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An Officer and a Spy (2019)
An Officer and a Spy (2019) poster

An Officer and a Spy (2019)

J'accuse

History, Drama, Thriller • 2h 12m

Director: Roman Polanski

Cast: Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Emmanuelle Seigner, Grégory Gadebois, Hervé Pierre, Wladimir Yordanoff, Didier Sandre, Melvil Poupaud, Eric Ruf, Mathieu Amalric, Laurent Stocker, Vincent Perez, Michel Vuillermoz, Vincent Grass, Denis Podalydès, Damien Bonnard, Laurent Natrella, Bruno Raffaelli, Christophe Maratier, Pierre Poirot, Stefan Godin, Yannik Landrein, Luca Barbareschi, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, Kevin Garnichat, Vincent de Boüard, Luce Mouchel, Fabien Tucci, Fred Epaud, Nicolas Wanczycki, Franck Mercadal, Philippe Magnan, Pierre Forest, Édith Le Merdy, Jeanne Rosa, Benoît Allemane, Ludovic Paris, Gérard Chaillou, Nicolas Bridet, André Marcon, Pierre Aussedat, Rafaël de Ferran, Jean-Marie Frin, Swan Starosta, Jean-Gilles Barbier, Jean-Marie Lecoq, Thierry Gimenez, Clément Jacqmin, Boris Ventura-Diaz, Lionel Mur, Raphaël Caraty, Yves-Pol Deniélou, Élodie Auger, Margritte Gouin, Élodie Lobjois, Mélanie Malet, Carole Mongin, Laurine Ristroph, Thibault Signovert, Valentin Cotton, Florian Blot, Adrien Boulanger, Julien Francomano, Camille-Raphaël Bérard, Marc Legrand, Jean-Baptiste Souchon, Emmanuel Borghi, Jérome Duhamel, Patrick Perrin, Jean-Jacques Breniaud, Benjamin Dubos, Romain Mestre, Guy Chaillaud, Charles Lapierre, Mickael Cartier, Brigitte Boucher, Mathieu Cayrou, Michèle Clément, Nicolas de Lavergne, Benjamin Gouzien, Pierre Hurel, Romain Lehnhoff, Pierre Léon Luneau, Roman Polanski, Charles Tesnière, Antoine Zerbini

Best video release

France Gaumont Release (no English subtitles or audio)

1080p Blu-ray

Updated 11 months ago


About the film

In 1894, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Devil’s Island penal colony.

More from Roman Polanski

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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: Roman Polanski

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.

Lionsgate and the upcoming Imprint have the same discs.

Best Audio:

Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD.  This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track.  FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Kino Lorber disc has audio pitch errors

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

2011/2025 WB Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

2011/2025 WB Blu-ray for correct audio (2010 release has audio issue)

Director: Roman Polanski

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount disappointing 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1998 Paramount LaserDisc or 2004 R2 Paramount DVD

Director: Roman Polanski

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991/1998 Paramount LaserDisc

Director: Roman Polanski

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK Screenbound Blu-ray

Additional Info:

The UK disc has supposedly had some revisionist changes done along with DNR. The disc is OOP. Tentative alternative is Criterion DVD

Director: Roman Polanski

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly:

Severin Blu-ray

Director: Roman Polanski

Best English-Friendly:

Germany Universum Film Blu-ray

More from Gaumont

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Director: Renato Castellani

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Director: René Clair

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Gaumont France Blu-ray has no EN subtitles

Director: Jean Renoir

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray (flawed restoration)

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

Best Video & Audio:

BFI or Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

(both from the same flawed restoration)

Additional Info:

The BFI and Gaumont Blu-ray releases are both from the same restoration by Éclair. Although this restoration is much superior in detail to the old Criterion DVD, like many Éclair restorations, it has issues with colour. There is a definite yellow cast to the footage, making skin tones appear sickly and dampening the impact of the colour. The image is also murkier than the Criterion. 

As Renoir scholar Tag Gallagher notes: "I talked a lot toward the end about the light blue walls (Criterion); but when I got the BFI blu I was greatly deflated, because the walls are light gray!"

That said, as visible in the screen caps at DVD Beaver, the Criterion has compromised colour too, and often looks too blue/magenta. There is a regraded edition of the BFI Blu-ray out there on the high seas.

The audio on the Blu-ray releases is slightly compressed, but better than earlier DVD releases and relatively full frequency.

The BFI is most likely the best English-friendly release as it includes English subtitles for the bonus features.

Director: Luc Besson

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal / Gaumont / Sony 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

SC caps. Great-looking 4K master except for DNR'd higher-gen shots such as the opening sequence. StudioCanal resolves finer detail but has encoding issues in highlights, the non-Original Camera Negative shots and traces of chroma noise. Sony used a low-pass filter which makes the film look less sharp and finely detailed but the encode is more consistent.

Director: Christian-Jaque

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Lionsgate DVD

Best Video:

Gaumont Blu-ray

Director: Robert Bresson

Best English-Friendly & Video:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Gaumont France is 4k transfer, not sure about Japan

Directors: Eric Summer & Éric Warin

Best English-Friendly:

2D Version: Entertainment One Canada Blu-ray

3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray

Best Video:

2D Version: Gaumont France Blu-ray

3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Original French audio: Gaumont France Blu-ray

English export dub: StudioCanal Australia Blu-ray

American English redub (Leap!): Lionsgate US Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Also known as: Leap!.

France Blu-ray has the best video and best audio for the original French version, but has no English subtitles.

Canada Blu-ray has inferior video and audio to other versions, but is the only version that has French audio with English subtitles (dubtitles from the export dub).

UK Blu-ray censors one of the songs. Australia and Canada Blu-rays present the uncensored export dub, with better audio in the former.

US Blu-ray only has the redub.

Spain 3D Blu-ray has the English export dub titles instead of the original French titles.

Director: Maurice Pialat

Best English-Friendly & Video:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Gaumont France Blu-ray with english subtitles.

The source from Eclair lab has their usual teal tint see BD provided extras for before and after https://slow.pics/c/GEOvltF0

Director: Henri Verneuil

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

Gaumont France Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Gaumont France Blu-ray but doesn’t have English subtitles

Director: Henri Decoin

Best English-Friendly & Video:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

English-friendly, and 2K restoration from Original Camera Negative

More History on Blu-ray

Director: Stanley Kubrick

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

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.

Audio Notes:

DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix

Additional Info:

Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Director: Sam Peckinpah

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion Blu-ray or WB DVD depending on the cut.

Best Video:

First Preview (Turner): Germany Plaion Blu-ray

Second Preview (Final Preview): Germany Plaion Blu-ray

Theatrical: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

2005 Cut: WB DVD

2024 Cut: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Director: David Lean

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

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

Additional Info:

The 5.1 on Sony 4K Blu-ray is from the 1989 70mm mix. The original is 4-track. not on the disc.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

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

US Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

US Criterion 4K Blu-ray > UK MoC 4K Blu-ray > Australia Imprint > US Kino Lorber better encoding

The MoC, Criterion and Imprint UHDs were encoded by FiM making all 3 very close. The higher bitrate helped in deciding and some luck; however Criterion is the most consistent one of all 3. Imprint has some scenes with more splotchy grain while MoC is quite close to Criterion but has some more blocking in dark scenes (e.g.: comp #27). With Criterion’s superior audio, it ensures complete consistency.

Audio Notes:

From cbc: "I'm personally quite fond of the restored track on Eureka's 4K Blu-ray. It does have spots with objectively worse fidelity, but for the most part, it sounds a lot more natural and less shrill, particularly dialogue. It seems to be a new mixdown of stems. Technically a remix, so not everyone's cup of tea, but it's not revisionist like most new movie mixes tend to be"

Additional Info:

Both Imprint (included in their set) and Capelight (on its own/individually) offer remastered BDs. All other BDs, including the one included in The Complete Kubrick, are sourced from the same older master from around 2010.

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US GKIDS Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Japan Aniplex Blu-ray is severely lowpassed, which is not an issue on the US release

Director: David Lean

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

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

caps

Director: Martin Scorsese

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Other releases have horrendous DNR

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: Miloš Forman

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

Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray
Extended: Warner Bros Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray: Huge improvement in colors and detail. The restoration was done by the Academy instead of WB MPI which explains that there’s no grain management or issues with colors. They also accessed the original credit optical and scanned that one instead of recreating them digitally

Audio Notes:

Theatrical: WB 4K Blu-ray, according to Saentz, the 5.0 is a recreation of the original and subsequently 70mm mix from original elements.

Director: John Schlesinger

Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal Blu-ray

Additional Info:

StudioCanal was overseen and approved by Nicolas Roeg and has a more filmic color grade than the Warner Archive Blu-Ray. 

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Researched and maintained by

nemwolf

· last reviewed 11 months ago

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