Labels
/
Gaumont

Gaumont

19 films on Best Blurays

Based in FranceFounded 1895gaumont.com ↗

Léon Gaumont founded this Paris studio in 1895, and its large French library reaches disc through Gaumont Vidéo in France. The Gaumont Classiques line, running since 2009, releases restored heritage films on Blu-ray and DVD with French and English subtitles. Rarer titles appear in the cheaper Gaumont Découverte collections, whose masters are not always fully restored; many 4K restorations still ship only on standard Blu-ray.

Aliases: gaumont

Director: Louis Feuillade

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber Blu-ray or Eureka/Gaumont Blu-ray (preference)

Best Video:

Gaumont/Eureka

Video Notes:

Gaumont/Eureka is a newer restoration than Kino Lorber but has problems with automatic clean-up and ghosting.

Director: Jacques Becker

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Gaumont Blu-ray is Enlgish-friendly, Japan IVC Blu-ray isn't, and no comparisons

Director: René Clair

Best English-Friendly:

Cohen Blu-ray

Best Video:

Cohen Blu-ray or Gaumont (no EN subs)

Director: Renato Castellani

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Director: Henri Decoin

Best English-Friendly & Video:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

English-friendly, and 2K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: René Clair

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

Gaumont Blu-ray, no EN subs

Director: Jean Renoir

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray (flawed restoration)

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)

Best Video & Audio:

BFI or Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

(both from the same flawed restoration)

Additional Info:

The BFI and Gaumont Blu-ray releases are both from the same restoration by Éclair. Although this restoration is much superior in detail to the old Criterion DVD, like many Éclair restorations, it has issues with colour. There is a definite yellow cast to the footage, making skin tones appear sickly and dampening the impact of the colour. The image is also murkier than the Criterion. 

As Renoir scholar Tag Gallagher notes: "I talked a lot toward the end about the light blue walls (Criterion); but when I got the BFI blu I was greatly deflated, because the walls are light gray!"

That said, as visible in the screen caps at DVD Beaver, the Criterion has compromised colour too, and often looks too blue/magenta. There is a regraded edition of the BFI Blu-ray out there on the high seas.

The audio on the Blu-ray releases is slightly compressed, but better than earlier DVD releases and relatively full frequency.

The BFI is most likely the best English-friendly release as it includes English subtitles for the bonus features.

Director: Christian-Jaque

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Lionsgate DVD

Best Video:

Gaumont Blu-ray

Director: Henri Verneuil

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

Gaumont France Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Gaumont France Blu-ray but doesn’t have English subtitles

Director: René Clair

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Gaumont France Blu-ray has no EN subtitles

Director: Maurice Pialat

Best English-Friendly & Video:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Gaumont France Blu-ray with english subtitles.

The source from Eclair lab has their usual teal tint see BD provided extras for before and after https://slow.pics/c/GEOvltF0

Director: Robert Bresson

Best English-Friendly:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

Best Video:

Germany/France/Japan

Video Notes:

Germany/France/Japan has Blu-ray, 4K restoration

Director: Robert Bresson

Best English-Friendly & Video:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Gaumont France is 4k transfer, not sure about Japan

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion or France Gaumont Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion and France Gaumont similar

Director: Maurice Pialat

Best English-Friendly:

France Gaumont Blu-ray

Best Video:

Gaumont BR

Director: Maurice Pialat

Best English-Friendly & Video:

US Cohen Media Blu-ray or France Gaumont Blu-ray

Video Notes:

No comparisons, but both US Cohen Media Blu-ray and France Gaumont Blu-ray are English friendly, and Japan Kinokuniya Blu-ray isn't

Director: Luc Besson

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal / Gaumont / Sony 4K Blu-ray

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

SC caps. Great-looking 4K master except for DNR'd higher-gen shots such as the opening sequence. StudioCanal resolves finer detail but has encoding issues in highlights, the non-Original Camera Negative shots and traces of chroma noise. Sony used a low-pass filter which makes the film look less sharp and finely detailed but the encode is more consistent.

Directors: Eric Summer & Éric Warin

Best English-Friendly:

2D Version: Entertainment One Canada Blu-ray

3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray

Best Video:

2D Version: Gaumont France Blu-ray

3D Version: A Contracorriente Films Spain 3D Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Original French audio: Gaumont France Blu-ray

English export dub: StudioCanal Australia Blu-ray

American English redub (Leap!): Lionsgate US Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Also known as: Leap!.

France Blu-ray has the best video and best audio for the original French version, but has no English subtitles.

Canada Blu-ray has inferior video and audio to other versions, but is the only version that has French audio with English subtitles (dubtitles from the export dub).

UK Blu-ray censors one of the songs. Australia and Canada Blu-rays present the uncensored export dub, with better audio in the former.

US Blu-ray only has the redub.

Spain 3D Blu-ray has the English export dub titles instead of the original French titles.

Director: Roman Polanski

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

France Gaumont Release (no English subtitles or audio)

Missing a Gaumont film? Suggest it