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Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
Songs from the Second Floor (2000) poster
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4.1

Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

Sånger från andra våningen

Drama, Comedy • 1h 38m

Overview

A monumental traffic jam serves as the backdrop for the lives of the inhabitants of a Swedish city.

Director: Roy Andersson

Best English-Friendly Release

Best Video Release

All Blu-ray seem to be similar, not sure

Format

1080p Blu-ray

TSPDT

2026: #451
2025: #457
2024: #460
2023: #456
2022: #456

External Links

Length

98 mins

Type

Movie

Last Updated

2 years ago

Contributors

-

Best English-Friendly Release
Best Video Release

All Blu-ray seem to be similar, not sure

Format
1080p Blu-ray
TSPDT
2026: #451
2025: #457
2024: #460
2023: #456
2022: #456
Length
98 mins
Type
Movie
Last Updated
2 years ago
Contributors

-

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UK Curzon/Artificial Eye Blu-ray

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Best English-Friendly:

UK Curzon Roy Andersson Collection Boxset Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK Curzon Roy Andersson Collection Boxset Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

UK Curzon Roy Andersson Collection Boxset Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK Curzon Roy Andersson Collection Boxset Blu-ray

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The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum poster
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Criterion Blu-ray

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Criterion, 4k transfer. Shochiku Blu-ray is similar

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion, 4k transfer. Shochiku Blu-ray is similar

Solaris poster
4K Streaming
Best English-Friendly:

Mosfilm official 4K Youtube Streaming

Best Video:

Mosfilm official 4K Youtube Streaming

See comparison vs German Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray which is a 2K upscale of the previous restoration

Criterion/Artificial Eye Blu-ray are even older restoration than the Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray has incorrect pitch on the Russian audio see thread

Solaris poster
4K Streaming
Best English-Friendly:

Mosfilm official 4K Youtube Streaming

Best Video:

Mosfilm official 4K Youtube Streaming

See comparison vs German Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray which is a 2K upscale of the previous restoration

Criterion/Artificial Eye Blu-ray are even older restoration than the Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray has incorrect pitch on the Russian audio see thread

Portrait of a Lady on Fire poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye UK Blu-ray? Supposed to have better translation than Criterion.

Upcoming Release:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release

Best Video:

Pyramide France Blu-ray

Streaming in 4K on Netflix

Best English-Friendly:

Artificial Eye UK Blu-ray? Supposed to have better translation than Criterion.

Upcoming Release:

Curzon 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release

Best Video:

Pyramide France Blu-ray

Streaming in 4K on Netflix

Fallen Angels poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2010 US Kino Lorber or 2012 UK Artificial Eye

Best Video:

2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray has the best encoding out of all the older discs.


Kino Lorber and Artificial Eye Blu-ray use the same master, between the two the PQ on Kino's release is slightly better, but the difference is negligible.

The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.

Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration

Wong Kar-Wai on the framing:

With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.

Fallen Angels poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2010 US Kino Lorber or 2012 UK Artificial Eye

Best Video:

2017 JP Kadokawa Blu-ray has the best encoding out of all the older discs.


Kino Lorber and Artificial Eye Blu-ray use the same master, between the two the PQ on Kino's release is slightly better, but the difference is negligible.

The 4K restoration (Criterion, 4K etc) are cropped to 2.35:1, have revisionistic colour grading and other changes.

Caps: old master, old master vs 4K restoration

Wong Kar-Wai on the framing:

With Fallen Angels, I have changed the format to cinemascope, because it was originally what I had intended to release the film in. When we were cutting the film, we accidentally turned the Steenbeck on anamorphic instead of standard. I felt that the film looked much more interesting because it enhanced the distance of the characters on top of the extreme wide angle that we shot on. Back then, it was impossible to shoot a film in standard and release it in anamorphic. With this restoration, we have successfully fulfilled this wish.

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

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Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray

Best Video:

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray (Haneke boxset)

Best Video:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray or 2013 TF1 FR Blu-ray (caps)

Curzon has a slightly better encode and preserves all the noise of the digital source, but ends up obscuring actual detail in some shots. Both are quite good, only caveat being that the TF1 disc is slightly cropped and has a black bar on top.

Best Audio:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray

2008 Artificial Eye UK and 2025 Umbrella AU discs have incorrect pitch. TF1 FR disc is missing 7 minutes of audio in the left channel. See spectrograms.

Caché poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray (Haneke boxset)

Best Video:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray or 2013 TF1 FR Blu-ray (caps)

Curzon has a slightly better encode and preserves all the noise of the digital source, but ends up obscuring actual detail in some shots. Both are quite good, only caveat being that the TF1 disc is slightly cropped and has a black bar on top.

Best Audio:

2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray

2008 Artificial Eye UK and 2025 Umbrella AU discs have incorrect pitch. TF1 FR disc is missing 7 minutes of audio in the left channel. See spectrograms.

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Germany Blu-ray

Best Video:

Germany Blu-ray

Additional Info:

English subtitles for the director's commentary in German are only available in the UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Germany Blu-ray

Best Video:

Germany Blu-ray

Additional Info:

English subtitles for the director's commentary in German are only available in the UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

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Best English-Friendly:

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

Germany Kinowelt Blu-ray. Kadokawa/MK2/Park Circus/Artificial Eye probably even better

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Additional Info:

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UK Artificial Eye Blu-ray

Additional Info:

US IFC Films Blu-ray features exclusive commentary and video essay.

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Best Video:

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion Blu-ray or Australia Imprint Blu-ray?

Best Video:

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Best English-Friendly:

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Best Audio:

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The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).

5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook

Best Video:

2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding

Best Audio:

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The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).

5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray

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Best Audio:

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Best English-Friendly:

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Upcoming Release:

Best Video:

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Best Audio:

Nelson Entertainment USA LaserDisc

Additional Info:

The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.

Misery poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Best Video:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray > US Kino Lorber/Germany Capelight - caps and audio comparison on this page. Discussion is still ongoing about the 2.0 but as none of the three 4Ks seem to have the true original mix, I think it's fair to leave them all in the blue tier for now and only note that Kino Lorber has the worst PQ.

Best Audio:

Nelson Entertainment USA LaserDisc

Additional Info:

The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.

The Secret Agent poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray is slightly better than French 4K Blu-ray see caps

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray is slightly better than French 4K Blu-ray see caps

Interview with the Vampire poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray see caps and comparison video

Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray see caps and comparison video

Sunset Boulevard poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray

Best Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice

Best Audio:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.

Additional Info:

The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.

Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray

Best Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice

Best Audio:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.

Additional Info:

The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray

Best Video:

BFI Blu-ray > 2018 Boxset Criterion (slightly). 2012 Standalone Criterion significantly worse.

Best Audio:

2004 R2 Tartan DVD

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray

Best Video:

BFI Blu-ray > 2018 Boxset Criterion (slightly). 2012 Standalone Criterion significantly worse.

Best Audio:

2004 R2 Tartan DVD

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1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

WB Blu-ray

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WB Blu-ray

A Star Is Born poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

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Restored cut: WB Blu-ray

Best Video:

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Restored cut: WB Blu-ray

A Star Is Born poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Theatrical cut / Roadshow cut: 35mm scans

Restored cut: WB Blu-ray

Best Video:

Theatrical cut / Roadshow cut: 35mm scans

Restored cut: WB Blu-ray

Frankenstein poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

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Best Audio:

1993 CIC Video LaserDisc

Frankenstein poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Universal Complete Legacy Collection 4K Blu-ray set on September 26 2026

Best Audio:

1993 CIC Video LaserDisc

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Songs from the Second Floor (2000) backdrop