February 16, 2016
The Taviani Brothers Collection
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 3 MIN.
Cohen Media dazzles once again with a restored, color-corrected, 2K hi-def edition of three Taviani Brothers films, released as a triple feature.
"Padre Padrone" ("My Father, My Master") (1977) is based on the autobiographical novel by Gavino Ledda, who grew up an illiterate shepherd under his father's thumb but then enlisted in the military and pursued an education. The film -- like the others in the set -- unfolds against a desolate landscape, medieval in architecture and sparsely populated. At the heart of the story is a father-son dynamic, largely morose and dysfunctional, that follows the same game plan as such relations between fathers and sons has followed through the ages: Only now, in post-World War II modern age, that dynamic is bound to transform.
"The Night of the Shooting Stars" (1982) is a wartime fable, filled with the brothers' trademark neo-realistic touches, that follows a group of Tuscan villagers fleeing from vengeful Germans who plot to blow up their village. Rather the submit meekly, the group strike out in search of Americans, whom they have heard are nearby -- specifically, they are looking for a platoon of Italian-Americans from Brooklyn. The group sizzles with sexual and political tension, while the landscape through which they make their way crawls with foes -- not just Nazis, but black-shirted fascists, too. At one point, a lengthy, absurdist, and yet horrifying battle takes place in a field of grain, comic moments alternating with tragic ones (and a same-sex romance coming to a sad end).
"Kaos" (1984) is an anthology of five short films -- three around 45 minutes, the other two about half that long -- that take place in a region of Sicily defined by the peregrinations of a raven. A mother seeks to send a letter to her emigre children in the care of a group of departing villagers, and tells the shocking story of her younger days to a doctor in exchange for his help in writing down her words; a young woman realizes she's married a man who rages and howls all night beneath every full moon, but then contrives to turn the situation to her advantage so that she can consummate her forbidden attraction to her male cousin; a satirical tale about power and possession pits a land baron against a potter with magical glue when his giant urn is broken; the residents of a small village, built on a nobleman's land without his permission (but with his grudging tolerance), seek permission to establish their own cemetery but come up against the authoritarian side of the law; and, in an epilogue, a middle aged man returns to his village, and his family's grand house, following his mother's death, where he learns about an episode of exile from his mother's ghost. The episodes are adapted from the short stories of Pirandello, which are set in the 19th century, and the film's look and feel match the times -- but also possess a timeless, and placeless, quality, with sweeping arial views of ancient ruins and wild terrain, and locations that look as if they had remained unchanged for a millennium.
The short films are tied together by the occasional slender thread, and all three features are bound by the Taviani's signature style, as well as the presence of Omero Antonutti, who takes roles in all three films.
Extras for the three discs consist of re-release trailers for the restored editions, plus a new interview with the Taviani Brothers split into two parts across the discs for "Padre Patron" and "The Night of Shooting Stars," which has the Tavianis discussing their lives and work with film scholar Richard Pe�a and Alessa Palanti.
Fans of the Taviani Brotehr will want to snap this set up. Those who aren't familiar with the brothers' work will find these three restored films an excellent starting point.
"The Taviani Brothers Collection"
Blu-ray
$49.98
http://cohenmedia.net/films/taviani-brothers-collection
