{"id":27755,"date":"2024-01-03T02:16:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T10:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=27755"},"modified":"2024-01-03T02:16:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T10:16:47","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-facts-of-murder-1959","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=27755","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE FACTS OF MURDER (1959)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This film is currently available as a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d\nBlu-ray from Radiance Films.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the name of Italian filmmaker Pietro Germi may not be\nas familiar to North American audiences as contemporaries Vittorio De Sica (Umberto\nD., Bicycle Thieves<\/em>) or Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 8 1\/2<\/em>), it\ncertainly should be. Over the course of his career, this movie-maker and\nscreenwriter awards for his work, including an Oscar for the 1961 feature\nDivorce Italian Style and the Palme D\u2019or at Cannes for the 1966 effort, The\nBirds, the Bees and the Italians<\/em>. And while those pictures took home\ntrophies, many other features were just as good. Radiance Films has decided to\nshine a light on one of these efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Facts of Murder<\/em> (1959) is an exceptional crime\nmovie that manages to deliver the mystery movie goods while adopting Italian\nneorealism elements from his other titles of the era. It works incredibly well.\nThe Rome featured in this movie feels authentic as do gritty locations like the\npolice precinct. In addition, the cops are entertainingly gruff and it all\nmoves at a brisk and compelling rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After jewelry is stolen from the apartment of Commendatore\nAnzaloni (Ildebrando Santafe), cops are ushered to the scene to begin an\ninvestigation. The memorably sharp, cigar-chomping Inspector Ciccilo Ingravallo\n(played by director Pietro Germi) is initially drawn to a neighbor\u2019s servant,\nAssuntina (Claudia Cardinale) and her boyfriend Diomede (Nino Castelnuovo), but\nthe woman\u2019s employer Liliana Banducci (Eleonora Rossi Drago) is able to provide\nan alibi. Strangely enough, Liliana is murdered the following week and\nIngravallo must determine if the two crimes are connected. As he grills various\nsuspects in case, he discovers sordid details about a cousin named Valderena\n(Franco Fabrizi) who discovered the body, and the woman\u2019s own widower husband\nRemo (Claudio Gora).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned, the standard mystery being unraveled isn\u2019t\nshockingly different from other genre titles. However, the cops are wonderful\nto watch as they use every trick imaginable to get suspects to open up and\nreveal secrets about their lives. Germi is actually a great actor and\nentertaining on-screen personality. Ingravallo is initially friendlier than his\ncohorts, often apologizing for his lines of questioning and allowing the\ninterviewee to open up and suggest that they aren\u2019t nervous about being a suspect.\nThat\u2019s just about the time when the protagonist asks them to do something they\nwouldn\u2019t have agreed to earlier. It\u2019s fun to watch him toy with the nervous\nsuspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another great laugh comes when one person secretly watches\nthe inspector walk away after a grilling. Despite having his back to the\nindividual, the knowing Ingravallo raises his hand and waves goodbye to the\nperson. Germi looks to be having a great time as the cop. It\u2019s also a blast to\nsee some of the procedural methods used in the film by police. The\ninvestigators hide camera and film attendees at the victim\u2019s funeral, then\ndevelop and watch the footage as it is run through a projector. These little touches\nare wonderful to see and really make the movie stand out. And when the various\nsecrets and identity of the killer is finally revealed, it is paid of well with\na nice dramatic sting.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this title is a Blu-ray, the black and white picture\nquality is stunning. This reviewer has a large TV and 4K Ultra HD set up, and\nthe new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative looks miraculous.\nThe image is incredibly sharp and the film has far more detail that one would\nanticipate. There\u2019s plenty of moody lighting with inky black areas. And as\nmentioned, one can see all the in the dilapidated areas. The rundown police\nstation really stands out and the viewer\u2019s eye will constantly be checking out\nall of the imperfections on the walls. All of it looks incredible and this\nreviewer was floored by the transfer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The extras included are very enlightening as well. These\npieces don\u2019t only go over this feature, but Germi\u2019s entire career. There\u2019s an\ninterview with an Italian movie critic who goes over the many titles in his\ncareer. An archival documentary from 2005 is also included and it features\nplenty of interviews with collaborators from his various films and a few\nfriends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the more curious details about Germi was his aloof\nmanner and working style. Most called the filmmaker difficult to read. Those he\nwrote the script with state that days would go by with them pitching ideas and\nways to handle the approach to story, scene and character. The director would\noften sit silently and would give very short and succinct reactions to them.\nAll of the screenwriters found it a bit jarring at first, but soon realized\nthat his unusual process actually works. Several commented that while the\nwriting process was more drawn out, the end products had perfect story\nstructure and that almost everything was shot entirely as written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s also a funny tale about a Hollywood filmmaker who\nwas desperate to meet Germi while visiting. Their disastrous encounter is\nnoted, with Germi barely speaking to the director and essentially behaving the\nsame way that he did in screenwriting sessions. The filmmaker later stated that\ndespite Germi being, well, detached and boring in person, he still greatly\nadmired him and his cinematic works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also a video essay detailing Italian film noir. This\ntitle is included in that definition, although it doesn\u2019t share all of the same\ncharacteristics as American film noir. The featurette does an excellent job of\nmaking comparisons between several US and Italian efforts, also explaining what\nbits Italian filmmakers would borrow from their Hollywood counterparts and what\nwould be left behind. It\u2019s an interesting bonus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While this reviewer is familiar with some of Germi\u2019s other\nworks, The Facts of Murder<\/em> was a new discovery. It\u2019s a very enjoyable\nmystery with great characters and some gorgeous photography. Indeed, Germi\u2019s\nwork needs to be discovered by more North American viewers and this fantastic\nBlu-ray will certainly help. Classic film fans will definitely want to pick it\nup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This film is currently available as a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray from Radiance Films. While the name of Italian filmmaker Pietro Germi may not be as familiar to North American audiences as contemporaries Vittorio De Sica (Umberto D., Bicycle Thieves) or Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 8 1\/2), it certainly should be. Over the course of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[88,2928,2933,3073,4495,4910,7528,10042,14523,14674,16089,16214,16584,20642,20643,20644],"class_list":["post-27755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-88","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-blasts-from-the-past-2","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-claudia-cardinale","tag-crime","tag-film-noir","tag-italy","tag-mystery","tag-neorealism","tag-pietro-germi","tag-police-procedural","tag-radiance-films","tag-the-facts-of-murder","tag-the-facts-of-murder-blu-ray-review","tag-the-facts-of-murder-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}