Speaking as a lifelong worshipper of Michelangelo Antonioni‘s alienation trilogy of the early ’60s, I’ve always felt closer to L’Avventura or L’eclisse than La Notte. But I’m willing to give the latter a fresh try when the Masters of Cinema Bluray arrives in late April. The claim about “previously censored sequences restored for the first time” on the Bluray might be bogus. A Criterion forum guy says the restored footage was on the earlier MOC DVD.
But seriously….orange? Orange on a golf course? How could a color that says traffic cones and prison jump suits blend with a sublime classic that oozes black-and-white European perversity? The same fanatic who designed that Masters of Cinema Touch of Evil Bluray with that awful emphasis on orange is at it again. Before the orange vogue kicked in four or five years ago, the only person who was totally down for this color was Frank Sinatra.
I feel a slight tingle of pleasure whenever a new Bluray of a ’50s or ’60s film is released in 1.66. The 1.85 fascists will insist otherwise so as to appear moderate and reasonable, but I know that deep down they wince inside every time they see the term “1.66.” They’re a bunch of One-Eyed Jacks. I’ve seen the other side of their face.