Cheap La Commare Secca - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Bernardo Bertolucci) Price

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Customer Reviews of La Commare Secca - Criterion Collection

The Grim Reaper
I've only seen two Bernardo Bertolucci films (Last Tango in Paris and The Dreamers), but I consider myself a semi-big fan of his. This film, La Commare Secca (which translates to The Grim Reaper), is his debut film with an original story by legendary Italian writer/director Pier Paolo Pasolini. I've only seen one film by Pasolini ("Teorema") but I know that he wrote a few films about prostitutes (Mamma Roma & The Canterbury Tale)...Ironic, since he would be killed by a male prostitute. This movie, which has been frequently compared to a 1950 Japanese movie called Rashomon, tells the story of a prostitute who is murdered near the Tiber River and the interrogations of several people who may (or may not) have been involved in the murder. I don't remember the characters names; but, in the end, this movie is not about characters or even who killed the prostitute. The movie is about the events leading up the murder. It shows the events from several different perspectives and it's fascinating, even though this form of storytelling has been used so many times in the past years it's almost cliche. The movie is still fantastic and enticing; despite the fact that when you find out who the murderer is, it's far from surprising. The black & white photography of the movie works perfectly. If this movie had been filmed in color, it's unlikely it would still look as good. The acting is sometimes over-the-top (or maybe it just looks better in Italian), but the transfer of the film is wonderful. Sound quality and picture quality is superb. I don't think this film is better than the other two Bertolucci efforts I've seen, but it's definitely good without question. <
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>GRADE: B+

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an interesting mystery film.
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. <
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>"La Commare Secca" or "The Grim Reaper" is about police in Italy attemptign to solve the murder of a prostitute in Rome. The police track down and interrogate people who were in the park a at the time and they talk about what they saw through a series of flashbacks. <
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>The film is based on a story by the late Italian director Pier Pasolini and is well written. It has been compared with Rashamon <
>based on it's similar plot. <
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>Unfortunately, an new interview with the director is the only special feature. <
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>This is a good film for someone who enjoyed Rashamon.

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A Young Director Makes A Film That Sticks With You
In the video interview he did for this criterion film release Bertolucci goes to some length on his collaboration with the great director Pier Paolo Pasolini - pointing to 'Accatone' as the birth of cinema. Then when speaking of his own work - he says that it was as if all his efforts were in vain - as the critics judged it as a copy of Pasolini. This judgement is very unfortunate - despite the fact that the story was written by Pasolini and the class of people to which it pertains is Pasolini's beloved lower class - this film has a radically different feeling from anything Pasolini ever did. <
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>I am kind of a bit unsure as to whether this film rates 4 or 5 stars - certainly it is the work of a very young director and lacks the fine tuning of later Bertolucci films. Nevertheless, this film hangs with me like a strange dream and it has proven itself worthy of an excellent rating.