Saverio Costanzo's latest film Private is out in Italy. Following the story of a Palestinian family being raided by the Israeli army the film offers a fresh look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the occupied territories. Private is the winner of the Silver Ribbon granted by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. In addition the film also won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. Both the Italian and recently released UK DVDs offer English subs.
The BBC review:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/05/0...5_review.shtml



Ciao,
Pro-B

Pro-B, sometimes I really hate you. You bring to these boards so much stuff that interests me. Would you recommend the italian version or the UK? I ask because CDWow has it so i might as well get it from there if the UK is the one to get. Have you picked this up yet?

....I think you will be safe with the UK disc. Both the Italian and UK discs should be identical (the film was shot on DV) and they also boast a very gritty look so to speak. I opted for the UK disc because there are some very interesting extras that are not subbed on the Italian disc.

Ciao,
Pro-B

And once again.........I'm in. This should make a nice complement to "Paradise Now" (whenever that lands on DVD).

Now, a little off-topic if I may, pro-b, have you seen "Perlasca"? It is out on Italian DVD (don't know if it has subs) but it was also recently released on Hong Kong DVD.

Also, nice job on your recommendation of "Der Neunte Tag" aka "The Ninth Day". It would have slipped past my radar if not for your review. I watched it last night and thought it was absolutely terrific - riveting, intense, and suspenseful.

No, I have not seen it. I saw the bulletin when it came out but it is very rare for the Italian market to sub TV product... Hopefully Nicheflix would get the R3 disc...

Glad you liked the Ninth Day, it is indeed a differet kind of film, one that really makes you ponder "what if".

Ciao,
Pro-B

Since I sort of derailed this discussion, I feel obligated to get it back on track. Watched "Private" a few days ago and enjoyed it. I'm not saying it is a better film but I think I enjoyed it a litte bit more than the recent "Paradise Now". However, this film felt a little more heavy-handed in it being a "message" movie. While it is certainly pro-Palestinian, it's nice that they took some time out to present the Israeli perspective (along with humanizing the Israeli soldiers). However, I had some issue with how they chose to give us insight into the Israeli soldiers; it required a little suspension of disbelief on my part. "Private" I think was more evenly entertaining than "Paradise Now" and in general was more suspenseful. But maybe "Private" was also a little more simplistic and, as mentioned before, heavy-handed.

For anyone with the DVD (who hasn't watched it yet), don't panic if the DVD freezes a little during the company logo portion before you reach the main menu. It gave considerable trouble on my Philips 727, but once you reach the main menu and play the movie, everything was perfect. And boy, did the DV handheld shooting (or maybe it was the transfer) lead to some awful looking grain in the night scenes, just very grainy. I just listened briefly to the director's Q&A and it seemed interested; I'm going to have to go back and listen to the whole thing.

Anyway, I enjoyed "Private"; it was a good movie. In some ways it was better than "Paradise Now" and in some ways maybe not, but all in all the films are fairly equivalent and would make for a very logical double feature (or triple feature, if you expand things a little and include the coming "The War Within").

thanks for the report flix. I haven't gotten the chance to pick it up from CDwow due to budget restrains. I will be picking this along with innocent voices and some other stuff. just waiting for the new year.

That reminds me, I seem to remember you (and maybe a couple of the other guys) mentioning "Innocent Voices" sometime back. I put it on my to-buy list back then but forgot to pick it up (it sort of got buried in my to-buy list). I'll have to remember to pick it up sometime soon.