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Damnation (1988)
Damnation (1988) poster

Damnation (1988)

Kárhozat

Drama, Crime • 1h 56m

Director: Béla Tarr

Cast: Székely B. Miklós, György Cserhalmi, Vali Kerekes, Gyula Pauer, Hédi Temessy, Gábor Balogh, János Balogh, Péter Breznyik Berg, Imre Chmelik, János Gémes, Ágnes Kamondy

Curzon 4K Blu-ray

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

Video notes:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray see caps

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

UHD tiers

Solid
Curzon

Overview

Karrer plods his way through life in quiet desperation. His environment is drab and rainy and muddy. Eaten up with solitude, his hopelessness would be incurable but for the existence of the Titanik Bar and its beautiful, haunting singer. But the lady is married and Karrer is determined to keep her husband away...

Release details

Length
116 mins
Type
Movie

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

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

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Bela Tarr Curzon Collection

Best Video:

Curzon Blu-ray

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

See more →

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 Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Japan Blu-ray 2021 reissue

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Japan Blu-ray has better encode than other BDs.

Additional Info:

US and UK Blu-rays have their framing slightly positioned higher and lower respectively caps. JP BD is closest to center frame.

Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · filmalert101.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

FiM encode and none of the low-pass filtering present on the Criterion 4K, resulting in more detail and better handling of highlights on Imprint
Review, comparisons

Best Audio:

ITV UK Blu-ray or Indigo DE Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

All HD and 4K sources use the same 2009 restoration. Criterion's master (also used by Imprint) is a bit more rolled off, though the difference is minor.

Director: Doug Liman

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

US Cut: Universal HD-DVD

International Cut: International Universal Blu-ray but slightly filtered and DNR'd

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: Stanley Kubrick

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

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering, 1.85 ratio restored

Best Audio:

Mono: Criterion 4K Blu-ray (restored for the box set)/1999 WB R1 DVD
5.1 remix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Director: Michael Mann

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and is better than Criterion, see caps https://slow.pics/c/Z2RRQAAT

Criterion 4K Blu-ray vs Blu-ray: caps colors are more different and nuanced than anticipated even in the SDR-converted caps and the usual gain in highlight detail is also apparent. Encode looks excellent except for the brightest areas as usual.

Best Audio:

5.1/5.0 mix (essentially a 4-track mix in 5.1 and 5.0 containers respectively)-Arrow/Criterion 4K Blu-ray. Only imperceptible differences in bit-depth: 20 vs 24. 

2.0 mix- Arrow 4K Blu-ray (original stereo)

Additional Info:

Arrow and Criterion 4K Blu-rays have differing extras 

Criterion has FEL Dolby Vision, Arrow has MEL

Arrow Limited Edition includes the Theatrical Cut Blu-ray from an older HD master, most likely from a 2K scan of an interpositive.

Directors: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK StudioCanal UHD

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

US Magnolia BD

Audio Notes:

UK Entertainment One release contains directors commentary track

Director: Simon Wells

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Dolby Stereo: THX Certified Laserdisc

Director: Samuel Fuller

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-Ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

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Researched and maintained by

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· last reviewed 1 month ago

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