History Is Made at Night (1937)
Romance, Drama • 1h 37m
Director: Frank Borzage
Cast: Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Colin Clive, Ivan Lebedeff, George Meeker, Lucien Prival, George Davis, Bobby Barber, Adrienne D'Ambricourt, Tim Holt, Carlyle Moore Jr., Dennis O'Keefe, June Preston, Georges Renavent, Señor Wences, Joseph E. Bernard, Jeanne Blanche, Barlowe Borland, Harvey Clark, Dora Clement, Harry Depp, Edward Earle, Franklyn Farnum, Byron Foulger, Roger Gray, George Humbert, Payne B. Johnson, Tetsu Komai, Rollo Lloyd, John Marston, Louis Mercier, Martha Merrill, Helene Millard, Jack Mulhall, David Newell, Robert Parrish, Russ Powell, Jack Richardson, Tom Ricketts, James Sheridan, Adele St. Mauer, William Stack, Amzie Strickland, Pierre Watkin, Charles Williams
Best English-friendly release · updated 28 days ago
Overview
An American woman seeking divorce from her wealthy, controlling husband falls for a romantic Parisian who saves her from his entrapment.
Undercrank Frank Borzage: 1922 Silents Blu-ray
Director: Frank Borzage
Sources: DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
While Indicator Blu-ray used a newer 4K restoration from 2022 instead of the older 2K restoration, Kino Lorber has the original aspect ratio, and the Indicator Blu-ray looks very soft in comparison see comparison
Director: Frank Borzage
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Blu-ray 4K scan from the 35mm B&W nitrate original negative and 35mm B&W composite fine grain
No comparison available, but from track record, Indicator Blu-ray is likely better than Kino Lorber
Director: Frank Borzage
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
BFI Blu-ray with minimal encoding improvement compared with Kino Lorber Blu-ray see DVDBeaver caps
BFI has alternative ending as extras that's not present on Kino Lorber
Director: Frank Borzage
Sources: academymuseum.org (opens in a new tab)
4K restoration has no home media release yet
Director: Steve James
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)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray poor compression, otherwise Second Sight has best Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
> BFI 4K Blu-ray. caps Criterion presents the master as originally graded in SDR whereas FiM added HDR / Dolby Vision for the BFI.
Criterion 4K Blu-ray's audio mix has more detail than BFI’s and same applies to the subtitles, covering both English and France spoken word
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original Laserdisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
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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