rrenault wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 10:02 am
So this may be slightly off topic, but where do people stand on the morality of buying physical editions of “problematic” films such as The Tenant, which Polanski not only directed but also starred in?
If I'm interested in the film, I buy it - it really is as simple as that.
(And I did indeed import the UHD of this one.)
But I'd argue that this isn't so much a question of morality as of personal queasiness - if you're viscerally repulsed by the sight of Roman Polanski, then that's a perfectly good reason not to watch anything with him in. But film is ultimately a collaborative medium, and I've never been comfortable with calls to boycott work wherein just one contributor is deemed to be "problematic", even if it's a major contributor.
rrenault wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 10:02 am
So this may be slightly off topic, but where do people stand on the morality of buying physical editions of “problematic” films such as The Tenant, which Polanski not only directed but also starred in?
I didn’t get the UHD Vinegar Syndrome release but have been tempted to preorder the Carlotta edition.
Didn’t you ask this and / or wasn’t this already debated only a couple of weeks ago?
Yes, although to be fair, I was approaching the issue from a slightly different angle in that post, so I don’t think I’m completely rehashing.
There I’d asked why Carlotta releasing the film hadn’t caused a public stir(considering they’re the most high-profile boutique in France a la Criterion in the U.S.), which is unrelated to my own feelings about buying the film.
nicolas wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 3:05 pm
Marcel Carné’s Port of Shadows will be released by Studiocanal in 4K on October 15 with English subs according to Amazon but only in France. The UK are only getting a BD just as it happened with Army of Shadows.
I’m surprised StudioCanal would elect to give Diva a UK 4K but not Army of Shadows.
That’s true, yes, although I tend to think of Army of Shadows as being in that inner circle of “cinephile favorites” more so than Diva, which evens things out I suppose.
Diva does seem to be a staple of high school French classes though, which I’m sure gives it recognition.
rrenault wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 8:02 pm
There I’d asked why Carlotta releasing the film hadn’t caused a public stir(considering they’re the most high-profile boutique in France a la Criterion in the U.S.), which is unrelated to my own feelings about buying the film.
Again though, that question wasn't really pertinent to what this thread is about, i.e. which 4ks are worth getting and which ones aren't. Discussions about whether it's acceptable to release Polanski films should IMO take place in the films' respective threads so that this one doesn't go off topic.
rrenault wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 8:02 pm
There I’d asked why Carlotta releasing the film hadn’t caused a public stir(considering they’re the most high-profile boutique in France a la Criterion in the U.S.), which is unrelated to my own feelings about buying the film.
Again though, that question wasn't really pertinent to what this thread is about, i.e. which 4ks are worth getting and which ones aren't. Discussions about whether it's acceptable to release Polanski films should IMO take place in the films' respective threads so that this one doesn't go off topic.
Ok. So I started watching the BFI UHD of Aguirre, the Wrath of God. It's not "bad" by any means. It's a perfectly watchable presentation of the film. It just doesn't have that 'wow' factor compared to a standard blu-ray the way the best UHDs do, such as BFI's own Get Carter release.
I watched the Aguirre 4K as well tonight and then briefly sampled a few scenes from the BFI Blu-Ray. The BFI 4K colours resemble the BFI BD a lot more than they do the 4K master that Shout used for their disc. Baffling, and IMO the colors are more natural and balanced looking on both UK discs, especially on the UHD. The BFI 4K clearly looks more grain managed throughout and has at times a more digital appearance than the BD and the US 4K but I take nic at his word that what's there has been better encoded by VSDM than Shout. The shot of the spooked looking soldier in the scene where the horse grows agitated and Aguirre throws the burning barrel into the river is not representative of how the BFI 4K looks in general though I did notice a close up of Don Pedro shortly thereafter in the same scene that looked very unnatural too, and in a later scene, another closeup of a different soldier. I played the scene back on the Blu-Ray and those shots had not been futzed with.
Purely my conjecture but given BFI's hands-off record I suspect the grain management and very digital look of a handful of shots (and I stress that I only noticed it on a few shots) was done by the restoration team in Germany. It baffles me because according to the book enclosed with the Blu-ray set, this is the same team that worked on the HD versions. Curious that the Shout version retains all the grain but that the colours look off to me. Yet Herzog's brother is said to have supervised or been consulted on Shout's release.
I agree that this 4K is fine for what it is, and IMO it shouldn't be ranked lower than the Shout with its own flaws. The BFI 4K has the more convincing colours, the German title credits, better encode and more extras, so I guess one could make a case that it's at very least a tie between the two, and maybe a nod to the BFI in the Superior Import column.
I'm locked into my Nosferatu pre-order with Orbit, unfortunately, and can only keep my fingers crossed that the film looks consistently (my emphasis) better and natural on 4K. Based on how Aguirre has turned out, I'm not pre-ordering any further Herzog UHDs from anyone anymore until reviews are out. If you haven't off-loaded your BFI BD set yet, don't.
I bought a few Pixar 4Ks, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Monsters Inc. I've only managed to watch The Incredibles so far, and for me, it was a little disappointing. The HDR becomes more apparent when Bob arrives on the island for the first time and I did notice a slight uptick in textures and more vibrant colors (like the red cushions on Edna's armchairs) but I found the improvements so minor that I absolutely would not recommend buying this at full price.
I'm hoping that Ratatouille and Monsters Inc are stronger across the board. Between this, the Lilo & Stitch UHD (animated) and the audio being even worse on the Master and Commander 4K than the BD, I'm finding Disney's commitment to the format pretty lackluster. Not to mention their ridiculous attempts at creating artificial demand for their catalogue titles by announcing them only 3 weeks in advance with a low first print run and nudging gullible collectors into buying at full price for fear of missing out.
Hi guys just a quick question what do You guys think has better picture quality if it is just about picture quality and not Audio, the Severin replacement 4K UHD of Opera or the German Plaion 4K UHD of Opera, Thank You in advance.
Dellegar wrote: Wed Sep 10, 2025 9:16 am
Hi guys just a quick question what do You guys think has better picture quality if it is just about picture quality and not Audio, the Severin replacement 4K UHD of Opera or the German Plaion 4K UHD of Opera, Thank You in advance.
I’m not an expert on Opera but both are imperfect due to the framing, including the replacement disc from Severin. All in all, I prefer the look of the Plaion.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Criterion) vs. Potemkine FR vs. StudioCanal GER - caps. Criterion has the best encode and they corrected framing errors.
I used orange for disappointing. Have to say I forgot that we had a color for disappointing all those years but I stumbled across the list recently and noticed it then. Should we change it to a different color to differentiate it better from red?
