News and Reviews of Mya Communication DVDs. A new Italian based company, Mya has established a steady release schedule in the United States of euro films in various genres.
A 1992 film (Italian title: AL CALAR DELLA SERA), directed by Alessandro Lucidi. According to one Italian website, the film "mixes eroticism, violence and, partly, rape and revenge." The film stars Daniela Poggi (LAST ORGY OF THE THIRD REICH, THE LAST HAREM, etc.):
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A Spanish-Italian erotic comedy (Italian title: SETTE RAGAZZE PERICOLOSE) directed by Pedro Lazaga and written by Tulio Demicheli. From 1978, by which time Spain allowed nudity in their theatrical releases. The plot summary on the IMDB: "Seven female friends decide to play an erotic game. They try to seduce as many aristocrats and middle-class men as possible by their charming personalities." The film stars Spain's "Sophia Loren"--Nadiuska:
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I'm particularly looking forward to this 1965 film, directed by Umberto Lenzi and based on a novel by Emilio Salgari (1862-1911), one of the world's most renowned adventure authors (though nearly completely unknown in America).
Originally titled LA MONTAGNA DI LUCE (U.S. title: TEMPLE OF A THOUSAND LIGHTS), the adventure film was shot in Techniscope, but if Mya uses a 2007 Italian DVD release from Cecchi Gori Home Video as their source, the presentation may be in 1.85:1. Cover of the Cecchi Gori Home Video:
I've been intrigued by this film ever since I acquired several relatively hot stills from it about a dozen years or so ago. Never had an opportunity to view the film until now, with the release by Mya of SATAN'S WIFE, a re-title of the English version, RING OF DARKNESS. The Italian title is UN OMBRA NELL'OMBRA, which, according to my limited Italian assistance from a translation program, can be translated as A SHADOW WITHIN A SHADOW.
Any Italian film from the 1970s that contains satanism and nude female practitioners is deserving of innate curiosity and potential appreciation. UN OMBRA NELL'OMBRA (1977) has its faults, but is intriguing enough, and has moments of pure devilish exploitation going for it, to make the film notable and worthy of some background research.
Pier Carpi (1940-2000) only directed two films (UN OMBRA and POVERO CRISTO), but had a substantial resume in the arts, with work in fumetti (comics), including the Italian versions of Mickey Mouse, Batman, and Superman. He created and wrote for the fumetti HORROR, and had a hand in the renowned DIABOLIK publication. His creative wings also embraced authorship, and he won various literary and journalism awards in his career. Carpi had an interest in esoteric, satanic and religious subjects, as exemplified by such works as LE SOCIETA SEGRETE (THE SECRET SOCIETIES), I MERCANTI DELL'OCCULTO (MERCHANTS OF THE OCCULT), RASPUTIN ULTIMO PROFETA (RASPUTIN THE LAST PROPHET) CAGLIOSTRO (which was made into a film in 1974 by Daniele Pettinari). UN OMBRA NELL'OMBRA is, in fact, based on a book of his that appeared a couple of years before the book's filming began, although the script may have been developed first, as the IMDB mentions, accurately or not, that Carpi had tried to get the story filmed in the 1960s, without generating interest from financial backers until William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST became a mega world-wide hit. (No doubt the popularity of THE OMEN also had a hand in the making of the Carpi film.)
One judges that Carpi had some difficulty in putting into his film all the important ingredients of the book, as the film traverses a choppy narrative, with seemingly important characters turning up to then, inexplicably, never be seen or referenced to again. One is led to believe that "The Professor," played with sleazy charm by Ian Bannen, will be a pivotal presence in the film, as we see him philosophize about good and evil while teaching chess and underlining the symbolic nuances of the white and black pieces. He then makes a couple of relatively important appearances soon thereafter, but after the Devil chases him away, he is never seen again. Frank Finlay's appearance as "Frank" is curiously brief and inexplicable. John Philip Law turns up as a priest who is about to renounce the priesthood, but he, too, is around for a limited time and then gone.
If one can gather something about the novel without having read it, one senses a treatise/meditation on good and evil, Catholicism and Satanism, and, in particular, the lonely angst of women inhabiting a shadowy world within the shadows. The film touches on these points, but doesn't underline them in the whole, an intellectual deficit that leaves the viewer somewhat unfulfilled. If Carpi's book were available in an English translation (it isn't), one could read the source and fill in the substantive gaps. This is denied us and will probably always be, unless Carpi becomes a cult figure whose works will necessitate translation.
Because of holes in the plot, the back copy of the Mya, written by someone with panache, presents a welcome, informative synopsis:
"Four beautiful young women surrender to the fiendishly charm of Lucifer himself. But their nights of unholy pleasure have a price: they can't have sex with other men, for the Lord of Darkness is a very jealous lover indeed. The otherworldly fruits of these bestial couplings go by the names of Almarisa and Daria. While the former starts to loathe herself as soon as she realizes who her father really is, the latter perversely learns how to enjoy her devilish skills to wreak havoc in the human world. To put an end to her hellish endeavours, a very unlikely exorcist is enlisted."
(By the way, I love the end ballyhoo of the back copy text: "Long sought after lost classic of Italian psychotronic horror genre, SATAN'S WIFE features some of the weirdest scenes ever committed in films. Ripe with fleshy sex babes, blood, gore, bizarre visuals and otherworldly rituals, this lost nugget of exploitation was unearthed from the deepest vaults of forbidden cinematic pleasures.")
The film has an impressive international cast--Anne Heywood, Lara Wendel, Valentina Cortese, Irene Papas, Ian Bannen, Frank Finlay, John Philip Law, Marisa Mell.... One wonders if some in this cast were not only seduced by the money offered to them, but by the possibility of making a supernatural film with deeper intellectual elements than what would have been the norm in those days.
The exploitative nudity in the film didn't touch all the female stars, with a body double being used for Irene Papas. I don't know if this legendary Greek actress, with her fantastic tragic face, ever had a nude scene, but if ever the opportunity presented itself, it was here, in her role as a wealthy woman who, seeking the love of a man, debases herself at night by becoming a common prostitute.
Neither Anne Heywood nor Lara Wendel were strangers to nude scenes, however. What make Wendel's nude scenes noteworthy is that she was around 13 years old when she made them for this film.
I should mention my one casting disappointment--Ezio Miani. Miani, who made only three films in his career, turns up as Lucifer here, but he's not a figure who inspires fright nor remarkableness. (The Lucifer role would have been excellent for someone with such distinct saturnine looks as Ivan Rassimov.)
Despite his limited directing credentials, Pier Carpi handles his assignment very well, helming everything with a sure and smooth hand. Set design is appropriately satanic, with the presence of Luciferian-themed paintings and sculpture that may reflect Capri's own collection or of compatriots that he knew. The music by Stelvio Cipriani has a Dario Argento-ish aura and portions of it were later reused by Cipriani for other scores, including SOLAMENTE NERO (THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW).
Though filmed in 1977, UN OMBRA NELL'OMBRA had to wait two years to see release in Italy. I don't know if the film ever had a release in the United States, but if so, it probably happened in limited play in grindhouse theaters. The film was certainly missing from the catalogs of U.S. video companies during the heyday of video and because of that it became a lukewarm holy grail among American euro-cult aficionados.
Mya's presentation is sourced from a video element. Though overall the element seems to be in fine shape (I noticed only one video-sourced flicker), pixelation will be noticeable from time to time in black areas. The biggest problem in not having access to an original print element is that scenes in the dark or in shadows are difficult to fully make out, which in the case of UN OMBRA NELL'OMBRA is unfortunate. As a plus, the Mya DVD is in anamorphic widescreen.
UPDATE: John Bernhard aletred me over at the Latarnia forums that the Mya release is missing a scene: "It's a coven scene where the devil is about to make a new convert, but before he mounts her, the other women converge on Satan and prevent him from taking another initiate." He directed me to a November 2007 post by Johan Melle at the LoveLockAndLoad message board, where we learn exactly what's missing, with screen captures. Good work, Johan!
Incidentally the run-time of the Mya presentation is about 1:27:25. The more complete version, seen on an old Belgian video, runs 87 minutes, PAL time, which when transferred to NTSC speed would be about 90-91 minutes. I agree with the commentary on the LoveLockAndLoad board that there's a good possibility more scenes were shot for the film, but left out at the editing stage.
------------ Poster artwork above: 1) Italian locandina, 2) Turkish poster
I'm working on a review of Mya's latest release, Pier Carpi's SATAN'S WIFE (aka RING OF DARKNESS). Here's preview of part of the film. The Mya release contains English audio, as well as Italian. Quality is about the same as this YouTube clip. Music by Stelvio Cipriani.
The young girl, Daria (Laura Wendel), has increasing Satanic powers, which her mother Carlotta (Anne Heywood), one of Satan's brides, wishes to temper. Marisa Mell, as a black arts adept, also appears in this preview.
AMORE LIBERO - FREE LOVE (out now on DVD as THE REAL EMANUELLE) is one of those part travelogue, part erotic feature, part mondo films that was a subgenre the Italians crafted on their own, as opposed to borrowing riffs from American, English or German films. (Though one wonders if films like SOUTH PACIFIC and MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY had some impact on the consciousness of these filmmakers.) This 1974 film offers up the carefree native life of the tropical islands, where the stresses of the European white male are eased and finally dissipated by erotic meetings with sexually-open, cheerful island women. Euro-cult queen Laura Gemser disposes of her minimal clothing at every opportunity, while another femme turns up (played by Olga Bisera) who gives Gemser a run for her nude money. But it is Gemser who shines in her debut film role with her open smile, friendly come-on manner, and slinky, sexy body.
For the Javanese beauty, AMORE LIBERO represented her introduction to Italy. A model, her photos had piqued the interest of the producers, who contacted her agency with an invite to do an audition for the forthcoming film. Gemser obviously passed the audition, and soon found herself in Seychelles Islands working with such actors as Enzo Bottesini and Venantino Venantini under the direction of Pier Ludovico Pavoni.
The story has young engineer, Francesco Ferraro (Enzo Bottesini), arriving to Emerald Island to conduct tests that will initiate the building of a silver mine. A previous engineer sent by Francesco's employer has disappeared, ostensibly with an island maiden. Francesco tries to continue his work, while staying with an eccentric white inhabitant, Antoin (Venantino Venantini), who seems to be an unofficial overlord of the place. Even before arriving to the island, Ferroro meets Janine (Laura Gemser), a seductive island girl. On the island, she easily coaxes him into being her lover and the pair become a familiar sight among the natives as Jeanine introduces Francesco to the ways of island life and its people.
While things go along at a sunny erotic pace, the film starts turning strangely dark towards the middle with the introduction of black magic acts. It appears that Antoin is adept at the black arts and using these arts to attain control over what happens on the island and with Francesco.
This is where things get really interesting. A Christian mass held on the ocean, with worshippers arriving by boats, is juxtaposed with a rather revolting, though sickly transfixing mondo scene, the skinning of two bats, one of which is used as a mock-Christ on a cross by Antoin. Hallucinogenics come into play, and the island's white woman Katia (Olga Bisera) dances in a midnight voodoo-type ritual, nude and wild with drugged abandon. Antoin appears as a devilish violinist, further descending the film into the hellish weird. This macabre atmosphere is not perpetual, but its insertion into the plot makes for a far more compelling film than AMORE LIBERO would have been otherwise.
AMORE LIBERO - FREE LOVE was later retitled to THE REAL EMANUELLE to take advantage of Gemser's internationally popular "Black Emanuelle" series. This print carries the AMORE LIBERO - FREE LOVE credits.
Mya's presentation is one of their most problematic. Sourced from an obvious video element (there are a couple of tape rolls during the beginning credit sequence), the presentation is of bootleg video quality, with a lack of clarity and too murky for many scenes shot with shadows and darkness in play, hindering the clear representation of the film's frequent nude scenes. Of course, the balm is that this film is rare (even Gemser has apparently not seen it) and has never been available on the DVD market in the States and with English subtitles. The presentation also keeps much of the widescreen ratio, though the sides are still cut off if judged by the credit sequence.
Perhaps one day, some company will bring out this film with the dedication and the more financially expansive pockets of a Severin. Severin's release of BLACK EMANUELLE'S BOX Volume 1 and Volume 2 were exemplary. If AMORE LIBERO ever gets this treatment, we can finally see Gemser's debut performance in all its unclothed, crystal clear glory. Till then, this Mya DVD will have to do.
Below: Mya Blog Bonus. Laura Gemser tries a horse ride in a photoshoot during the filming of AMORE LIBERO. That's a lucky horse, btw. Olga Bisera also rode it bare pussy.
And here's an interview with Venantino Venantini, one of the hardest working men in euro-films, with over 140 credits. Seems quite a character:
CRIME OF PASSION (DELITTO PASSIONALE, 1994), Serena Grandi, Florinda Bolkan, Fabio Testi. Directed by Flavio Mogherini. The plot summary on the IMDB states: "When Peter's wife, a famous writer, is murdered in a hotel where she spent the night with her lover, the police begin investigating. Peter and his wife didn't get on well and she was thinking of divorcing him. Peter too had a lover, Milena. They had a handicapped daughter... Inspector Ivan Zanova investigates."
SWEET TEEN (FRITTATA ALL'ITALIANA, 1977) directed by Alfonso Brescia, starring Antonio Cassagrande, Dogmar Lassander, Karin Schubert. Looks to be a sex comedy/drama.
WITHOUT TRACE (A TUTTE LE AUTO DELLA POLIZIA, 1975), starring Antonio Sabato, Luciana, Paluzzi, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ettore Manni. Directed by Mario Caiano. An IMDB review by "rundbauchdodo":
"This extremely rare and hardly known film (as far as I know, it was never released outside of Italy) is an interesting mix of a classic crime story and a typical giallo. In the first half of the film, there is only one murder to be solved, but as soon as the police comes closer to the truth, people are killed in usual giallo style, during thrilling and atmospheric intense scenes. This mixture may seem odd (one may ask why the film wasn't made in giallo style right from the beginning), but it works quite well and keeps the tension up until the end. The murder scenes are nasty, and the identity of the killer really a big surprise. The movie has also its tragic moments, but never becomes exaggeratedly melodramatic."
Another reviewer titles his review: "Excellent blending of Giallo and Polizi styles." The film is also known in the U.S. as THE MANIAC RESPONSIBLE.
The early 1970s were banner years for Paul Naschy. In less than half a decade, ever since LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO (THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN) introduced Paul Naschy as a horror film star in 1968, Naschy had made a name for himself as the premier exponent of Spanish fantastique. Impressively, not only was he an actor in these films, but their scriptwriter as well. His 1970 LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS (English title: WEREWOLF SHADOW) became a surprise hit in Spain, inspiring Spanish producers to fund domestic horror films. The Spanish horror boom of the 1970s arose primarily because of one man: Paul Naschy.
By 1972 the thirty-seven year old Naschy had made six Waldemar Daninsky wolfman films and the first Spanish giallo film, JACK EL DESTRIPADOR DE LONDRES (JACK THE RIPPER OF LONDON). 1972 was destined to be Naschy’s most productive and luminescent year. A total of eight movies filled his filmography for that year: DISCO ROJO (RED LIGHT), EL GRAN AMOR DEL CONDE DRACULA (COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE), LOS CRIMENES DE PETIOT (THE CRIMES OF PETIOT), LA REBELION DE LAS MUERTAS (English title: VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES), LA ORGIA DE LOS MUERTOS (English title: THE HANGING WOMAN), EL ESPANTO SURGE DE LA TUMBA (English title: HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB), EL RETORNO DE WALPURGIS (English title: THE CURSE OF THE DEVIL)—and EL JOROBADO DE LA MORGUE (THE HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE). At least four of these films, including the hunchback film, were to become key titles in Naschy’s oeuvre to be spoken about with reverence and enthusiasm among fans of Naschy and Spanish horror.
Sharing a similar mood of decay and a baroque/grotesque sensibility, EL JOROBADO DE LA MORGUE could be considered a follow-up to the earlier EL GRAN AMOR DEL CONDE DRACULA. Both films were produced by writer/journalist Manuel Leguineche and directed by Javier Aguirre, two intellectuals who employed the horror genre for subterfuge against the decades-long fascistic government of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Leguineche, a friend of Naschy’s father, had solicited the actor/scriptwriter for two horror films treatments, and within a month Naschy provided both the Dracula and hunchback stories. Leguineche also brought in experimental filmmaker Aguirre to direct, an inspired choice as these two Aguirre films would become landmarks in Spanish horror cinema. (Naschy would also appear in another Aguirre film a year later, EL ASESINO ESTA ENTRE LOS TRECE [THE KILLER IS ONE OF THE THIRTEEN], but his role was minor and the film not a success.) Joining in as producer on the hunchback film was Francisco Lara Polop, a scriptwriter who would direct his own horror film that year, the luxuriantly atmospheric LA MANSION DE LA NIEBLA (English title: MURDER MANSION).
Critical to the film would be its visual look. Cameraman Raul Perez Cubero, whose future would hold three nominations for Spain’s version of the Oscar, the Goya, and a win for his cinematography on YOU'RE THE ONE (2000), handled the photography, as he had done in EL GRAN AMORE DEL CONDE DRACULA. In both films he evoked a memorable texture of morbidity and the other-worldliness inhabited by the damned and the forgotten.
For Naschy his role would be one more addition to his ever-growing roster of portraying classic monster parts. He had already played a wolfman (numerous times), Mr. Hyde and Count Dracula, so it seemed natural for him to appear as a hunchback, this one named Wolfgang Gotho in tribute to Mozart and the wolf in Naschy.
Most of the cast assembled had been already initiated into fantastique. Maria Elena Arpon, who played Gotho’s primary love interest, is otherwise best remembered by euro-cult film fans as the first cinematic victim of the Blind Dead in Amando de Ossorio’s LA NOCHE DEL TERROR NOCHE (English title: TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, 1971). The Austrian actress Maria Perschy had a substantial resume by 1972, with credits that included Jess Franco’s THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1969) and Gordon Hessler’s MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1971).
The role of the scientist, Dr. Orla, was handled with flavorful efficiency by the sympathetic-looking Alberto Dalbes, who was on his way to becoming a frequently employed actor in Jess Franco movies. Born in Argentina in 1922, Dalbes studied Philosophy and Literature for a teaching profession, but dropped that ambition to embrace acting. Before moving to Spain in the 1960s, Dalbes had a successful theatrical and film career in his native Argentina during the 1940s and 50s.
Another Argentinean, Rosanna Yanni, essayed the curious role of Elke who, through either perverse inclination or romantic idealism, falls in love with the hunchbacked simpleton. Born Marta Susana Yanni Paxot in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1938, Yanni began her entertainment career at twenty-two as a chorus girl at the Buenos Aires National Theater and later modeled in Italy, to finally settle in Spain in 1963, where she found regular work in comedies, adventure films and horror films. Her first horror film was, in fact, Naschy’s first--LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO. Her four films with Naschy, two with Jess Franco, and one with Blind Dead creator Amando de Ossorio have yearned her the affection and admiration of euro-cult film fans.
Vic Winner (Victor Alcazar) had already appeared with Naschy in EL GRAN AMOR DEL CONDE DRACULA and now took on his typical middling leading man role. Like Yanni, he would star in four Naschy films and is considered part of a beloved-by-fans Naschy troupe. Despite his calm, even lethargic looks, Winner energized himself in the future with scriptwriting and directing (non-horror) films under his real name and as Victor Barrera.
Antonio Pica’s solid and handsome presence typecast him as a police inspector in four Naschy films, while his crime-investigating partner in the hunchback film, Manuel de Blas, had played the Dracula role in Naschy’s, LOS MONSTRUOS DEL TERROR (English title: ASSIGNMENT TERROR, 1970). At the time Blas was married to Spanish cult-film icon Patty Shepard (another Naschy co-star!). He has remained a busy actor to this day.
Splendid locales were employed. The impressive Bavaria-like town of Viella in the Pyrenees Mountains substituted for Feldkirch, Austria, while the expansive cellars of Spain’s first king, Philip II, became the eerie subterranean hell in which Gotho hides and Dr. Orla sets up his laboratory. Madrid’s Hospital Provincial morgue provided a most suitable location for the shuffling midnight footsteps and barbarity of the hunchback.
The palpable gruesome atmosphere of the morgue scenes was easily inspired by the actual doings of the morgue staff. Naschy details one such moment in his autobiography, MEMOIRS OF A WOLFMAN (Midnight Marquee Press, 2000; translated by Mike Hodges): “On one occasion a dead man’s head was left poking out of the casket, and when one of the attendants pushed down on the rotten corpse, it sprang up and spewed a green vicious liquid over him.”
Permission was given to use a real corpse for a head-severing scene. Naschy took two swigs of whiskey but couldn’t get past the first cut into the throat. A dummy head was used thereafter.
In the film’s most talked about sequence, Naschy was set upon by real rats. Naschy had to be inoculated against possible rabies, and one would have expected Maria Elena Arpon to have been afforded the same precaution, as that was her, not a mannequin, lying on a slab with the rodents nestling and nibbling all over her.
“It was as terrifying as it was real,” Naschy commented about his rat scene in his autobiography. “The Ibys Institute caught a load of rats in the sewers and left them without food for some time. Once loosed on the set the filthy little beasts proved able to leap up to a meter high, sinking their needle sharp teeth into anything at hand. I felt their bites on several parts of my anatomy and wondered what would have happened to me if I hadn’t been wearing protection. It wasn’t a nice scene to shoot.”
As payment for their furious cameo roles, some of the rats were burned alive on camera. It was as terrifying as it was real.
On a deeper level of significance, Dr. Orla symbolized authority, while Gotho represented the subdued working class, striving for a ludicrous goal manufactured by leaders who know that the goal can never be attained but use it anyway to secure cheap labor and subservience. At one point, Dr, Orla makes it clear: “You see, Gotho, how the most insignificant person can be of use to science and to humanity. All you have to do is let yourself be led by a real leader.”
The film’s evolving outrageousness and grotesqueness, issuing from the pit of Spain’s monarchist and inquisitorial past, even from mankind’s primordial past, could not help but subliminally shake the principles of faith and tradition propping Spanish society. What better ruse than to use a horror film, which had been traditionally thought of as trash by many critics, as a release of political and social commentary (and sexual imagery) forbidden by the regime of Generalissimo Franco?
Unlike EL GRAN AMOR DEL CONDE DRACULA, Naschy’s hunchback film lacked the frequent nudity of the other film’s export version, however. A promotional still of a bare-chested Naschy with an equally bare-chested Rosanna Yanni exists, but such a scene never made it to the finished product, though Yanni’s breasts are very briefly on display in the uncensored international cut. Otherwise, in terms of nudity, the film is chaste at this point, probably having been pruned significantly when the script was sent to Spain’s censorship board and then when handed in for review.
And there are several moments that would have easily lent themselves to generous displays of female flesh: a whipping scene at a reformatory and Gotho’s kidnappings of women, one taking place while a woman is showering. There may have been good reason not to shoot, or promote, a “double version” for these scenes. With the censorship that EL GRAN AMOR DEL CONDE DRACULA suffered (in one interview Naschy mentioned 36 cuts!), the producers would have been justified in not having this new film go through excisions that could have hollowed out portions of their film around the world.
For his performance as Wolfgang Gotho, Naschy won the Georges Melies Award for best actor at the Second International Festival of Fantastic Cinema in Paris in 1973, beating out such established figures as Christopher Lee, Jason Robards and Herbert Lom. At the festival where he received his award, he met director Terence Fisher, who complimented him on his role and showed enthusiasm in making a Jekyll and Hyde picture with the Spanish actor/scriptwriter. (Dare we note some similarity between EL JOROBADO DE LA MORGUE and Fisher’s 1974 FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL?)
For Naschy the award had particular significance. It meant that his name and the Spanish horror film had entered the ranks of actors and films recognized and applauded on an international scale. EL JOROBADO DE LA MORGUE would validate what LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS had begun. The Spanish horror film had come into its own.
Now, weeks after the death of Paul Naschy on November 30, 2009, the first appearance on NTSC DVD of this Naschy classic comes from Mya to street in January. From what I can tell the source is the Spanish version (released by Spain's TriPictures several years ago) with the brief nude scene involving Rossana Yanni replacing the Spanish clothed edit. Pluses include English subtitles for all three audio track--Spanish, Italian and English. It has been Mya's policy not to have English subtitles when English audio is present, but thankfully here the company has gone the extra mile to supply English subs. There's also a photo/pressbook gallery (borrowing from Anolis' German DVD release of this title), a comparison between the nude scene and the non-nude one, the American trailer, and the Italian credits sequences (the beginning credits have different music replacing the familiar accordion um-pa-pa, and are white lettering over a black background). Colors are quite good, with blacks being very solid. Picture quality is a bit on the soft side. There's some slight aliasing and shifting to the picture at times, which will probably be more apparent on better systems will larger monitors. I also noticed two quick, minor horizontal breakups during a fight scene between Gotho and the Vic Winner character. The DVD can be ordered from Amazon.com.
Variety is reporting that the sales staff of ADA (Alternative Distribution Alliance) is being merged into Warner Brothers' distributing arm, WEA. The article continues:
"A source said that 17 staffers are exiting the company. Among those departing is former ADA president Andy Allen, who had acted as a consultant to the firm for the past couple of years. WMG is also reportedly closing ADA's video arm, Filmworks; VPs Jay Douglas and Rob McDonald are ankling as a result."
Why does this concern us? Well, ADA (which used to be Ryko until April) distributes Mya in the United States, as well as other indie DVD labels such as Blue Underground, Synapse and Mondo Macabro!
At the moment this news doesn't appear to affect these DVD labels and their distribution, but one wonders if this is not a bad sign in that direction.
