STAY AS YOU ARE Comes Out on Blu-Ray Tuesday!

Order it at Amazon.

STAY AS YOU ARE (Così come sei) is Coming to Blu-ray and DVD from Cult Epics!!!

One of the most sought after films in Nastassja Kinski's filmography is finally getting an uncut Blu-ray and DVD release here in the states courtesy of the great folks over at Cult Epics. Stay as You Are (Cosi Come Sei) will be released on May 12th in a sparkling new HD transfer with both its original Italian language track, as well as the English language dub. The film will be available to order at Cult Epics official site, as well as Amazon and other fine retailers. I will be featuring a couple of in depth looks at this new release of one of Kinski's most important films in the upcoming months and, in the meantime, please feel free to visit my older posts on it as well.

STAY AS YOU ARE (Così come sei) is Coming to Blu-ray and DVD from Cult Epics!!!

One of the most sought after films in Nastassja Kinski's filmography is finally getting an uncut Blu-ray and DVD release here in the states courtesy of the great folks over at Cult Epics. Stay as You Are (Cosi Come Sei) will be released on May 12th in a sparkling new HD transfer with both its original Italian language track, as well as the English language dub. The film will be available to order at Cult Epics official site, as well as Amazon and other fine retailers. I will be featuring a couple of in depth looks at this new release of one of Kinski's most important films in the upcoming months and, in the meantime, please feel free to visit my older posts on it as well.

Nastassja Kinski: Some Turkish Poster Designs

Nastassja Kinski: Two Promo Slides and a Chinese Playing Card

Nastassja Kinski: Stay as You Are Color Promo Pics

Odds and Ends #5 (Stay As You Are)

STAY AS YOU ARE is often an overlooked film in Nastassja's filmography and its current unavailability hasn't helped matters, but it remains the most important of her first four films. While not as good as Wender's THE WRONG MOVE, STAY AS YOU ARE offered Nastassja a solid leading role and showed that clearly when paired with a great actor, Nastassja could more than hold her own.
The film was a success throughout Europe and a minor success in America. Various poster designs exist for the film but for the most part they utilize the same shot of Nastassja and Marcello. This shot has also been used for the various home video releases.
The usual amount of worldwide press books and such sometimes pop up on Ebay as does the very desirable Morricone soundtrack album that I already covered. The film would reach some further notoriety when Playboy published some photos from some of the film's love scenes between Nastassja and Marcello. Both were bothered, and publicly addressed, by the fact that the shots taken out of context might just appear lewd to people who hadn't seen the film.

The most desirable souvenir one can get from STAY AS YOU ARE at this point is the film itself. Used copies are currently going for well over one hundred dollars at Amazon and I haven't come across an import dvd that features English subtitles or the dub track (although I would be grateful to have someone point one out to me).
STAY AS YOU ARE has been forgotten by many but it is a film well worth discovering. Nastassja would have very little time to look back though as she was getting ready to begin the journey to the performance and film that would suddenly transform her into one of the most talked about stars in the world.

Critical Reactions #3 (Stay As You Are)

Critical reactions for Nastassja's fourth film ranged from mixed to very good. Almost everyone, even those who didn't care for the film, praised the performances of Nastassja and Marcello. STAY AS YOU ARE was the first film that really drew a lot of worldwide attention and acclaim for Nastassja. Here is an original promo ad for the film highlighting some of its best reviews. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Soundtrack #2: Stay As You Are (Ennio Morricone)

Film fans know that when they see, "Music by Ennio Morricone" at the beginning of a film that they are in for something special. So it should come as no surprise that one of the best soundtracks in Nastassja's filmography is Morricone's striking and lovely score for STAY AS YOU ARE.
From the haunting opening strains of the title track to the astonishing trumpet solos by Oscar Valdrambini, Morricone's score compliments STAY AS YOU ARE perfectly.
The eleven track lp is one of Ennio's most romantic works and while vocalist Edda Dell'Orso is sorely missed, the album contains a handful of tracks that would fit very nicely on any Romantic themed Morricone collection. Chief among these are the two versions of A NASTASSIA, which are a bit reminiscent of his astonishing LA DONNA INVISIBLE score from a decade earlier, both featuring the aforementioned trumpet work of Valdrambini.
PRELUDIO D'AMORE and POSTLUDIO D'AMORE are really haunting tracks with their choir vocals, light keyboard work and Trumpet solos. Among the album's strangest tracks are DANCE ON and SPAZIO, which are both soaring and funky discofied tracks that are completely different in tone from the rest of the album. The short closing track, VERSO MADRID, is among my favorite of Morricone's love themes and it is an absolutely beauty to hear.
Morricone's soundtrack to STAY AS YOU ARE, listed under it's original title COSI COME SEI, is not one of his easiest albums to track down. Originally released to coincide with the film in 1978, it re-appeared on a Belgium cd in the nineties and has since slipped out of print. Copies fetch pretty hefty prices on ebay but it is an essential album for fans of Morricone and Nastassja. A download of this lovely and haunting album is available at the astonishing Morricone Lover blog for those who can't locate an original.

Shooting Kinski #5: Jose Luis Alcaine

Cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine would be a legend among many film fans just for his work in the past twenty years with Pedro Almodovar, but Alcaine had already established himself as one of the best years before his first film with Pedro.
Born in 1938 in Morocco, Alcaine began shooting Spanish films starting in the mid sixties and shot dozens upon dozens of notable films before STAY AS YOU ARE including the just recently re-released WHO CAN KILL A CHILD and the Marisa Mell feature A DIARY OF A MURDERESS.
STAY AS YOU ARE would be among one of Alcain's biggest films of the seventies and the films lovely photographer would be chief among its best aspects. Alcaine is often associated with fluorescent tube lighting and the style that he had been perfecting throughout the seventies really pays off in STAY AS YOU ARE.
Alcain captured Nastassja at a pivotal time in her career and life and his photography of the 17 year old beauty is wonderful. Whether he is shooting Nastassja's youthfully intense face in close up or photography the film's much talked about love scenes, Alcaine's work is really striking. Alcaine really managed to capture not only Nastassja's youthful energy but also Marcello's weary middle aged look incredibly well, and the contrast he makes between the two of them is striking.
Alcaine would continue to work in mostly Spanish films throughout the eighties before striking up his fruitful collaboration with Almodovar with 1988's WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. He has since shot several more of Pedro's best films including TIE ME UP TIE ME DOWN and VOLVER. Alcaine has also worked with several other of Spain's most notable directors including Vincente Aranda with LOVERS, Fernando Trueba with BELLE EPOQUE and several Bigas Luna films.
Alcaine has been nominated and won many Goya awards as well as many other international prizes. His photography always brings something special to a film and the way he shoots actors is always original and incredible to look at. While he has photographed some of the screen's most beautiful actresses, including Penelope Cruz, Emmanuelle Beart, Victoria Abril and Mathilda May, I don't think he has ever topped his shooting of the young Nastassja Kinski in her 17th year right before she became an international sensation.

5. Cosi Come Sei (Stay As You Are) 1978

After making two films back to back that were beneath her quality wise, 1978's COSI COME SEI (STAY AS YOU ARE) would turn out to be a refreshing change of pace for Nastassja Kinski as well as the first film she made that garnered substantial worldwide attention.
Directed with flair by veteran Italian director Alberto Lattuada, STAY AS YOU ARE tells the tale of a fifty year old man who is having an affair with a teenage girl who turns out to maybe be his daughter. The film is most notable for the pairing of legendary Marcello Mastroianni with the young Kinski. The role, for Kinski, would suddenly prove her not only as a great star but also as one of the most commanding young actresses of the seventies.
Scripted by Lattauda and Enrico Oldoini, from a story by BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA director Paolo Cavara, STAY AS YOU ARE could have played as a totally smarmy and tasteless film but instead it holds up remarkably well as a poetic, if slightly twisted, look at a man having a major mid life crisis and the young woman who captures his heart.
Oldoini and Cavara had just come off the interesting Corrine Clery thriller, PLOT OF FEAR, when they came up with the idea for STAY AS YOU ARE. Lattauda was the perfect choice as director as he had just finished filming the pairing of middle aged Max Von Sydow and young Eleonora Giorgi in DOG'S HEART.
Produced by Bernardo Bertulcci's cousin, Giovanni, with Ennio Morricone providing a heartbreaking and incredible score along with the remarkable cinematography of Almodovar favorite, Jose Luis Alcaine, STAY AS YOU ARE had an incredible unit behind as well as in front of the camera.

This lovely to look at film has a certain disappointed and dreamlike quality that runs throughout its near two hour running time. Mastroianni really excels in the role as an unhappily married man who falls head over heels for the vivacious Kinski. It is one of his best, if most underrated, roles of the seventies and he plays it beautifully throughout. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Mastroianni's performance is how well he conveys the sense of losing control. He knows he is doing the wrong thing but he finds himself unable to stop himself, nobody was better than this great Italian leading man at showing this kind of internal strife. It is interesting to note that Mastroianni had just come off Ferreri's brilliantly crazed BYE BYE MONKEY where he would act at times as the voice of reason in the film to young Gerard Depardieu, while in STAY AS YOU ARE he is literally playing a man who has lost all reason and is seeking a voice for it.
As wonderful as Mastroianni is in the role, the film belongs to 17 year old Nastassja. Stunningly beautiful and authoritative, her work in STAY AS YOU ARE is still an eye opening experience. Even critics who didn't care for the film went out of their way to praise the young Kinski, who in the role of Francesca has to convey a sense of someone who is becoming more and more in control not only of their own life but also Mastroianni's Giulio. Kinski is at times soft and tender in her characterization but she never for a moment lets us forget that ultimately Giulio's destiny will finally be of her own choosing.
The pairing of Mastroianni and Kinski was inspired. The two have a real kinetic and joyous chemistry together and their love scenes, as well as just the way Marcello's kind but weary eyes stare lovingly at Nastassja, are still a wonder to behold. It must have been a thrill for Nastassja to work with one of her favorite actors at such a young age. She has often made mention throughout her career at how much she admired Fellini so the prospect of working with one of his greatest leading men must have been overwhelmingly exciting to her.
STAY AS YOU ARE does break down a bit towards the end. It plays out a little too long and the film's final moments are a little too simple for the films good. I get the feeling that ultimately Lattauda didn't know how to end the film and finally just perhaps took the easiest way out.
STAY AS YOU ARE also has a great supporting cast to go along with its fabulous leads. The fine Spanish actor Francisco Rabal provides great support as does Spanish actress Monica Randall in what could have been a thankless role as Marcello's wife. Also keep a look out for future Argento and Fulci star Ania Pieroni making her feature debut in a small but solid role.
Morricone's score is remarkable and I will be looking at it in more detail in a future post. STAY AS YOU ARE would unfortunately be the next to last feature film for Lattuada who would mostly work in Italian television before his death two years ago. The talented, and prolific, Alcaine would begin his legendary collaboration with Almodovar ten years after the release of STAY AS YOU ARE and he remains one of the great cinematographers in modern cinema, with the amazing VOLVER among his most recent works.
STAY AS YOU ARE still has the capability to really jolt modern audiences with it's very R-rated subject matter, full frontal nudity and the possible incestuous relationship that is at its core. It isn't a film that could made in the present climate of modern cinema which is probably this reason that it remains out of print and unavailable on dvd in America. It's politically incorrect nature shouldn't turn modern viewers off, at its heart the film is more about watching two great actors playing off each other much more so than its improbable plot.
Nastassja Kinski's fourth film, featuring the most important of her pre-TESS roles, remains one of her hardest to find. Briefly available on VHS in the eighties before slipping out of print, STAY AS YOU ARE now fetches very high prices on Ebay and Amazon. It has been released on dvd in Europe but unfortunately that dvd does not feature English subtitles or the, admittedly awful, English dub track. With most of Kinski's most important work available on dvd in America, the absence of the lovely and controversial STAY AS YOU ARE is very disappointing.