La Dolce Vita - is it coming? (1 Viewer)

[Deepak Shenoy]

Better still would have been a Criterion release which is what I had been hoping for all these years.

 

[PaulP]

I'm sure it'll come out fine. The soundtrack has been remixed into 5.1 but they're also including a DS track, which I would assume would be the original, either mono or stereoized. As far as runtime, you got me there, but I doubt they'd mess up such an important release. This is a new label, as I understand, and this is their first big-time disc. I'm sure they wanna do it right.

 

[Seymour Uranowitz]

Well, for $20.98 at Digital Eyes (MSRP is $34.95), this would seem to be a no-brainer -- even if it's not up to Criterion standards. Paul, I'm hoping you're right about their wanting to do a great job.

 

[JPCinema]

I truly hope its not a PAL speedup. The faster movements and higher voice levels really are distracting.

 

[Jason Hughes]

Anybody have the e-mail for Koch so we can all e-mail them? Hopefully, if they get enough of them, they will clarify details on the release.

 

[Marc Colella]

Well Koch did right by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, so I think they'll do a good job here as well.

 

[Brian PB]

Their website (which currently appears to be down), lists the following general email address (where I directed my comments):

[email protected]

 

[Simon Basso]

I agree about the increased pitch (although I didn't find it a distraction on this particular title in the same way I would on, say, a Tom Cruise pic where I'm more familiar with the man's voice), but you find the speeded up movements distracting? It's hardly the Keystone Cops.

 

[JPCinema]

Its distracting because people in life do not move with that kind of speeded up motion (not Keystone Cops but noticeably faster than normal) which to me is very apparent in the Italian Medisa version and having seen the film many times at its 180 min running time I can tell the cadence and flow of movement is off. I don't think Fellini would approve.
The first DVD of "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is another example.

 

[Gonzalo Merchan]

I truly feel PAL speedup is one of the most damaging things you can do to a film, especially a film as important as La Dolce Vita is to film history. The elements for La Dolce Vita are in great shape, as those who saw the recent screenings at the Egyptian or Nuart here in Los Angeles can attest to. For those who are not familiar with just how destructive PAL to NTSC conversion can be to a film, I found the article regarding the recent release of A Man Escaped by New Yorker at robertbresson.com particularly enlightening.

Most depressingly, this problem affects the majority of the Region 1 releases by some of the most influential and notable directors in film history such as Bresson, Truffaut, Godard, Tarkovsky, Chaplin, Rohmer, Kiarostami, the list goes on and on. I would really like to see more attention brought to this issue, especially by those who consider film an important artform. There is really no excuse for this.

 

[Simon Basso]

Whilst I'll happily agree that PAL speed-up is a bad thing, but unfortunately we have to live with it for some discs, I think you're having a bit of a laugh with the increased movement issue. Someone crossing the room in ten seconds will get there in 9.6 seconds, and you actually notice this? Sorry, I've never heard the like.

I'm also confused by those referring to a 180 minute version being compressed to 167 minutes, which is too much to be accounted for by speed-up, which would be 7-odd minutes on a three hour film.

I'm disappointed by this news, I'm no fan of PAL for many reasons, but I can't say this surprises me. Why go to the effort of a ground-up restoration when it's already been done for you and just needs to be converted? Simple economics, 'innit? Just a shame that the Italians didn't make an ntsc master while they were at it.

 

[Brian PB]

I think some people were "rounding up" when they wrote about a 180-minute time. IMDb (and yes, I know they make mistakes) lists the running time at 174 minutes. PAL speedup is 4%, so 174 x 0.96 = 167 minutes.

 

[Mark_vdH]

Fellini lived in the PAL country Italy. Every time during his lifetime when one of his classic films was aired on TV or was released on VHS, it was sped up by 4%. Perhaps he didn't even notice...

 

[Mark_vdH]

Accidental post, sorry.....

 

[Mark_vdH]

Accidental post, sorry.....

 

[Brian PB]

At the DVD Talk Forum this morning, Tim Hinsley, the Vice President for Acquisitions and Development at Koch Lorber films posted the following information in response to criticism about the company's upcoming release of Fellini's La Dolce vita:


This appears to be very reassuring news to those of us who had grave concerns about this release. True, it will still be a PAL-to-NTSC conversion, but the original mono track will be included, and it appears that Koch Lorber has been working hard to make this an outstanding release (if the picture quality truly exceeds that of the Medusa, I expect to hear a few jaws drop). Personally, I now feel confident enough to pre-order (it can be had for under $21 at Digital Eyes---and even less by using the coupon code JUNE2004 to save $5 on a $55 purchase)

 

[Brian PB]

At the DVD Talk Forum this morning, Tim Hinsley, the Vice President for Acquisitions and Development at Koch Lorber films posted the following information in response to criticism about the company's upcoming release of Fellini's La Dolce vita:


This appears to be very reassuring news to those of us who had grave concerns about this release. True, it will still be a PAL-to-NTSC conversion, but the original mono track will be included, and it appears that Koch Lorber has been working hard to make this an outstanding release (if the picture quality truly exceeds that of the Medusa, I expect to hear a few jaws drop). Personally, I now feel confident enough to pre-order (it can be had for under $21 at Digital Eyes---and even less by using the coupon code JUNE2004 to save $5 on a $55 purchase)

 

[Michael Alex]

Me too, although I'd rather wait for some early reviews just to make sure. The inclusion of the mono track is a welcome relief, though, and I don't have much of a problem with the PAL issue, as long as it remains a speedup one and does not affect the transfer. I guess living in a "PAL" country makes one somehow immune to speedups, as I'm unable to tell the difference most of the time.

 

[Michael Alex]

Me too, although I'd rather wait for some early reviews just to make sure. The inclusion of the mono track is a welcome relief, though, and I don't have much of a problem with the PAL issue, as long as it remains a speedup one and does not affect the transfer. I guess living in a "PAL" country makes one somehow immune to speedups, as I'm unable to tell the difference most of the time.

 

[JayHM]

To the person who said that Fellini's movies have always been sped up on Italian TV, could it be that La Dolce Vita was actually shot at 25fps? (I do believe a lot of European films were shot at 25.)

If that's the case, as to the PAL->NTSC conversion for this disc, they're either converting it to 24-Progressive (like most modern DVDs) or to 29.97-interlaced. The latter would merely entail adding a pulldown. Most likely though, they're doing the former, which would require intermittent frame-blending, and cause very noticable artifacts with horizontal movement. In either case, however, the running time of the original film remains unchanged! In other words, if La Dolce Vita was indeed shot at 25fps, then 167 mins would actually be the original running time.