The segments are (from Raro website):

Love for Money (Amore che si Paga)
Italy, 1953, 35mm, 11 min., b&w
director: Carlo Lizzani screenplay: Cesare Zavattini,
Tullio Pinelli, Aldo Buzzi, Luigi Chiarini, Luigi Malerba, Vittorio Veltroni
cast: non professional actors
Attempted Suicide(Tentato Suicidio)
Italy, 1953, 35mm, 22 min., b&w
director: Michelangelo Antonioni screenplay: Michelangelo
Antonioni, Cesare Zavattini, Tullio Pinelli, Aldo Buzzi, Luigi Chiarini, Luigi Malerba, Vittorio Veltroni
cast: non professional actors
Paradise for Three Hours (Paradiso per Tre Ore)
Italy, 1953, 35mm, 12 min., b&w
director: Dino Risi screenplay: Cesare Zavattini,
Marco Ferreri, Tullio Pinelli, Aldo Buzzi, Luigi Malerba, Vittorio Veltroni
cast: non professional actors
Marriage Agency (Agenzia Matrimoniale)
Italy, 1953, 35mm, 16 min., b&w
director: Federico Fellini screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli
cast: Antonio Cifariello, Livia Venturelli, Lia Natali, Cristina Grado
Story of Caterina (Storia di Caterina)
Italy, 1953, 35mm, 27 min., b&w
director: Francesco Maselli, Cesare Zavattini screenplay: Cesare Zavattini cast: Caterina Rigoglioso, non professional actors
Italians Turn Their Heads (Gli Italiani si Voltano)
Italy, 1953, 35mm, 14 min., b&w
director: Alberto Lattuada screenplay: Alberto Lattuada,
Cesare Zavattini, Tullio Pinelli, Aldo Buzzi, Luigi Chiarini, Luigi Malerba, Vittorio Veltroni cast: Marco Ferreri, Valeria Moriconi, Giovanna Ralli, Patrizia Ralli

The audio is linear PCM 2.0 channel track at 1536 kbps in original Italian - and it is not without its weaknesses as well. I assume it is the source but there are inconsistencies - a few crackles etc. . The score by Mario Nascimbene (Barabbas, A Farewell to Arms) gains some benefit from the uncompressed transfer. The English subtitles are optional on the region FREE Blu-ray disc.

The supplements are quite good (same as the Minerva - but English-friendly). There are six different commentaries (one for each section) and an introduction to said commentaries by Gabrielle Lucantonio, curator. One issue about the commentaries is that they are all in Italian and while optional subtitles are offered, they often override the feature's English subtitles. And often the audio is very low, so you can't really watch the film and listen to the commentary at the same time. Saying that the commentaries are quite good discussing style, themes etc. There are also some interviews; 13-minutes with Paolo Mereghetti (film critic and scholar), 23-minutes with Luca Bandirale (University lecturer, editor etc.) and 15-minutes with writer Angelo Pasquini. These are all in Italian with English subtitles. There is also a 3-minute trailer and the package contains a 20-page booklet with photos and essays (in English).

Odd as this sounds, this may be worth it to some for the extras, alone. I got something out of the interviews and the commentaries (especially in the Antonioni segment). Unfortunately, we must 'pass' on the Blu-ray image quality - I think the Minerva SD might actually look superior on many systems.

Gary W. Tooze

***

ON THE DVDs: It's amazing that Optimum didn't license the rights for the Minerva Classic DVD. They are like day and night, everything in favor for the Italian release. Where the Optimum image looks hazy and soft, the Minerva Classic picture is razor sharp, with solid black levels. There's no visible print damage on the picture, beside the few minute long prolog sequence, that has some scratches. It's always hard to transfer a film this old to DVD. There's different opinions how the image should look. The people who restored L'Amore in Cittą have decided to leave solid black levels, but at the same time they have blocked the monochromatic black sequences. Compared to the Optimum version there's missing details in the night shots. It's maybe still a better solution, than to have everything grey. The Minerva version looks also very high contrasted, but that's probably intended. The Optimum version is cropped quite heavily on the right side. The Minerva DVD has some cropping on the top and bottom of the image and does have some possible contrast boosting, plus the visible digital artefacts, but overall it looks quite stunning!

The audio is like the picture, cleaned from dirt and dust, and sounds almost perfect for a film of these age.

Some of the extra material is subtitled in English (see above).

ON THE OPTIMUM: Single-layered, progressive DVD transfer from Optimum - coded for region 2 in the PAL standard. The ratio appears to be about 1.25:1. It is fairly rough in the beginning with a very jittery picture, flickering contrast and plenty of scratches. It does settle down significantly and the image, although still showing speckles and some weakness, is much improved although obviously brightness boosted. Audio is at the same level as the image and there are optional English subtitles.