Fernando Di Leo: The Italian Crime Collection: Vol. 2 [Blu-ray]

Picture/sound/subtitles...everything so much better than the previous DVD release.Following their release of an excellent quartet of films by crime film specialist Fernando Di Leo, Raro Video follows up with three more solid efforts from a director now far more popular (a highly regarded and well-known director, anyway) than he was in his heyday. The films are presented chronologically, though that may not be the best for newcomers to watch them; instead, try them in reverse order and the results will probably be a lot more satisfying.First up: Di Leo's savage final film (although it was his directorial debut - he was previously a screenwriter) of the 1960s, Naked Violence, a combination of delinquent teen potboiler and cop procedural. The opening credits are barely underway before we're confronted with the image of a schoolteacher being sexually assaulted and murdered in the classroom by her pupils, and it's up to who, until now was resigned to the ways of the world, Inspector Liberti (The Cat o' Nine Tails), to grill the youths and find out who was in charge of the crime. An empty bottle of psychotropic (dosed) booze was found at the scene ("If a kid touches a drop, he's drunk... this burns your nervous system"), and each teen protests his innocence and claims he was a helpless bystander, refusing to buckle even when they're forced to sit in a wooden chair soaked in liquor. Liberti manages to pinpoint one "different" boy who could be the weak link and teams up with a social worker, Livia (giallo regular Scott with a weird hairdo), to find out whether someone else goaded the boys into the attack.Dark, oppressive, and brutal, this is an angry film tempered by some welcome touches of melodrama. In the Pasolini tradition, many of the kids on the screen were apparently real-life juvenile offenders, which lends the film an extra layer of queasy realism. There's also more edgy content on display than you'd probably expect, with intimations of drug abuse and prostitution, though the big reveal at the end leaves a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth and might put off some viewers. What definitely works is the atmosphere, a fetid world in which much is shot in queasy close ups with a climactic flashback (the assault) almost too intense to watch. It's a very gritty film with a murky aesthetic throughout, but the Blu-Ray looks terrific, compared to DVD from way back. The Italian and English tracks are presented in LPCM 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles (translated from the Italian version, not "dubtitles"). The Italian track is really the way to go as it matches the actors' performances and feels much more natural, while the English one is incomplete (with Italian subbed passages inserted for the missing dialogue) and features a weird mishmash of flat American and cockney English accents.The first video extra is "Those Good Fellas" (amusingly and erroneously listed as "Goodfellas" on the packaging), an 18-minute video interview with Capponi, Di Leo (in vintage footage), Maurizio Colombo, Luca Crovi, and Franco Lo Cascio, with Capponi getting the vast majority of the running time as he runs down his own experiences with Di Leo on both this and future films. "Fernando Di Leo at the Cinematheque" offers a 15-minute chat with Jean-Francois Rauger of the Cinematheque Francaise and programmer Olivier Pere about Di Leo's place in the canon of Italian cult figures being rediscovered including their personal favorites and the perspectives on Italian society they present.Next up is one of the rarest and best of Di Leo's cop epics, Shoot First, Die Later, the only one previously released by Raro on Blu-Ray. This is the seedy story of a cop named Dominic (Torso's Luc Merenda), a lieutenant who isn't above taking some money from crime rings. Figuring the system is a compromise anyway, he makes occasional token busts but doesn't do much to tee off the syndicate members, first seen blowing out the shins and kneecaps of some unfortunate underlings in the brutal opening scene. Dominic keeps a respectable front on for his proud dad (Randone) when he isn't dealing with Spanish thugs in bowling alleys and slipping money back and forth on the side with Sicilian thugs. He also finds a girlfriend in Sandra (Tentacles' Boccardo), who seems to have a rooting interest in furthering his career. Unfortunately when the mobsters force Dominic to "lose" a crucial police report from his dad, his time on the take might be coming to an end.Shoot First, Die Later was made at the height of Di Leo's directorial powers, in between his other better known films like The Boss and Rulers of the City. It's also the darkest and most cynical of his crime films: an antihero who anticipates the corrupt pair at the heart of Reggero Deodatto's classic, the 1976 Live like a Cop, Die like a Man. It's strikingly similar to William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A., ten years later. The only complaint is a final text postscript, added to appease the censors( a "crime doesn't pay" message), This also marked the first time Di Leo worked with Merenda, a reliable action star; they immediately hit it off and would reunite again. As usual he's good here, playing a role that might have been completely reprehensible in another actor's hands. He really has to anchor the film from start to finish, with great support coming from a pulsating music score by genre regular Luis Bacalov.Perhaps due to its dark nature, this film was distributed far less widely than most Italian cop movies at the time. The image quality is extremely good. The opening titles look a generation or so softer than the rest of the film, presumably because of the opticals involved, and the colors and detail look very good given the fact that this isn't the prettiest movie in the world. Audio is presented in PCM two-channel mono in both English and Italian; either one works, really, since it's lopped either way. Merenda appears to be speaking almost all of his lines in English along with some of the other cast, while others were speaking Italian. The English dub features many familiar voices from '70s Italian cinema (Argento fans will be amused!), while the Italian track is definitely classier and a bit more natural. The one black mark is the optional English subtitles, which are basically "dubtitles" instead of a direct translation of the Italian dialogue.The most substantial of the extras is a pair of new featurettes courtesy of Nocturno Cinema (who created some of Raro's best extras). "Master of the Game" (24 minutes) and "The Second Round of the Game" (21 minutes) feature a taped interview with Di Leo (probably dating back to the late director's work on the other Raro titles), interspersed with comments from critics and colleagues. The focus here is really his entire crime cycle, with film clips illustrating his views on both filmmaking and the Italian criminal justice system. Also included are the Italian and English theatrical trailers and a substantial liner notes booklet (which barely mentions the other two films in the set) including an introduction about the film's connection to William McGivern's novel Rogue Cop, notes about the production and cast, an essay on legendary stuntman turned actor, Gilberto Galimberti, and a fascinating piece about a thwarted project Di Leo was going to make with his idol (and French counterpart), French crime director, Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samurai). Imagine what could've been.The third film in the set and probably the most under appreciated, Kidnap Syndicate, with Merenda returning (just after his starring roles in Gambling City and the giallo Puzzle). Here he plays a gun-toting vigilante instead of a cop courtesy of the role of Mario, a widower motorcycle mechanic who's raising his young son, Fabrizio (Liofredi). The two have a good rapport together, and Fabrizio is such a good kid he even steps in when one of his much richer classmates, Antonio, is abducted by thugs in ski masks. Unfortunately they toss Fabrizio in the car, too, and wind up holding both boys for an exorbitant ransom to be paid by Antonio's parents, the Filippinis (Mason and Cortese). When the police prove to be unhelpful and the situation takes a violent turn, Mario is forced to take matters into his own hands -- even if it means mowing down criminals in a hail of bullets.A crackerjack action film in its own right, Kidnap Syndicate is special in Di Leo's filmography for the unusual emotional foundation laid over the first half of the story. Merenda really gets to stretch here in one of his finest roles as a blue collar dad forced into extreme circumstances beyond his control, and though he doesn't have much screen time, the icy Mason and always excellent Cortese are perfectly cast and give their roles some much-needed gravitas. Obviously the set up is a throwback to Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (and the Ed McBain source novel - more so, even), but the plot twists are very different and the second half is pure Italian crime: motorcycle chases and some very violent shootings. It's an impressive balance of thrills and substance, and while we once again have a slightly tacked-on bit of morality tacked on at the very end (via a sound effect), it's clear where the audience's sympathies are supposed to lie.Originally released on Italian DVD by Raro, Kidnap Syndicate (and the rest on this set) look amazing on bluray. Audio is again presented in LPCM mono in Italian and English (with optional English subs for the Italian version), but this time it's a toss up over which one is preferable. The English dub is well done and Mason speaks with his own voice (in synch, mostly), but the Italian one is generally more legit for the aficionado. Heck, try 'em both. Extras include: the 28-minute "Violent Cities: The Other Fernando Di Leo Trilogy" features Merenda, producer Armando Novelli, the beautiful Euroslease icon, Dagmar Lassander(!) and editor Amedeo Giomini discussing working with Di Leo (who also shows up briefly over the closing credits), with Merenda (who, not surprisingly, gets most of the coverage) sharing some effective anecdotes about drawing on his own personal tragedies. Included are some clips from Nick the Sting, which will hopefully come along in Volume 3 (please!)A great collection for Di Leo's hardcore fans.

Definitely worth the $30. Kidnap Syndicate is awesome too. Haven’t seen Naked Violence

No one did it like the Italians!

I own volume one of this collection of Fernando Di Leo on blu ray, which has much better movies. Even so, this one will be a must purchase for lovers of Italian cinema. Raro releases are by the far the best Italian dvds and blu-rays I have seen, and this one has an extra for each of the three films (usually a making of documentary, but there are a couple of more extras). The image quality and sound are phenomenal, and even the worst of these movies fascinates simply because of the pacing and cinematography. Luc Merenda is always great in these movies -- a top notch actor. Highly recommended.

Awesome box set of some classic Italian cop films. Maybe not as memorable as the Lenzi or Castellari cop movies, but these are great contenders and for the price, you absolutely cannot go wrong.

While not really beeing quite as awesome as the first volume the second one still comes highly recomended. Both newcomers and genre fans should definitely check out this collection of Fernando Di Leo crime titles. These are great blu-ray releases of great movies and for a good price at that.If you love these kind of swinging 70's crime movies from italy you should most definitely pick both this and the first volume up. This is a great buy!

these films combine cuteness and violence the way only the Italians seem to be able to do.The combination of the old man with the kitties in a basket setting off violent murder in"shoot first die later" was priceless.the other two films were also violent and memorable(and bizarre).

5 stars

irrinunciabile per tutti gli appassionati del genere e del grande Fernando Di Leo , blu ray compatibili con i nostri lettori

If you enjoyed the first boxset this is definitely worth picking up.

A must for any Eurocrime fan. Great transfers, look great.

volume 2 is good , but the volume 1; is the movie like milano calibro 9; IL Boss ,ect. you should not mist the 4 movie are very good .i give five stars ;