Tales of Ordinary Madness (Storie di ordinaria follia) (1981)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Featurette-The Films Of Marco Ferreri Trailer-Umbrella Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	1981
Running Time	97:02
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Marco Ferreri
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Ben Gazzara Ornella Muti Susan Tyrrell Tanya Lopert Roy Brocksmith Katya Berger Hope Cameron Judith Drake Patrick Hughes Wendy Welles Stratton Leopold
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Philippe Sarde

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     At the heart of Marco Ferreri's 1981 film, Tales Of Ordinary Madness (Storie di ordinaria follia ) is an obscure love story. This is a love that can never be fully realised, because it is blinded by incessant alcohol abuse and by moments of madness - this is love, Charles Bukowski style.

    Tales Of Ordinary Madness is based on Bukowski's 1972 book of short stories, Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness. These semi-autobiographical stories are portrayed through the eyes of a fictitious character, poet Charles Serkin (Ben Gazzara ). Serkin's life is a constant search for booze and sex (in that order), which seems to induce poetic inspiration.

    The narrative of the film is very episodic in nature and begins somewhere in America with Serkin in an auditorium reciting a monologue on "style". He then meets a very young runaway girl, who seduces him in order to steal his ticket back to Los Angeles. A couple of hidden fifty-dollar notes save Charles from being stranded and he still manages the journey home.

    On Venice Beach, Serkin's insatiable search for lust leads him to follow a woman onto a bus and then back to her apartment block. Vera (Susan Tyrrell) is very responsive to Charles' advances and even surprises him with her desire to be totally dominated sexually. When this encounter ends abruptly in the hands of police, he finds himself in a bar where he meets a troubled prostitute, Cass (Ornella Muti). She has many psychological issues, one of which is a compulsion for self-harm using a very large safety pin.

    Their affair is passionate and empathetic. In between his alcohol binges, Charles' emotions have gone beyond that of simple lust and he has fallen in love with Cass. A job offer in New York sees Charles leave LA, promising to send for Cass when things get settled. However, the destructive nature of their relationship is soon realised and all noble intentions are set on a course for ruin.

    As I mentioned in my review of La Grande Bouffe , the films of the late Marco Ferreri aren't generally suited to a mainstream audience. The sight of Ben Gazzara's character trying to re-enter the womb might have some scratching their heads while searching for the stop button. But for those with a passion for something a little different, they may just find some sanity amid all this madness.

Video

    The video transfer is very good and easily outstrips that old VHS copy.

    Tales Of Ordinary Madness is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, which is 16x9 enhanced. The correct aspect ratio for the film is 1.78:1.

    The film exhibits an excellent degree of sharpness and clarity, with just the occasional hint of film grain. Blacks were strong and clean, with shadows displaying nice detail.

    The colours of Dante Ferretti's seedy production design are beautifully balanced, with no over-saturation issues.

    There were no MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts were kept in check and didn't present with anything of significance. Very minor film artefacts were occasionally evident in the form of small scratches. A few very brief reel change markings were also noticeable, but weren't problematic.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles.

    This is a dual layer, DVD 9 disc. I could not locate the layer change either by viewing the disc or with the use of software.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer is faithful to the original source.

    There is only one audio track available on the DVD, English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192Kb/s).

    Dialogue quality was excellent throughout and audio sync appeared consistent.

    The music score is credited to Phillipe Sarde. It offered rich enhancement to the action on screen without being intrusive.

    The surround channels and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

     The main menu is 16x9 enhanced, very basic, static and silent.

Featurette- The Films of Marco Ferreri (45:45)     

    This informative documentary was made in 2007 by Umbrella Entertainment especially for their exclusive Marco Ferreri DVD releases. This is basically a discussion with Rolando Caputo (Lecturer at La Trobe University, Melbourne and Editor of Senses of Cinema) about the life and films of Ferreri. The discussion is nicely balanced with scenes from many of Ferreri's films and provides excellent insight into the life of the man, unknown to many. Recommended viewing.

    Footnote: It's worth noting that this featurette is the same on each of the Umbrella DVD's in the Marco Ferreri series.

Umbrella Trailers

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall