[.ca] Two Women - DVD

Amazon.com Essential Video:
Sophia Loren won a much-deserved Academy Award for her performance in this 1960 classic by neo-realist filmmaker Vittorio de Sica. A last-minute substitute for Anna Magnani, Loren reached deep within her own memories of wartime experiences for her portrait of a widow struggling to survive in battle-scarred Italy along with a teenage daughter (Eleonora Brown). The film begins with both women sharing romantic feelings toward a young man (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a story line disrupted by the ravages of World War II and the horrifying rape of both mother and daughter in a church by Allied Moroccan soldiers. The aftermath of this atrocity finds both characters dealing with even more, varying shades of grief, as the war seems to sap all that they had treasured and leaves them with only the bare bones of their emotional and physical survival. De Sica's capacity to render tragedy both with the starkest of strokes and the most delicate of emotions has never been more impressive than in this film, and Loren's shatteringly honest portrayal is a watershed in movie history. --Tom Keogh

The Good and Bad Recordings of a Great Film:
This is a general review of all releases of this film on VHS and DVD as November 13, 2003, with specific technical comments on each individual release. The Bottom Line: There seem to be no acceptable DVDs or videos of this movie in the original Italian with subtitles. There seems to be at least one acceptable DVD and video of the film dubbed in English. With two exceptions all DVD and VHS releases of this movie as of November 13, 2003 are dubbed versions. The two exceptions are the VHS and DVD releases of the film by Madacy Entertainment. The quality of the Madacy releases, however, leaves much to be desired, to put it mildly. REVIEW OF ITALIAN-LANGUAGE RELEASES: I own the Madacy VHS tape of this movie and it looks and sounds like a fourth-generation copy of a much-used rental tape. I purchased it before the advent of DVD, when there was no other choice. The Madacy DVD has been reviewed in Doug Pratt's DVD-Video Guide (and can also be read at the DVDLaser.com web site). His description of the failings of Madacy's edition of this movie is not unlike my experience with Madacy's DVD of the Shirley Temple film "The Little Princess"--particurly, the thin tinny audio in which the sound often disappears. Possibly, the Madacy DVD of "Two Women" is simply a transcription of the worn-out Madacy VHS tape. Needless to say, I now avoid all Madacy products. DVD RELEASES DUBBED IN ENGLISH: LaserLight, the wonderful budget company which has issued so many DVDs of the early Hitchcock films, has a good transfer of the dubbed version of this movie onto DVD. That version is still in the catalogue. I have not viewed the recent DVD issue by Delta Entertainment. However, I know that LaserLight became a Delta Entertainment label not too long ago. Thus, the Delta product may be identical to the earlier release from LaserLight. When amazon announced the Koch DVD of this movie, I lost no time in pre-ordering it. I also lost no time in returning it unopened, because the cover proclaimed it to be both dubbed and colorized. VHS RELEASES DUBBED IN ENGLISH: The available VHS tapes are from the same manufacturers as the DVDs and presumably have the same characteristics. Except for the horrible Madacy VHS tape, I haven't watched them. WHY WE HAVE THIS PROBLEM: The problem with this movie is that the studio allowed the copyright to lapse. Hence, anyone can reissue it now. As a result, the big studios who turn out quality DVD's won't touch it, because the backstreet editions will dilute their profits. The backstreet DVD factories either do a horrible job or think there's more profit to be made by dubbing or colorizing the film in the hope of making it infinitesimally more palatable to the huge movie audience which would never watch, let alone buy, a 40-year-old Italian art film no matter what you did to it. Fortunately for us, this did not stop Artisan (in cooperation with Republic Pictures) from issuing an excellent DVD of Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," which was in the same fix. Perhaps Artisan or MGM, which has made a practice of offering inexpensive but excellent DVDs of classic foreign movies, will someday rescue this film. I hope so. "Two Women" does not have quite the drawing power of the Capra perennial, but one can hope. It is very unfortunate that "Two Women" (in Italian: "La Ciociara") is in this fix, because it is an absolutely wonderful film, sensitive and ironic, full of drama, great acting, great directing, and great cinematography. Sophia Loren even received the best actress Oscar for 1961, very rare for a foreign-language film. In summary: if you want a decent Italian-language DVD or video of this movie, you are out of luck for the moment. If you wish a recording dubbed in English, then those from LaserLight should satisfy you, and the Delta Entertainment recordings are probably identical to the ones from Laserlight. A WORD OF CAUTION: Apparently, reviews for one release of a film in the on-line catalogue are automatically copied to other releases of the film. This is usually not a problem when the film has been released by only one manufacturer, because then the quality can be assumed to be reasonably uniform accross products. But in a case like "Two Women," where there are so many different releases because it is no longer protected by copyright, this need not be true. Thus, unless a review you read for a release of this particular film identifies the manufacturer in the review, the comments about the quality of the recording may not be relevant.

WAIT FOR A PROPER DVD:
This is absolutely the worst DVD transfer of all time. Beware: it's a VHS tape put onto DVD, and what looks like a fourth-generation tape at that. If you haven't seen this incredible film, wait. They'll have to come out with a proper DVD at some point. This one is painful. Please don't support releases like this by purchasing this DVD.

JUNK!!! This movie deserves much better!!!:
Sad,sad,sad!!! What a great movie!!! But what a crappy DVD!!! SLP vhs tapes look better. A complete waste of money!!! This film deserves much better!!! YUCK!!!

Great movie, terrible DVD:
This review is about the DVD by KOCH Vision. Oh, boy! The movie is of 1961, but I have seen better quality TAPES by early Charlie Chaplin. Not just KOCH spent no time cleaning and re-mastering the original, it also seems that they have used the worst original available. On the top of it, the box says it's black and white - what a lie! It is, actually, green and yellow. What else? I could not move further then the scene 8, then the picture stalls, surrounded by yellow squares. My advice - do not buy this one, just waste of money!

A Powerful Film...An Unacceptable Video Transfer:
'Two Women' is a stark film from the neo-realism school that still packs a solid punch. Sophia Loren plays a beautiful widow who seeks to protect her teenage daughter from the ravages of World War II Rome. She's proud, opinionated, but protective and loving toward her daughter Rosetta. The two women flee to the widow's village, where they meet an idealistic young man to whom they are both attracted. The tragic events occur quite late in the film, but by the time they do, we really know who these characters are, making the film extremely powerful. Loren looks stunning and acts wonderfully, but all the actors in the film are wonderful as well. But Loren had (and still has) that quality that makes her the center of all attention every time she is on-screen. A stunning actress in a stunning role. I cannot finish this review without commenting on the abysmal video transfer to DVD. This is without a doubt the worst looking and sounding DVD I have ever seen since the medium was invented. I wish Sophia Loren would sue this video company for the travesty they have done to this fine film. How in the world with all the technology at our disposal can such a poor product be released on the market? I only hope a proper version can be released soon. This is criminal. 99 minutes