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1900 (1976)
1900 (1976) poster

1900 (1976)

Novecento

Drama, History • 4h 5m

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Germany Plaion/Plaion Blu-ray

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

Video notes:

Germany Plaion/Plaion Blu-ray is the new 4K restoration

Overview

The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.

Release details

TSPDT
2026: #414
2025: #402
2024: #415
2023: #400
2022: #400
Length
245 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
Twentieth Century, Novecento

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Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

> Vinegar Syndrome

Best Audio:

2011 MGM Blu-ray/1998 MGM DVD

Additional Info:

88 Films and Vinegar Syndrome have different extras

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2023 Eagle Pictures Italy 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Color is fine

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Theatrical: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Criterion 4K Blu-ray (preference)

TV: Arrow Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Theatrical: Arrow 4K Blu-ray and Criterion 4K Blu-ray have different gradings (preference)

TV: Arrow Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

(unsure about Criterion, which lacks the 5.1 on the Arrow)

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK ICON 4K Blu-ray

More from Plaion

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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.

Director: Rose Glass

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

A24 4K Blu-ray

Best Video & Audio:

Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

Markedly better encoding on Plaion than A24 and without any low-pass filtering

Director: Soi Cheang

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Well Go or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray?

Video Notes:

UK 4K is SDR only Japan is HDR10 only

Director: David Lynch

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

 Criterion 4K Blu-ray or Germany Plaion 4K Blu-ray

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

Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December

Video Notes:

Subtle difference in encoding to the Criterion in encoding, trading blows in different shots, with Plaion taking a slight edge with less highlight blocking

Best Audio:

1993 MGM LaserDisc/2000 Region 1 MGM DVD

Audio Notes:

Criterion's 2.0 sounds muffled due to noise reduction and EQ.
Plaion's 2.0 lacks bass and has a very bright EQ, more resembling the 5.1 remix. Plaion’s 2.0 doesn't have any filtering unlike the Criterion, see https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23831289&postcount=110

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

Best English-Friendly:

UK Dogwoof Blu-ray vs US Drafthouse Blu-ray: see below

Best Video & Audio:

DE Koch Media

Video Notes:

DE Koch Media is presented in the correct 25fps and is likely better compressed than UK Dogwoof (29 vs 14 Mbps), but it doesn’t have English subtitles.

US Drafthouse is in 24fps for Region A compatibility, and is encoded at around 30 Mbps.

(Although bitrate does not solely determine the quality of the encode, the difference is large enough here and there are no publicly available caps.)

No info on the JP VAP Blu-ray.

Audio Notes:

DE Koch Media and US Drafthouse feature a lossless 5.1 track. Dogwoof offers only AC-3.

Director: Ivan Reitman

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Plaion German 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

> US Kino Lorber see comparison and caps

Kino Lorber has an exceedingly poor encode, only slightly improved by the DV layer.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Universal US Blu-ray
Dolby Atmos remix: Plaion DE 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Universal's BD uses the same transfer as the old LaserDisc and sounds a bit better than Plaion's, which has worse dynamics.

Plaion's Atmos remix is tastefully done and preserves the original mix's characteristics, the 5.1 track on Kino's release is overly aggressive and unbalanced.

Director: William Wyler

4K · Superior Imports
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Italy Plaion 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

> Paramount 4K Blu-ray (marginally)

Director: Adrian Lyne

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Better compression than other 4K Blu-rays

Director: Enzo G. Castellari

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

UK Cult Films Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

German Plaion 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

German Plaion 4K Blu-ray see caps but doesn't have EN subtitles

Directors: Alan Mak Siu-Fai & Andrew Lau Wai-Keung

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion US Blu-ray or Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray

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

Best Video:

Maybe Umbrella Australia 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode), Plaion Germany 4K Blu-ray, or Pony Canyon Japan 4K Blu-ray. All other existing 4K Blu-rays have terrible compression: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21423337&postcount=173

The master is heavily DNR'd.

Best Audio:

Original 5.1 from Jokers France 4K Blu-ray or Criterion US Blu-ray or older Blu-rays

More Drama on Blu-ray

Director: Joel Coen

4K · Disappointing
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Director's Cut: Disappointing UK StudioCanal/US Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: LaserDisc or 2001 UK Universal DVD

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

Video Notes:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=21782879#post21782879 - comparison. StudioCanal is a massive improvement to the Criterion but still flawed in some areas (chroma noise)

Director: Liliana Cavani

4K · Solid

Director: Iain Softley

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Capelight Germany 4K Blu-ray

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

Video Notes:

Both 88 Films and Germany Capelight are superior to the Shout! Factory in HDR10 but their FEL layer may even things out. Objectively, the Capelight looks best as they avoided the chroma blocking that’s visible in 88’s disc but they in turn included an Atmos mix. I have the Shout! Factory, love how it looks and the 4K transfer is spectacular. https://slow.pics/c/vPmFQSAH

Best Audio:

88 Films 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2015 Star Media Blu-ray/2019 BFI Player WEB-DL

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Criterion DVD

Director: Bruce Robinson

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion

Director: Olivier Assayas

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow UK Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

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

Director: John Woo

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

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

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

> Disk Kino/WCL China import

review: Disk Kino

Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow

Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono

Director: Steven Spielberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Paramount Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray Dec 15th

Video Notes:

US Paramount Blu-ray > International WB Blu-ray

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· last reviewed 1 year ago

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