Love Meetings (Comizi d'Amore)

Rating:
Summary: Poor edition of a decent film
Review: Pasolini's Love Meetings is an interesting and humorous look at sexual ideas and taboos in early 1960's Italy. Through a series of interviews with members of the general public in various cities in Italy, Pasolini creates a pastiche (and gets a wide variety of responses) about such topics as divorce, homosexuality, prostitution, and equality. It's fairly interesting and entertaining, until the very end when Pasolini makes his "conclusion," essentially stating his own political beliefs, some of which are opposed to the information he's gathered in his film.

My major complaints about the disc are the transfer and the subtitles. The subtitles are all-white and are burned in (not optional). The subtitles might not have been such a problem if the film hadn't been in black-and-white and very washed out, making it impossible to read them in various places in the film. The print itself is scratched, but watchable.

I'd recommend this film for Pasolini completists and people studying the history of the documentary - it serves as an interesting precursor to I Am Curious - Yellow. As it's unlikely that Love Meetings will get a better edition any time soon, (at least in Region 1), if you're interested, check it out.