Customer Reviews

Girl With a Suitcase [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved this 60's italian film, but... in my opinion, in this DVD the image's quality is very very poor. Really is shameful. My rate is not 1, is: 0.

You loved her as the truly exotic love interest in "The Pink Panther" (released in 1964), but here you get a chance to see her at her Roman best in this 1960 Italian film (directed by Valerio Zurlini) as she plays a beautiful young woman who, suitcase in hand, follows her ex-lover to Parma. Dressed in billowing skirts and the kind of peasant blouse apparently only found in Italian stores, she follows her ex-lover only to fall in love with his adolescent brother. This is a well-designed and planned DVD of high quality and my only problem is with two other reviews that claim to have seen this particular release (Ivy Video) but note its poor quality; I suspect they have their distributors mixed becase unlike other releases of less qualtity, this DVD is not dubbed but subtitled, something that when watching Miss Cardinale perform is very, very necessary. Although a great beauty with eventual roles in French, Italian, British, and American films, she never reached the heights of popularity associated with Gina Lollobrigida or Sophia Loren. Too bad! Of the three, in my opinion, she's the sexiest and the most fun of the lot.

"Girl With a Suitcase" is a relatively obscure Italian film from 1960. Claudia Cardinale stars as Aida, a small-time club singer with somewhat questionable morals. She is first seen traveling to Parma with her flashy current boyfriend. When the boyfriend abandons her at a garage, she tries to track him down in Parma. Instead, she finds his 16-yead-old brother, Lorenzo (Jaques Perrin). She starts an unusual relationship with him, and her motives remain unclear, which is the source of the drama. The film is generally interesting and well-acted - worthy of 4 stars; it even received a nomination for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

Unfortunately, as has been noted by a previous reviewer, the DVD transfer is abysmal. The print quality is particularly bad - early scenes are almost completely bleached out and later scenes are extremely dark, as though everyone is in shadows. In addition, only a full-screen version is available, which results in several important conversations whereby only one person is visible on-screen. Finally, the original Italian version with subtitles is not offered - this DVD is dubbed into English. The sound and dubbing are decent, but the actors all end up sounding rather flat and non-descript. It's really sad when a worthwhile movie is so poorly transferred. The DVD also has no extras.

This film is available on dvd from more than one company. This "Saturday Matinee" edition is missing approximately fifteen minutes, its visually quality is poorer, and the subtitles are less well done. The "No Shame" edition comes as a box set of two Valerio Zurlini films (the other is "Violent Summer," 1959)and contains several important scenes lacking in the "Saturday Matinee" edition.

"Girl with a suitcase" is perhaps the first film that we would label as the Italian answer to the emerging French New Wave. Regarding the moral codes at those times, the script describes the agonic desperation of an alluring woman in pursuit of her pretended happiness. Although her efforts are unfruitful, the bother of his lover tries to give her advices and consolation, but the fatality hovers that cloudy atmosphere, leaving her with just an exit door.

Valerio Zurlini (1926-1982) was one of the most mature and relevant Italian directors of his generation. He always a very low profile and his real artistic motivations always turned around the edge conditions in the human being, trapped into the well web of lies and no sense hopes signed and remarked by an understandable conviction based on twisted illusions of better and sunny horizons.

Claudia Cardinale meant for the Italian Cinema what Anna Karina for the Frenchmen, the beauty and naïve girl who always falls in love with the wrong guy, defying all kind of precepts or even good advices. Both of them were perfect for those roles in which the lost innocence and the missing faith prevailed in the social ambiance.

You really should not miss this one, as part of an important item into the evolution of the Italian cinema in those ages.

This may be a good movie but one's enjoyment of it is destroyed by the transfer. I don't know about the USA but Britain has consumer protection laws as does Australia & Canada. Dvds of such appalling quality as this should not be allowed to be sold. This is worse than the worst pirated videos I've seen. I'm not blaming Amazon, but why isn't this Koch transfer in the same legal class as pirated videos? People shouldn't be allowed to charge people for such a product. I haven't seen such terrible video resolution since 1st generation mobile phone videos! I'm binning my copy as I wouldn't inflict in on anyone else.

I love the movie but other agree the quality is quiet bad,in parts pices of the film are cut off at the edges the film is also bubbled into english wich is a shame sinse you dont really get the feeling of the actors as you would if it was in italian, The movie is quiet good girl(Aida) is left by her boyfriend and goes in search of him only to fall in love with his younger brother(lorenzo), this relationship is not accepted by his guardian and his teacher a local priest, her former boyfriend vertually disapears in the film and deals with Aida and Lorenzo relationship. One of the beast seens is when Lorenzo goes and looks for Aida at her hotel to find her in a party, good movie BAD quality

"Girl with a Suitcase" is an interesting film that draws us into two very different characters. One is a world-wise "singer" who took some time off from her occupation to follow a young playboy. The other is the slightly underage brother of that playboy whose innocence contrasts nicely with the singer. "Girl with a Suitcase" is a very mature and somewhat complex film that can generally fit into the "coming of age" film category. What seperates GWAS from the others in that genre is the maturity of the two individuals. There isn't a lot of silliness in the film and the path the relationship takes is uneven. The mature person acts accordingly as does the immature person. We may not enjoy the developments but that is because we are used to predictible outcomes in these sorts of movies. This is not a great film but it is a movie worth watching. I judge from the other reviews that not many liked the transfer on the DVD. I didn't see anything wrong with what I was watching (that is unless it wasn't supposed to be B&W).