Okay, this morning the new Italian releases of Profondo Rosso and Suspiria arrived and, as promised , here are my thoughts and feelings.




Profondo Rosso
Medusa Home Entertainment

The source used for this presentation looks like the Anchor Bay DVD to me, which means that this is a standards conversion and as a result looks much worse than the source material. New Italian credits have been placed at the start - they clearly aren't the original titles, as they have a very static digital look and the font looks quite modern - still, they're much nicer than the English ones on AB's DVD. More significantly, the original Italian closing credits have been inserted at the end, and they really are a must-see. Hemmings' performance as they role in front of him is great - the story really does continue during the credits as we see the mess the whole ordeal has left him in.

Extras are limited to the same brief documentary that was included on the AB DVD (this time without subtitles), the international trailer, and cast and crew list. Overall, not worth buying.






Suspiria
CDE Home Video

First things first: this release is essentially a mixture of the two previous releases I have owned, the Anchor Bay Limited Edition and the standard Italian edition. The good news is that it comes in a nice digipack that includes three cards: the US poster and two stills from the film. Furthermore, the film includes English subtitles and has three audio mixes: a very nice Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 EX remix (much better than the mess Anchor Bay came up with), and Italian and English 2.0 tracks (not in very good shape).

Now for the bad news: the transfer is quite a bit worse than the previous two releases. The source looks to be the earlier Italian release, but they had added a whole lot of edge enhancement to it and it also looks softer. Some scenes look absolutely fine, but in others big ugly haloes are visible. Still, the audio is great and if you have a smaller display this might be a very good way to watch the film.

The 25th Anniversary documentary (from the AB LE DVD) is also included, but there aren't any English subtitles for the Italian speech. Also included are most of the other extras from the AB DVD (except, of course, the soundtrack), as well as the Dario Argento interview from the previous Italian DVD, again with no subs.


Overall, my recommendation is that neither of these releases are worth buying, especially if you already own the two Anchor Bay releases. The Profondo Rosso DVD is useless unless you desperately want to see the unmangled end credits (they are neat, though), and Suspiria has been represented better on other releases.

Curious. Does the 5.1 mix on this include the sound effects missing on AB's release.

And does the English 2.0 track sound like the original mix found on the Image laserdisc?

Yes. The bell rings at the right time, the thunder effects are present during the black mass, and the overall balance of the music and sound effects feels totally different in many scenes, especially when Suzy is in the taxi, and when Pat is being killed.

I'm not sure: I've never heard the soundtrack on the Image LD. It's certainly of a different vintage to the two Italian tracks: it's much quieter, and with significant hiss and distortion, especially on the dialogue. It too has the correct placement of the bell, thunder etc., as well as conforming pretty closely to the music levels on the two Italian tracks.

Michael:

Have you ever seen the awful non-anamorphic Nouvaux (spelling?) DVD release of SUSPIRIA in the UK? It literally used the Image laserdisc as a master, and thus had the soundtrack from the LD. The sound was the only useful thing about that version, in fact.

Vincent

I remember the UK Nouvaux (I don't remember the spelling either) SUSPIRIA DVD featured a hilarious credit on the back - or even in the onscreen text, I forget which - that read something like 'Special thanks to Allan Bryce', apparently for 'tracking down the rare source print' or something. The implication was that DARK SIDE Bryce got a special thank you for pulling the NTSC LD off his shelf and loaning it to the Nouvaux guys for a day.

Vincent:

No, thankfully I've never experienced that particular monstrosity. The Anchor Bay edition had already been on the shelves for some time by the time I discovered Dario Argento.

Michael, the original Italian opening credit sequence is gorgeous: a china blue background with the titles in elegant white font (which somehow reminded me of 1920s Art Deco stylings), rather than the simple black-and-white of the export version (which AB attempted to recreate with their video-generated titles on the DVD). This version was released by Redemption on VHS in the early 90s, albeit cropped to around 1.66:1.

If Blue Underground ever get around to reissuing PROFONDO ROSSO correctly, i.e. with the opening/closing title sequences restored, I'd definitely pick it up.

The Nouveux DVD is probably the same as the old VHS release that they did. It is worth pointing out that the UK didn't have the benefits of a laser disc market when the company first released this edition to VHS. I remember buying the tape (subsequently given away when I got the AB 3-disc DVD) and seeing the film for the first time in widescreen with a stereo soundtrack. It really blew me away having only seen the THORN EMI full-screen tapes from the 80's (still have those for nostalgic reasons). Despite the obvious shortcomings of the Nouveaux product in light of today's wider (international) shopping arena, it was still a great milestone in the film's UK release history.

On the subject of the AB disc, I would certainly consider upgrading if another version came along, but i'm not sure I resent the remix as much as many others on the board. I don't think the black mass lightning/thunderclap issue does any damage to the scene. I would subscribe to the theory that this is one of several mixes available for this film. Perhaps it's a mistake, perhaps not, but there were several mixes of STAR WARS for example.

As for DEEP RED, I definitely want to see this film re-released. I have always been vocal in my condemnation for AB's cavelier attitude to plugging gaps in films with incongruous footage from alt/language prints. I was especially insensed at their treatment of CUT AND RUN because I had a VCD of the uncut film which had English dialogue for scenes they considered "lost". IMHO, they don't look hard enough. In the case of DEEP RED, the issue is different of course, because there is no English dialogue for the longer cut, but I would argue that they should make a full subtitled ITALIAN version and a shorter, full ENGLISH version available in a double disc set. And the Italian version should have Italian credit rolls and the English version should have the English ones. The end of the AB disc is terrible the way it is. The old UK tape had the correct ending as far as I recall.

Victor.

[QUOTE=Victor Boston,Feb 7 2005, 04:00 PM] [QUOTE]
On the subject of the AB disc, I would certainly consider upgrading if another version came along, but i'm not sure I resent the remix as much as many others on the board. I don't think the black mass lightning/thunderclap issue does any damage to the scene. I would subscribe to the theory that this is one of several mixes available for this film. Perhaps it's a mistake, perhaps not, but there were several mixes of STAR WARS for example.
Victor. [/QUOTE]
Victor:

*SUSPIRIA SPOILERS BELOW*

I'm sorry, but you are simply wrong re: the SUSPIRIA Anchor Bay soundtrack. The STAR WARS comparison is not valid, because all of the various STAR WARS mixes were done under the supervision of George Lucas. SUSPIRIA was remixed for Anchor Bay/Bill Lustig in Los Angeles at Chase without Dario Argento's involvment, and I don't know where you got your info from, but the "thunderclaps" are not the only change, nor the most egregious. To give a short list off the top of my head, the level of the music during Suzy's taxi ride to the Tanz Akademie is mixed way lower compared to original mixes (even the mono mix), later on we have Sarah reacting to the sound of the school bell ringing BEFORE it rings in the Anchor Bay version (and ONLY in the Anchor Bay version circa 2001), the entire scene in the square where Daniel is attacked by his dog sounds like it was mixed by a deaf person- the insanely barking dog is mixed absurdly low, sounding like it's burried under 10 wet rugs 200 yards away while Daniel speaking at normal volume practically BOOMS out of the speakers, plus several music cues are missing, to boot... the aforementioned on-screen thunderclaps are seen but not heard, plus in the same scene Suzy is seen violently coughing on-screen while there is no sound of her coughing, plus earlier in this scene as Suzy approached the witches the witches' dialogue as she approacches WHICH IS AUDIBLE IN EVERY OTHER VERSION OF 'SUSPIRIA' is completely missing...

I'm sorry, but this isn't some sort of "authorized variation" like the various STAR WARS mixes, it's a MISTAKE pure and simple. There is simply no justification for it.

Vincent