The Wedding Dress (Il Vestito Da Sposa) (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	101:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Fiorella Infascelli
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Andrea Di Stefano
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	None Given

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	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This film is the sixth of eleven films in the Italian Film Festival 2004 box set. The films are very different and the only real link between them is that they were all made in Italy in the last couple of years. This one shares the fourth disc of the collection with My Brother-in-Law.

    This film is difficult to categorise and its plotline could be offensive to some people. The story concerns a young beautiful woman, Stella, who lives in the Italian countryside near a decent size town or city. At the beginning of the film we see her approach the back of a parked car and search around in the boot for something. Instead of what she is looking for she finds a burlap sack which has a smell about it which reminds her of something which happened some months before. The film then goes into a flashback, and we see her attending the final fitting for her wedding dress with her dressmaker, Franco. After she leaves she meets up with her fiancé, Andrea, in the woods, where he has been walking his dog. After he leaves for a business appointment she remains behind to study for her veterinarian course. Shortly after this she is set upon by a gang of four masked men, who brutally rape her after putting the sack over her head. She is not aware that the gang of rapists includes Franco. As the story develops she slowly recovers from the rape, which has turned her life upside down. She spurns Andrea, forgets about her studies and eventually starts a relationship with Franco, without knowing his secret. The story follows their relationship back to the first scene I mentioned above and its after-effects.

    Your level of interest in this film will probably be directly related to your ability to cope with its central premise of someone falling in love with her rapist even though she is not aware of his crime. Leaving aside the premise, this is a well made film with strong acting, especially from the female lead Maya Sansa, who has a very difficult role. The cinematography and direction are also of good quality. The film was directed and written by a female director, Fiorelli Infascelli.

    This is a difficult film to recommend wholeheartedly and is certainly not for all audiences, especially considering that it is this film which earned the box set an R rating from the OFLC.

Video

    The video quality is quite good, a rarity for this set.

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

    The picture was reasonably sharp and clear, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was quite good. There was some light grain.

    The colour was very good without being spectacular.

    Artefacts were restricted to a fair bit of edge enhancement, such as at 10:15 on a tree and some small hairs and specks here and there.

    There are burned-in subtitles in English which are clear and easy to read. One of the better subtitles sets in this box set.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is quite good.

    This DVD contains an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue seemed clear and there was no problem with audio sync that my very limited knowledge of Italian allowed me to detect.

    The music is mostly English language pop songs and light orchestral music which seemed jauntier than the subject matter.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

Menu

    The menu allows only for the selection of which movie to play.

    I cannot find any evidence of this film being available outside of Region 4.

    The video quality is quite good.

    The audio quality is quite good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall