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List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $26.99 You Save: $2.96 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780029576
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0780029577
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: February 01, 2005
Running Time: 93 minutes
Sales Rank: 73384
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: May 06, 1982
Editorial Review:
Description:
The brutalized corpse of a Roman prostitute is found along the banks of the Tiber. The police round up and interrogate a handful of possible suspects. In this, his stunning debut feature—based on a story by Pier Paolo Pasolini—Bernardo Bertolucci utilizes a series of interconnected flashbacks to explore the nature of truth and the reliability of narrative. The Criterion Collection is proud to present La commare secca, the first full realization of a legendary talent.
Amazon.com:
Signaling the arrival of a gifted young filmmaker, La commare secca (or The Grim Reaper) marked the promising debut of Bernardo Bertolucci, who would attain world-class prominence in less than a decade. Having served as director's assistant on his friend Pier Paolo Pasolini's successful debut Accattone the previous year, Bertolucci was only 21 when he co-wrote and directed this impressively structured drama (based on a story by Pasolini) about a murdered prostitute and the police interrogation of several potential suspects. Bertolucci has denied the influence of Kurosawa's Rashomon (which he hadn't yet seen), but that film's prismatic structure is echoed here in the chapter-like retelling of circumstances surrounding the murder, as described through the suspects' unclear memories, conflicting testimonies and subtly hidden agendas. Punctuating the mystery with scenes of the prostitute's final hours, Bertolucci defies his directorial assignment (Pasolini had declined the job, and Bertolucci was hired to approximate Pasolini's visual style) with an ever-moving camera that tracks each suspect through a variety of ominous Roman locations. As he explains in an exclusive interview on this Criterion DVD, Bertolucci was the youngest person on the set, and extremely anxious as a first-time director, but his talent speaks for itself. La commare secca was not a hit with critics, but it's a remarkable debut by any standard, fully vindicated by Bertolucci's subsequent greatness. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The Grim Reaper
I've only seen two Bernardo Bertolucci films (Last Tango in Paris and The Dreamers), but I consider myself a semi-big fan of his. This film, La Commare Secca (which translates to The Grim Reaper), is his debut film with an original story by legendary Italian writer/director Pier Paolo Pasolini. I've only seen one film by Pasolini ("Teorema") but I know that he wrote a few films about prostitutes (Mamma Roma & The Canterbury Tale)...Ironic, since he would be killed by a male prostitute. This movie, ... Read More
Rating:  - an interesting mystery film.
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
"La Commare Secca" or "The Grim Reaper" is about police in Italy attemptign to solve the murder of a prostitute in Rome. The police track down and interrogate people who were in the park a at the time and they talk about what they saw through a series of flashbacks.
The film is based on a story by the late Italian director Pier Pasolini and is well written. It has been compared with Rashamon
based on it's ... Read More
Rating:  - A Young Director Makes A Film That Sticks With You
In the video interview he did for this criterion film release Bertolucci goes to some length on his collaboration with the great director Pier Paolo Pasolini - pointing to 'Accatone' as the birth of cinema. Then when speaking of his own work - he says that it was as if all his efforts were in vain - as the critics judged it as a copy of Pasolini. This judgement is very unfortunate - despite the fact that the story was written by Pasolini and the class of people to which it pertains is Pasolini's beloved lower ... Read More
Rating: - Bertolucci's First Cinematic Masterpiece of Proven Guilt...
Death suggests the ultimate end for an individual and it often travels together with fear stemming from awareness of the unknown destination after the heart ceases to beat. The destination after death has been taught by religious leaders for several millennia and frequently the tales after death include those of devils, demons, and other scary creatures that embed fear in the listeners. Tales told in regards to life after death reveal, as many religious leaders have suggested, that the destination is based on ... Read More
Rating: - Very Entertaining! Comparable to "Rashomon"
Bernardo Bertolucci is sadly not known for this film. When most people think of him they usually think of "Last Tango In Paris" or his Academy Award Winning film, "The Last Emperor". But I think it's pretty fair to say, no one thinks of this one. I mean, c'mon, I'm the ONLY person who's writing a review for this movie! But this movie is comparable to Kurosawa's "Rashomon". It too also deals with many different people offering their perspective on what happened the night of a murder. Only in this case it's a prostitute ... Read More
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