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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso): Prestige 4-Disc Collectors Edition (1989)

Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso): Prestige 4-Disc Collectors Edition (1989)

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Released 4-Sep-2006

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Main Menu Audio & Animation
Theatrical Trailer
CD-Soundtrack
Featurette-Giuseppe Tornatore: A dream in Sicily
Awards-Text
Trailer-Malcolm; Shallow Grave; My Beautiful Laundrette
Additional Footage-Scenes From The Directors Cut
Trailer-Jean De Florette; Manons Des Sources; The Bicycle Thief
Trailer-My Life As A Dog; Cyrano De Bergarac Collection
Trailer-Miracle In Milan; Indochine; Europa Europa
Production Notes-Enrico Morricone
Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1989
Running Time 285:31 (Case: 290)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (88:44)
Multi Disc Set (4)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Guiseppe Tornatore
Studio
Distributor
Franco Cristaldi
Umbrella Entertainment
Starring Jacques Perrin
Phillipe Noiret
Leopoldo Trieste
Salvatore Ascio
Case Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI $34.95 Music Ennio Morricone


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.66:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Cinema Paradiso, which won the 1990 Best Foreign Film Oscar, tells the story of Salvatore (played at different ages by Salvatore Cascio - child, Marco Leonardi -adolescent and Jacques Perinn - adult). It explores his deep friendship with local film projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), his love of film and of his love affair with Elena (Agnese Nano). For an excellent, in-depth review of this film please see our original review of the Director’s cut written by SeanA which can be found here.

    Released initially at a running time of 155 minutes in Italy it was subsequently trimmed down for its international release to 123 minutes. Subsequently a 170 minute Director’s cut of the film was created, the main extensions being (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) the additional scenes showing Salvatore’s meeting up again with Elena after the death of Alfredo.

    Overall I feel that the theatrical cut works better. At almost 3 hours in length I feel that the Director’s cut over stays its welcome, although I know there are many people that will disagree with me.

    Cinema Paradiso is a charming and warm-hearted film that is rightfully loved by many. The inclusion of both the Director’s cut and the theatrical version in this set is most welcome and I’ll leave it up to you as to which you prefer.

    The track listing below outlines the content of the bonus audio CD.

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Track Listing

1. CINEMA PARADISO
2. MATURITY
3. WHILE THINKING ABOUT HER
4. AGAIN
5. CHILDHOOD AND MANHOOD
6. CINEMA ON FIRE
7. LOVE THEME
8. AFTER THE DESTRUCTION
9. FIRST YOUTH
10. LOVE THEME FOR NATA
11. VISIT TO THE CINEMA
12. FOUR INTERLUDES
13. RUNAWAY,SEARCH AND RETURN
14. PROJECTION FOR TWO
15. FROM AMERICAN SEX APPEAL
16. TO THE FIRST FELLINI
17. TOTO AND ALFREDO
18. FOR ELENA
19. LOVE THEME
20. BICYCLE THEME
21. VISIT TO THE CINEMA
22. MATURITY
23. CINEMA PARADISO

Transfer Quality

Video

Director’s Cut (Disc 1)

    This transfer seems to have been recycled from the single disc realise back in 2002. In fact the whole disc, menus and all, seems to be recycled from that earlier release. While back then it may have been considered quite good, it just doesn’t quite come up to the higher standard we generally expect now.

    The image is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image was a bit soft overall and fine detail was only average. Black levels and shadow detail were also only average. It would appear the brightness has been boosted a bit which gives the image a slightly washed out and flat look at times.

    Colours seemed fine, although skin tones sometimes took on a slightly too pinkish tone.

    Very little grain is evident which I suspect has been result of the use of image noise reduction. Film artefacts are seen throughout although these are mostly small black specks.

    The only available subtitles are English, which are yellow and easy to read.

    This disc is RSDL formatted with the layer change occurring at 88:44 which is fairly well placed.

Theatrical Cut (Disc 2)

    If the Director’s Cut doesn’t quite come up to the standards we expect today then the theatrical cut fares even worse.

    The image is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.77:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is fairly soft and fine image detail is only average. Black levels and shadow detail are quite poor.

    Colours are not as strong as in the Director’s cut and sometimes the reds seemed oversaturated compared to other colours.

    Compression artefacts are prevalent throughout and a lot of video noise reduction appears to have been applied to remove grain. One undesirable side affect of this is slight picture instability such as at 79:48 when window shutters shimmer excessively.

    The only available subtitles are English which are yellow and easy to read.

    This disc is RSDL formatted with the layer change occurring at 95:21.

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

Audio

    The audio soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 encoded at 224 Kb/s on the Directors cut and at 192 Kb/s on the theatrical cut. This essentially seems to be a mono soundtrack. I felt the overall sound was rather lo-fi and sounded a bit flat.

    Dialogue was usually clear but was often out of sync. I strongly suspect large chunks of the movie were looped in after filming and the result is sometimes not as good as it should be. I also felt the dialogue often contained a distracting echo-like effect, especially when compared to the music in the film. I also noticed a low frequency hum during many of the scenes.

    The original score by composer Ennio Morricone is very effective but sometimes the themes are overused and repeated a bit much.

    Given the encoding of the soundtrack there is no surround or subwoofer activity to report.

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

Extras

    While on paper the inclusion of a feature length documentary might seem a good thing the actual result is quite disappointing. You can read more details below. The rest of the extras are really just filler.

Menu

    The menus on disc 1 and disc 2 are 16x9 enhanced, with music. The disc 1 menus are also animated. The disc 3 menus are static.

Giuseppe Tornatore: A dream in Sicily (4x3)

    Presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this documentary, as best I could make out, explores film maker Giuseppe Tornatore and some of the influences on his work. I use the term ‘as best I could tell’ because this documentary is so haphazardly put together and edited that it is often very hard to understand what is going on. Interview subjects start speaking without any sort of introduction and when their name and who they are appears, it is in Italian with no English translation. Film clips appear with only the film title and year of production shown (again in Italian and no English translation). It was only when I recognised some of the clips that I realised not all the clips are from Tornatore films. Maybe if you understand Italian and have a deep knowledge of Italian cinematic history you might be able to make sense of this documentary, but I couldn’t. Overall it's a very disappointing effort. Take my word for it and don’t waste your time with this poor excuse for a documentary.

Trailer (1:28) (16x9)

    Theatrical trailer for Cinema Paradiso.

Soundtrack (16x9)

    Brief text screens about the film's soundtrack and its composer Enrico Morricone.

Profiles (16x9)

    Text screens with brief biographies of some of the cast and crew.

Awards (16x9)

    Text screen listing awards won by the film.

Scenes from the Director’s Cut

    This begins with a series of text screens that list some of differences between the Director’s Cut and the Theatrical cut and the presents a list of 5 scenes to select. These scenes are all presented 16x9 enhanced. They are:

  1. On the job (0:53)
  2. Young Bull (0:51)
  3. Crush (1:19)
  4. Meeting in Secret (1:48)
  5. Alternate Ending (46:23)

Trailers (Disc 1)

    My Beautiful Laundrette (4x3), Shallow Grave (4x3) and Malcolm (4x3).

Trailers (Disc 2)

    Jean De Florette (4x3), Manon Des Sources (16x9), The Bicycle Thief (4x3) and My Life as a Dog (4x3).

Trailers (Disc 3)

    Cyrano De Bergerac (4x3), Miracle in Milan (4x3), Indochine (4x3) and Europa Europa (4x3).

CD Soundtrack

    For those who enjoy the music contained in this film then the inclusion of the CD soundtrack as the fourth disc will be a most welcome one. The actual technical quality of each track is a little variable but on the whole the quality is average at best. Quite a bit of tape hiss is present and the sound had an overall nasal-quality to it. Listen for example to the violin on track 4 and especially track 8 to hear this. I also noticed a bit of a rumble in the bass at times, most noticeably on track 1. Overall the sound lacks a certain presence which I think is highlighted by the lack of any real soundstage depth. That said, I’m sure fans of this music will be able to overlook the technical limitations of the recording.

    (Equipment: Source (CD Player): Musical Fidelity A3.5 (Redgum Interconnects), Amplification: Redgum RG120i, Speakers: Ambience Superslim 1400S (AudioQuest speaker cables)).

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    There have now been no fewer than 3 releases of Cinema Paradiso in Region 1. For the purposes of comparison I will focus on the most recent two-disc set. Like the Region 4, it is available as a limited edition set with the audio CD.

    The Region 1 release misses out on:

    The Region 4 misses out on:

    From the reading of reviews and online screen shots I believe that the Region 1 also has a superior transfer to the Region 4. On this basis I feel that the Region 1 is the version of choice.

Summary

    Cinema Paradiso is a charming and warm-hearted film that is rightfully loved by many. The inclusion on this DVD set of both the Director’s cut and the theatrical version is most welcome and I’ll leave it up to you as to which you prefer.

    The video transfers are a bit disappointing and the audio transfer is somewhat on the lo-fi side, but not enough to hinder one’s enjoyment of this lovely film.

    Despite being a 3 DVD and 1 CD set I must say the actual extras are a bit of disappointment.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Gauntlett (read my bio if you're bored.)
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-696AV-s, SACD & DVD-A, using HDMI output
DisplayPanasonic PT-AE900E HD LCD Projector onto 90" 16x9 Screen. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p.
Audio DecoderLogitech 5500 THX. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationLogitech 5500 THX
SpeakersLogitech 5500 THX

Other Reviews NONE