Page 1 of Free Cinema Paradiso DVD in Saturday`s Guardian Newspaper

At least that`s what the little ad said on the back page of the tabloid section. No other details though.

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Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"You won`t believe the things I have seen with your eyes..."

My Top 20 movies at YMDB
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...hope you`re right. I love this film and have been meaning to pick it up for ages. :)

There are full page ads in today`s Guardian so I guess that it is going to be with Saturday`s edition. Now we just have to hope that it isn`t just a London exclusive. :D

===========================
Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"You won`t believe the things I have seen with your eyes..."

My Top 20 movies at YMDB
Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer

play.com are doing the 2-disc Collector`s Edition for only 7.99 quid at the moment. This includes both the original version and the director`s cut (50 minutes longer !), though it`s not clear if this is done with branching or not. It`ll be a shame if the free DVD the Guardian gives away is the shorter version :(

Not a word of this dead-tree promotion on www.guardian.co.uk from what I can see, but I did find a media site article on it, where The Guardian claims this is the first time a UK broadsheet newspaper has given away a free DVD.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 27th October 2004, 13:43

Quote:
It`ll be a shame if the free DVD the Guardian gives away is the shorter version

In my opinion the shorter version is much better. The directors cut makes the film lose its rhythm and it becomes a trite boring. Just my opinion of course. ;)

Guardian Paradiso advert on line here

Have bought the Guardian and the `Cinema Paradiso` disc comes with the paper (no Blockbuster etc.). It is the shorter version (118 mins) which claims to be Widescreen and Digitally re-mastered. It has no chapters but does allow you to forward and reverse, so it is not as bad as the copy of `Brassed off` in The Mirror in this respect.

I noticed a large piece of dirt on the film in the first few minutes - so much for remastering. As for the widescreen bit, it is between 4:3 and 16:9, being closer to 4:3 - so I think that some of the edges are cut off. Strangely on the opening credits, the edge of the P and O in PARADISO were cut off when watching on a DVD player and TV, but when viewed on a computer using Cyberlink Power DVD none of the letters were missing (ie. more of the picture was viewed). Any suggestions for why this occurs?

My guess is that the free DVD is based on the 2nd disc in the two disc set for the Cinema Paradiso Collectors edition and less effort was put into the quality of the print (compared to the longer Directors cut).

The original aspect ratio is 1.66:1 so it sounds like it`s correct