Splendor Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Splendor is the name of an old movie theater managed by Jordan, who inherited it from his father. The theater is in decay and only generates debts and trouble, but Jordan gets aid in his almost quixotian quest from projectionist Luigi and ushurette Chantale. However, Jordan is finally forced to sell the Splendor to businessman Lo Fazio, which plans to transform it in some kind of furniture store. When Jordan leaves the theater for the last time, he recalls the glorious days of Splendor and movies in general.
Nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Italian director Ettore Scola's "Splendor" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original French theatrical trailer; video interview with cinematographer Luciano Tovoli; video interview actress Marina Vlady; video interview with director Ettore Scola; and more. In Italian, with optional English, French, and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
After the last show
Ettore Scola's Splendor is about a small provincial Italian theater, Cinema Splendor, run by a passionate film lover, Jordan (Marcello Mastroianni, The 10th Victim, La notte). It has some similarities with Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival a couple of years after Splendor was released, but the two are indeed very different films.
Splendor begins with the end - Jordan is forced to close Cinema Splendor because the place can no longer support itself. After the last show, he sits in the empty theater and begins remembering the times when people would line up early to buy tickets to see some of the greatest films ever made.
Jordan also remembers some of the most exciting moments from his life – the days when as a boy he would travel the country together with his father and help him stage outdoor screenings of legendary Hollywood films; meeting Chantal (Marina Vlady, Too Young for Love, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her), the beautiful French dancer, with whom he fell in love; the arrival of the enthusiastic and persistent Luigi (Massimo Troisi, What Time Is It?, Il Postino), his last projectionist.
Jordan also recalls the films that changed his life. He smiles when he remembers the great scenes that inspired him to love and dream. Then he becomes sad because he realizes that with the arrival of television people will never again experience what he did.
Eventually, Jordan realizes that he could have lived his life differently, somewhere else, together with Chantal, whom he always wanted to be free. But would they have been happy? Even though she stayed around and helped him run Cinema Splendor, she was never truly his woman.
Perhaps what Jordan and Chantal shared was the best they could have had because he never truly loved her the way she deserved to be loved. He couldn't have loved her as she wanted him to. Cinema Splendor was his one and only true love and Chantal had realized it. This is way she stayed close to him, until the end. This is why…
Jordan smiles again. Does it really matter? It is all over now. What should or could have been is unimportant. His and Chantal's best years are behind them, Cinema Splendor is closed, times have changed.
It is easy to tell that like Jordan director Scola's one and only true love was cinema. Splendor is a quiet but deeply moving film that often feels like the confession of a man who might have realized that he could have had a different life – not necessarily a more successful one, but a more fulfilling life that he could have shared with someone he could not love as much as he wanted.
Mastroianni's is brilliant as the aging Jordan, who recalls the theater's glory days. Flashbacks from his life are often linked to memorable scenes from timeless films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Jacques Tati's Play Time, Mario Monicelli's The Great War, Vittorio de Sica's Miracle in Milan, Marco Bellechio's Fists in the Pocket, Dino Risi's The Easy Life, and Ermanno Olmi's The Tree of Wooden Clogs among others. The late Troisi and the beautiful Vlady are also excellent.
Splendor was lensed by the great Italian cinematographer Luciano Tovoli, who has worked with such prominent directors as Maurice Pialat (We Won't Grow Old Together), Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger), Dario Argento (Suspiria), and Marco Ferreri (Bye Bye Monkey).
Note: In 1989, Splendor was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Ettore Scola's Splendor arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Gaumont.
I don't have a copy of this film on DVD in my library to compare it to the Blu-ray release, which uses a high-definition transfer that was struck from a newly restored master, but I doubt there are any French or Italian DVD releases that come even remotely close in matching the quality of the presentation.
Generally speaking, detail is pleasing. Obviously, there are certain fluctuations between the black and white flashbacks and the color sequences but they are indeed intended. On the other hand, clarity levels are consistent from start to finish. As it was the case with What Time Is It?, also a film that was lensed by cinematographer Luciano Tovoli and completed in 1989, the prominent colors are soft and warm, and contrast, again, is toned down. Denoising corrections have been performed, but detail has not been compromised. More importantly, there are no traces of post-production attempts to sharpen the image to make the film look contrastier and modern. Unsurprisingly, even though the film looks a bit soft, and a lot of the softness is indeed intended, it still looks like film. Lastly, there are no serious stability issues or other purely transfer related anomalies to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).
There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Gaumont have provided optional English, French, and French SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 handles Armando Trovajoli's score very well, but the film's sound design is fairly modest and there is practically nothing that could potentially excite viewers who like aggressive lossless tracks. Still, the dialog is crisp, stable, clean, and very easy to follow. Background hiss is also eliminated. There are no problematic balance issues or audio dropouts to report in the review either. The English translation is excellent.
"Au cinema, ce soir..." - in this video piece, director Ettore Scola discusses Splendor and its production history. In Italian, with optional French subtitles. (20 min, 1080/50i).
Entretien avec Luciano Tovoli - video interview with cinematographer Luciano Tovoli. In French, not subtitled. (23 min, 1080/50i).
Entretien avec Marina Vlady - video interview with French actress Marina Vlady. In French, not subtitled. (16 min, 1080/50i).
Ettore Scola's Splendor is a lovely film about a man in love with cinema that shares some common themes with Giuseppe Tornatore's award winning Cinema Paradiso. I don't believe there has ever been an official DVD release of it in North America, which is why the Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of French distributors Gaumont, is so easy to recommend. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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