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F for Fake (1973)
F for Fake (1973) poster

F for Fake (1973)

Vérités et Mensonges

Documentary • 1h 29m

Director: Orson Welles

France Potemkine Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago

Video notes:

France Potemkine Blu-ray is new 4K master

Overview

Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.

Release details

TSPDT
2026: #269
2025: #274
2024: #274
2023: #272
2022: #272
Length
89 mins
Type
Movie

More from Orson Welles

See more →

Director: Orson Welles

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> StudioCanal: Although Criterion is low-pass filtered, StudioCanal exhibits very clear and distracting macroblocking.

Best Audio:

TBD: UHDs sound muffled, but old YT clips sound clear. Need to look into DVDs and possibly VHS.

Director: Orson Welles

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Eureka MoC 4K Blu-ray/Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar

Director: Orson Welles

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Criterion 4k restoration

Best Audio:

1989/1993 Criterion LaserDisc

Director: Orson Welles

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 Columbia VHS (slightly)

Director: Orson Welles

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

HD transfer, not sure if Spain is newer

Best Audio:

2015 Mr Bongo Blu-ray

Director: Orson Welles

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

WB Europe 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

WB Europe 4K Blu-ray slightly better encoding than Criterion (caveat: missing Criterion extras)

Directors: Orson Welles & William Vance

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Silent Avant-Garde Blu-ray

Director: Orson Welles

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Criterion 4k resto

More from Potemkine

See more →

Director: Werner Herzog

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

HD Streaming

Best Video:

Potemkine Blu-ray

Director: Éric Rohmer

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Rohmer Potemkine set

Video Notes:

Rohmer Potemkine set vs Criterion set?

Best Audio:

Netherlands 2006 Homescreen DVD

Director: Leos Carax

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Shout! Factory BD (caveat: burned-in English subtitles)

Best Video:

France Potemkine Blu-ray

Additional Info:

The Indomina release (and possibly some other releases) censor a scene of full frontal nudity via optical blurring, the Shout release is uncensored.

Director: Lars von Trier

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray or France Potemkine Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

(needs gamma correction)

The movie was shot in HD and  France Potemkine Blu-ray (needs gamma correction) has slightly stronger encoding than Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray. Curzon Blu-ray is the worst of all three (not by much) see caps.

Director: Robert Bresson

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Potemkine France Blu-ray is a recent 4K restoration compared to the old Japan Imagica Blu-ray, it unfortunately also has the eclair teal https://slow.pics/c/BIIWAPtO

Given that it's a Janus theatrical release, an English-friendly and Criterion release can be expected in the near future.

Director: Lars von Trier

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

No disc has correct frame rate (25fps) and English subtitles

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

Best Audio:

Nordisk NOR Blu-ray / Potemkine France Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

About the same

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion, 4K transfer

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

Best Video:

Potemkine Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Criterion is regraded with no reference information provided. Comparisons

Director: Abel Gance

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Potemkine 4K

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

Video Notes:

Potemkine 4K for the 7h Grand Version https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=36908

Director: Larisa Shepitko

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2022 France Potemkine Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2022 France Potemkine Blu-ray > Criterion

Best Audio:

France Potemkine

Audio Notes:

France Potemkine > Criterion

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

2019 Potemkine France Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2019 Potemkine France Blu-ray less processing than Criterion. Need to adjust luminence from 16-235 (limited) to 0-255 (full) to fix crushed blacks

More Documentary on Blu-ray

Director: Leos Carax

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Director: Hal Ashby

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

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has excellent master in SDR and a good encode. BD caps here.

Audio Notes:

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.

Director: Preston Sturges

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion The Palm Beach Story Blu-ray extras

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

Video Notes:

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: Mitra Farahani

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Forugh Farrokhzad

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

Director: Ebrahim Golestan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Radiance Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio Blu-ray

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· last reviewed 1 year ago

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