Vinegar Syndrome announced this sub-label in December 2023, naming it after the Lumière brothers' camera and handing curation to Justin LaLiberty. It covers American studio and independent films from the New Hollywood era through the 1990s indie boom, many on 4K UHD from original camera negative scans. Each limited edition comes as a cloth-bound mediabook with a slipcase of new art and a numbered J-card.
Cinématographe
8 films on Best Blurays
Best video release:
Best 4K release by tier:
- Excellent1
- Solid3
How we pick the best Cinématographe releases
8 in 4K
Best video release on UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming
Director: Robert Altman
Best Video & English-Friendly:
Vinegar Syndrome Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
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.
Director: Elaine May
Best Video & English-Friendly:
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:
The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.
Best Audio:
Audio Notes:
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Director: Karel Reisz
Best Video & English-Friendly:
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Cinematographe is mis-credited to be an FiM encode. It isn't. Neither the encode nor the color grading are entirely satisfactory.
Best Video & English-Friendly:
Cinématographe US 4K Blu-ray
Video Notes:
Cinematographe is an FiM encode
Director: Jonathan Demme
Best Video & English-Friendly:
Vinegar Syndrome/Cinématographe 4K
Video Notes:
FiM are mistakenly credited, one of the four known instances of this for a Cinématographe title (the other three being Thieves Like Us, Who Killed Teddy Bear?, and The Gambler). 4K encode was done by Vital Passenger. https://vitalpassenger.com/our-work
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