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The Mischief Makers (1957)
The Mischief Makers (1957) poster

The Mischief Makers (1957)

Les Mistons

Comedy • 18m

Director: François Truffaut

Cast: Gérard Blain, Bernadette Lafont, Michel François, Alain Baldy, Robert Bulle, Henri Demaegdt, Dimitri Moretti, Daniel Ricaulx, Jean-Claude Brialy

BFI Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 9 months ago

Video notes:

Criterion Blu-ray (in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel boxdset) has major gamma issues. See caps

Overview

A group of young boys develops a crush on a girl, leading to jealousy toward her boyfriend. They scheme to disrupt their relationship, and when the boyfriend catches one of them spying, he punishes him harshly. In retaliation, the boys attempt to make the girl doubt her boyfriend's love.

Release details

Length
18 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
The Kids

More from François Truffaut

See more →

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Video Notes:

BFI Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion

Best Audio:

2001 MK2 DVD

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Criterion Blu-ray 2K transfer

Best Audio:

WB DVD

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · i.ibb.co (opens in a new tab) · +1 more

Video Notes:

> 2021 Carlotta France 4K Blu-ray. Carlotta has bad compression and elevated gamma levels, while Criterion shows more shadow details. See caps1 and caps2

Criterion actually handed the flawed MK2 master over to Prasad Corporation for "additional restoration" instead of working on it in-house.

Criterion 4K Blu-ray is another SDR grade inside an HDR container, with average brightness on HDR BL of 83 nits and 100-nit static DV. See fkid post

Best Audio:

2001 MK2 DVD

Director: François Truffaut

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray has corrected gamma levels compared to Carlotta. See nicolas review

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K Blu-ray set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Carlotta, with debatable color gradings from master.

See nicolas review https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=842821#p842821 
"Carlotta’s encodes were terrible with heavy blocking in the highlights and pervasive chroma noise. Criterion / NexSpec did much better and only occasionally struggles with skies. Grain is finely detailed and it doesn’t look filtered. Grading is debatable and particularly whether all three subsequent films (shot years apart by two cinematographers, one of them being the legendary Néstor Almendros) have roughly the same visual identity. Still, colors are adequately balanced with variations in the (yellowish) hues, there are no tints, black levels and shadow detail is excellent."

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K Blu-ray set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Carlotta, with debatable color gradings from master (yellow hues).

See nicolas review https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=842821#p842821

"Carlotta’s encodes were terrible with heavy blocking in the highlights and pervasive chroma noise. Criterion / NexSpec did much better and only occasionally struggles with skies. Grain is finely detailed and it doesn’t look filtered. Grading is debatable and particularly whether all three subsequent films (shot years apart by two cinematographers, one of them being the legendary Néstor Almendros) have roughly the same visual identity. Still, colors are adequately balanced with variations in the (yellowish) hues, there are no tints, black levels and shadow detail is excellent."

Director: François Truffaut

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion The Adventures of Antoine Doinel 4K Blu-ray set

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Carlotta, with debatable color gradings from master.

See nicolas review https://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=842821#p842821

"Carlotta’s encodes were terrible with heavy blocking in the highlights and pervasive chroma noise. Criterion / NexSpec did much better and only occasionally struggles with skies. Grain is finely detailed and it doesn’t look filtered. Grading is debatable and particularly whether all three subsequent films (shot years apart by two cinematographers, one of them being the legendary Néstor Almendros) have roughly the same visual identity. Still, colors are adequately balanced with variations in the (yellowish) hues, there are no tints, black levels and shadow detail is excellent."

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK Artificial Eye vs France Carlotta no comparison

Director: François Truffaut

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Best Video:

Carlotta 4K Blu-ray

Director: François Truffaut

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Best Video:

Kino Lorber Francois Truffaut set

Video Notes:

France is same transfer 1080i no EN subs

More from BFI

See more →

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2022 BFI Boxset Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Tartan DVD, Criterion DVD

Director: Martin Rosen

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2002 R2 WB DVD

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray/BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion and BFI very similar

Best Audio:

Fox Lorber DVD

Director: F. W. Murnau

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score

Additional Info:

Both Eureka and BFI Blu-rays are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC Blu-ray is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made Blu-rays of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber Blu-ray!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray remains one of the worst Blu-rays of all time for this reason.

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI better encode than Criterion

Best Audio:

2006 Criterion DVD

Director: Edward D. Wood Jr.

Video format: 4K Streaming

Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2020 BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2005 Raro DVD

Director: Dennis Hopper

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI Blu-ray renders grain structure better than Severin 4K Blu-ray’s disappointing encode, although Severin does feature an HDR grading with Dolby Vision. Furthermore, Severin’s soundtrack is worse due to the noise reduction applied.

Additional Info:

Severin 4K Blu-ray has very good extras that are more relevant to the film

Director: Jan Švankmajer

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray or Athanor The Films of Jan Svankmajer Blu-ray

Best Audio:

BFI Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

BFI Blu-ray for both original Czech and English dub audio in lossless format

Additional Info:

Athanor The Films of Jan Svankmajer Blu-ray has exclusive extras

More Comedy on Blu-ray

Director: Bruce Robinson

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 MGM LaserDisc

Director: Olivier Assayas

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow UK Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.

Director: Morton DaCosta

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Bros Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th

TV series

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative for all episodes

Director: Norman Taurog

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Delbert Mann

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Charles Walters

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

TV series

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Garson Kanin

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Best Video:

Only Streaming has 1080p

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 9 months ago

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