Remember Me (Ricordati di me) (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Animation Featurette-Making Of Deleted Scenes-4 Featurette-Audition Footage Interviews-Crew-Mario Sesti And Gabriele Muccino (Director) Trailer-Facing Windows, Tom White, Since Otar Left
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	119:56
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (94:15)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Gabriele Muccino
Studio Distributor	Medusa Motion Pic Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Fabrizio Bentivoglio Laura Morante Nicoletta Romanoff Monica Bellucci Silvio Muccino Gabriele Lavia Enrico Silvestrin Silvia Cohen Alberto Gimignani Amanda Sandrelli Blas Roca-Rey Pietro Taricone Giulia Michelini
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Paolo Buonvino Pacifico

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Carlo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) and Guilia (Laura Morante) are married with two children in their late teens. Both seem unhappy, Giulia in her job as a teacher and Carlo in what appears to be an advertising job. Both are dissatisfied with the other. Carlo wants to resume work on a novel he abandoned years before, and Giulia reticently revives her acting career. Meanwhile, their kids have their own crises. Valentina (Nicoletta Romanoff, apparently a descendant of that Russian family) wants to get a job on television dancing on a variety show, while Paolo (Silvio Muccino - the director's brother) has a severe bout of unrequited love.

    Carlo is going through the typical male mid-life crisis, so when he goes to a party alone and meets up with former lover Alessia (Monica Bellucci), herself trapped in a loveless marriage, he cannot help but get involved with her. Well, why not? It's Monica Bellucci after all. I'd be in there too.

    This is basically a follow-up or elaboration on the themes in Gabriele Muccino's previous film The Last Kiss, another bittersweet film about marital infidelity and the mid-life crisis. Unfortunately, this one lacks the light touch that made the previous film a success. This is an old-fashioned melodrama dressed up as an examination of the Italian family, and it does not succeed. The problem is the script, which is full of clichés. It is well-made and very well acted (especially by Bellucci, which might be a surprise to those who have only seen her in more decorative roles) but I found it too overwrought, with too much shouting and hand-wringing to be convincing. Worse, none of the characters are sympathetic, and if you don't care about them, then the whole thing seems a waste of time. Still, if you like soap opera Italian-style, you might get something out of this.

Video

    The film is presented in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer of this film is quite sharp, though it seems to me to be not be as sharp as it could be. For example, the faces of the actors have a reasonable level of detail, but much of this detail is lost in movement. I suspect some sort of motion blurring due to noise reduction, though I cannot be certain of this. Otherwise, this is a good transfer. Contrast levels are good and there is some detail visible in shadows. Colour is a little muted, but this seems to be intentional. Flesh tones come across well.

    Apart from the problem mentioned above, there is some minor edge enhancement and occasional Gibb Effect, though this latter problem is not excessive. There are some film artefacts visible, in the form of small spots of dirt and dust.

    Optional subtitles are provided in English. These are quite good, clear and easy to read and well-timed.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted with the layer change placed at 94:15. It occurs at a cut between scenes, and so is not disruptive to the visual aspect of the film, but there is a break in the continuous loud soundtrack which makes the positioning slightly annoying.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The sole audio track is Italian Dolby Digital 5.1.

    This is a solid surround track, with nothing really exceptional but on the other hand nothing objectionable. Most of the audio is directed to the front speakers, with ambient noise such as the ocean, the diners in a restaurant, street sounds and the like coming from the rears at a sensible level. Low frequency effects tend to be just the bass of the music score, and there is nothing in the soundtrack otherwise that would benefit from use of the subwoofer.

    The music score is credited to Paul Goodwine, err, Paolo Buonvino, but apart from some very lush and hackneyed orchestral music it seems to consist of a lot of Italian popular songs of recent vintage, some of which are in English. The score suits the tone and content of the film, so it is not very distracting.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

    The menu is static but the theme song is played in the background.

Making of documentary (35:38)

    This is just a lot of behind the scenes footage of the director setting up shots, rehearsing the actors and looking at the rushes, interspersed with interviews with the cast and some scenes from the film. I did not feel that it told me anything about what the director was trying to achieve or how, and it is barely worth watching. The documentary is in non-enhanced widescreen and has burned-in subtitles which are not 16x9 friendly.

Deleted Scenes (2:27)

    Four short deleted scenes are shown. None would have added much to the film had they been included, but it would have been nice to have some information about why they were deleted. Each is in letterboxed widescreen with subtitles and timecodes.

Auditions (6:47)

   Two separate subtitled auditions, one for Nicoletta Romanoff and the other shorter one for Silvio Muccini and the actress who plays the object of his desires. Again, barely worth watching these video recordings.

Interview - Mario Sesti and Gabriele Muccino(14:40)

    I presume Mario Sesti is the interviewer, as only Muccino gets to talk to the camera, which he does at length about the story, how he made the film and his views on filmmaking in general. Truth to be told, I found this a lot of guff about nothing much in particular.

Trailers - Facing Windows, Since Otar Left, Tom White (5:51)

    Three trailers for other Palace Film releases, all in excellent condition though only the last of these is 16x9 enhanced.

    The US Region 1 DVD is scheduled for release in March 2005 and has a slightly different title: Remember Me, My Love. I have not seen any reviews nor any specifications for this DVD.

    The Italian Region 2 release has English subtitles on both feature and extras and is a two-disc set. Disc two has the extras, and there are some additional extras not available on the Region 4:

• Backstage documentary on the preliminary screening of the film
• 4 additional deleted scenes
• 2 more audition sequences
• Rehearsal scenes
• 5 theatrical trailers
• Interview with the editor
• Photo Gallery
• Two music videos
• Cast and crew biographies in Italian

    Looks like the Region 2 is the best release of the film, particularly as the Region 4 is just a rental at the moment.

    A fairly ordinary Italian film with melodramatic elements.

    The video quality is quite good, though it could have been better.

    The audio quality is good.

    There are a few extras but not much of any worth.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall