Citizen Kane (1941)
Mystery, Drama • 1h 59m
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Ray Collins, George Coulouris, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Stewart, Ruth Warrick, Erskine Sanford, William Alland, Everett Sloane, Fortunio Bonanova, Gus Schilling, Philip Van Zandt, Georgia Backus, Harry Shannon, Sonny Bupp, Buddy Swan, Gregg Toland, Don Ackerman, Gino Corrado, Maurice Costello, Demetrius Alexis, Gene Coogan, Art Dupuis, Rudy Germane, Mike Lally, Walter Lawrence, John Northpole, Victor Romito, Bob Terry, William Alston, Jack Gargan, Bert Moorhouse, Carmen Laroux, Sam Ash, Buddy Messinger, Terrance Ray, Sally Corner, Walter Bacon, Herbert Corthell, Harry A. Bailey, Danny Borzage, Tom Coleman, Carl Deloro, Jack Egan, Robert Haines, Ludwig Lowry, John McCormack, Hercules Mendez, Paddy O'Flynn, Sam Rice, Don Roberts, Larry Wheat, Morgan Brown, Harry Burkhardt, Edmund Cobb, Eddie Coke, Louis Natheaux, Arthur O'Connell, Guy Repp, Tom Steele, Richard Wilson, Louise Currie, Walter Sande, Jan Wiley, Milton Kibbee, Buck Mack, Alan Ladd, Thomas A. Curran, Jack Curtis, George Noisom, Gerald Pierce, Dona Dax, George DeNormand, Bud Geary, Bert LeBaron, Clyde McAtee, Cyril Ring, Roland Winters, Lew Harvey, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Eddie Dew, Perc Launders, John Dilson, Walter James, Robert Dudley, Suzanne Dulier, Al Eben, Johnny Eckert, Carl Ekberg, Edith Evanson, Carl Faulkner, Juanita Fields, Edna Mae Jones, Leda Nicova, Jolane Reynolds, Suzanne Ridgway, Olin Francis, Louise Franklin, Renee Godfrey, Peter Gowland, Jimmy Grant, Jesse Graves, Ernest Grooney, Jack Gwynne, Teddy Mangean, Henry Hebert, Bryan 'Slim' Hightower, Mitchell Ingraham, Philip Morris, Francis Sayles, George W. Jimenez, Ellen Lowe, James T. Mack, Mickey Martin, Bruce Sidney, Major McBride, Frank McLure, Charles Meakin, Edward Peil Jr., Irving Mitchell, Frances E. Neal, Lillian Nicholson, Joseph North, William H. O'Brien, Field Norton, Dick Scott, Frank O'Connor, Russ Powell, Bert Stevens, Thomas Pogue, Lillian O'Malley, Jack Raymond, Gohr Van Vleck, Myrtle Rishell, Benny Rubin, Shimen Ruskin, George Sherwood, Edward Ryan, Landers Stevens, Harry J. Vejar, Tudor Williams, Arthur Yeoman, Tim Davis, Arthur Kay, John Alban, Finn Zirzow, Sam Harris, Dorothy Cleveland
WB 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly release · updated 11 months ago
UHD tiers
fewer extras but superior compression and grain on the film itself
Overview
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.
Director: James Cameron
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
2013 MGM Blu-ray, or 4K Blu-ray if you MUST have the mono mix, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
Sources: facebook.com (opens in a new tab) · vimeo.com (opens in a new tab)
2013 MGM Blu-ray for non AI transfer, 1997 Image DVD/2001 MGM DVD for a purist version with original colors and the international mono mix
1991 Image Entertainment LaserDisc for the US mono mix, 2001 MGM DVD for the International mono mix
Comparison between the US and International mixes: https://vimeo.com/246332731
The 4K Blu-Ray and the 2001 MGM DVD have exclusive extras.
Director: Rob Reiner
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray releasing December 14 2026
Director: David Fincher
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
4K Blu-ray has exclusive “unrated” audio with a small change to one line under the request of David Fincher (removed the poor dub over of frickin’ in the line “Screw it, let’s gut the f**kin’ nerd.”).
Director: John Schlesinger
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Included Imprint Blu-Ray also has markedly better image compression than the Criterion Blu-Ray, though do note the Imprint has some adjusted color grading within roughly the first five minutes of the film
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=16775595&postcount=450
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24237074&postcount=73
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray used what was also originally screened theatrically: The Perspecta Stereo 3.0 and a mono option. The Perspecta track sounds best with better dynamic range and was set as default with the mono as optional. The previous releases stereo were downmixes of a now lost original 4-track, and it sounds very thin as a result. See comparison
Director: John Carpenter
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Warner Archive Blu-ray, 4k scan
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding
Original mono mix: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1991 Columbia LaserDisc
The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: George Stevens
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Orson Welles
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray > StudioCanal: Although Criterion is low-pass filtered, StudioCanal exhibits very clear and distracting macroblocking.
Director: Orson Welles
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
1991 Columbia VHS (slightly)
Director: Orson Welles
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Directors: Orson Welles & William Vance
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Silent Avant-Garde Blu-ray
Director: Orson Welles
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Orson Welles
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Directors: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
4K encode is low-pass filtered and noticeably so, which was unfortunately par for the course with Criterion 4Ks until sometime in 2024. Still better than the Criterion and Lionsgate Blu-Ray discs for the Dolby Vision grading alone.
Director: David Lynch
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray - subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking
1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD
Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110
Director: Jūzō Itami
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Carol Reed
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray/Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray (shared encode); slight improvement over the 2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray
StudioCanal/LG UHDs port the 1999 Criterion DVD, considered the best source
StudioCanal has a remastered Blu-ray, Lionsgate only a 4K Blu-ray
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is slightly better than French 4K Blu-ray see caps
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: David Lynch
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Censored US version: Shout! Factory or Twilight Time Blu-ray
Uncensored version: old DVD
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray, confirmed to be uncut
Director: Joachim Trier
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
MUBI 4K Blu-ray has zero extras
Director: David Lynch
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and doesn’t have the low-pass filter the Criterion 4K Blu-ray has.
Criterion 4K Blu-ray is closer to the original DVDs than the 2015 Criterion release, not sure about whether the StudioCanal 4K is like the Criterion 4K/original DVD
Criterion 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision, StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has MEL
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: facebook.com (opens in a new tab) · Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review
1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:
I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.
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tyyux,vanshady,vanshady.test,JojoTheMovieOtter,cbc· last reviewed 11 months ago
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