Misunderstood: Limited Edition – Radiance Films (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1966
Director: Luigi Comencini
Writers: Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Lucia Drudi Demby, Giuseppe Mangione
Cast: Anthony Quayle, Stefano Colagrande, Simone Giannozzi, John Sharp, Adriana Facchetti, Anna Maria Nardini, Silla Bettini, Rino Benini, Giorgia Moll, Graziella Granata

Release Date: April 29th, 2024 (UK), April 30th, 2024 (USA)
Approximate running time: 103 Minutes 57 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: 12 (UK), NR (USA)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A,B
Retail Price: £14.99 (UK), $39.95 (USA)

"John Duncombe, the British consul in Florence, returns home from his wife’s funeral to his two children, who are unaware of their mother’s passing. He makes the decision to tell his eldest son, Andrea, but hides the truth from his sickly younger son, Milo." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, “Misunderstood was scanned from the original camera negative in 2K at Studio Cine, Rome. The film was restored by Radiance Films at Filmfinity in 2024. Thousands of instances of dirt, dust, stains and tears were removed and dozens of shots stabilized to attenuate mechanical jitter."

Misunderstood comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 40.9 GB

Feature: 30.3 GB

The source looks excellent. Flesh tones are healthy, colors look correct, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic.

Audio: 4.25/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in Italian with removable English subtitles. The audio is in great shape; the dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and ambient sounds are well-represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (3 minutes 18 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival interview with film critic Michel Ciment (23 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo French with removable English subtitles), an archival interview with screenwriter Piero De Bernardi and Cristina Comencini, the director’s daughter and herself a noted filmmaker (35 minutes 10 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), a video essay by David Cairns titled A Child’s Heart, this extra explores Luigi Comencini’s affinity for childhood stories (24 minutes 51 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), reversible cover art, removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings and a 32-page booklet (limited to 3000 copies) cast & crew information, an essay titled Troubled Youth in Cinema written by Manuela Lazic, an archival interview with Luigi Comencini by Dominique Rabourdin and information about the transfer. 

Summary:

Directed by Luigi Comencini whose other notable films are Bread, Love and Dreams, The Window to Luna Park, Unknown Woman, and The Sunday Woman. Misunderstood was adapted from Florence Montgomery’s novel of the same name.

The narrative revolves around a family's struggle to cope with the loss of a loved one.

Death is something we all experience, whether it be someone we know or our own death. Experiencing the loss of a loved one as a child is often deeper than experiencing the loss of a loved one as an adult. And though there have been numerous films about the loss of a loved one, very few have done it as effectively from a child's point of view as Misunderstood.

There are three characters in Misunderstood who experience grief: a husband who lost his wife, and two sons who lost their mother. And in the early stages of the narrative, the father entrusts the older son Andrea with keeping his younger brother Milo in the dark about his mother's death. The decision ultimately puts a strain on Andrea’s relationship with his father, whom he feels is giving more attention to Milo.

Though there are a few minor characters who interact with the three main characters, it is the performances of the three actors who portray the leads that carry Misunderstood. This is especially notable when it comes to the performances of Stefano Colagrande in the role of Andrea and Simone Giannozzi, who portrays Milo. For both, this was their first and only acting experience. They both deliver extraordinary performances that are well beyond their years. Anthony Quayle’s (Lawrence of Arabia) portrayal of the father is equally impressive.

Luigi Comencini’s direction is perfect, and though he lets the performances take center stage, there are a handful of standout visual moments. Notably, moments and objects that remind characters of the wife or mother who died. That said, no moment is more potent than the gut-wrenching finale, in which one character comes to terms with dying when life has become too painful to live. Ultimately, Misunderstood is one of cinema’s best films about the human condition.

Misunderstood gets an excellent release from Radiance Films that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and insightful extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer