Good news for Visconti fans!

[Poggle]

Ludwig coming out in R1 land  on DVD, October 14'th! YES!

Amazon link

[PowerRR]

I'm not quite a Visconti fan, though Rocco and His Brothers is nearly the greatest movie I've ever seen, and The Leopard is also a masterpiece. But that's all I've watched...so I'm not quite 'fan' material.

[dave jenkins]

I'd say there was a definite drop in quality after The Leopard.

[Poggle]

I'm not quite a Visconti fan, though Rocco and His Brothers is nearly the greatest movie I've ever seen, and The Leopard is also a masterpiece. But that's all I've watched...so I'm not quite 'fan' material.

I prefer his small, intimate movies to films like The Leopard and The Damned. Le Notti Bianche and Death in Venice are so great it's beyond reason. The unity between cinematography, editing, and music in Death in Venice are as good as anything Leone has done with music and images. It's a mostly-dialogue-less film like 2001: Space Odyssey.

[dave jenkins]

Rocco and his Brothers comes to Blu on March 14! (region B only, I think): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AJTERJ6

[Groggy]

I remember enjoying Rocco, but it's due a rewatch. Visconti does the big scale melodramas well, whether we're talking Leopard or Rocco or the flawed but enjoyable Senso.

The Damned is a big guilty pleasure of mine - ridiculous but less objectionable than, say, The Night Porter. Maybe the operatic scale helps. I've somehow watched Death in Venice three times and can't get on board with it - the concept doesn't work as a movie. I tried watching another late Visconti, Conversation Piece and found it intolerable. Haven't seen Ludwig yet.

[Novecento]

What don't you like about Conversation Piece?

[Groggy]

Nothing in particular, it just didn't engage me enough to watch the whole way through.

[Dust Devil]

I thought Poggle made it back from the underworld.

[dave jenkins]

Could be the b&w transfer of the year: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_reviews_70/rocco_and_his_brothers_blu-ray.htm

[dave jenkins]

Blu-ray.com has reservations: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Rocco-and-His-Brothers-Blu-ray/137420/#Review

I recently attended a theatrical screening of the new restoration and thought that it looked quite wonderful. Its transition to Blu-ray, however, is less impressive. Indeed, while the improvements over the previous DVD release are substantial -- with detail and fluidity now being a lot more convincing -- there are areas of the film that show some unfortunate weaknesses. The most obvious ones appear to have been introduced by some light filtering adjustments that have impacted the film's dynamic range. As a result, there are areas where some unusual flatness emerges and blocks of grays overwhelm what should be proper blacks. Many of the most obvious examples are during indoor footage (you can see examples in different screencaptures from #31-39) but the effects can be seen even during daylight close-ups (see screencaptures #5 and 27). Obviously, there are some inherited density fluctuations, but where the grays become prominent depth and the overall image balance are less than impressive; fluidity suffers as well. The good news is that a lot of the daylight footage still looks terrific. Also, image stability is outstanding -- the edge flicker and the various shaky transitions that were present on the old Italian DVD release are effectively removed. Ultimately, this is very clearly the best presentation of Rocco and His Brothers, but the film should have had a more convincing organic appearance on Blu-ray. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Disappointing, and it's too late to cancel my order. Oh well, I may end up enjoying it anyway.

[Novecento]

Blu-ray.com has reservations: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Rocco-and-His-Brothers-Blu-ray/137420/#ReviewDisappointing, and it's too late to cancel my order. Oh well, I may end up enjoying it anyway.

If it's a substantial improvement over the DVD then of course you will - the reviewer did give it 4 out 5 after all. While everyone obviously wants the best possible version, sometimes people can get too hung up on such things.

[dave jenkins]

Lincoln Center:
https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/visconti-retrospective-announced/

[dave jenkins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHMzrQytQkk

This may be superior to the look of the Criterion BD, but I don't think I'm going to bother with it.