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Who Saw Her Die? AKA Chi L'Ha Vista Morire? AKA The Child (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Shameless Screen Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Rick Curzon (23rd August 2024). |
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The Film
 George Lazenby, in a career-defining departure from his role as James Bond 007 (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), delivers a powerful, gutsy performance in Aldo Lado's chillingly disturbing giallo masterpiece, WHO SAW HER DIE? Lazenby portrays Franco Serpieri, a sculptor recently separated from his wife (Anita Strindberg). He invites their young daughter, Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi), to spend time with him in an autumnal Venice. As father and daughter joyfully make up for lost time exploring the city, their idyllic bonding is shattered when Roberta becomes the target of a dangerous child-killer lurking in the city's foggy canals. Consumed by grief and driven by a thirst for justice, a tormented Franco embarks on his own investigation, uncovering vicious depravity in the highest echelons of Venetian society controlled by a Machiavellian art-dealer Adolfo Celi (Largo in 007’s Thunderball). Bearing striking and uncanny similarities to Nicolas Roeg’s later film, Don’t Look Now, Lado’s WHO SAW HER DIE? delves into a father’s haunting guilt within a spellbinding giallo mystery. Enhanced by Ennio Morricone's eerie score and Franco Di Giacomo's (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly) evocative cinematography, now properly revealed in this definitive 2K-restored version, it showcases the giallo genre at its most chilling and captivating.
Video
Who Saw Her Die? is another film shot using the budget scope format Techniscope which uses a scope image 2.35:1/2.39:1 directly on the film (as opposed to using a special anamorphic squeeze lens) which is two perforations high. Normal 35mm film has the ratio 1.37:1 which has four perforations high. As a consequence the grain is courser as the smaller portion of the original film element creates a courser image when zoomed in. Most Techniscope restorations I've seen however have been very good with fine grain and a pretty sharp and detailed image although there can a softness at times, especially during process shots. Colours are vibrant - reds, browns and blues pop, flesh tones ruddy (as befits the obviously wintry, foggy Venice locations) and black levels and contrast seem perfectly balanced. It's a strong image that represents the film well. When compared to the 2002 Anchor Bay release there's more image in the frame and the colours pop more. There's some occasional mild crush in some of the deliberately darker sequences set amongst the Venetian alleyways. Grain is well handled and the overcast daytime scenes have a fine sheen across them, in fact grain is ever present. Not surprising given the Techniscope format. It's all well encoded and I couldn't detect any digital tinkering nor age related damage. One of the better Italian Giallos gets great image quality ('A'). 1080p24 / AVC MPEG-4 / BD50 / 2.35:1 / 94:22
Audio
English LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) Italian LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) Subtitles: English HoH (for English audio), English (for Italian audio, optional) Both dub tracks sound pretty similar in terms of their dynamics, which is to say of limited range but they get the job done clearly and without any issues beyond some very mild hiss only evident if one cranks the volume right up. The Italian track is more elegant and has Adolfo Celi's actual voice dubbing his role as Serafian, but the cast are obviously mostly speaking English on set so that track is the best way to view the film if you want the most matching lipsync. Subtitles in come in two flavours with a proper translation of the Italian track being one and then hard of hearing English for the English dub. One quibble is that the opening scene in France only has subtitles when the hard of hearing track is engaged so all the dialogue spoken by the two actresses goes un subtitled when watched in English.isn't translated. The Italian subs have it though. 'B+'.
Extras
"Aldo Lado on Who Saw Her Die?" 2022 Abertoir Interview (45:39) Lado died in 2023 so both this and the interview below are very valuable and are welcome additions to this excellent Shameless Entertainment BD of Who Saw Her Die? This Abertoir interview was conducted after a screening and is a three-way online Teams type presentation. We have Gaz Bailey who organises the Abertoir Horror Festival and Dr. Russ Hunter from the University of Northumbria who conducts the interview with Lado. Hunter kicks off with a brief overview of Lado's career; he speaks Italian to Lado and then translates for the audience. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with English and Italian LPCM 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 16-bit) with no subtitles, so it's rather drawn out as Lado speaks in great sections of Italian and Hunter feeds it back to us. Valuable, but the direct to camera interview done form this release by Shameless is a better viewing experience. Most interesting is hearing about his early career as he didn't start directing till 36. "Ring a Ring O' Rosie" 2022 interview with director Aldo Lado (36:40) This piece covers a wide range of subjects but largely focusses on Who Saw Her Die?. We kick off discussing the situation Lado was in when he started directing with Short Night of Glass Dolls, working with Bertolucci on The Conformist. Why Venice was chosen for the location, the use of point of view camera work prior to the invention of Steadicam, working cast members George Lazenby, Anita Strinberg, Adolfo Celi, Piero Vida, Allesandro Haber and Nicoleta Elmi, using Ennio Morricone for the score, nude scenes, choice locations and working with fire all discussed. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with Italian LPCM 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 16-bit) with optional English subtitles. "The Quest for Money" 2022 interview with producer Enzo Doria (10:46) Producer Doria gives us a breakdown of his career starting as an actor. And how he became involved behind the camera. He discusses many of his films as producer. Most interesting is his discussion of the financing of films with promissory notes, dealing with banks, bounced cheques, working out the budgets etc. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with Italian LPCM 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 16-bit) with optional English subtitles. "To Live and Die in Venice" 2022 interview with co-writer Francesco Barilli (11:20) As with the Doria piece this covers his early films working for others, that he likes working on different types of films rather than one type, his attitude to screen violence (he prefers less), his views on the cast of Who Saw Her Die? etc. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with Italian LPCM 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 16-bit) with optional English subtitles. Startup Trailers (3:17): - Footprints (1:14) - The Psychic (0:50) - The Frightened Woman (1:13) Newly produced and edited trailers for other Shameless Screen Entertainment releases. Presented in 1080p24 1.85:1 with uncompressed English LPCM 2.0 Mono sound (48kHz, 24-bit)
Packaging
Comes in a slim yellow Blu-ray Keepcase with: - A reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork. - An outer card sleeve with the new artwork.
Overall
Another excellent release from Shameless Screen Entertainment sporting good image and sound quality and a topnotch set of extras. Highly recommended ('A').
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