Getting a good introduction to foreign cinema is fairly tough if you’re not actively looking. Every country also tends to stray towards different genres as its mainstay. The French pioneered many of the rules of crime films while Hong Kong and the Chinese changed the way action films are made. The Italians, on the other hand, seem to be at their best with matters of the heart. And now The Great Italian Directors Collection comes complete with three of the best films of Italian cinema dealing with matters of the heart: Story of a Love Affair, Boccaccio ‘70 and Casanova ‘70.
Story of a Love Affair was the debut feature of Michael Antonioni, who would find fame with Blow-Up (which was cribbed by many for its story, most famously Blow Out with John Travolta) amongst others, and many would argue is his best work as well. It’s a fairly simple story. The trophy wife (Lucia Bose) of a wealthy man is being investigated by a private investigator. But she has a dangerous past; before she became a trophy wife she fell in love with Guido (Massimo Girotti) and may have become a criminal in order to win his affection. Rekindling to deflect the investigation, the cover up might become much worse than their initial crime.
Shot in black and white, the film has been restored in the same way Criterion has restored older films; for a film released in 1950 it doesn’t appear nearly as aged as earlier copies of the film has looked on DVD. The film is clean and free of grain, et al, which has plagued other editions. It’s a strong early crime melodrama from another era; this is when the world of cinema was still trying to work out the kinks behind various things that have now become the accepted dogmas of crime films/
Casanova ‘70 is a substantial film by Mario Monicelli in that it was nominated for an Oscar for its screenplay. Fairly inventive, the film has a pretty unique premise: Army Officer Andrea (Marcello Mastroianni) is impotent except when his life is under duress. After putting his life in danger any number of times, he decides to take his shrink’s advice and live a life free of vice with a beautiful, virginal woman.
A wacky sex comedy, this is one of those types of films that holds up because it has a strong story and a brilliant performance from Mastroianni behind it. A good sex comedy is tough to pull off, especially since the nature of how we view sex in the world has changed radically in 40 years, but this one still brings the funny because it’s more about the universal as opposed to the sexual mores of a certain time. You can watch this film now and laugh because the themes aren’t stuck in that time period; it still has relevance.
Boccaccio ‘70 is to Italian cinema what films like Grindhouse most recently have tried to do for American films: combine big stars with big directors in a collaborative effort. In this case Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica combined with some of Italy’s biggest stars for four tales of sexual hypocrisy in 1960’s Italy.
Presented in its full format, as Monicelli’s act was cut from the original American release, this is much more of a time capsule piece than Casanova is. It’s fascinating, though, to see four of the great directors from Italy at their absolute creative peak working to poke fun at what they felt were things that needed to be said about sex in their home country.
All three films have been cleaned up, somewhat, since their original release but show some age. It is perfectly acceptable a/v on the most part with Story of a Love Affair on the low end and Casanova on the high end of it.
Boccaccio ‘70 and Casanova ‘70 come complete with Posters and Stills, as well as their original Theatrical Trailers.
Story of a Love Affair has a Poster and Stills Gallery as well as three Featurettes about the film.
There are plenty of great films to be viewed if you want a strong look at Italian cinema. If you want a great introduction on its best subject, you can’t go wrong with this collection.
Lorber Films presents The Great Italian Directors Collection. Released on DVD: October 11, 2011. Available at Amazon.com.
