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

[JayHM]

Doing a search for La Dolce Vita, I found a couple of posts made within the last two months that imply that La Dolce Vita is coming to DVD this year. In fact, one of them seems to state it was supposed to come out in February.

Have I missed something? I can't find any more details on it.

I know about the supposedly fantastic Italian DVD, but my player is not all-region/PAL capable, and I don't want to buy one just because of one movie, especially if it's expected to be released here soon.

 

[Brian PB]

Both Paramount and the recently formed Koch Lorber claim the DVD rights to Fellini's La Dolce vita, and both are apparently preparing a DVD release. Koch Lorber's was to have been released last September as a 2-disc set (their first major release); last I heard, they had postponed it until this summer.

Given the potential for protracted legal wrangling, I'm doubtful we'll see it this year, but you never know ...

 

[Ermo]

Outside Region 1 it's already out on DVD.
I own a Dutch (R2) version and I know of an Italian (R2) as well as a Korean (R3, with English subs) version.

 

[Matthew_Brown]

The Medusa R2 is a pretty good edition to boot.

 

[Ted Todorov]

That's the Italian DVD. It has a nice anamorphic transfer and English subtitles.

Ted

 

[Jay E]

La Dolce Vita is up for pre-order at DVD Empire. It's 34.95 retail and is coming out on September 7th by Koch. As for features all it says right now is that it has been digitally restored & re-mastered.

Koch is also releasing Ermanno Olmi's Tree of Wooden Clogs & Jianxin Huang's The Wooden Man's Bride.

 

[Jason Hughes]

Criterion once said they were trying to get the rights. I think Artisan used to have it (that god they are NOT releasing it).

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Paramount is circulating a new print of the movie to art houses beginning late this month. Reportedly it is 3 minutes longer than the previous versions released in America by Astor and Republic.

I think they intend to assert their control over the title.

 

[obscurelabel]

Not to go too far OT, but didn't American International distribute this theatrically in the U.S. at some point? I remember the double cassette VHS version that I rented at some point (probably the late 80s) had the AIP logo. Not that it's especially relevant to the DVD release of course ...

 

[Bill Huelbig]

I believe AIP distributed the English-dubbed version in the U.S. Whenever it was shown on local TV, it started off with the AIP logo. Excellent dubbing job, by the way - I hope it's included as an alternate track on the DVD.

--Bill

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Well, originally the film was released in the U.S. by the tiny indie Astor, which also initially handled PEEPING TOM. It was later on that AIP picked it up for revival screenings.

However, at some point National Telefilm Associates took full control of the film in all U.S. media. NTA would rechristen themselves as Republic Pictures, since they owned almost all the films made by the original Republic.

I suspect that the English dub is part of their library. I hope whoever is going to finally do the film -- Koch or Paramount -- decides to include the dub for the sake of posterity.

 

[PaulP]

So is this the definitive edition coming out? It's a 2-disc set apparently, but dates vary. No details I could find.

09/07/04: http://www.kochvision.com/catalog/vi...er=KLF-DV-3012

08/10/04: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JKGO

 

[Michael Reuben]

In the meantime, anyone who receives the Turner Classic Movies channel can set their TiVos/Replays/recorders for Friday, April 23, 2004 at 9pm.

M.

 

[PaulP]

Thanks Michael, I'll make sure to watch it!

 

[JPCinema]

USA TODAY had an article yesterday 4/13 in the Life section announcing that "La Dolce Vita" will be coming out in Sept in a 2 disc set.

 

[PaulP]

Cover is up at Amazon, and it's damn nice:



The extras are great as well:

Commentary by Richard Schikel of TIME Magazine
Collection of never-before-seen Fellini shorts
"Remembering the Sweet Life": interviews with Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg
"Cinecitta: The House of Fellini": interview with Fellini
Eight-page collector's booklet with rare and hard-to-find photos from the set photographer
Restoration demo
Biographies
Filmographies
Photo gallery
Widescreen anamorphic format
Number of discs: 2

Dare I say, Criterion-like...

EDIT: Little bit more details from Koch Vision:

Runtime: 167
Keep Case
2-Disc Set
Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - Italian
Dolby Surround - Italian
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus

 

[Brian PB]

What is not Criterion-like is that Koch Lorber appears to be including the Italian sountrack remixed for 5.1 (and excluding the original mono). Also, they appear to have used a PAL master for the transfer if the reported timing of the disc (167 minutes--the same timing as the R2/PAL Medusa release from Italy) is correct.

While I hope for Criterion-like results, I'll take a wait-and-see approach at this point. (I have sent Koch Lorber an email asking them to clarify or correct the above misgivings, but so far no reply.)

 

[PaulP]

Here are other details I missed from Amazon, just for completness sake:

Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1
Available Audio Tracks: Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1), English
Available subtitles: English, Spanish

 

[Ravi K]

I panic whenever a film I want to see is released by one of the Lorber companies.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

LA DOLCE VITA just played L.A. in a clean new print from Paramount and it ran 180 minutes, so either that's PAL speedup or something's missing. And they couldn't see fit to include the catchy original trailer that consisted entirely of still frames?

I'll give it a fair shake, but in my heart I kinda wish Paramount was doing this one instead. It may have had fewer features and we'd have to wait a year longer, but I'd never get the "eep" feeling I'm getting from this release.