Elio Petri's Black comedy,
LA DECIMA VITTIMA (1965), based on Robert Sheckley's wonderful novella,
The 7th Victim, and starring Marcello Mastroianni, Ursella Andress, and Elsa Martinelli, is a futuristic satire in which war has been been abolished and replaced by The Hunt, a government sanctioned event in which humans hunt each other for monetary prizes and fame, while allowing Society to release its violent tendencies simultaneously. And it's available again on DVD through Russia's Film Prestige.
I watched the All Region NTSC Russian disc last night, which uses an Italian print - with an anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer - and may be the same source as the 2001 US Anchor Bay R1 NTSC disc, though the AB disc appears to be composed just slightly tighter at the top. For example, on the AB disc the MC at Masoch Club has part of his head slightly cropped off, while the Russian disc has just a slight bit more of info on top to avoid the cropping. It's really negligible.
The Russian disc has Italian, English and Russian audio with Russian and English subtitles, while the AB disc Italian and English audio with English subtitles. On the Russian disc, if you choose the Russian audio, it plays over the Italian track simultaneously, so it may be a commentary track, but I don't think so.
On the Russian disc the Italian track is mixed nicely with Piero Piccioni's fabulous score prominent, while the English track is muffled with Piccioni's score buried in the mix. The AB disc is just the reverse with the English being the better of the two mixes.
Since I prefer the mix with Marcello Mastroianni's voice, I prefer the Russian disc for the superior Italian audio mix.
Since the AB disc is OOP, I sold mine online this morning for a nice little sum,
the R0 NTSC Russian disc is a nice alternative. I've seen copies for sale at Amazon.com and Xploited Cinema.
Happy Hunting!
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Topic: 10th Victim / La decima Vittima (Elio Petri, 1965) (Read 11788 times)