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Padre Padrone (1977)
Padre Padrone (1977) poster

Padre Padrone (1977)

Padre padrone

Drama • 1h 54m

Directors: Vittorio Taviani & Paolo Taviani

Best video & English-friendly release

Cohen/Arrow/Screenbound Pictures Taviani Brothers Collection Blu-ray

Video notes:

No comparisons

Updated 1 year ago


About the film

The true story of the life of Gavino Ledda, the son of a Sardinian shepherd, and how he managed to escape his harsh, almost barbaric existence by slowly educating himself, despite violent opposition from his brutal father.

Alternative Titles
Father and Master, My Father My Master

Featured in Cannes Palme d’Or Winners

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Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Best Video & English-Friendly:

Strand Releasing Blu-ray vs New Wave Blu-ray?

Additional Info:

New 4K restoration recently screened at Venice Film Festival https://variety.com/2026/film/news/apichatpong-weerasethakuls-4k-restorations-match-factory-1236843949/

Director: Claude Lelouch

4K · Solid
Best Video & English-Friendly:

French Metropolitan 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

French Metropolitan 4K Blu-ray has English subtitles and is better than Criterion Blu-ray see caps and comparison

Director: David Lynch

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Criterion standard BD encode, sold separately, is not very good

Director: Jerry Schatzberg

Best Video & English-Friendly:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Director: Quentin Tarantino

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

2025 Taiwan Deltamac 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2025 Taiwan Deltamac 4K Blu-ray > US Paramount 4K Blu-ray (Taiwan 4K Blu-ray is not low passed as the US 4K Blu-ray and has better grain and fine detail retention)

Best Audio:

Matrixed Dolby Stereo: 1995 Miramax LaserDisc 2.0

Original 5.1 Discrete Mix: 2012 Japan Warner Bros Blu-ray, 1996 Criterion LaserDisc, 2002 2-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD

5.1 DTS Mix: 1997 Miramax LaserDisc, 2002 2-Disc Collector’s Edition DVD

Director: Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina

Best Video & English-Friendly:

Criterion Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 5 Blu-ray

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Theatrical Cut: Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray
Redux Cut: Lionsgate vs Eagle Pictures?
Final Cut: Lionsgate or Eagle Pictures, both are not great (visible chroma noise)

Best Audio:

Theatrical: Germany 4K Blu-ray/US Blu-ray DD 5.1 (1979 mix)

Additional Info:

In the Lionsgate US/UK 6-disc set, there are 4 discs of the main feature. For whatever reason, the 4K discs lack the *original track. The Germany 4K Blu-ray release is different on this matter.

  1. UBD: Final Cut: Atmos, DD2.0

  2. UBD: Redux/Theatrical: Atmos

  3. BD: Final Cut: Atmos, DD2.0

  4. BD: Redux/Theatrical: Dtru5.1 (Redux mix?), DD5.1 (?), DD5.1 (Theatrical only), DD2.0 (downmix??)

    1. As a result the Theatrical Cut has 4 tracks, The Redux has 3. Differences are unclear.

  5. BD: Hearts of Darkness

  6. BD: Special Features

Director: Bong Joon Ho

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray releasing January 2027

Best Video:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

France The Jokers 4K Blu-ray has the least DNR (UK Artificial Eye might be similar? Both better than Universal 4K Blu-ray)

Criterion even though doesn’t have 4K, it has the B&W version and a lot of extras.

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray > BFI 4K Blu-ray. caps Criterion presents the master as originally graded in SDR whereas FiM added HDR / Dolby Vision for the BFI.

Best Audio:

1991 Criterion LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray's audio mix has more detail than BFI’s and same applies to the subtitles, covering both English and France spoken word

Director: Luis Buñuel

4K · Solid
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Radiance Blu-ray / Criterion DVD

Additional Info:

Radiance's audio is ported from the Criterion DVD, see Blah-ray

More from Arrow

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Director: Joel Coen

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Shout is still very good but Arrow has the edge due to better handling of highlights and less chroma noise, comparison

Best Audio:

All the same

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Best Video, Audio & English-Friendly:

2020 Arrow Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2020 Arrow Blu-ray is new 4K restoration and encoded by FiM.

Director: Tony Ching Siu-Tung

Best Video & English-Friendly:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray or Shout! Factory US 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Different gradings; Arrow looks better in some frames (particularly the restored day-for-night blue filters), while Shout! Factory looks better in others https://slow.pics/c/aQmQXCrc

Director: Robert Aldrich

4K · Excellent
Best Video, Audio & English-Friendly:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Only the Arrow has the 6-track mix.

Director: Jonathan Demme

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray vs Criterion

Audio Notes:

Three masterings of the original Dolby Stereo SR mix exist: the original Orion video releases, the Criterion (which is from their LD) and the Arrow. All three are excellent with slight mastering differences between them. The original Orion still is probably the one with the most fidelity, the Criterion is the cleanest with a kind of warm feel to it and the Arrow has a bit of both aspects. The Arrow mastering has a tiny almost imperceptible bit of audio bleeding into the surround that isn't on the Criterion. Each has their own pluses and minuses but you can't go wrong with any of them. Whatever you do though: DO NOT WATCH WITH THE 5.1 REMIX. It is another MGM botch job that fundamentally alters the impact of many scenes. It is vastly inferior to the original mix in every way.

Additional Info:

Criterion Blu-ray has exclusive extras, Arrow UHD has the most extras of any release

Director: John Woo

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56

Best Audio:

Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD

Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)

Audio Notes:

Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)

Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD

Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)

Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.

Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.

Additional Info:

Arrow has a much better translation.

Arrow LE has the Taiwan Extended Cut which will not be present on the standard edition. However, Imprint is FiM and has its own archival extras not present on the Arrow.

Director: Billy Wilder

4K · Excellent
Best Video, Audio & English-Friendly:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

(transfer of the 1989 MGM LaserDisc, without problems plaguing Kino Lorber's release)

Additional Info:

Arrow UHD is an update of the original 4K scan done for their BD. It is also visually far superior to the Kino version and adds Dolby Vision HDR. The Arrow UHD uses a new LD mono capture and has none of the issues or processing found in the Kino UHD which also used an LD mono capture and somehow mucked it up. Short of a brand new scan, the Arrow UHD is as good as it possibly can be.

Director: Martin Scorsese

4K · Solid
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US and Capelight DE, same black crush on all three but the Arrow is encoded by FiM and has very good new supplements, the Capelight looks slightly low-passed, but in motion it probably looks about the same as the Paramount, see caps comparison for all three.

Audio Notes:

Arrow and Paramount basically sound the same, the Arrow has a slightly higher bitrate. Capelight is probably the same too but for now it's TBA.

Additional Info:

Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision 

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray and Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray have MEL Dolby Vision

Director: Bernard Rose

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Scream Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Turbine 4K Blu-Ray

Additional Info:

SF and Turbine also have the 2004 Audio Commentary with Bernard Rose, Clive Barker, Alan Poul and actors Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd and Kasi Lemmons

Director: Peter Jackson

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Arrow US/UK 4K Blu-ray or Turbine Germany 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Both will look identical in motion but the Turbine looks marginally better due to a higher bitrate allocation by each cut being given its own disc, whereas Arrow had FiM seamlessly branch the two onto one. However, Arrow has both cuts in Open Matte (on Blu-Ray) and corrected the opening Universal logo's aspect ratio. https://slow.pics/c/McvVcYDG

Best Audio:

Cinema DTS

More Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Richard Rush

4K · Excellent
Best Video, Audio & English-Friendly:

Radiance 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode on Radiance compared to Duplitech encode on Shout! Factory)

Director: Victor Sjöström

Best Video & English-Friendly:

Flicker Alley Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Blu-ray with a new score composed and performed by Matti Bye

Director: Victor Sjöström

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Blu-ray new 2K restoration

Director: Victor Sjöström

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Criterion Blu-ray 

  • New 4K digital restoration of the 1928 theatrical-release version, preserved and digitally restored by the MoMA, with original soundtrack

  • New 2K digital restoration of the 1983 variable-frame-rate version, with a score by Carl Davis

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Superior Imports
Video Notes:

Capelight/Plaion Media Germany 4K Blu-ray > MUBI UK. Good encode and correct colors on the Germany import

Directors: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

4K · Excellent
Best Video & English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Director: Philip Kaufman

4K · Excellent
Best Video, Audio & English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray is a significant upgrade over previous WB Blu-ray see comparison

Audio Notes:

Criterion for the first time on home video have provided the 70mm 6-track as well as the Dolby stereo which was previously on LaserDisc. Both tracks are unique so included both with the 6-track default. Criterion’s 5.1 remix is lossless compared to the lossy tracks of the previous blu-rays and DVDs.

See comparison

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Best Video & English-Friendly:

WB Blu-ray

Additional Info:

New restoration to be shown at TCM Film Fest

Director: Robert De Niro

4K · Solid
Best Video & English-Friendly:

MVD 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

2027 FreeWind Media UK 4K Blu-ray 

Director: Joseph Losey

4K · Solid
Best Video & English-Friendly:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

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Researched and maintained by

vanshady

· last reviewed 1 year ago

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