Sophia Loren 4-film Collection (Lionsgate DVD)

 

Picture:  Sound:  Extras: Film:

 

Attila (1954) C/C/D/C+/B-

I Girasoli (1970) C+/C+/D/B

Madame Sans-Gêne (1962) B-/C+/D/B-

Carosella Napoletano (1954) C+/C/D/B

 

 

Fresh from Lionsgate comes this terrific box set that includes 4-feature films starring the one and only Sophia Loren. The 4-film set is packaged in a really cool case that comes with 2-discs putting 2 films per disc.  While these films might be unfamiliar to most, they do portray a decent gamut of her career and also demonstrate the mixture of performances that Ms. Loren had during her entire career, regardless of how beautiful she always looked and still continues to look even at her age. 

 

All four of these films are in color, although Attila was a full-frame film, while the others are widescreen presentations.  Attila is also perhaps the weakest of the films in this set in terms of picture, sound, and also just the overall film itself as it was very typical Sword & Sandal wanna-bee film starring Anthony Quinn as Attila and Loren as Honoria.  While the two leads put in good performances the film just can’t live up to it’s ambition and the result is a highly forgettable non-epic epic. 

 

The other weaker film in this set is Madame Sans-Gêne, which is a problematic film and a second rate version of the story, especially for those familiar with the 1941 film starring Arletty in the lead role.  Here, Loren looks like she is bored and with the poor direction and lame script, it’s no wonder.  It would appear that the producers just wanted to ‘milk’ (no pun intended) her beauty for this film and hope they had a hit, it didn’t really work. 

 

The other two films in this set though are worth the value and that includes Carosella Napoletano, which was a Cannes festival winner and Vittorio De Sica’s I Girasoli (Sunflower), which won’t surprise anyone who is familiar with this filmmaker’s body of work, which is always stunning, especially The Leopard.  In De Sica’s film we finally get to see the emotional side of Loren’s work and realize she can act in all realms of emotion, as she finds out that her husband (Marcello Mastroianni) who she thought was dead after fighting in Russia during WWII is actually alive and remarried!  Yikes. 

 

Carosella Napoletano is a charming film starring the young Loren in a guest appearance along with Italy’s tenors of the time as they celebrate their heritage and the city of Naples, which years later Loren would star in a film called It Started In Naples, which I reviewed at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2522/It+Started+In+Naples

 

 

All of the films are presented in Dolby Mono and are acceptable considering the age of these films for the most part.  It would have been nice to get stereo mixes, especially for the later films, but this will do for now.  The image on all the films is fairly consistent as all of them are widescreen releases with the exception of Attila. Madame Sans-Gêne was actually shot in Super Technirama 70mm with a 2.20 X 1 framing, but looks more like a 2.35 X 1 scope image for this DVD set and by default looks the best, although still appears dated and does not come close to offering what a 70mm production should look like.  The other films are 16 X 9 (1.78 X 1) and also look a bit dated, but a full restoration would really need to be done to make much difference and for low-key films like this it just isn’t feasible sometimes. 

 

Lionsgate has done a great job getting these films packaged together and also put a bonus featurette here called Sophia Loren: La Diva Popolana, which is definitely worth a look or maybe two!

 

 

-   Nate Goss