Best English-friendly & video release
· updated 9 months agoIncluded as extras in Pathé Paris qui dort + Entr'acte Blu-ray
Overview
A poetic documentary tribute to the famous Eiffel tower, built for the 1889 World Fair and intended to have been destroyed 20 years later. A vocal subset of Parisians (among which, one may surmise, Clair would've been counted) insisted the Tower remain above the River Seine, a continued display of French engineering excellence. Clair makes strategic use of double exposures and dissolves, capturing the mechanical exuberance of the Tower; The great swooping steel latticework edifice a bounding symbol of the modern age.
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
VCI US or Filmjuwelen Blu-ray
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
VCI US or Filmjuwelen Blu-ray are both MP2 encoded, most likely from the same master. Judging from the size and the caps from DVDBeaver or BR for VCI or caps-a-holic for Filmjuwelen, they are probably very similar.
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: René Clair
Sources: silentfilm.org (opens in a new tab) · janusfilms.com (opens in a new tab)
The latest and best restoration from official screencaps are from Shout! Factory Silent Film Festival + Cinémathèque Française https://silentfilm.org/preservation/the-italian-straw-hat/ which is from Original Camera Negative and original France title negative. Janus seems to have acquired the rights https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2259 The Grapevine Blu-ray (including their updated 2K transfer) or the Flicker Alley DVD might be the ones referred in the above Shout! Factory Silent Film Festival as "US viewers have had to be satisfied with either the alternate version that was released in the United States in 1931, or hybrids that supplement the US version with additional footage"
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: René Clair
Director: René Clair
Director: Sofia Coppola
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Director: Neil Marshall
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
UK StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray or FR Pathé 4K Blu-ray share the same disc (caps)
The StudioCanal UHD has a much better encode than the Lionsgate UHD with the same grade. The Vuelta UHD has a decent encode but it is in an incorrect color space and has German overlays.
UK disc includes only 5.1.
The 7.1 mix included on the Lionsgate UHD appears to be identical to the 2006 USA BD's LPCM 7.1 track and to be a straight transfer of the theatrical Dolby Digital Surround EX mix (originally matrixed 6.1, with the rear surrounds in the discrete 7.1 presentation being dual mono). The old GER BD has a 6.1 mix but it is a poor remix and the GER UHD has an Auro-3D remix of the 7.1 mix (mostly adjusted surround levels). All other discs offer a 5.1 mix, including the Studio Canal UHD
Director: Jacques Audiard
France Pathé 4K Blu-ray has Dolby Atmos audio
Director: Saul Dibb
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Director: Bruce Beresford
Director: Marcel Carné
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
> Criterion/Second Sight with old transfer heavy DNR https://slow.pics/c/z8p3fR0G
Director: René Clair
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
More Documentary on Blu-ray
Director: Werner Herzog
Director: Steve James
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has excellent master in SDR and a good encode. BD caps here.
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has poor audio: The 2.0 is fine but unremarkable, the 5.1 is presumably an upmix with a botched, strongly raised LFE channel which makes the entire track unlistenable on well-tuned equipment. Audio graphs here.
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
While it's included on both Criterion The Palm Beach Story extras and Arrow's Sullivan's Travels' extras, Criterion uses a different source and is vastly superior, see caps
Director: Ebrahim Golestan
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