One of the masterworks of 1960s cinema, La notte [The Night] marked yet another development in the continuous stylistic evolution of its director, Michelangelo Antonioni - even as it solidified his reputation as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. La notte is Antonioni's Twilight of the Gods, but composed in cinematic terms. Examined from a crane-shot, it's a sprawling study of Italy's upper middle-class; seen in close-up, it's an x-ray of modern man's psychic desolation. Two of the giants of film-acting come together as a married couple living in crisis: Marcello Mastroianni (La dolce vita, 8-1/2) and Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim, Bay of Angels). He is a renowned author and public intellectual; she is the wife. Over the course of one day and the night into which it inevitably bleeds, the pair will come to re-examine their emotional bonds, and grapple with the question of whether love and communication are even possible in a world built out of profligate idylls and sexual hysteria. Photographed in rapturous black-and-white by the great Gianni di Venanzo (8-1/2, Giulietta degli spiriti), La notte presents the beauty of seduction, then asks: When did this occur - this seduction of Beauty? The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Michelangelo Antonioni's haunted odyssey for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Special Features: New 1080p presentation of the film in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio with previously censored sequences restored for the first time. New and improved English subtitles Original Italian Theatrical Trailer 56-page booklet with an essay by film-critic and scholar Brad Stevens, and the transcript of a lengthy Q&A conducted in 1961 with Antonioni upon the film’s release.
Penetrate the moody sensual world of Last Tango in Paris and prepare yourself for 'the most controversial film of its era'. Nominated for two Academy Awards and exuding a sexual energy unlike any film before or after this is the scintillating classic that shocked a nation and 'altered the face of an art form'. He (Brando) is a 45-year-old American living in Paris haunted by his wife's suicide. She (Maria Schneider) is 20 year old Parisian beauty engaged to a young filmmaker. Though nameless to each other these tortured souls come together to satisfy their sexual cravings in an apartment as bare as their dark tragic lives. Caught up in the frenzied beat of a carnal dance they cannot seem to stop these unlikely lovers take their passion to erotic heights - and depths - beyond anything they could ever have imagined.
Brace yourself for the uncut, uncensored version of the most controversial film of its era. As scandalous as it scintillating, Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris still resonates as a landmark in cinematic history, featuring an Oscar- Nominated performance by Marlon Brando that ranks among the best of his career. He (Brando) is a 45-year-old American living in Paris, haunted by his wife's suicide. She (Maria Schneider) is a 20-year-old Parisian beauty engaged to a young filmmaker. Though nameless to each other, these tortured souls come together to satisfy their sexual cravings in an apartment as bare as their dark, tragic lives.
An ingenious and poignant experience, Francois Truffaut's fascinating The Wild Child is based on a real-life 18th-century behavioural scientist's efforts to turn a feral boy into a civilised specimen. In a piece of resonant casting that immediately turns this story into an echo of the creative process, Truffaut himself plays Dr Itard, a specialist in the teaching of the deaf. Itard takes in a young lad (Jean-Pierre Cargol) found to have been living like an animal in the woods all his life. In the spirit of social experiment, Itard uses rewards and punishments to retool the boy's very existence into something that will impress the world. Beautifully photographed in black and white and making evocative use of such charmingly antiquated filmmaking methods as the iris shot, The Wild Child has a semi-documentary form that barely veils Truffaut's confessional slant. What does it mean to turn the raw material of life into a monument to one's own experience and bias? The question has all sorts of intriguing reverberations when one considers that Truffaut's own wild childhood was rescued by love of the cinema and that a degree of verisimilitude factors into his films starring Jean-Pierre Leaud--the troubled lad who grew up in Truffaut's work from The 400 Blows onward. (The Wild Child is dedicated to Leaud.) --Tom Keogh
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