New Release: Fellini's The Clowns DVD and Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection

By
Laurence
– December 2, 2010Find Others: DVD, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

The Clowns

Respected Italian DVD label Raro Video began distributing its acclaimed DVDs in the U.S. for the first time in February 2011 through Entertainment One. To launch the Raro label in the U.S., the company spotlighted two powerhouse directors of Italian cinema with the DVD release of Federico Fellini’s1970 Italian TV movie The Clowns and The Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection, a four-disc set that features the filmmaker’s celebrated “Milieu Trilogy” and Rulers of the City (1976).

The Clowns and The Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection carry the suggested retail prices of $29.98 and $39.98, respectively, and were released on March 1, 2011.

Fellini’s The Clowns is a typically “Fellini-esque” documentary/memoir mash-up of the lives of circus clowns, with Fellini delighting in the role of ringmaster. The film features a carnival-sounding score composed by Nino Rota and an appearance by Anita Ekberg (star of Fellini’s 1960 La Dolce Vita).

The DVD of Raro’s restored version of The Clowns included an additional short film by Fellini, a video essay on the genesis of the film and a 40-page booklet with exclusive Fellini drawings.

Raro Video US collects some of Italian genre master Di Leo’s finest workd in The Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection, in a four-DVD set that includes the filmmaker’s highly influential “Milieu Trilogy” – Caliber 9 (Milano Calibro 9, 1972), The Italian Connection (La Mala Ordina, 1972) and The Boss (Il Boss, 1973). The set’s final disc includes 1976’s Rulers of the City, which stars the late Jack Palance (City Slickers) as a Mob boss.

All four films were digitally restored and remastered in collaboration with the Venice Film Festival. Each is presented with a number of special features, including a documentary about each movie.

Master of garish, intricately plotted, ultra-violent stories about pimps and petty gangsters, director and writer Di Leo perfected the genre with an uncanny accuracy that prefigured the works of Quentin Tarantino and John Woo (The Killer).

“The two killers in The Italian Connection inspired me to conceive of Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield for Pulp Fiction,” says director Quentin Tarantino. “The Italian Connection is work of a genius.”

 

Buy or Rent The Clowns
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Buy or Rent The Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection
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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.