- Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (24Hz)
- Audio Codec: Italian LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Region: B (Region-Locked)
- Certification: 15
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
- Run time: 117 Mins.
- Studio: Eureka Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: March 26, 2012
- RRP: £22.99
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Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
In writer Pier Paolo Pasolini’s first film, Accattone, the groundbreaking artist crafted a confrontational, semi-documentary, exposé on the underclass in Italy. A violent story outlining the perceived criminality and lack of aspirations by the Italian upperclass of the poor lower class, the story of pimps, prostitutes and thieves takes as its subject Vittorio “Accattone” Cataldi (Franco Citti), a pimp and general hustler disenchanted with his life of crime.
When his “girl” Maddalena (Silvana Corsini) is brutally beaten while working a trick, in the popular lingo, in no small part by his own doing, Accottone, takes the opportunity to leave the prostitution game behind. His encounter with an honest working girl named Stella (Franca Pasut), puts Accattone on a path seeking redemption from his life of crime, in an effort to win her affections. It leads him into a life of scrounging and begging and from place to place ( the word “accattone” is Roman slang that loosely translates to “beggar” or “scrounger”). Unfortunately, Accattone’s former life isn’t far behind and his attempts at turning over a new leaf mean his seduction of Stella into a life of prostitution and a tragic turn of events.
Pasolni’s film unfolds like a semi-dream and semi-realist, “new wave” art house experiment. With a cast of amateur actors who all exude a sense of honesty and familiarity with the subjects and materials, Accattone is a an at once poignant, fascinating, and explicit view of sexual mores and poverty in 1960s Italy.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The AVC/MPEG-4 1080p transfer of Accattone from Eureka’s Masters of Cinema has a beautiful filmic appearance. Framed at what is its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio, according to Eureka, there is a thin layer of natural grain and a strong sense of detail. Whites appear to be just a tad too bright and blacks not quite as deep as I would like to see them, resulting in just a slight narrowing of apparent contrast, but it is minor quibble with an overall solid effort.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The original Italian monaural soundtrack for Accattone is offered up in a clean and intelligible LPCM 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit) format. Of course, due to the nature of the film itself, that being the dubbing of Franco Citti’s (“Accattone”) voice, some synch issues are often quite noticeable, but this is inherent in the source and not an issue with the transfer.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
Eureka has again loaded this Masters of Cinema release with extras apposite to the material. A companion film from Pasolini, Comizi d’amore, is included, plus a very informed audio commentary by the always engaging Tony Rayns. Additionally, the booklet is stuffed with the words of the master himself, making it a must-read for cinephiles.
The supplements:
- Tony Rayns Commentary
- Accattone Original Theatrical Trailer (1.33:1; 1080p/24)
- Comizi d’amore (1.85:1; 1080p/24) —
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1.85:1; 1080p/24)
- Booklet: “To a Pope”, 1958 poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini; “On Accattone” by Pier Paolo Pasolini from Pasolini on Pasolini: Interviews with Oswald Stack (1969); My Accattone by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975), Pasolini’s thoughts on Accattone in 1975, fourteen years after its release, appeared in the Milanese daily newspaper Corriere della Sera (October 8, 1975) – just weeks before Pasolini’s death – under the title “Il mio Accattone in tv dopo il genocidio” [“My Accattone on TV After the Genocide”]; “A Hundred Pair of Oxen” by by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the original treatment for Comizi d’amore; “On Comizi d’amore” by Pier Paolo Pasolini from Pasolini on Pasolini: Interviews with Oswald Stack (1969)
- DVD
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
Another beautiful, though provoking film rendered gorgeously by Eureka in their Masters of Cinema series the way few other labels can, Accattone is a mandatory stop for cinephiles who enjoy finely crafted, thoughtful, art house drama.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B005SDDCLI[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
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