Marquis de Sade’s Justine (1977/Uncut/Kino/Redemption Blu-ray)/Miracle Of Marcellino (1991/VCI Blu-ray)/Naughty Teen (1978/One 7 DVD)/The Organizer (1963/Criterion Blu-ray)/Plot Of Fear (1976/Raro Video DVD)

 

Picture: B/B-/C-/B/C+     Sound: B-/B-/C/B-/C+     Extras: C/C-/D/C+/C     Films: C/C/C-/B-/C

 

 

And now for a group of new foreign film releases, mostly Italian, that exposes limits in what we consider art, freedom of expression, genres and politics in world cinema.

 

 

We start with Chris Boer’s Marquis de Sade’s Justine (1977), a film that is British by owes something to Italian films, starting out as a nunspolitation film, then becoming an outright sexploitation film.  Loosely based on the 1791 book by the ever-censored author, the title character (Koo Stark) is yet another one of those semi-helpless women leads who drifts from one disaster and exploitation to another throughout the film’s all-over-the-place 97 minutes is simply a good-looking semi-softcore sex romp.

 

This includes more than a few sexual assaults, rape, goofy characters, goofy places and goes on and on with no place to end.  Stark is sexy, but as the film moves along, sexy becomes more and more unsexy, partly by design perhaps, yet it did little to really say or do anything about de Sade as a writer.  The result is a silly curio made more so by being a Kino/Redemption Blu-ray release, but out side of being worth a look, I was disappointed it did not offer more when all was said and done.

 

Extras include a photo Gallery, theatrical trailer, two alternate title sequences for other language markets and two separate on-camera interviews with Boger and screenwriter Ian Cullen.

 

 

Our one holy-as-good film is the Blu-ray release of Luigi Comencini’s Miracle Of Marcellino (1991) which we previously covered the VCI DVD release of at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1282/Miracle+At+Marcelino

 

I was not a fan of the film either and am still bored by it, though it is more tolerable in this upgraded version, but the same extras including A Childlike Faith discussion featurette and Miracles reflective featurette remain the only extras.  Though not as heavy-handed as most such films like this since the 1980s, it has a limited audience.

 

 

On the flipside of that and much cheesier than Justine could ever hope to be is Andrea Bianchi’s Naughty Teen (1978), a sex drama with comedy, but to what extent is unclear.  Ursula Heinle is the female lead Daniela, drifting around in sexual situations, but she is in more control than Justine was and religion figures even less here.  Also a curio, the film has a few good moments, but is surprisingly forgettable and flat, save the female nudity of its lead and Femi Benussi, a Pasolini alumni who reunites with Bianchi here after Strip Nude For Your Killer (reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) and also turned up in Di Leo’s Italian Connection (also on this site).

 

Too bad there is not much of a story to hang this onto, even with the sudden love triangle, there are just too many clichés and this plays long for being 87 minutes.  The result is for completists in this genre, Italian films or fans of the actresses and/or director.  There are not surprisingly no extras.

 

 

I would not call Marcellino an example of Italian Neo-Realism and that certainly does not apply to our full color Italian entries on the list, but Mario Monicelli’s The Organizer (1963) is enough of such a film that it would be considered the most “artistic” film here.  Though it is the best on the list, it is by default.  Workers at a textile factory are living under terrible conditions making no money, having no insurance, injury compensation and treated with a general sense of disturbing disposability.  They decide to try a work stoppage to demonstrate, but they cannot get it together.

 

Enter a meek traveling professor (Marcello Mastroianni) who finds out what is going on and tries to help them.  The film is also a comedy, though it overplays its hand at this a bit, especially considering how serious it is and most of all, it overplays it’s very left of center politics.  The workers are constantly hurt, we get child-in-jeopardy situations set up in overly obvious ways and the result is a very predictable film with interludes of distraction.  The cast is not bad, but this film, which has at least a good reputation, is somewhat overrated and even as propaganda was dated when it arrived.  Compare to I Am Cuba (reviewed elsewhere on this site) from the same year and you’ll see what I mean.

 

Kudos for a fine cast, good acting (usually) and good location work (including the camera work), but I did not buy the film and the side parts thrown in have disqualified it as a pure Neo-Realist film and not without reason, but I think it is just enough of one arriving also around the time that Michelangelo Antonioni was ending the original cycle of such films and we could include this as another film that ended that movement.

 

Extras include a paper pullout with some illustrations and informative text including an essay by J. Hoberman, while the Blu-ray adds an original trailer and on camera intro by Director Monicelli.

 

 

Finally we have Paolo Cavara’s Plot Of Fear (1976) which is similar to Justine in its sexploitation moments including rape and other wild sex moments, but this one adds a murder on the loose killing all kinds of people and basing the murders on a German children’s book.  Corinne Cléry (from The Story Of O and Moonraker, both reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) is the female lead, more able-bodied than the women of Justine or Teen (but just as amazing nude) playing a model and in less of a victim role than you might expect.

 

Still, there are some sexploitation elements, but this is also a giallo murder film with its share of blood and despite some good casting, situations and locations, it is just too all over the place to add up to doing any of the many things it attempts well.  At least it is more ambitious than you might think.  Also, Tom Skerritt and Eli Wallach also show up, but are dubbed by other actors on both soundtracks, unless that is a strained recording of Skerritt on the English track.  Hard to tell.  This one is wroth seeing once if you think you can handle its unevenness.

 

Extras include a color, illustrated essay booklet in PDF form for DVD-ROMs, while the DVD adds three on cameras interviews: Screenwriter Enrico Oldoini, Pietro Cavara (the director’s son) and Actor Michele Placido.

 

 

The 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Justine is better than I expected, especially for a smaller independent production of its age and though the print shows its age in places, color is consistent and this is one of the first works for Director of Photography Roger Deakins, a Coen Brothers and Scorsese alumni currently lensing the new Bond film SkyFall.  He prevents this from becoming an outright B-movie by showing even then his flare for interesting images.  The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition black & white image transfer on Miracle is much better than the DVD version, but there are still points of softness in haloing and even some edge enhancement that shows the telecine people got carried away in cleaning up the image.  See more below on Plot.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Teen uses an old copy and transfer of the film with much motion blur and detail issues, but color helps it somewhat.  However, it even has trouble on small screens looking good, so expect major blur with larger ones.  Wonder if this is a lost film.

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition black & white image transfer on Organizer is from a brand new 35mm print and looks about as good as it ever will for a film or its age and budget.  Director of Photography Giuseppe Rotunno has already lensed Rocco & His Brothers, On The Beach and The Leopard before shooting this film and helps its impact as a result.  He would later handle the camera on Huston’s The Bible, Fellini Satryicon, Fellini’s Roma, Candy, Carnal Knowledge, Amarcord and Nichols’ Wolf.  He definitely could handle monochrome with ease.

 

Finally, the anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Fear uses a restored print with good color, but it is a little softer throughout than I would have liked and it turns out it the Director of Photography on this film and Miracle is Franco Di Giacomo.  He also lensed Bertolucci’s The Spider’s Stratagem, Amityville II: The Possession, Il Postino and The Night Of The Shooting Stars.  Hope Raro does a Blu-ray of this one soon to compare.

 

 

The PCM 1.0 lossless Mono mix on Justine and Organizer both show their age, but they have been cleaned up, yet both have dubbed post-production dialogue and sound, as does the PCM 2.0 lossless Stereo on Miracle, issued in Dolby theatrical analog A-type sound.  They are all about even and all sound like they come from optical monophonic analog sources, as Organizer’s notes confirm.  The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the DVDs are weaker, but Plot is restored, while Teen is from a more problematic source, though One 7 tried to clean this up.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo