49 Tony Arzenta

[swo17]

25 Mar UK, region-free

[What A Disgrace]

I expected this to come from the Raro sub-label, especially after they are put out another film by the director.

[rapta]

I expected this to come from the Raro sub-label, especially after they are put out another film by the director.

What might have happened, as with the VS-related labels' titles, is that they were looking into acquiring UK rights for certain titles and decided it made more sense to just 'host' some of these titles where applicable. In the case of Raro Video, they took the opportunity to re-encode discs and add extras, so it's more of a collaboration in that sense. Perhaps it didn't make sense to do that here when they could just release it themselves. I don't think they plan on just releasing all their Eurocrime/poliziotteschi stuff under the Raro Video banner, probably only doing so when the latter has licensed something that Radiance haven't (and they can cover more ground this way too).

In this case though, I can see why it's a Radiance title as it's Alain Delon, which will be an interesting discussion point in itself. Also worth pointing out Dessari is not the first director released by Radiance that Fran had covered before at Arrow (The Bloodstained Butterfly, A Pistol for Ringo/The Return of Ringo); others being Ozawa (The Street Fighter Trilogy, Sister Street Fighter Trilogy), Taviani (Padre Padrone/The Night of the Shooting Stars/Kaos), Hasebe (Female Prisoner Scorpion, Stray Cat Rock Collection, Massacre Gun, Retaliation), Damiani (Gothic Fantastico/The Witch), Hui (A Simple Life*), Freda (Caltiki the Immortal Monster, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, Double Face, I Vampiri), Hessler (Pray for Death, Rage of Honor), Squitieri (The Climber), Altman (The Long Goodbye, 3 Women, Gosford Park, Images, Kansas City), Fukasaku (Battle Royale, Battles Without Honour and Humanity, Graveyard of Honour, Cops vs Thugs, Street Mobster, Doberman Cop, New Battles Without Honour and Humanity), and Petri (Property is No Longer a Theft, The Assassin).

*Technically wasn't Arrow Video/Arrow Academy, but I'm sure they considered doing more with it at one point (as they did for other general Arrow Films titles like Departures and The Hunt).

[Matt]

I didn’t think I’d be interested in this given my past, mostly negative experiences with poliziotteschi. But I started watching it (in an awful looking, cropped SD version available on free streaming) and it is quite good. A relatively energetic performance by Delon and extremely violent (in that fun Italian way). Bloody shootings, flipping cars, sadistic torture—there’s something for everyone.

[tenia]

As for other Radiance releases, I hope the new restoration will be color corrected. It's not especially bad, but it's obviously Ritrovata'd and would definitely gain from the signature being at least attenuated further.

[domino harvey]

I didn’t think I’d be interested in this given my past, mostly negative experiences with poliziotteschi. But I started watching it (in an awful looking, cropped SD version available on free streaming) and it is quite good. A relatively energetic performance by Delon and extremely violent (in that fun Italian way). Bloody shootings, flipping cars, sadistic torture—there’s something for everyone.

Unfortunately there was nothing of any real note here for me. I've seen this movie so, so many times by this point in my life, and this was just an endless stream of cliches occasionally peppered with unpleasant violence. I mildly enjoyed the elder Conte (who provides his own voice for the English version, making it preferable to the Italian which dubs Delon anyways) in the second-billed role and the WTF random split second cut to a shot of the interior of a car's engine during a big chase, but those are the only meager pleasures I could wring from this

[tenia]

I didn't find this shot to be that WTF. I thought it to be actually quite on-topic to describe Delon's character, always tense, always in-motion, and whose demise happens when he thinks he can settle for just at least a moment.

[Matt]

That is actually the very shot that got me thinking the film was a step above the usual poliziotteschi. There is also a quick shot of Delon’s foot stepping on the brake pedal that immediately reminded me of an almost identical shot in Bresson’s L’argent.

[zedz]

This is going to sound mean, but this film struck me as Le Samourai for Dummies, but I enjoyed it for its particular brutal, hand-held energy. As Domino said, the plot is pretty much a string of well-worn cliches. After the first few minutes of set-up, you could probably sketch out exactly where it's going to go ('surprises' included). Nevertheless, Tessari stages some effective action scenes and brings a better-than-average visual invention to the party, as in a nightclub scene where the action is followed by the camera moving between endless reflections of the characters. And Delon reprising his Le Samourai role with a few more cracks of humanity applied is interesting and satisfying.

[Black Hat]

This is going to sound mean, but this film struck me as Le Samourai for Dummies

Mean? There's no better way to sell me on purchasing this bluray, Radiance hire this man!