Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The world was a very different place when I first saw Swept Away (full title Swept Away... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August, translated from its native Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto). It screams (in some cases literally) the politics and social norms of Italy circa 1974, first exploring the battle of the classes (rich capitalists vs. working-class communists) and later quite the heated battle of the sexes. Among the elite is Raffaella (Mariangela Melato, owner/operator of two of most beautiful and expressive green eyes ever captured on film), an insufferable snob for whom the difficulties of the world are merely fodder for dinner conversation. Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini) is crewing the yacht of her little friend group on vacation in the Mediterranean, and his every move seems cause for complaint.

This prickly pair take off in a dinghy to meet up with the rest of the gang one day but soon become lost, adrift, and then shipwrecked on a deserted island. It's here that Raffaella's incessant verbal abuse pushes Gennarino to the breaking point and the tables are turned. He has mad skills and she is utterly helpless, so now he's the boss, in more ways than one. Romantic comedy ensues… albeit of a different sort from what American audiences have been fed for the past few decades. Some scenes will no doubt be problematic by modern standards. It's wonderful filmmaking that stays with the viewer, however, and ultimately it's about the different people we become in different scenarios.

Per Kino Lorber, Swept Away was "restored in 2024 from the original film negatives by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Minerva Pictures and Mediaset, carried out by L'Immagine Ritrovata." We're immediately struck by the substantial grain, very much appropriate to the era, while only the faintest of blemishes remain. Skintones—they don't wear much on the island—are natural with subtle appreciable variations, and the sunset scenes are particularly pretty. The movie is presented on a triple-layer BD-100 disc, allowing the video bitrate to flirt routinely with the impressive 100Mbps mark.

The disc defaults to the Italian-language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 dual-mono track, with English subtitles active. The audio quality isn't bad per se, more than a little crude certainly. But the issue is that it does not sync up well with the actors. Dialogue looks and sounds like it was recorded separately, perhaps a casualty of limited budget or perhaps a deliberate artistic choice by director/writer Lina Wertmüller…? Regardless, I'm always in favor of the original language, never more so than for Swept Away's impassioned pontification on life and love.

Historian Samm Deighan provides what I believe is a new audio commentary, in addition to an archival track by Wertmüller expert/documentarian Valerio Ruiz. Present from the 2017 Blu-ray release is a curious interview with filmmaker Amy Heckerling, absent here is the booklet that was included with that edition. The 4K/Blu-ray set arrives in a matching slipcase.

Swept Away is not for everyone, but for me it will always be an unapologetic example of '70s Italian cinema.

Chris Chiarella