Funny Girl (1968)
Comedy, Drama, Romance • 2h 35m
Director: William Wyler
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Omar Sharif, Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Allen, Mae Questel, Gerald Mohr, Frank Faylen, Mittie Lawrence, Gertrude Flynn, Penny Santon, John Harmon, Thordis Brandt, Bettina Brenna, Virginia Ann Ford, Alena Johnston, Karen Stride, Mary Jane Mangler, Inga Neilsen, Sharon Vaughn, Martin Abrahams, Lillian Adams, Peter Adams, Charles Akins, Leon Alton, Kristin Andersen, Martin Ashe, Al Avalon, Chela Bacigalupo, Al Bain, Frank Baron, Bobbie Bates, Rudy Battaglia, Al Beaudine, William Benedict, Donald Bradburn, Paul Bradley, Blanche Bronte, Phyllis George, Buddy Bryan, Fletcher Bryant, Barbara Burgess, Irving Burns, Gene Callahan, Kyra Carleton, Garrett Cassell, Noble 'Kid' Chissell, Robert Christian, Roy Clark, Sterling Clark, Ruth Clifford, Jerome Collamore, Gene Columbus, Daniel Cook, Cis Corman, Tom Cound, Chris Cranston, Leon Daniels, Tony Dante, Diane Davis, Gayle Davis, Hal K. Dawson, Lavina Dawson, Marcel De La Brosse, Pepe J. DeChiazza, Jack Del Rio, John Dennis, George DeNormand, Joseph Dolphin, Barrie Duffus, Minta Durfee, Kevin Edwards, Edith Emelyne, Sheila English, Lynn Fields, John Frayer, Ralph Gambina, Larry Gelman, Rudy Germane, Joseph Glick, Lloyd Gough, Janet Hadland, Dann E. Hadzick, Viola Harris, Linda Howe, Craig Huxley, Rini Jarmon, Michael Jeffers, Howard Jeffrey, Elaine Joyce, Jack Kasabian, Adam Kaufman, Paul Keith, Sherwood Keith, Ingeborg Kjeldsen, Norma Jean Kron, Sherry Lansing, Avram Lax, Frances Weintraub Lax, Ethelreda Leopold, Robert Locke Lorraine, Arlyn E. Loynd, Freeman Lusk, Lester Mack, Michael Mark, Geoffrey Steele, Shelley Morrison, Françoise Ruggieri
Best English-friendly, video & audio release · updated 9 months ago
Overview
The life of famed 1930s comedienne Fanny Brice, from her early days in the Jewish slums of New York, to the height of her career with the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as her marriage to the rakish gambler Nick Arnstein.
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, work done to un-Nolan the 4K master, the first ever appearance of the 35mm mono track on physical media and a new restoration/remastering of the 70mm 6-track mix.
(early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Box Set coming on October 20th with FiM encode
DTS:X mix most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD has additional features not found on the 4K Blu-ray
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, new restoration of mono mix which should be better than what was on the WB 4K Blu-ray and 1999 DVD and revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1971.
WB 4K 5.1: a remix but has higher fidelity
Mono: 4K Blu-ray/1999 DVD
Director: William Wyler
> Paramount 4K Blu-ray (marginally)
Director: William Wyler
Kino Lorber Blu-ray is a brand new 4K restoration from William Wyler’s personal 35mm print
Director: William Wyler
The 4K Blu-ray 5.0 is the original mix, but more muffled than LaserDisc and even the previous Blu-ray's gentle remix. The Atmos mix is revisionist.
The 50th Anniversary box set has some exclusive extras.
1991 LaserDisc is Dolby Stereo matrix encoded from the original six track master and this was later upgraded to a 5.1 Dolby Digital version prepared for the first DVD. The 5.1 version may have had some slight tweaking in the process. This was reused for the DVD CE boxset and then the 5.1 on Blu-ray seems like a slight upgrade of the DVD track. (The first pressing from the UCE boxset had audio defects rampant on the Blu-ray. These were corrected for standalone pressings.) All 5.1s sound roughly the same as the LaserDisc 2.0 in terms of the mix, but the LaserDisc PCM mastering seems like the only one that is direct without any major processing.
Director: William Wyler
Kino Lorber Blu-ray/Final Cut Blu-ray
The Kino BD has additional extras but the Laserdisc still has exclusive extras and commentary not included on the Kino release. AVOID the MGM Blu-ray for the stretched aspect ratio error that was only finally corrected for the Kino Lorber reissue after much fan outcry.
Director: William Wyler
Also available in Kino Lorber The Cold Blue Blu-ray as HD extras, or available on streaming
Director: William Wyler
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
BFI Blu-ray encoding is better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray see caps
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray poor compression, otherwise Second Sight has best Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
> BFI 4K Blu-ray. caps Criterion presents the master as originally graded in SDR whereas FiM added HDR / Dolby Vision for the BFI.
Criterion 4K Blu-ray's audio mix has more detail than BFI’s and same applies to the subtitles, covering both English and France spoken word
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
Director: Luis Buñuel
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
For Blu-ray Criterion Demy Set > StudioCanal
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
See chris's review
1991 Daiei LaserDisc
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