Design for Living (1933)
Comedy, Romance • 1h 30m
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, Franklin Pangborn, Isabel Jewell, Jane Darwell, Wyndham Standing, Cosmo Kyrle Bellew, Lionel Belmore, Thomas Braidon, Nora Cecil, Émile Chautard, Mathilde Comont, Adrienne D'Ambricourt, James Donlan, Harry Dunkinson, Estelle Etterre, Helena Phillips Evans, Charles K. French, Mary Gordon, Grace Hayle, Olaf Hytten, Armand Kaliz, Colin Kenny, Edmund Mortimer, George Savidan, Rolfe Sedan, Vernon Steele, Mrs. Treboal, Barry Winton, Florence Wix, William Worthington, Scotty Mattraw
Best video release
Criterion HD resto
About the film
An independent woman can't choose between the two men she loves.
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Director: Ernst Lubitsch
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: William Dieterle
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Directors: Ernest B. Schoedsack & Merian C. Cooper
Director: Leo McCarey
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
UK MoC Blu-ray > Germany Wicked Vision Blu-ray > US Flicker Alley Blu-ray see DVDBeaver caps
Director: John Ford
Sources: ibb.co (opens in a new tab)
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Frank Capra
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)
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: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Subjective, but the concertina score by Bernard Wrigley on the OOP MoC Blu-ray is generally regarded as very weak. For example, it frequently doesn't match the action. The Meg Morley score on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray is considered superior.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
2021 Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Video comparisons: https://slow.pics/c/ryvPN8Uu
Audio comparisons: https://slow.pics/c/KEs7dwRg
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Kino Lorber 4k resto
The audio on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray comes from a better source than the various DVDs and the previous HD version on streaming. This audio is relatively untampered with, and is likely the best available source as no laserdisc was ever issued.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
MoC OOP Blu-ray is likely to have better encoding than Kino Lorber Blu-ray judging from other movies in the boxset
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
MoC OOP Blu-ray is likely to have better encoding than Kino Lorber Blu-ray judging from other movies in the boxset
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
The 4K discs in both Criterion and Imprint sets are FiM encodes, but low-passed. The compression is better, but some of the grain is lost. Difference is pronounced in screen caps, but not likely to be noticed during playback, without a reference to compare it to. Comparisons
All discs use the same source transfer. It's not of the highest quality, and it includes some slight distortion, looping, clicks, pops, and hum. Criterion cleaned it up for their release, but unfortunately also lost a lot of fidelity in the process.
MGM NTSC DVD doesn't seem to have some of the more prominent distortion and has slightly different EQ but is otherwise the same.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K / Capelight 4K
1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered
Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice
Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.
DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Janus and thus Criterion likely to release 4K Blu-ray in 2027
Director: Hal Ashby
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
See caps https://slow.pics/c/lVdZaG0W
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal's 4K release is similar in encode quality, but has significant glitches in multiple frames. See comparisons 9-16 here: https://slow.pics/c/YkSVb3Ey
The pitch of the StudioCanal 4K's English audio is too high
Criterion has more extras than StudioCanal.
Director: Jacques Tati
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray (part of Jacques Tati boxset releasing December 2026)
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