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Satantango (1994)
Satantango (1994) poster

Satantango (1994)

Sátántangó

Drama • 7h 19m

Director: Béla Tarr

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

UHD Blu-ray

Best English-friendly release · updated 21 days ago

UHD tiers

Solid
Curzon

Overview

Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.

Release details

Best Video Release
Additional Info

For BD:

TSPDT
2026: #102
2025: #102
2024: #100
2023: #102
2022: #102
Length
439 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
Satan's Tango

Featured in Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films

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Director: Hayao Miyazaki

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2014 "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Japan Blu-ray or US Disney Blu-ray

Best Video:

2014 "Hayao Miyazaki Collection" Studio Ghibli Japan Blu-ray
Comparisons: https://slow.pics/c/6JWnlfit

Best Audio:

All sources are within margin of error. Comparisons: Japanese, English
Alternate Streamline English dub is available only on 1994 Fox LD.

Additional Info:

US GKIDS Blu-ray has more bonuses than the US Disney Blu-ray

Director: Carol Reed

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray/Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray (shared encode); slight improvement over the 2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray

Best Audio:

StudioCanal/LG UHDs port the 1999 Criterion DVD, considered the best source

Additional Info:

StudioCanal has a remastered Blu-ray, Lionsgate only a 4K Blu-ray

Director: John Carpenter

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?

Best Audio:

Director: Martin Scorsese

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook

Best Video:

2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding

Best Audio:

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: Ridley Scott

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray 

2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray 

Best Video:

Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray 

2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray  (additional scenes appear to be upscaled)

Best Audio:

Original Theatrical 70mm 6-Track Stereo: Fox 4K Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 4.1)

Original Theatrical 35mm Matrixed Dolby Stereo: 1999 DVD? (2.0 mix on the UHD is a downmix)

2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray, Fox Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 5.1)

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray

Director: Dario Argento

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

US Synapse 4K Blu-ray or UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray (some may prefer Synapse's grading, while some prefer Shameless's grading)

Best Video:

US Synapse 4K Blu-ray or UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray (some may prefer Synapse's grading, while some prefer Shameless's grading)

Best Audio:

4.0 track on the Synapse 4K Blu-ray

Director: Billy Wilder

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray

Best Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice

Best Audio:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.

Additional Info:

The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.

Director: David Lynch

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

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.

Best Audio:

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

Additional Info:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision, StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has MEL

Director: Martin Scorsese

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Capelight 4K announced for 2026

Best Video:

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

Best Audio:

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.

More from Béla Tarr

See more →

Director: Béla Tarr

Solid
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray see caps

For BD, Curzon Blu-ray is similar to Arbelos Blu-ray

Director: Béla Tarr

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection Blu-ray or Criterion Blu-ray: no comparisons

Best Video:

Carlotta France Blu-ray in boxset: FiM encode.

Curzon is on separate disc while Criterion has it shared with another film on the same disc.

Director: Béla Tarr

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye Blu-ray. Cinema Guild Blu-ray is a good alternative (more extras).

Best Video:

UK > US, not sure France. UK (Artificial Eye/Curzon) has higher bitrate than US (Cinema Guild) but has boosted gamma (see here: https://slow.pics/c/L9U9r8Es).

Director: Béla Tarr

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray (SD source)

Director: Béla Tarr

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray

There's also a France Carlotta boxset release (no ENG subs) but screenshots not available.

Director: Béla Tarr

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray (SD source)

Director: Béla Tarr

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray (SD Source)

Director: Béla Tarr

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray

Director: Béla Tarr

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion 4K Blu-ray

More from Carlotta

See more →

Director: S. S. Rajamouli

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Zee5 Streaming has the original Telugu audio and English subtitles (albeit with English portions also overdubbed in Telugu)
Netflix Streaming only has the Hindi dub but better video quality

Upcoming Release:

France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray coming in December

Best Video:

Japan Twin Co. 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Japan Twin Co. 4K Blu-ray has original Telugu Atmos audio

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion boxset but awful compression

Best Video:

Carlotta FR Blu-ray: FiM encode w/o English subtitles; Criterion boxset one has awful compression. review

Director: Otar Iosseliani

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Carlotta FR Blu-ray box set

Best Video:

Carlotta FR Blu-ray box set: 2K restoration of 4K scan. This 2K restoration’s detail level is quite good, although its highlights are somewhat blown out. On the other hand, the newer 4K restoration (on DCP only as of Aug 2026) exhibits severe black crush.

Best Audio:

TBD. Carlotta sounds muffled.

Additional Info:

Carlotta’s English subtitles omit quite a bit of dialog. This was improved upon in the subs accompanying the newer 4K restoration DCP.

Director: Otar Iosseliani

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Carlotta FR Blu-ray box set

Best Video:

Carlotta FR Blu-ray box set: 2K restoration of 4K scan. This 2K restoration’s detail level is quite good, although its highlights are somewhat blown out. On the other hand, the newer 4K restoration (on DCP only as of Aug 2026) exhibits severe black crush.

Best Audio:

TBD. Carlotta sounds muffled.

Additional Info:

Carlotta’s English subtitles omit quite a bit of dialog. This was improved upon in the subs accompanying the newer 4K restoration DCP.

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion > BFI. France Carlotta Blu-ray is a new, flawed 4K resto, which has heavy frozen grain

Best Audio:

1999 Image Entertainment DVD

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

France Carlotta Blu-ray

Best Video:

France Carlotta better encode than Criterion

Best Audio:

2004 Prism Leisure DVD

Director: Bert Stern

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Best Video:

FRA Carlotta Blu-ray: FiM encode. At least slightly better than the Kino see caps

Additional Info:

Carlotta ports over all special features from the Kino release, except the booklet essay. All specials are in English.

Director: Takashi Miike

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Well Go US Blu-ray / Tokyo Shock US Blu-ray (see video/audio notes)

Best Video:

4K Remaster: Carlotta FR 4K Blu-ray
Original digital master: Tokyo Shock US Blu-ray

The original master is of poor quality, blurry with some damage and bad levels, which the 4K remaster improves upon, with better detail in compression. Unfortunately, the 4K master has significant issues with color posterization, making it look like poor quality digital video rather than 16mm film. Comparison between masters, Carlotta/Tokyo Shock clip

Best Audio:

Original Japanese: Carlotta FR 4K Blu-ray
English dub: Tokyo Shock US Blu-ray

Well Go does not include the dub.

Director: Masahiro Shinoda

1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Channel Streaming

Best Video:

2024 Carlotta FR Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2009 Shochiku JP NTSC DVD

The audio track on the new 4K restoration sounds flat and lifeless, both its low and high frequencies were significantly attentuated.

Director: Delmer Daves

Excellent
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps

Best Audio:

Carlotta Blu-ray

Additional Info:

All audio tracks originate from the same DVD-era master, no real audible differences between them, but Carlotta is least filtered out of all

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· last reviewed 21 days ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.