ADDITION: Arrow - Region FREE - Blu-ray April 2017: The 4K restored Arrow (advertised as being 'from the original film negative') offers two viewing options: the full-length theatrical cut or as five individual parts (labeled as 'Television Presentation'.) These seem to differ by about 10-minutes. This is spread over 2 Blu-rays and it looks like the cuts are seamlessly-branched if I am reading my software correctly. This means the image quality for both will be the same. Cinephiles have been anxiously awaiting this release on a reasonable, English-friendly, digital release since these formats began. The Arrow looks very heavy, rich and film-like. This is not a pristine, glossy image but a clean and dense one that showcases the film's impressive visuals beautifully in-motion. Colors are significantly well-balanced , compared to the SDs with flesh-tones looking far more realistic and primary colors seem tight, deep and controlled.  There is a minor shift in the frame to the right - as compared to the German DVD image. There is both depth and texture in the 1080P visuals and close-ups show some pleasing tightness. Overall - this is a revelation, in terms of presentation. The decade old Infinity Arthouse DVD can be thrown in the bin.

Arrow use mono liner PCM tracks providing both original Italian and an English DUB - of sorts. The English presentation reverts to the original Italian soundtrack for portions where English audio does not exist. Subtitles can be displayed for these Italian part only or throughout via an English (SDH) choice. The film's music is exclusively classical with Offenbach's La Périchole, Wagner 's Elegy for Piano in A Flat Major, Prelude to "Lohengrin" and Liebestod from "Tristan und Isolde. It sounds exquisite but, obviously flat. The Arrow is really Region 'A + B' but I've yet to see a region 'C'-locked Blu-ray so let's just consider this region FREE. We presume that the UK and US packages are, more or less, identical (Region 1 or 2 for the included DVDs - and in the latter case the video standard is NTSC, to maximise compatibility). The booklets are also identical, but there are minor cosmetic differences on the disc labels and sleeve to do with differing copyright info and barcodes, and the US release doesn't have BBFC logos.

Extras include a brand-new 1/4 hour interview with actor Helmut Berger, the previously seen on DVD hour-long Luchino Visconti documentary portrait of the director by Carlo Lizzani containing interviews with Burt Lancaster, Vittorio Gassman, Francesco Rosi, Claudia Cardinale and others. There are also a couple of brief English soundtrack excerpts for the curious. On the second Blu-ray disc we get Producing Ludwig - a 15-minute interview with producer Dieter Giessler, 'I Am Only a Craftsman' - almost 50-minutes with delightful Suso Cecchi d'Amico the film's screenwriter, Silvana Mangano: The Scent Of A Primrose, a half-hour portrait of the actress - the last two both found on the Infinity Arthouse DVD. There is a theatrical trailer and the first pressing gets an illustrated collector's booklet containing new writing by Peter Cowie. Being dual-format two DVds are included.  

Another amazing package from Arrow which should get prominent mention at our year-end poll. Easily a must-own and it gets our highest recommendation!

***

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