Laila (1929) poster

Laila (1929)

Drama, Romance • 2h 45m

Director: George Schnéevoigt

Cast: Mona Mårtenson, Tryggve Larssen, Harald Schwenzen, Peter Malberg, Cally Monrad, Henry Gleditsch, Finn Bernhoft, Lilly Larson-Lund, Ibe Brekke, Aslag Aslagsen Sara, Rasmus Christiansen, Alice O'Fredericks, Mattis Morotaja

Norway Norske Filmklassikere Blu-ray

Best English-friendly & video release · updated 5 months ago

Video notes:

Norway Norske Filmklassikere Blu-ray see review by The Realm of Silence

Uses the same restoration from previous Flicker Alley DVD but at 16fps
Contains a new score based on Ole Olsen's 1893 opera Lajla , which was originally intended to be used with the film by the director George Schnéevoigt in 1929

Compare the discs

Blu-ray.com slow.pics

Overview

Ranged across several generations, the story begins with a wealthy merchant, Lind, and his wife travelling in the coldest depths of winter to christen their baby daughter. Attacked by wolves, they lose the baby, which is found by the Lapp Jaampa (a dominating performance by Tryggve Larssen) and subsequently raised by a rich reindeer herder,

More Drama on Blu-ray

Blood Simple (1984)

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)

The Night Porter (1974)

Director: Liliana Cavani

4K · Solid

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Wicked Vision Germany 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

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:

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

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

Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

Withnail & I (1987)

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

Irma Vep (1996)

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.

A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (1989)

Director: Tsui Hark

Best English-Friendly & Video:

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

A Better Tomorrow (1986)

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

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

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 5 months ago

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