San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile – Camera Obscura (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1976
Director: Carlo Lizzani
Writers: Mino Giarda, Carlo Lizzani, Ugo Pirro
Cast: Daniele Asti, Brigitte Skay, Giuliano Cesareo, Pietro Brambilla, Pietro Giannuso, Grazia Baccari, Gilberto Squizzato

Release Date: March 12th, 2015
Approximate Running Time: 101 Minutes 14 seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: FSK 18 (Germany)
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian
Subtitles: English, German
Region Coding: Region B
Retail Price: OOP

"12 hours in the lives of frustrated citizen sons and violent criminals who unite to mock teachers, police and society. Young people who dream of superhumanism and the state as a fortress against the inferior." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “HD transfer in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio."

San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 44.6 GB

Feature: 30.4 GB

This is another rock solid transfer from Camera Obscura that boasts nicely saturated colors, black and contrast levels look consistently great, details look crisp and grain remains intact.

Audio: 4.5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and also included with this release are two subtitle options, English and German. The audio is in great shape, as dialog is always clear and everything sounds balanced. Range wise the more ambient aspects of the soundtrack are well represented and the film’s score sound’s appropriately robust.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a photo gallery, a trailer for San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile (3 minutes 26 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian with removable English and German subtitles), an interview with co-screenwriter/director Carlo Lizzani (5 minutes 11 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English and German subtitles), a documentary titled Age of Violence (65 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo in Italian with removable English and German subtitles), an audio commentary film historians Marcus Stiglegger and Kai Nauman (in German with removable English subtitles) and a booklet that includes an informative essay titled Carlo Lizzani – an Italian Director written by Christian KeBler. This essay is presented in dual text, English and German.

Also, this release also comes with multilingual menus, English and German.

Summary:

It should not come as a surprise that San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile has deep political leanings. After all, its director Carlo Lizzani a well-known supporter of Italian post-war Neorealism. And at the heart of San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile is tale about too rival movements’ fascism and communism and their inability to coexist. Also one of this film strengths is how it allows viewers to make up their mind and does not try to force its own agenda.

Though violence is something that crops up throughout San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile and it plays a pivotal role in the finale. This is not a film of violence just for the sake of violence. There is still a moral center that sooner or later catches up with those who cross the line!

Visually San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile has a documentary vibe going as it captures the daily routines of its main characters. With that being said, there are two gut wrecking moments that takes this film and its subject-matter to another level. The first of these scenes involves Franco one of the members of the neo-Nazi group who exploits carry this film’s narrative. In the scene in question Franco who has yet to prove his manhood, his three friends force him to take Lala, a young woman they have just meet down into the storage room and have sex with her. Along the way things get intense when he has trouble getting it up and he takes out his anger on the girl. And the other gut wrecking moments is a tension filled finale where the four neo-Nazi friends decide to unleash their brutality on a couple on a date.

The cast is primary made up first time actors, most of who would not in another film. Only two actors had any significant film career beyond San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile. They are Brigitte Skay (A Bay of Blood) in the role of Lalla the young woman who's accosted on day by a group of neo-Nazi’s while she is walking down the street. The other is Pietro Brambilla (The House of the Laughing Windows) in the role of Fabrizio, the de facto leader of neo-Nazi group that wreaks havoc throughout this film. Fortunately this lack of acting background does not diminish the performances in any way since San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile is going for a in the moment vibe that comes off as real and not staged.

Ultimately, San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile can best be summed up as a melting pot of various genres which creates a genre unto its own. Trying to pin point this film into one single genre or any existing genres would be doing it a great disservice.

San Babila ore 20: un delitto inutile gets an exceptional release from Camera Obscura that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a trio of insightful extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer