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The Man from London (2008)
The Man from London (2008) poster

The Man from London (2008)

A Londoni férfi

Mystery, Crime, Drama • 2h 19m

Director: Béla Tarr

Cast: Miroslav Krobot, Tilda Swinton, János Derzsi, Ági Szirtes, Gyula Pauer, Erika Bók, István Lénárt, Mihály Kormos, Kati Lázár, Éva Almássy Albert, Ágnes Kamondy, László feLugossy, Alfréd Járai

Best English-friendly release

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Updated 11 months ago

Best video release


About the film

A switchman at a seaside railway witnesses a murder but does not report it after he finds a suitcase full of money at the scene of the crime.

More from Béla Tarr

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Director: Béla Tarr

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray see caps

Additional Info:

For BD:

Director: Béla Tarr

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray see caps

For BD, Curzon Blu-ray is similar to Arbelos Blu-ray

Director: Béla Tarr

Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection Blu-ray or Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

Carlotta France Blu-ray in boxset

Video Notes:

No comparisons

FiM encode.

Curzon is on separate disc while Criterion has it shared with another film on the same disc.

Director: Béla Tarr

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Artificial Eye Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Cinema Guild Blu-ray is a good alternative (more extras).

UK > US, not sure France. UK (Artificial Eye/Curzon) has higher bitrate than US (Cinema Guild) but has boosted gamma (see here: https://slow.pics/c/L9U9r8Es).

Director: Béla Tarr

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray (SD source)

Director: Béla Tarr

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Video Notes:

There's also a France Carlotta boxset release (no ENG subs) but screenshots not available.

Director: Béla Tarr

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray (SD source)

Director: Béla Tarr

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray (SD Source)

Director: Béla Tarr

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray has better encode than Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray is worse.

More from Curzon

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Director: Roy Andersson

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Curzon/Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Director: Céline Sciamma

Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye UK Blu-ray?

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release

Best Video:

Pyramide France Blu-ray

Streaming in 4K on Netflix

Video Notes:

Supposed to have better translation than Criterion.

Director: Michael Haneke

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray (Haneke boxset)

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

Video Notes:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray or 2013 TF1 FR Blu-ray (caps)

Curzon has a slightly better encode and preserves all the noise of the digital source, but ends up obscuring actual detail in some shots. Both are quite good, only caveat being that the TF1 disc is slightly cropped and has a black bar on top.

Audio Notes:

2008 Artificial Eye UK and 2025 Umbrella AU discs have incorrect pitch. TF1 FR disc is missing 7 minutes of audio in the left channel. See spectrograms.

Director: Walter Salles

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

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

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Surround mix: Vision Film Polish PAL DVD (2000)

Audio Notes:

The surround mix is fully discrete, not a mere decode or upmix of the Dolby Stereo LCRS track. This mix has never appeared on any other releases.

Director: Jean Vigo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

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

Director: Jean Vigo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Jean Vigo

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Directors: Jean Vigo & Boris Kaufman

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Michael Haneke

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Curzon Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

France Blu-ray

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Best English-Friendly & Video:

All BDs are similar. Sony Blu-ray probably best encoding but cuts off last few seconds of music

Upcoming Release:

UK Curzon Blu-ray in July

Best Audio:

Korea Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Korea Blu-ray has less limiting, proper 24-bit audio, and does not cut off the last few second of music

More Mystery on Blu-ray

Director: Roman Polanski

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Carlotta France 4K Blu-ray

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

Upcoming Release:

UK 4K teased by 88 Films https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=24252379

Video Notes:

Carlotta France 4K Blu-ray > Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (better encode on Carlotta without any low-pass filtering, more extras and English subtitles on Vinegar Syndrome)

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive 3D Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives

Director: Jonathan Demme

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Vinegar Syndrome/Cinématographe 4K

Sources: vitalpassenger.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

FiM are mistakenly credited, one of the four known instances of this for a Cinématographe title (the other three being Thieves Like Us, Who Killed Teddy Bear?, and The Gambler). 4K encode was done by Vital Passenger.  https://vitalpassenger.com/our-work

Director: Buster Keaton

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber new Seven Chances / Sherlock Jr. Blu-ray?

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

Upcoming Release:

MoC 4K Blu-ray late 2027

Video Notes:

Lobster Films (Kino Lorber?) > Cohen/Eureka https://slow.pics/c/3KWXoMyR The new Kino Lorber's Seven Chances / Sherlock Jr. might be using the same restoration as Lobster Films

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)

TV series

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

Germany Nameless Blu-ray

For uncut Dream Cruise: Germany Splendid Film standalone Blu-ray?

Video Notes:

Germany Nameless collection is uncut except Dream Cruise

Director: Doug Liman

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Cut: US Universal HD-DVD

International Cut: International Universal HD-DVD

Video Notes:

The Universal Blu-ray is slightly filtered and DNR'd compared to the HD-DVD, and the Universal 4K Blu-ray, on top of being upscaled, adds additional DNR and is softer than both previous HD releases.

Best Audio:

Universal Blu-ray DTS-HD 5.1

Additional Info:

Versions:
- The International version contains a short additional scene (part of the "Farmhouse" extended scene from the special features). See additional detail below.
- The US version does not contain this scene during the film. Director Doug Liman confirms in his audio commentary that the scene was cut from the original US theatrical release "for time".
- "The Explosive Extended Edition" found on some DVD releases is not an alternate cut of the film, simply an access mode that plays "The Bookend Scenes" features via non-seamless branching.

Deck the Halls scene:
The U.S. release is 118:17 while the European/Australian/Japanese releases are 118:36. There is no difference between the two running times from the start, but at 81:21, the U.S. version cuts from a kitchen scene of Marie and Eamon washing dishes, to a scene of Eamon bringing blankets to Jason and Marie. On the European/Australian releases, at the same point, there is a scene of Jason, Marie, Eamon and his children eating dinner while "Deck the Halls" plays in the background. There is no dialogue, the characters just each exchange uncomfortable glances. The scene goes to 81:40, then picks up the same scene of Eamon bringing blankets. This scene is included as an extra ("Farmhouse" extended scene) albeit sans the holiday themed music. Many thanks to Rewind user Mark Bowen for comparing these releases and letting us know the difference.

Director: David Fincher

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

20th Century Studios Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Digipack release includes an Amazing Amy book the standard edition doesn’t have.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering; WB 4K early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed. Comparison between Criterion and WB.

Best Audio:

6-Track 70mm mix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray (restored for the box set), 1997 MGM LaserDisc, 1998 MGM DVD
35mm Mono Mix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Matrixed Stereo Remix: MGM Japan LaserDisc (1985) [G158F5509]
5.1 Remix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Director: Alexandre Aja

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

US Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

US Lionsgate Limited, France ESC, or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray?

Video Notes:

Germany Plaion is reportedly better than UK Second Sight.

Not sure about the US Lionsgate or France ESC.

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Researched and maintained by

sgramcbc

· last reviewed 11 months ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.