Bertolucci's THE CONFORMIST to be released in 4:3. HELP!!
 

Courtesy of a poster at HTF, there is hard evidence that Paramount is in the early stages of mastering Bernardo Bertolucci's 1970 masterpiece, The Conformist, in a 4:3 Pan & Scan DVD release (the film was shot in an OAR of 1.66:1).

This news comes from famous colorist Lou Levinson of Post Logic Studios (in the 1990's Levinson worked with the film's legendary cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, on the VHS transfer). Levinson is quoted in the most recent issue of the magazine Widescreen Review. The quote in question is available online for free, on page 126:
I am absolutely floored that Paramount would even think of cropping this masterpiece, which Michael Atkinson of the Village Voice wrote recently "may [represent] the apex of color cinematography."

I propose that we carpet-bomb Paramount with [polite but forecful] emails to get them to correct this awful mistake before it's too late. Here is the email address for the head of PR at Paramount Home Entertainment (who wrote me just last week that the film wasn't on their production schedule):

[email protected]

There may be an even worse problem with this release. Last month TCM showed this movie and in a rare oversight for them, they showed a dubbed version. I shut it off after about 5 minutes but IIRC it was a letterboxed print.

That friggin' sucks.

email sent. Thanks for the heads up.

This really surprises me because Paramount has been very, very good about supporting OAR. Of all the major studios (not counting Criterion), they are the last I would expect to hear about doing something like this.

Yeah, the new SE of The Truman Show is cropped a little to 1.78:1 when it should be 1.66:1, and it's a bit strange to hear Storaro complaining when he himself has decided to crop some of his 2.35:1 films to fit his univision concept of 2:1 (Apocalypse Now and Tucker: the Man and his Dream), but I don't think Paramount has ever released a title in fullscreen (4:3) only.

fixed

Add me to the list of emailers...even if the 4:3 dubbed story is false, maybe if they get enough inquiries, they'll finally release The Conformist on DVD (in it's OAR & in Italian, of course) or, as I suggested in my email, license the title to Criterion.

I did the same thing:

I've never seen this movie. Is it Bertolucci's best?

Tough call (as there are some rabid Last Tango in Paris fans out there,) but it did come in #55 in Sight & Sound's latest poll (2002). No other Bertolucci film cracked the top 125.

Shame on Paramount! :down: Email sent.

Speaking of Bertolucci, could someone recomend a good DVD transfer of the Last Emperor. The R1 DVD looks like a VHShiat.

it would be open matte, not pan and scan, in fact do you think Paramount misunderstood his preference for cropping his widescreen films to his univision standards for this particular film?

If this turns out to be the case...what a TRAVESTY!!!

I have pretty much given up on most of the major studios anyway and nowadays import more than actually buying local product. But how could you even consider such an approach???? Esp. when so AMNY PEOPLE in R1 land have been looking forward to hear some good news (email sent)

To answer a comment above...I am actually one of the few people that believes that Last Tango in Paris is the maestro's best!! Which actually reminds me that the MGM version is now on my top priority 2DVD SE-list.

Por-B

Official Response from Paramount:

[emphasis added]

Thanks to everyone who sent emails.

Great news. This one made a huge impact on me when I saw it about five years ago. Chilling and intelligent. Can't wait to get it.

This is most relieving.

Is it Bertolucci's best? I think so, yes. <b>1900</b> is tremendous, but at some point it just becomes too unweildy for its own good, IMO.

Certainly I don't consider it his best. Last Tango in Paris for me is his best film. Spectacular Brando!!!

Ciao,
Pro-B

In my case that question was somewhat rhetorical. :)

Turner Classic Movies is airing this film Saturday morning (Sept 2) at 2am (EST)

The Conformist

I've caught it twice before on TCM. The first time they showed the dubbed version with the blind dance sequence inserted, (no sound for that part.) Then last time they aired the Italian language track version with subs which was a huge surprise. I'd love to see a version with the blind dance sequence subtitled.

Still waiting for that DVD Paramount....

Maybe TCM could do us a favor and show a new print of if... since Paramount can't figure out what to do with that either.

They should just sell the rights to Criterion. If your gonna put a movie on dvd then do it right!

:up: :up: to Paramount.

Great news .... (now, what about <i>1900</i> ?)

Sounds like it's time to dump my LD on ebay...

We've known for a year that The Conformist will be released in widescreen (the thread is a year old). Giles bumped it to tell people that TCM is playing the movie.

However, it's a year later and we still don't have the DVD.