USA: Plot of Fear from Raro in May

[MarcMorris]

On May 22 2012 Raro Video will issue Paolo Cavara's Plot of Fear (E tanta paura, 1976) on DVD.

Reminiscent of Eyes Wide Shut and told through ingenious flashbacks, Plot of Fear tells the story of a decadent weekend party full of orgies and drugs on the outskirts of Milan. After two deaths occur Inspector Lomenzo (Michele Placido) interrogates one of the guests, a fashion model (Corninne Clery) who becomes his informant. Clery reveals that after a “wildlife orgy”one of the hosts tried to jokingly feed one of the prostitutes to a tiger but she got so frightened that she dies of heart attack. In his attempt to find a connection between the victims a connection is established through what is soon to be the killers calling card.

Special Features

• Interview with Enrico Oldoini (screenwriter)
• Interview with Pietro Cavara (son of Paolo Cavara)
• Interview with Michele Placido (actor)
• New and Improved English subtitles / New HD Transfer and digitally restored
• BONUS ROM Content: A PDF fully illustrated booklet containing critical analysis of the film by Chris Alexander, Fangoria Magazine

DVD: amazon.com

[Harold Monroe]

looking forward to finally seeing a good quality version of this one. its gone awfully quiet on the giallo front recently

[Blink]

looking forward to finally seeing a good quality version of this one. its gone awfully quiet on the giallo front recently

I thought there was a good quality version out before of this one ?

[unclefred]

I've never seen this one so this is good.

[Blink]

Here is part of a review of the release from 30th October 2006.

http://film.thedigitalfix.com/conten...t-of-fear.html

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the transfer is non-anamorphic and looks decidedly soft throughout. The contrast level is also all wrong, with the blacks looking far too grey, although the noticeably desaturated colours are probably a stylistic choice. The image is certainly watchable, and I've seen gialli look far worse on DVD, but it's disappointing nonetheless, and is likely to frustrate viewers with widescreen displays.

Audio comes in both Italian and English flavours, with optional English subtitles. Unfortunately, the volume of the English track is noticeably lower than that of the Italian, and sounds a lot more strained, at times making the dialogue difficult to follow, while the Italian track seems to drift slightly out of sync with the video at various points.

The subtitles correspond to the Italian dialogue, and on numerous occasions reveal differences in the translation: the Fauna Lovers' Club, for example, is translated as the Wildlife Friends in the English dub. The text is grammatically correct and easy to follow, although the timing is at times a little off, and it contains a couple of rather bizarre errors, such as Eli Wallach's character being referred to as "Mr. Struwwel", despite the fact that his name can clearly be heard as Riccio on both audio tracks.