What Have You Done to Solange?
The courier dropped off the new Italian release of What Have You Done to Solange? this afternoon.This new version is a vast improvement over the previous two releases I've seen (R1 USA from Shriek Show, R2 Japan from Trash Mountain Video) in every way as far as image quality goes. For the first time ever, we get a progressive scan, HD-sourced transfer derived from a brand new restoration partially funded by Quentin Tarantino (thanks, Mr. T!). It's infinitely crisper and shows improved clarity, with far less details being lost in the overly dark shadows of the previous releases. An extremely high average bit rate of 9.68 Mbps ensures that there are no compression artefacts to speak of - the bit rate is essentially pushed as high as it will go 99% of the time. My only concern is that the opening title sequence seems overly pink, resulting in some details being bleached out. That, and the fact that the end credits cut out early - very odd. Other than that, though, this is a fabulous transfer in every sense of the word. Finally, the crême de la crême of the giallo genre has a transfer that does it justice.
The Italian release features both the English and Italian tracks, with subtitles in both languages (corresponding to the Italian dialogue). This alone puts it a step ahead of the other two releases. However, unfortunately, the audio quality of the English release is a bit suspect, with a slight echo effect to the dialogue. It's not a huge problem, but it doesn't sound as good as the US Shriek Show release. That said, I still favour this new release in terms of audio, because it offers subtitles and the opportunity to watch the film in Italian.
Bottom line: the only reason to keep the US release is for the excellent Robert Marcucci liner notes. In every other way, the Italian release is a major improvement. Well done, 01 Distribution!
Naturally, I've updated my comparison to reflect the changed state of affairs.
2 Comments:
Great to hear this is a good release,i ordered mine on Monday night.I think i'll watch it in Italian w/ English subs,i did this with my Raro discs and they sound much better.Any chance of some info on the extras Micheal?Thanks mate
By Stephen Grimes, at 17:32
The extras are pretty much a non-event, to be honest. Most of them - the galleries, the trailer - are carried over from the Shriek Show release, and the extras that are exclusive to this version are mainly just filmographies, and the "trama" feature that I've seen on a number of Italian releases, which is essentially a one-paragraph summary of the film. The featurette that I thought would be footage of the 2005 Venice Cult Film Festival turned out to be just a reel of trailers for films shown there. It's too bad that the extras are so miniscule, but the quality of the transfer itself makes up for it in my opinion. It's like seeing the film again for the first time.
By Whiggles, at 17:47
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