YEAR IN ITALY, A - DVD review

These days, the Travel Channel and Food Network pump out so many destination-related shows that it's hard to keep track of them all. So it's refreshing, in a way, to find a young travel writer and filmmaker who does it old school.

How old? Try the late 1800s through the early 1900s, when American audiences in small towns or big cities couldn't get enough of speakers who came to their meetings and gatherings with a rucksack full of stories, and sometimes pictures or artifacts to share. People like Mark Twain made a comfortable living lecturing about their travels abroad, but so did countless other lesser-known wanderers.

I thought it was a practice that had gone the way of the Chautauqua, but no one apparently told Steven Robert McCurdy. Each of these three films contained on "A Year in Italy" hasn't been seen on TV and hasn't played in theaters--nor is it a direct-to-video operation. Instead, in the tradition of old-time travel writers and explorers, McCurdy has been showing his videos in travel series at universities and travel clubs across the country. If you've seen "Up," you know the kind of film-lectures I'm talking about.

"I want to bring home all the sights, all the sounds. I want to bring home the music and the people. I want to bring home Sardinia," McCurdy says in a voiceover on one of the segments, "Bringing Home Sardinia." That appears to be his overarching philosophy for putting together these self-shot, self-written, and self-produced travel films. McCurdy wants to make viewers feel as if they're experiencing the place right along with him, and he has no qualms about identifying his audience as those who've already been to a place, or those who are hoping to travel there. Though you hear him talking all the time, he's not a Travel Channel host who inserts himself into the film as a personality. He stays off-camera. As a result, these films have the intimacy of home movies, but the polish and interesting angles, framing, and editing of the glossy travel shows.

McCurdy is at his best when he's that unpretentious guy next door sharing his travels and impressions from 2003-2008. But he does get overly fond of epigraphs, which flash across the screen with their heady content and the urgency of someone trying too hard to be profound. Sometimes such attempts turn unintentionally comic, as when he asks (in all seriousness), "Is Venice really Venice?"

But "deep thoughts" be damned, "A Year in Italy" is an enjoyable DVD that really does convey a lot about the sights and sounds and smells and feel of Italy--and not just the tourist areas. He makes an attempt to talk with different locals and interview them on camera, telling their stories so that we get some sense of what it's like to live and work in a place that most just see as an exotic destination to visit. There is, after all, a connection between the culture of life lived in a place and the ambience it has for tourists.

Not all of these segments are as successful as others, because we get the sense that some--like an Italian wedding--might not be as representative as McCurdy had hoped, but perhaps the only opportunity that presented itself. Yet some of the people make such an impression on him that it's hard not to have at least a portion of it transfer to film. One of the people, a centenarian he met, found herself the subject of a dedication, she affected him so profoundly.

Another thing that McCurdy does is to play James Michener, trying to capture the history of a place, and not just through a brief voiceover. He uses old postcards, vintage footage, family films, and old photographs to complement his own photos and video. In other words, the guy does research, and it adds a rich texture to his narrative. The result is a portrait that's more interesting than the average travel show. I really liked seeing all those old postcards and vintage movies, even though the quality is nothing like the shooting stock. Sometimes the narration stretches a bit to justify the concept of blending old and new images, but they're engaging to watch. And he situates each place on a map as well, so you get a full sense of place.

"My Private Italy" is a general look at Italy that uses home movies from the national archives as its organizing premise and core. We visit the archives, tiny villages, and get an overview of Italy and its culture. A wedding is featured as the human element.

Bringing Home Sardinia" is the strongest segment because it flows better, the cinematography is more captivating, and the people featured are more interesting. The program is dedicated to centenarian Luisa Puddu, and we are introduced to a ceramic artist and his wife, an actor, and a comic. An original score from Rich Dixon and John Hancock seems well matched to the images and feel of the place, and I found the total package to be more startlingly original at every turn.

"Postcards from Italy" offers interesting sections shot in Sicily, Matera, Irsina, Naples, the island of Procida, Gubbio, Spoleto, Siena, and Rome. The section on Naples is particularly strong. But in this show--which substitutes vintage postcards for the home videos we saw in the first program--the photographic slides skip along a little too quickly for my taste. Plus, one of the techniques from "My Private Italy" is also overused: McCurdy goes a little overboard with the fish-eye lens. But these annoyances are counterbalanced by some truly artistic composition, with McCurdy conscious of trying to create contemporary postcards with his video. In my favorite scene, near the end a man in a boat simple drifts out of a fixed-camera frame.

Video:
Though there's plenty of grain in the vintage material and dirt imperfections as well (we're talking rough), the recently shot material looks pretty good, with bold, bright colors and decent edge delineation for a standard-def DVD. The programs are presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
No printed info on the audio specs, but the soundtracks are Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. At times it can feel a bit like mono, but for the most part the soundtrack is clean and free of distortion, even if it's not very dynamic.

Extras:
"A Year in Italy" comes packaged in a single-width keep case with a plastic "page" to house one of the two discs in the set. On the second disc, in addition to "Postcards from Italy," are two musical/video montages. "Every time I come to Rome" features music from Dixon and Hancock, while "Montage of Venice" features traditional music. The images (both video and photographic) are strong and interesting, though with the Venice montage McCurdy goes a little nuts with split screens and fish-eye lenses again. Still, a couple of worthwhile bonus features here.

Bottom Line:
As travel films go, "A Year in Italy" is an engaging blend of the personal and the travelogue, with McCurdy acting more as host guide than personality or celebrity. The emphasis is on place, and for those thinking of visiting Italy in the future, this is a good place to start.