." It's dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate for the 1.5 hour feature. Certain segments can tend to looker thicker and softer than others. Once beyond the first roll - the image quality appears to take an up-tick and contrast may be its high-point. The image is fairly flat and in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. I believe I see some textures and the naturally lit scenes tend to look the best. This Blu-ray looks quite pleasing in-motion.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :This Arrow Blu-ray offers a linear PCM mono track at 1152 kbps in original Italian. It was stated that the sound was extracted from a 35mm negative and digitally remastered. The audio is, predictably, flat. Italian composer and jazz musician Piero Piccioni (Hands Over the City, The 10th Victim, The Moment of Truth) did the score which benefits from the uncompressed rendering. It adds a nice flavor to the atmosphere. There are optional English subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'B'-locked.
Extras : Arrow add some new extras - at their own cost. We get an introduction by Italian cinema expert Pasquale Iannone for almost 10-minutes entitled Elio Petri and L'Assassino. Tonino Guerra: A Poet in the Movies is Nicola Tranquillino's documentary running over 50-minutes and is an intimate portrait of the legendary Italian screenwriter, poet, painter, ceramist, artist Tonino Guerra. Described as "Guerra recounts the key moments of his life, from his childhood in Santarcangelo di Romagna to his retirement in the small mountain village of Pennabilli. A poet's big adventure in the world of movies, his encounters and collaboration with some of the greatest film directors of our time - Fellini, Antonioni, Rosi, De Sica, Monicelli, Tarkovsky and Angelopoulos just to mention a few." There is a theatrical trailer ands the package has a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw plus there is a booklet featuring new writing on the film by Elio Petri expert Camilla Zamboni, plus a selection of contemporary reviews. Being Dual-format it has a DVD of the feature + extras.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze July 15th, 2014
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
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