Lucky Luciano (1973)
Crime, Drama • 1h 50m
Director: Francesco Rosi
Cast: Gian Maria Volonté, Vincent Gardenia, Edmond O'Brien, Rod Steiger, Silverio Blasi, Charles Cioffi, Larry Gates, Magda Konopka, Dino Curcio, Jacques Monod, Karin Petersen, Charles Siragusa, Pier Maria Pasinetti, Luigi Infantino, Carlo Mazzarella, Antonio Maimone, Luciano Colitti, Pat Brocato, John Francis Lane, Alberto Amato, Ubaldo Granata, Vincenzo Falanga, Orazio Stracuzzi, Vittorio Fanfoni, Frank Adonis, John Bartha, Aldo De Martino, Bruno Di Luia, Giuseppe Monteverdi, Osvaldo Peccioli, Stavros Tornes, Franco Ukmar, Sandra Wolff, Luciano Zanussi
4K tiers
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About the film
Lucky Luciano is one of the bosses of the Mafia. He orders the slaughter of 40 other responsibles, therefore becoming the only boss. But a few years later he is put into jail. In 1946, he got a pardon and is sent back to Sicilia. There, he begins becoming one of the chief of the Mafia. The US Army seems to refrain from interfering.
Director: Alan Clarke
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
The 88 Films 4K Blu-ray is disappointing. Indicator Blu-ray > 88 Films Blu-ray. From nicolas:
Fine master, solid HDR but very poorly encoded with strong blocking artifacts in normal areas and clipped highlights that bring Criterion’s Walkabout to mind. Their Blu-ray is slightly better overall but then again still not as good as FiM’s encode for Indicator.
Director: Vincent Sherman
Indicator Blu-ray > Kino Lorber see DVDBeaver
Indicator is using a different restoration from earlier Kino Lorber Blu-ray and it has much better contrast and slightly better grain resolution
Director: John M. Stahl
Indicator Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and likely better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Director: Fritz Lang
More Crime on Blu-ray
Director: Joel Coen
Shout is still very good but Arrow has the edge due to better handling of highlights and less chroma noise, comparison
All the same
Director: Roman Polanski
Director: David Lynch
Criterion standard BD encode, sold separately, is not very good
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray coming November 27
Director: Michael Mann
Theatrical/Director's Cut: Shout! Factory Blu-ray
Hybrid Theatrical Cut: Anchor Bay "Theatrical" DVD
Final Cut: upcoming UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray
UK StudioCanal Final Cut 4K Blu-ray and US Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray with Theatrical and Hybrid cuts
Director: Quentin Tarantino
2025 Taiwan Deltamac 4K Blu-ray
2025 Taiwan Deltamac 4K Blu-ray > US Paramount 4K Blu-ray (Taiwan 4K Blu-ray is not low passed as the US 4K Blu-ray and has better grain and fine detail retention)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray see caps
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray vs Criterion
Three masterings of the original Dolby Stereo SR mix exist: the original Orion video releases, the Criterion (which is from their LD) and the Arrow. All three are excellent with slight mastering differences between them. The original Orion still is probably the one with the most fidelity, the Criterion is the cleanest with a kind of warm feel to it and the Arrow has a bit of both aspects. The Arrow mastering has a tiny almost imperceptible bit of audio bleeding into the surround that isn't on the Criterion. Each has their own pluses and minuses but you can't go wrong with any of them. Whatever you do though: DO NOT WATCH WITH THE 5.1 REMIX. It is another MGM botch job that fundamentally alters the impact of many scenes. It is vastly inferior to the original mix in every way.
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
2010 US Kino Lorber or 2012 UK Artificial Eye
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. However, Artificial Eye also includes the 2.0 stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 mix, while Kino only includes 5.1 mix.
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.
Director: Robert Altman
Cinematrographe's HDR grading is overcooked, which is a known VinSyn tendency. Additionally, their booklet mis-credits the encode to FiM.
YMMV, but for some, the included BD encoded by Marcus Johnson—ironically may make for a more pleasing experience.
4K restoration of the original 3D left eye and right eye camera negatives
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