Federico Fillini & Jean-Pierre Melville Collections in March

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of Federico Fillini and Jean-Pierre Melville box-sets on 2nd March 2009. Details follow...

The Federico Fellini Collection (£34.99 RRP) bundles together the current Optimum editions of White Sheik and La Strada with the UK DVD premiere of Nights of Cabiria which will also be available separately priced at £17.99 RRP.

The Jean-Pierre Melville Collection (£44.99 RRP) bundles together the current Optimum editions of Bob Le Flambeur and Un Flic with four new editions of titles previously released by the BFI. They are: Army of Shadows, Le Doulos, Leon Morin Pretre and Le Cercle Rouge. Those 4 are also available separately priced at £17.99 RRP each.

More details on the individual titles follow...

The Federico Fellini Collection
Included in this collection is Fellini’s debut: comedy The White Sheik (also his first collaboration with composer Nino Rota), the Oscar-winning La Strada, the film that propelled him to the world stage and neo-realist Oscar-winning Nights Of Cabiria - available here for the first time on UK DVD and also released individually.

The White Sheik

• 1.33:1 Full Frame
• Italian Mono with English subtitles
• Fellini’s White Sheik and other stories
• Fellini’s collection at Lilly Library
• Guilietta’s Secret Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
• Photo gallery
• Filmographies

La Strada

• 1.33:1 Full Frame
• Italian Mono with English subtitles
• Re-mastered print
• Giulietta Masina: La Forza di un Sorriso (The Power of a Smile) Documentary about Fellini’s wife and the star of La Strada (52 mins approx)
• Audio commentary on selected scenes by Christopher Wiegand author of the Taschen book Federico Fellini

Nights of Cabiria

• 1.33:1 Full Frame
• Italian Mono with English subtitles
• Trailer
• Interview with Italian Cinema expert Phil Kemp

The Jean-Pierre Melville Collection
This set contains six of Melville’s films, including amongst others his early bittersweet masterpiece, Bob Le Flambeur, the soon-to-be-remade Un Cercle Rouge, and his final film, Un Flic.

Army of Shadows

• 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
• French DD2.0 Stereo with English subtitles
• Commentary for selected scenes by Ginette Vincendeau
• Jean Pierre Melville: filmmaker (4 mins)
• Le Journal de la Resistance – footage of the liberation of Paris (HOH subtitles, 32 mins)
• Melville Army of Shadows (27 mins)

Le Doulos

• 1.66:1 Widescreen
• French DD2.0 Mono with English subtitles
• Commentary for selected scenes by Ginette Vincendeau
• Trailer
• Interview with Assistant Director Volker Scholondorff (BFI)
• Introduction by Ginette Vincendeau

Leon Morin Pretre

• 1.66:1 Widescreen
• French DD2.0 Mono with English subtitles
• Commentary for selected scenes by Ginette Vincendeau
• Trailer
• Interview with Assistant Director Volker Scholondorff (BFI)
• Introduction by Ginette Vincendeau

Le Cercle Rouge

• 1.85:1 Widescreen
• French DD2.0 Mono with English subtitles
• Commentary for selected scenes by Ginette Vincendeau
• Trailer
• Interview with Assistant Director Bernard Stora (BFI)
• Introduction by Ginette Vincendeau (BFI)
• Rui Nogueira on Melville

Bob Le Flambeur

• Full Frame
• French Mono with English subtitles
• Intro by Ginette Vincendeau

Un Flic

• 1.85:1 Widescreen
• French Mono with English subtitles