NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (October 2020): Criterion have transferred Federico Fellini's The White Sheik to Blu-ray as part of their 14 films (15-Blu-rays) package of Essential Fellini that includes Toby Dammit 1968, Variety Lights 1950, The White Sheik 1952, I vitelloni 1953, La strada 1954, Il bidone 1955, Nights of Cabiria 1957, La dolce vita 1960, 8½ 1963, Juliet of the Spirits 1965, Fellini Satyricon 1969, Roma 1972, Amarcord 1973, And the Ship Sails On 1983 and Intervista 1987.. This is the 2nd Blu-ray in the Essential Fellini package.

The package has "New 4K restorations" with The White Sheik cited in the opening text screens as: "This 4K restoration of The White Sheik was undertaken in 2019 at L'Immagine Ritrovata by the Cineteca di Bologna Foundation for the Fellini 100 Project, in collaboration with RTI - Mediaset and Infinity. The restoration was completed using the original camera negative and a 35 mm optical soundtrack positive made from the original soundtrack negative in 1993, both made available by Studio Cine. Damaged sections of the original camera negative have, over the years, been replaced with second- and fourth-generation elements, such as a duplicate positive made from the original camera negative."  

Criterion's new 1080P transfer looks excellent. It is in the correct 1.37:1 aspect ratio and more accurately shows slightly 'wider' faces as compared to the Criterion DVD from 17-years ago. It looks like it has been cleaned, it shows more grain texture and has fewer scratches and marks. 

NOTE: We have added 39 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original Italian language. The Italian-standard post DUB'ing is, not as noticeable as we have seen before. The score is by Nino Rota (Juliet of the Spirits, Rocco and His Brothers, Death on the Nile, Nights of Cabiria, 8 1/2, I Clowns, Purple Noon, The Leopard etc.) adding some subtle light touches to the film's humor. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Criterion Blu-ray has the same "Remembrances" piece found on the 2003 DVD: In these interviews, conducted by the Criterion Collection in Rome in November 2002, film scholar Antonio Monda talks to actors Brunella Bovo and Leopoldo Trieste about working with Federico Fellini on The White Sheik, his first film as a solo director, and critic Moraldo Rossi, who worked as Fellini's assistant director in the fifties, describes the heady Italian film culture of the era. There are also two audio interviews from 1962 - with Fellini and 'family and friends'. Critic Gideon Bachmann was a friend and intellectual sparring partner of director Federico Fellini's for over thirty years. As a radio broadcaster and then a filmmaker, he interviewed Fellini and many of those who knew him at length. Presented with the Fellini interview are a selection of highlights from Don Young's collection of posters. 

NOTE: The deluxe packaging, includes two lavishly illustrated books with hundreds of pages of content: notes on the films by scholar David Forgacs, essays by filmmakers Michael Almereyda, Kogonada, and Carol Morley; film critics Bilge Ebiri and Stephanie Zacharek; and novelist Colm Tóibín, and dozens of images spotlighting Don Young’s renowned collection of Fellini memorabilia collector’s set designed by Raphael Geroni, with new illustrations by Abigail Giuseppe.

Federico Fellini's The White Sheik is really a fun film incorporating misplaced celebrity adulation, hypocrisy, pulling back the curtain on the filmmaking process with plenty to enjoy. Great to see Giulietta Masina in the role as Cabiria - the prostitute that would become the central character for Fellini's masterpiece Nights of Cabiria five years later. This is a better film than I initially gave it credit for and an excellent part of Criterion's upcoming Essential Fellini Blu-ray package.

Gary Tooze