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L'Atalante (1934)
L'Atalante (1934) poster

L'Atalante (1934)

Romance, Drama, Comedy • 1h 29m

Director: Jean Vigo

Cast: Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre, Maurice Gilles, Raphaël Diligent, Claude Aveline, René Blech, Lou Bonin, Charles Dorat, Genya Lozinska, Gen Paul, Jacques Prévert, Pierre Prévert, Albert Riéra, Jacques Brunius, Paul Grimault, Fanny Clair, Kani Kıpçak

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

UHD Blu-ray

Best English-friendly release · updated 3 months ago

UHD tiers

Excellent
Curzon

Overview

Capricious small-town girl Juliette and barge captain Jean marry after a whirlwind courtship, and she comes to live aboard his boat, L'Atalante. As they make their way down the Seine, Jean grows weary of Juliette's flirtations with his all-male crew, and Juliette longs to escape the monotony of the boat and experience the excitement of a big city. When she steals away to Paris by herself, her husband begins to think their marriage was a mistake.

Release details

Best Video Release

Curzon 4K Blu-ray with much better encoding than the Gaumont Blu-ray with the same 4K restoration see caps

Criterion Blu-ray uses an older restoration

TSPDT
2026: #21
2025: #20
2024: #20
2023: #21
2022: #21
Criterion Forum
Review

Picture: 7, Audio: 5, Extras: 9

Length
89 mins
Type
Movie

Part of Is this Perfect?

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Director: Robert Bresson

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti & Charles Crichton & Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

Director: Otakar Vávra

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray see nic review

Best Audio:

Restored: Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored: Czech PAL DVD

Preferences will vary, the restored track sounds good, but not necessarily faithful to the original elements.

Director: Basil Dearden

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Indicator 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

(Indicator 4K Blu-ray, based on review)

Director: Robert Rossen

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Director: Anthony Mann

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent

Director: Charles Crichton

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Director: Jacques Becker

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Director: Basil Dearden

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Indicator 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Indicator 4K Blu-ray. Excellent 4K master and encode, except for opticals grain is very fine, grading is beautifully silvery and luminous, nice HDR re-grade by Fidelity in Motion

Director: George Stevens

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has unusually strong encode but only a minimal upgrade over the excellent Eureka Blu-ray

Featured in Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films

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Director: David Lynch

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

 Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December

Best Video:

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

Best Audio:

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: Hayao Miyazaki

Best format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

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

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · lddb.com (opens in a new tab)

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

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
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

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

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

Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Director: Martin Scorsese

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook

Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

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

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
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

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray

Director: Dario Argento

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & 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

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

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

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
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

More from Jean Vigo

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Director: Jean Vigo

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Director: Jean Vigo

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Directors: Jean Vigo & Boris Kaufman

Best format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

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Researched and maintained by

DISKANBGR8vanshadyAdamA

· last reviewed 3 months ago

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