You may know rascally, handsome New Wave icon Michel Piccoli from his roles in such important and subversive sixties and seventies films as Contempt, Diary of a Chambermaid, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. But you’ve never seen him command the screen as radically as he does as the lead in Marco Ferreri’s indefinable 1969 film Dillinger Is Dead. This revelation of a movie—coming to home video in the U.S. for the first time ever in a special edition Criterion DVD—features Piccoli in what is practically a one-man show. He plays a dissolute, married gas-mask manufacturer who, over the course of one increasingly bizarre night in his claustrophobic, modern home, seduces his maid, tends to his sick wife, and reminisces with some very strange home movies. To say more about where the famously provocative Ferreri takes you would spoil the film’s surreal surprises. According to a new DVD review in Slant magazine, “A rigorous and oddly zesty freak-out, Dillinger Is Dead remains a startling experience.”
As we had reported a few months ago, and confirming long rumors, the DVD is finally out. You probably know where to but it, I already have my copy. Here's the intro from the Criterion NewsLetter:
You may know rascally, handsome New Wave icon Michel Piccoli from his roles in such important and subversive sixties and seventies films as Contempt, Diary of a Chambermaid, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. But you’ve never seen him command the screen as radically as he does as the lead in Marco Ferreri’s indefinable 1969 film Dillinger Is Dead. This revelation of a movie—coming to home video in the U.S. for the first time ever in a special edition Criterion DVD—features Piccoli in what is practically a one-man show. He plays a dissolute, married gas-mask manufacturer who, over the course of one increasingly bizarre night in his claustrophobic, modern home, seduces his maid, tends to his sick wife, and reminisces with some very strange home movies. To say more about where the famously provocative Ferreri takes you would spoil the film’s surreal surprises. According to a new DVD review in Slant magazine, “A rigorous and oddly zesty freak-out, Dillinger Is Dead remains a startling experience.”
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This is absolutely fantastic news! Koch Lorber will release 8 of Ferreri's films on DVD, hopefully with a chock full of extras, those are so hard to come by. And I will finally get to see Seed of Man! The above program note is from this year's Telluride Festival. The thing is that there's rumors Criterion might make a edition of Dillinger e Morto, since they already got acquired the US rights. This would be awesome. I have a decent copy, but dubbed and with very low sound. And the soundtrack in this film is crucial. The idea of this site is also to create some kind of hub for all people who are intrigued by his work. I'm looking for as many Ferreri films as I can for my research. If you have one, contact me. SuperHappyFun is a fine site to get your hands on some of them. La Cagna (1972), with Mastroianni and Denevue, is next on my list... |