The Big Blue (1988)
Le Grand Bleu
Romance, Drama, Adventure • 2h 48m
Director: Luc Besson
Cast: Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno, Rosanna Arquette, Paul Shenar, Sergio Castellitto, Jean Bouise, Marc Duret, Griffin Dunne, Valentina Vargas, Kimberly Beck, Alessandra Vazzoler, Andréas Voutsinas, Patrick Fontana, Geoffrey Carey, Jan Rouiller, Pierre Semmler, Pierre-Alain de Garrigues, Claude Besson, Bruce Guerre-Berthelot, Gregory Forstner, Eric Do, Jacques Lévy, Paul Herman, Franco Diogene, Konstantin Aleksandrov, Luc Besson, Valentina Castellani, Christian Gazio
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 4 months ago
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.
UHD tiers
Overview
Two men answer the call of the ocean in this romantic fantasy-adventure. Jacques and Enzo are a pair of friends who have been close since childhood, and who share a passion for the dangerous sport of free diving. Professional diver Jacques opted to follow in the footsteps of his father, who died at sea when Jacques was a boy; to the bewilderment of scientists, Jacques harbors a remarkable ability to adjust his heart rate and breathing pattern in the water, so that his vital signs more closely resemble that of dolphins than men. As Enzo persuades a reluctant Jacques to compete against him in a free diving contest -- determining who can dive deeper and longer without scuba gear -- Jacques meets Johana, a beautiful insurance investigator from America, and he finds that he must choose between his love for her and his love of the sea.
Director: Luc Besson
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · fanrestore.com (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
2020 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray vs 2017 Sony 4K Blu-ray (20th annivesary) vs 2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray (Luc Besson Box Set). The first two have totally different texture.
StudioCanal: More natural looking. Better defined grain. The white balance is rather yellow/orange. Some say it is closer to the original theatrical release.
2017 Sony: More vibrant and impactful. The white balance is rather neutral. While color noise and grain can look busy because it had been sharpened and had micro-contrast boosted.
2025 Sony: Supposedly an improved version of the 2017 release? Shows around 20mbps-higher overall video bitrate. caps
2007 Sony Blu-ray or LaserDisc AC3? (TBC) https://fanrestore.com/thread-7303.html
The Atmos on the Sony release is reportedly better than StudioCanal's.
Disc info of the box set discs. This film have recieved multiple encode/versions in different regions over the years. The 2017 Germany4K Blu-ray is encoded differently than the 2017 Sony but not better. Also, the same can be said to 2024 France Gaumont 4K Blu-ray while comparing to the 2020 StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray omits all the extras from previous releases, being barebones.
Sony 4K Blu-ray included in the Luc Besson Collection
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Sony 4K Blu-ray included in the Luc Besson Collection see caps
Original DVD has a few exclusive extras like a isolated score
Director: Luc Besson
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
LaserDisc is best for stereo.
While Sony 4K Blu-ray has Original Stereo, it is compressed like the 5.1 on the 4K Blu-ray.
The TrueHD 5.1 from the 2008 Sony Blu-ray is free of compression. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=22484238&postcount=94
Director: Luc Besson
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray from the Luc Besson 9-Film Collection
Has Dolby Vision, better than 2017/2020 Sony 4K Blu-ray
2025 Sony 4K Blu-ray from the Collection
Has the English Original 5.1
This title was released many times on 4K Blu-ray and Steelbooks, there was a TC Entertainment 4K Blu-ray with 5.1 and Dolby Vision too before the Luc Besson Collection was released but differences are unknown, so not recommended for English users.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Frank Capra
Director: John Carpenter
Sony 4K Blu-ray or Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode)
Sony 4K Blu-ray and France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode) are similar
Director: Michael Arias
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
GKIDS 4K Blu-ray is a sharpened upscale. Caps
GKIDS 4K Blu-ray has a true lossless English dub and correct volume levels for the Japanese audio
Director: David Fincher
4K Blu-ray has exclusive “unrated” audio with a small change to one line under the request of David Fincher (removed the poor dub over of frickin’ in the line “Screw it, let’s gut the f**kin’ nerd.”).
Director: Martin Scorsese
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding
Original mono mix: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1991 Columbia LaserDisc
The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: Michael Apted
Video format: HD Streaming
Director: Richard Linklater
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Criterion Blu-ray uses the same transfer as Sony but the encoding is slightly worse than Sony and barely noticeable see caps
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray in viewing looks very similar to both the Criterion and Sony caps, but no side by side comparison available
Germany StudioCanal Blu-ray is part of a 3-film box set like the Criterion
More Romance on Blu-ray
Director: Liliana Cavani
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
Directors: Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell
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)
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
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: Norman Taurog
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Delbert Mann
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
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