Italian Films on DVD

[Hail_Cesar]

I'm currently learning Italian and I'm looking for some Italian movies with Italian subs to practise. The only online dvd shop I know is dvd.it, and they never have infos on subs... I'd like to get some Tornatore (Malèna, La Sconosciuta), Visconti (Senso, Bellissima, Le notti bianche, Il gattopardo, Ossessione), i fratelli Taviani[/b] (everything) and maybe some Pasolini and Fellini. I'm open for any suggestions...

[otis]

There are lots of websites which do list subtitles for Italian DVDs, for example unilibro.it.
Over the next few days I'll post details of several companies which do interesting films in good editions. To start with:

Ripley's Home Video
Occasionally their stuff comes with English subtitles (eg La signora di tutti), but they have loads of fantastic films with Italian subs and generally excellent picture quality:

Camerini/De Sica box-set;
Darò un milione
Ma non è una cosa seria!
Il Signor Max
I Grandi Magazzini
Gli Uomini, che mascalzoni...
5 films from the 30s directed by Camerini and starring De Sica. To my eye, picture quality is as good as the Ophuls.

Aldo Fabrizi box set:
Campo de' fiori
Signori, in carrozza!
Cose da pazzi
Hanno rubato un tram
Avanti c'è posto
5 Fabrizi comedies from the 40s and 50s. Others are available individually.

Rossellini box set:
Un Pilota ritorna
L'Uomo dalla croce
Desiderio
Three of Rossellini's wartime films (though Desiderio was finished by Marcello Pagliero). Also available: Giovanna D'Arco al rogo - apparently the picture quality is not wonderful (I haven't seen it), but I think that's to do with the available elements.

Quattro passi fra le nuvole
This Blasetti pastoral comedy from 1942 (co-scripted by Zavattini) comes with English as well as Italian subs. I never saw the Keanu Reeves remake, but the original is charming.

La Terra trema
I posted screen caps of this several years ago. This beautiful restored edition is vastly superior to the old BFI disc, and comes with English, French and Italian subs.

They do loads more classic Italian films (Totò, Eduardo De Filippo, Sordi, etc). In addition, they have several significant foreign films that are otherwise unavailable. From those I've seen, the rule seems to be that they come with both original soundtracks and Italian dubs, but when you watch the original version the (player generated) Italian subs are non-removable. I'm sure there are ways around this if one knows about such matters:

The Immortal Story
This comes with three different versions - with English, French and Italian and soundtracks - and there's a comparison documentary included which suggests that the cuts are different in places. I can't remember the details, but I'm sure this would offer some interesting research to the Welles buffs out there. Unfortunately the subs are burned in on both the French and English editions (which presumably both count as original versions as it was shot for French TV). The image is 1:1.66 and picture quality is pretty good on my TV, doing reasonable justice to Kurant's pastel photography.

Trans-Europ-Express
L'éden et après
These two Robbe-Grillet films came out last year, and I'm presuming they're restored editions. I haven't seen the discs, but there are very good-looking torrent copies floating around the internet which I suspect are taken from these.

Marguerite Duras 2-disc set:
India Song
Baxter, Véra Baxter
I picked this up on my last visit. Haven't watched them through yet, but picture quality looks pretty good on both.

[Claes]

Kultvideo.net is fast, accepts paypal and always have reliable info about language and subs. Cristaldi and Minerva are two italian dvd labels well worth checking out (and the already mentioned RHV). Kultvideo stock the most of them, and it's possible to browse by label on their site.

[rohmerin]

I'd like to know if there is a web where I could see a list of all Italian films released on Blu Ray.

Watching dvd.it I can see:
-Benigni's La tigre e la neve
-My name's nobody
-Come dio comanda, by Gabriele Salvatores
-Suspiria
-Nero bifamiliare (no fucking idea what's this)

[Hail_Cesar]

I'll probably order some stuff from dvd.it since they have all I want and they don't charge 34 euros to ship in canada... I'm glad to see an existing dvd of Super 8 stories!!!!!

P.S. I'm going to paris next week, anybody knows if there is any place where I could buy some Italian dvd and/or books?

[otis]

Cristaldi Film do a lot of Italian classics in generally good-looking editions, occasionally with English subtitles.

Among others:

Europa 51
I bambini ci guardano
I compagni
Kapò
L’onorevole Angelina
Non c’è pace tra gli ulivi
Riso Amaro
Senso
Senza pietà

[TMDaines]

Cristaldi Film do a lot of Italian classics in generally good-looking editions, occasionally with English subtitles.

Riso Amaro

I can certainly vouch for that. I've just finished watching a Cristaldi Film edition of Riso Amaro from my university library. The quality of the DVD as a whole is fantastic and it wouldn't look out of place in any top collection. I've never seen a film of this age look so fantastic on DVD as the restoration has done wonders to the picture, leaving it looking incredibly sharp and clear. The english subtitles are very accurate and grammatically correct (although I noticed three typos throughout the film), although they aren't available on the numerous extras unfortunately.

I'll definitely pick up a personal copy of this on my next order or when I am in Italy again.

[Knappen]

All Cristaldi releases I have come over have been awesome and including at least Italian subs. Also very reasonably priced.

I would really like the Camerini/De Sica box set too, but I have been informed specifically that it has no subs what so ever...

[otis]

Knappen, my copy of the Camerini/De Sica set is in storage, so unfortunately I can't check, but I'm almost certain the films have Italian subs.

[Saimo]

Knappen, my copy of the Camerini/De Sica set is in storage, so unfortunately I can't check, but I'm almost certain the films have Italian subs.

Yes, italian subtitles.



Sottotitoli = subtitles

[Knappen]

Aha!

And I see this goes for all of the five films! Excellent!

[Saimo]

Yes.

[Saimo]

To search for Italian DVDs with Italian (or english) subs you can use this:
http://www.ibs.it/dvd/ser/serpge.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
You can select director ("regista", e.g. Camerini) and subs ("lingua sottotitoli", usually you have to select "italiano per non udenti").

[Knappen]

I have now bought the Camerini box set. What a beaut! The image quality, the package design, all very high quality stuff. I think I may be even more fond of this set than the Gaumont coffrets.

[martin]

I'm not sure, where I should post this, but I'll try in this thread. I have two voucher codes from Ibs.it. Send me a PM if you're interested in either one and tell me which one you want:

One is '5 Euro off' when buying for at least €49, the other is '10 Euro off' when buying for at least €99. Expires February 28. Cannot be used to buy MP3.

I got these vouchers on a printed coupon with my last order, so they're not personal, I guess.

[Dylan]

Due to various circumstances (one being that I've long been without a multi-region player), I've been out of the loop for quite a few years on what classic Italian films have surfaced on English-friendly DVDs in Italy or other places.

I'm lucky to have Scarecrow Video here in Seattle where I've been able to rent Bitter Rice, Bellissima, and a few other excellent Italian DVDs that contain English subtitles. Scarecrow has quite a lot of interesting titles - many forties and fifties films and even a few sixties titles like La Calda Vita as well as plenty of Italian horror films - but I know they can't house everything that gets released & I haven't found a website online that compiles recent DVD releases of classic Italian cinema (Italian websites have broad search engines that bring up 2009 American films when I'm searching for Italian DVDs with English subtitles or Audio, and others I've found impossible to monitor).

I'm interested if films by Dino Risi have been released, or the more rare De Sica titles, or any of the more obscure films starring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Spaak or Claudia Cardinale? Has there ever been a release of La Donna Invisible or Ti Ho Sposato Per Allegria? This list could easily expand to an infinity, but off the top of my head I'm particularly curious about some of these. However, I'm interested in any and all English friendly classic Italian DVD releases and I would love to hear about some of the more notable ones from the last few years.

[bigP]

I would urge you in a heartbeat to get hold of the sadly OOP Valerio Zurlini: The Early Masterpieces box set from No Shame which contains the incredible 'Sun Tribe'-esque Violent Summer and his masterwork, The Girl With a Suitcase which features Claudia Cardinale at her most insanely gorgeous. Both Girl... and Violent Summer are wonderful films - as is No Shame's also OOP release of his haunting and claustraphobic epic The Desert of the Tartars, which I also recommend unequivocally.

I'd also highly recommend Pietro Germi's masterful The Railroad Man from No Shame. It, again, is OOP but it seems on Amazon.com that the DVDs are still going new & used on the marketplace at fairly good prices and this is well worth tracking down.

[TMDaines]

Minerva Classic, Ripley's Home Video and Cristaldi Film are the three labels in Italy you want to look at if you need your DVDs to be English friendly. All three labels are 99% of the time safe blind buys and RHV are a real contender for the best DVD label in the world. If you watch films on your computer you can always buy non-English friendly releases and download some fan subs for a lot of films. Anyway here are some releases from those labels:

RHV: 1860, La città si difende, Colpire al cuore, Il Cristo proibito, Il gabbiano, Gelosia, Ossessione, Per un pugno di dollari, Prima della rivoluzione, Quattro passi fra le nuvole, Gli sbandati, La signora di tutti, La terra trema

Minerva Classic: L'amore in città, Amori di mezzo secolo, Il cappotto, La classe operaia va in Paradiso, Il generale della Rovere, Uomini contro, I vinti, La visita

Cristaldi Film: Abbasso la miseria!, Abbasso la ricchezza!, Kapò, Le notti bianche, L'onorevole Angelina, Riso amaro, I soliti ignoti

Medusa: Briguiglio Film boxset (Anni difficili, Quel fantasma di mio marito)

...

He said non-R1.

[bigP]

...

He said non-R1.

Sorry, that's my eyes not working correctly after waking up.

[Knappen]

ibs.it has an excellent search option to see if subtitles in different languages are available: http://www.ibs.it/dvd/ser/serpge.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just choose "inglese" under "Lingua sottotitoli".

It's unfortunately rather rare that the most interesting releases feature English titles, but most of them have HoH Italian ones, which certainly makes the viewing experience a lot easier even if you only have a slight knowledge of Italian.

If you know French better, a lot of Risi etc has been released over there.

[Camera Obscura]

The NoShame Valerio Zurlini Set is actually region free. Elio Petri's The 10th Victim from BU as well.

Wholeheartedly embrace the call for more Risi on dvd. Too bad there's so little available. Most of the well-known auteurs are well-covered on both sides of the Alantic, but mainstream Italian cinema is so hard to come by outside France and Italy.

Recently watched Risi's Il Sorpasso with Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant and what a fun film that was. Can't Criterion pick up some mainstream titles, just like Il Mafioso or Big Deal on Madonna Street? Just don't over-indulge on the extras, just some more solid releases of mainstream Italian cinema from the 50s and 60s.

[Knappen]

It's not correct to say that little Risi is out on DVD - it's just that almost nothing is out on the Anglo-Saxon market, which is quite backwards when it comes to the Commedia all'italiana. You can't expect the editors to create a public for a genre that never made it in the US, where it seems that there was only room for Fellini and Antonioni and maybe a couple others.

[Dylan]

I would urge you in a heartbeat to get hold of the sadly OOP Valerio Zurlini: The Early Masterpieces box set from No Shame which contains the incredible 'Sun Tribe'-esque Violent Summer and his masterwork, The Girl With a Suitcase which features Claudia Cardinale at her most insanely gorgeous. Both Girl... and Violent Summer are wonderful films -

Yes, I've been hearing about both of these films for a long time and their certainly near the top of my "to see" list now (as are a good deal of the titles from the short lived R1 NoShame).

Minerva Classic, Ripley's Home Video and Cristaldi Film are the three labels in Italy you want to look at if you need your DVDs to be English friendly.

I will certainly make a bold note of these labels when I nuance my search. Cristaldi is the one I'm most familiar with, and I agree that it's a truly excellent label.

All three labels are 99% of the time safe blind buys and RHV are a real contender for the best DVD label in the world.

I have RHV's amazing release of Bertolucci's Prima Della Rivoluzione, which was enough for me to also consider them among the leaders of current DVD labels, but hearing that their other DVDs are up to this standard is great to know.

If you watch films on your computer you can always buy non-English friendly releases and download some fan subs for a lot of films.

When I get serious about seeing some Risi or Bolognini I need to keep this in mind, as this seems to be the only way for English speakers to get into these directors (unless there was an American VHS of something they did).

Anyway here are some releases from those labels:

Thank you for the many recommendations! I know Scarecrow Video carries a few of these titles.

You can't expect the editors to create a public for a genre that never made it in the US, where it seems that there was only room for Fellini and Antonioni and maybe a couple others.

Vittorio De Sica's films were very popular over here, and they were a lot more accessible to the average American than Fellini or Antonioni (given one or two exceptions from each). What's interesting is that a surprisingly reasonable amount of Italian comedies made it to the US dubbed, and through distributors like United Artists and Columbia (and many of these also had soundtrack releases in the US). For example, in 1967 alone the following Italian comedies were released in the US: Made in Italy, A Rose for Everyone, The Birds the Bees & the Italians, More Than a Miracle, Matchless, and I could be leaving off a few. Of course, none of these are on DVD in any region to my knowledge. Also, to broaden this up a bit, I'm pretty sure most of the sixties Italian omnibus comedies made it over here (though the distributor often dropped one of the segements, depending on how well they felt it translated over here or how long the film was originally & if they wanted it shorter).

According to Peter Bondanella, Italy was raking out 200-300 films a year throughout the sixties, and I'd say we'd get maybe 1/12 of Italy's yearly output distributed over here in some form (either the same year of release, or up to 2-5 years after release depending on what it was), which seems like a lot compared to what we get over here now (what, one Italian film a year? We still haven't even gotten the latest Tornatore or the last several Salvatores films over here). As far as availability, to see most of these sixties Italian films I think you'd have to peruse Italian PAL tapes and broadcasts, none of which would have English subs or be in their proper formats. Some films are lost to the Italians and in oblivion for English speakers, so I'm always happy when these slip through the cracks.

[TMDaines]

Minerva Classic, Ripley's Home Video and Cristaldi Film are the three labels in Italy you want to look at if you need your DVDs to be English friendly.

I will certainly make a bold note of these labels when I nuance my search. Cristaldi is the one I'm most familiar with, and I agree that it's a truly excellent label.

Just be careful though, because not all their releases are English friendly. In my post above I listed most of the titles with English subs but there are a handful of others.

[otis]

The Birds the Bees & the Italians...none of these are on DVD in any region to my knowledge.

This one is on DVD in Italy, under its original title Signore & signori. No English subtitles, though.