The Idiots (1998)
Idioterne
Comedy, Drama • 1h 57m
Director: Lars von Trier
Cast: Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing, Troels Lyby, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Louise Mieritz, Henrik Prip, Luis Mesonero, Trine Michelsen, Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis, Paprika Steen, Erik Wedersøe, Michael Moritzen, Anders Hove, Jan Elle, Claus Strandberg, Jens Jørn Spottag, John Martinus, Lars Bjarke, Ewald Larsen, Christian Friis, Hans Henrik Clemensen, Lone Lindorff, Erno Müller, Regitze Estrup, Lotte Munk, Marina Bouras, Julie Wieth, Kirsten Vaupel, Lillian Tillegreen, Birgit Conradi, Peter Frøge, Albert Wichmann, Ditlev Weddelsborg, Jesper Sønderaas, Svend Erik Plannthin, Torben Meyrowitsch, Lis Bente Petersen, Palle Lorentz Emiliussen, Axel Schmidt, Iris Albøge, Lars von Trier, Louise Clausen, Knud Romer
Best English-friendly release · updated 1 year ago
Overview
A mix of home-video and documentary styles about a group of young people who have decided to get to know their “inner-idiots” and thus not only facing and breaking their outer appearance but also their inner.
Director: Lars von Trier
4K Restoration: Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Lars von Trier
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
(needs gamma correction)
The movie was shot in HD and France Potemkine Blu-ray (needs gamma correction) has slightly stronger encoding than Italy Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray. Curzon Blu-ray is the worst of all three (not by much) see caps.
Director: Lars von Trier
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
No disc has correct frame rate (25fps) and English subtitles
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Director: Lars von Trier
Director: Lars von Trier
Video format: 1080p Blu-ray
Director: Béla Tarr
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Curzon 4K Blu-ray scheduled for October 2026 release
Supposed to have better translation than Criterion.
Director: Michael Haneke
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
2025 Curzon UK Blu-ray or 2013 TF1 FR Blu-ray (caps)
Curzon has a slightly better encode and preserves all the noise of the digital source, but ends up obscuring actual detail in some shots. Both are quite good, only caveat being that the TF1 disc is slightly cropped and has a black bar on top.
2008 Artificial Eye UK and 2025 Umbrella AU discs have incorrect pitch. TF1 FR disc is missing 7 minutes of audio in the left channel. See spectrograms.
Director: Walter Salles
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Curzon 4K Blu-ray
Surround mix: Vision Film Polish PAL DVD (2000)
The surround mix is fully discrete, not a mere decode or upmix of the Dolby Stereo LCRS track. This mix has never appeared on any other releases.
Director: Jean Vigo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Director: Jean Vigo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Jean Vigo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Directors: Jean Vigo & Boris Kaufman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Tommy O'Haver
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Eureka UK are considering doing a 4K and actively exploring the possibility: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24363810&postcount=264
Wonderful underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion, but NexSpec encode has clipped highlights with the occasional blockiness. The Criterion Blu-Ray, sourced from their 4K remaster, ironically makes for a more consistent and overall pleasing experience.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Terry Jones
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
The Criterion BD, which is sold separately, has a clunky encode unlike the Criterion UHD, even if it plays better in motion than the caps would suggest. Still, provided you're equipped to play 4K discs, UHD or bust for this one. https://slow.pics/c/hmDYlKgE
Director: Paul Leni
Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray
European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927
See caps for comparison
In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.
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
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· last reviewed 1 year ago
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