The Dominici Affair (1999)

The 1952 slaying of a vacationing family in rural France sent shock waves through the country for years. The crime was dubbed "The Dominici Affair" after Gaston Dominici, the French peasant who was jailed for the death of the couple and their 10-year-old daughter. The brutal crime seized the imagination of controversial director Orson Welles, who explored the subject in a 26-minute film for British television. This 52-minute documentary presents Welles' unreleased film, which has been restored and completed according to the original script. It also incorporates newly discovered archival information and includes a return to the scene of the murders with the journalist who assisted Welles.

Every Piece of one of the 20th C's Great Artists Important

I had already seen a documentary about this case on the History Channel. When I viewed Welles' version for the first time it made me realize something I already knew: genius is also a wonderful aid when simply confronting reality (documentary). In the History Channel version, you are left with the impression that the crazy peasants just went off their rockers. Welles zeroes in on a crucial detail: one of the idiot sons undammed water and forgot about it, flooding the property. The old man paced around convinced ruin was upon him. The shots of him wondering what was going to happen to the land at the end, in a psychotic daze complete the picture. Too bad Welles didn't make about a hundred movies like this. This is a fascinating vignette; almost like finding a set of characters from a Zola novel, still alive in the 20th C, facing the end of the line. November 28, 2001

Excellent docu damaged by a lack of Welles

This VERY short disc (52 min) features the 26 min entry from "Around the World With Orson Welles". Made for France Public Television it was supressed and not aired for years. Normally I would be overjoyed at a new Welles release however there are mutiple reasons to make this disc a "possible" depending on your interest in Orson Welles.

By far the first is that the master audio featuring Welles narration is lost. They re-create it with another actor. A disappointment. The only voice of welles are at parts of the docu on the docu that fill out the 52 minutes.

Secondly this show is part of "The Around The World With Orson Welles" and along with another of the series WAS NOT included in the "Around the World" disc. Image Entertainment ,the makers of both discs appears to be double dipping. I expect to see the final "missing" "Around the World" appear later this year from Image for another 20 bucks.

I try to not buy from Image Entertainment whenever possible. Poor disc extras. Frequent nickel and diming of the customers and VERY high prices for disc that look like Warner Brothers Value $12.99 disc. Not enhanced for HDTV. No special features and the annoying WB style 'snapper' type discs that cost alot less are especially bothersome when your paying double the price that a WB disc

If your hooked on Welles this is a restored print and looks very nice so you can enjoy all of Welles film skill. Even without his skilled narration this is still a valued product if you have all or almost all of his collection.

For a more valued priced introduction to Orson Welles on DVD check out some discs from laserlight.

I have the Stranger and The Trail. The Stranger is an excellent restored print however it features a tv type logo that appears about 3 times in the movie. It also features a 30 min docu on Welles The Trial does not have the logo but it is not a restored print (but still o.k.). Mr. Arkadin from the series is not a good selection. It is the U.S. cut of the Welles U.K. film Confidential Report which feature about 10 extra minutes. All three feature an inroduction by Tony Curtis (!?!). May 15, 2001

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