MovieChat Forums > Roma (1972) Discussion > Tape vs. DVD?

Tape vs. DVD?

posted 20 years ago by glitteringshoals
8 replies | jump to latest

I heard David Lynch mention "Roma" (did anyone else listen to his interview on the Eraserhead DVD? He said something about how he dissected this cat and as soon as he opened it the insides were neon for a moment and then just faded away "like the city in 'Fellini's Roma'") and I tried to rent it, but the blockbuster i worked at didn't have it. I found it on tape at a different one, but was extremely dissappointed.
Besides the usual low quality of vhs, added was the issue with the narration and subtitles. Was the narration originally in english? This wouldn't make sense at all, whether or not Fellini "and his crew all speak english well", i really doubt he would dub a movie. But I don't know the guy, so who knows. The real thing that bugged me were the subtitles: There were subtitles for the english narration, but they were often very off. This makes me think the narration was originally done in Italian and then translated twice, once for the dubbing and once for the subtitles. It's difficult to hear one thing and read another, especially if they're supposed to be the same.
I was wondering though, if this problem was fixed in the DVD. Is the narration in English or in Italian? Is the quality worth it?
I didn't get to finish the movie, which frankly didn't annoy me too much (again, due to the quality and my extreme sleepiness when watching it- of course, the content was like a soft dream.)
Hopefully there's a rental outlet somewhere that carries it.
Hopefully this post isn't in vain. Too late.

"That little punk drove a golf cart through my bar mitzvah. Not only that, he was dressed up like a beaver!"

[–] rik_smits 20 years ago

facet's in chicago has it. and they do mail-rental and stuff. i just watched their version of it on DVD last night and i saw no difference in that or any other DVD i've ever watched. so you might want to try them. facets.org

i know their website is actually down right now, but you can call and get it.

[–] Koji_Kabuto 20 years ago

I got the MGM DVD version of Roma which is very disappointing.
The initial voice-over is missing; the translation tends to make the film vulgar in many scenes (while it isn't) and there are scenes where whole dialogues have been changed (look at the underground episode!)!!
Maybe the Criterion Collection might have an edition close to the original film...

By the way, Fellini filmed most of his films in Italian, and dubbed the foreign- and non-professional actors in Italian. Far as I know "Fellini's Casanova" was originally filmed in English.

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] Koji_Kabuto 19 years ago

does your edition include scenes with Marcello Mastroianni?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Koji_Kabuto 19 years ago

well...
for the bad edition thing, you just need to watch the opening sequence: in a barren landscape some ladies walk in the cold wind and talk about how one of them received a letter from a relative who lives in the US. The camera then zooms on a rock near the road and a voice over says: "this tis the first thing I ever saw of Rome blabla" and we then see that the rock is/was actually an old roman street sign giving the distance to Rome; in the MGM DVD I got the voice over is missing (!! AARGH!!). The rest of the film is ok, but the subtitles are wrong in most scenes, some are made vulgar, putting swear words where nobody says it; and in some other scene's the whole dialogue is changed (like the underground episode)...!
(Am I lucky that I learned Italian...!)
for the Mastroianni scene, it opens with a bus full of american tourists coming to Mastroianni's villa, where he is standing on the balcony dressed in a smoking and with a cocktail in his hands. After he waved at the american tourists he walks to the backside of the the villa where he was helding some kind of party/photo session and Fellini goes to interview him. I saw this scene again in (if I'm not wrong) "Fellini a Director's Notebook".

[–] aerophlyn 19 years ago

The director's notebook was released on televesion in 1969 and made just prior to Satyricon. Would Fellini use this scene in Roma when it was shown on TV 3 years earlier?

[–] burn on 18 years ago

A Director's Notebook was only shown on TV in the US, I believe. At least, back then it was, by now it's probably been shown all over Europe.

Anyway, it sounds quite possible -- perhaps Fellini took Marcello's scenes out of the international prints of Roma cos he knew international audiences would've seen them already in Notebook... Mmmmh...

Actually, having thought about it, it doesn't seem to likely. Fellini wouldn't have pulled a stunt like that, recycling some TV footage for one of his most personal movies. I wish I knew...