One Hundred Steps (I Cento Passi) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Docudrama	Main Menu Audio Filmographies-Cast & Crew Trailer-Facing Window, Angela, My Wife Is An Actress Trailer-The Best Man's Wedding Theatrical Trailer-(Italian Only) Featurette-Backstage Documentary (Italian Only) Featurette
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	107:00
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (86:35)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Marco Tullio Giordana
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Luigi Lo Cascio Luigi Maria Burruano Lucia Sardo Paolo Briguglia Tony Sperandeo Andrea Tidona Claudio Gioè Domenico Centamore Antonino Bruschetta Paola Pace Pippo Montalbano Aurora Quattrocchi Gaspare Cucinella
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Giovanni Sollima

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    One Hundred Steps (I Cento Passi) is the Italian-made biopic of an anti-mafia campaigner, Peppino Impastato. He would seem to be very well known in Italy, however I personally had not heard of him before seeing this film.

    Peppino Impastato was born in 1948 and lived most of his fairly short life in a small town in Sicily called Cinici. His father, Luigi, ran a local Pizzeria in the town and was involved (as most local businesses were) with the Mafia. Luigi's brother-in-law was one of the local Dons, Cesere Manzella. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) While Peppino and his brother Giovanni were still quite young, their Uncle Cesere was killed when a car he was driving exploded. The film indicates that this was arranged by another local Don, Gaetano Badalamenti, known in the film as Tano. Tano quickly became boss of the region. This incident seemed to set Peppino on a course of anti-mafia activities for the rest of his life, much to his father's chagrin. He started an anti-mafia newspaper and then a radio station to tell the area about corruption amongst the local politicians. Eventually, he decided to run for local government himself, resulting in his untimely death in 1978. Gaetano was recently charged with his murder, however, he is serving a long sentence in the USA for drug trafficking.

    This film is a dramatisation of Peppino's life but has mostly been made in a very matter-of-fact style. The film has won a number of European film awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe. I found the story interesting but not really enthralling. To my mind, Peppino was portrayed as naive and slightly foolhardy rather than as a dedicated campaigner against corruption. The important characters are all played by Italian actors and actresses, none of whom I had encountered previously. They included Luigi Lo Cascio who played Peppino, Luigi Maria Burruano who played his father, Luigi, Lucia Sardo who played his mother, Felicia, Tony Sperandeo who played Gaetano and Paolo Briguglia who played Peppino's younger brother Giovanni. They all portrayed the characters well.

    If you have an interest in the Italian Mafia, or specifically in Peppino Impastato, you would no doubt enjoy this film.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Some scenes were slightly soft. Shadow detail was good with night scenes showing most details.

    The colour was fine throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding.

    There were a few white specks on and off throughout the film, noticeable when you are looking for them but not too bad. No other artefacts were noticeable.

    There are subtitles in English on the main feature only. They are in yellow and are seemingly a word-for-word rather than a grammatically correct translation.

    This is a dual layered disc and the layer change is well placed and not terribly distracting at 86:35.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good, but virtually mono except for music.

    This DVD contains only one audio option, an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear but as it was in Italian I cannot comment on how easy it was to understand. There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The score of this film by Giovanni Sollima was not particularly notable. Songs by popular artists such as Janis Joplin and Procul Harem were also used.

    The surround speakers were virtually not used at all, however I did notice rain sounds in them at one point while using ProLogicII.

    The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included a scene selection function and the ability to turn the English subtitles on and off.

Filmographies

    Text based filmographies of the major cast members and director.

Trailers

    Trailers for four other films in the World Cinema Collection; Facing Window, Angela, My Wife Is An Actress & The Best Man's Wedding.

Photo Gallery

    Seven stills from the film plus one photo of the director.

Theatrical Trailer (0:24)

    A very short teaser trailer which shows a shot of Peppino as a boy with Procul Harem playing over it.

Backstage Documentary (12:37)

    This documentary is completely in Italian with no subtitles so I cannot tell you what it is about. It annoys me that this disc should be released with this extra in Region 4 without at least adding subtitles in English.

Nel Cuore Delle Alghe E Dei Coralli (45:55)

    This documentary is completely in Italian with no subtitles so I cannot tell you what it is about. It annoys me that this disc should be released with this extra in Region 4 without at least adding subtitles in English. For what it's worth, the title literally translates as "In The Heart Of The Algae And Corals". It seems to be a history of Peppino Impastato but I am guessing.

    This movie is available in Region 2 (Italy) and has the same special features. I cannot find any record of it being available in Region 1.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good but nearly mono.

    The disc has a selection of extra, but the ones of any substance are in Italian only (without subtitling) so I could not review them.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall