The Truth About Bebe Donge (1952)
La Vérité sur Bébé Donge
Drama • 1h 50m
Director: Henri Decoin
Cast: Danielle Darrieux, Jean Gabin, Gabrielle Dorziat, Claude Génia, Jacques Castelot, Daniel Lecourtois, Marcel André, Madeleine Lambert, Juliette Faber, Jacqueline Porel, Gaby Bruyère, Meg Lemonnier, Alinda Kristensen, Yvonne Claudie, Jean-Marc Tennberg, Paul Bonifas, Maurice Benard, André Darnay, Noël Darzal, Blanche Denège, Geneviève Guitry, Henry Houry, Emma Lyonel
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 9 months ago
English-friendly, and 2K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Compare the discs
slow.pics (opens in a new tab)Overview
François Donge, a rich industrialist and womaniser, meets a girl nicknamed Bébé who he marries. Ten years later, poisoned by his wife and dying in hospital, he recalls his married life and understands how his wife who adored him suffered from his many affairs and indifference.
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Gaumont Blu-ray but no English subtitles: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Deux-sous-de-violettes-Blu-ray/288976/
Director: René Clair
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Jean Renoir
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
(both from the same flawed restoration)
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
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
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
Director: Robert Bresson
Directors: Eric Summer & Éric Warin
2D Version: Entertainment One Canada Blu-ray
3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray
2D Version: Gaumont France Blu-ray
3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray
Original French audio: Gaumont France Blu-ray
English export dub: StudioCanal Australia Blu-ray
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
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
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
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Joel Coen
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)
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
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Iain Softley
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
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
Shout! Factory has the exclusive The Beauty of the Baud and the You Can't Stop Us All featurettes.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Bruce Robinson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion
Director: Olivier Assayas
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
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.
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
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