Films Of Paolo & Vittorio Taviani: Padre Padrone (1977)/Night Of The Shooting Stars (1982)/Kaos (1984/Umbrella
Entertainment DVD/Region 0/Zero)
Picture: C
Sound: C/C+/C Extras: C-/B/B Films: B-
PLEASE NOTE: These separate releases can only
be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Zero/0 PAL format
software and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the
website address provided at the end of the review.
Vittorio
and Paolo Vittorio have been making films in Italy since the early 1950s, yet
their work has not always received the attention it should. Are they too Italian? Are the films too simple or complex? Too mature?
Too foreign? Yes, they have had
hits and won several international awards, but being decedents of Italian
Neorealism as well as telling serious stories about the country’s history might
be more than some can take. It might
also be a reason some may even be censoring them.
Padre Padrone tells the sad, painful story of a
domineering father who takes his son out of school and a better future to work
(starting at a very young age) on the family farm and how this damages him as
he grows up and wants freedom. It is a
tough tale to tell, but tries to be a character examination of the men, their
relationship and Italy itself; Sardinia in this case. Night
Of The Shooting Stars is a tough look of a different kind; a
semi-autobiographical look at growing up and surviving the Nazis and Italian
Fascism during WWII. It confirms what
Pasolini was saying with Salo and holds back nothing about how ugly this
still-underdiscussed history was and still is for so many.
Kaos is also semi-autobiographical and
is their attempt to do a sort of anthology as we get five short stories that
are indirectly tied to each other. It
was a big relief when the character did not
suddenly show up in the end, while the battles between peasants and feudal
landlords might drive some to label this Marxist, but doesn’t everyone deserve
to have their own home? These take place
in Sicily.
So these
are all good, but there is something about the films that I liked, but there is
a point where they hit a wall. This
might be after some achievement, but a certain limit and feel (plus whether
they are Auteurs, though they are definitely fine journeymen filmmakers at
least) stops all of these films from really having the total impact they
could. With that said, they are gutsy,
honest, bold, realistic and impressive films worth your time and are must-sees
for any film fan or filmmaker.
Padrone is letterboxed 1.66 X 1, while
the other films are anamorphically enhanced 1.77 x 1, but the image is soft and
dated looking on all sadly, with poor color, depth and detail in all
cases. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is
also rough, even with post-production dubbing considered. The combination tells us these films need
some work. Extras
include trailers on all three and the same interview with the directors on all
but Kaos.
As noted above, you can order these PAL DVD imports exclusively
from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
- Nicholas Sheffo
