Whirlpool of Fate (1925)
La Fille de l'eau
Romance, Drama • 1h 23m
Overview
Orphan Virginia is left destitute following her father's death and her uncle's alcoholism; she finds refuge with bohemians but is forced to flee, eventually finding romance and a life-altering experience that triggers surreal dreams.
Director: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
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: Jean Renoir
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: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has marginally better detail and grain structure than ESC 4K Blu-ray
The ESC France 4K Blu-ray is an SDR grade erroneously presented in HDR, but if your player can force the HDR into SDR it looks very good.
Director: Jean Renoir
The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has marginally better detail and grain structure than ESC 4K Blu-ray
The ESC France 4K Blu-ray is an SDR grade erroneously presented in HDR, but if your player can force the HDR into SDR it looks very good.
Director: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
2021 StudioCanal Blu-ray
2021 StudioCanal Blu-ray has better encode and gamma levels compared to older StudioCanal Blu-ray caps
Director: Jean Renoir
2021 StudioCanal Blu-ray
2021 StudioCanal Blu-ray has better encode and gamma levels compared to older StudioCanal Blu-ray caps
StudioCanal 4k transfer
StudioCanal 4k transfer
Director: Jean Renoir
Kino Lorber/Raro Blu-ray
Director: Jean Renoir
Kino Lorber/Raro Blu-ray
Director: Jean Renoir
StudioCanal France and Spain have BDs
Director: Jean Renoir
StudioCanal France and Spain have BDs
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)
Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps
Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino Lorber release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.
Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LaserDisc track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout! Factory Blu-rays was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LaserDisc audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.
Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.
The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)
Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps
Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino Lorber release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.
Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LaserDisc track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout! Factory Blu-rays was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LaserDisc audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.
Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.
The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.
The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Arthur Dong
Director: Rob Reiner
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray release date September 21 2026
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray no comparison available
Shout! Factory Blu-ray has exclusive extras the Kino Lorber/ Capelight release doesn't
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.
Director: Rob Reiner
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray release date September 21 2026
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray no comparison available
Shout! Factory Blu-ray has exclusive extras the Kino Lorber/ Capelight release doesn't
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.
Director: Lou Breslow
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Lou Breslow
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Howard Hughes
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Howard Hughes
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Stuart Heisler
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
Director: Stuart Heisler
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 2K restoration
More Romance on Blu-ray
Director: Richard Linklater
Director: Richard Linklater
Director: Richard Linklater
Director: Richard Linklater
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
Director: Richard Linklater
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
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
US Lionsgate Blu-ray looks very different from either Italy Eagle Pictures or Germany Kinowelt Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=502 but other than color grading looks better
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
US Lionsgate Blu-ray looks very different from either Italy Eagle Pictures or Germany Kinowelt Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c_list.php?c=502 but other than color grading looks better
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Undercrank Frank Borzage: 1922 Silents Blu-ray
Undercrank Frank Borzage: 1922 Silents Blu-ray
Undercrank Frank Borzage: 1922 Silents Blu-ray
Undercrank Frank Borzage: 1922 Silents Blu-ray
Director: Henry Koster
Director: Henry Koster
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: Griffin Dunne
Director: Griffin Dunne
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