UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[nicolas]

Detailed report of a new Barry Lyndon 35mm showing by professorwho

[rrenault]

I don't know where else to ask this, but is 'the other forum' always down for a bit at around noon Europe time?

[nicolas]

I don't know where else to ask this, but is 'the other forum' always down for a bit at around noon Europe time?

Yes.

[nicolas]

Hell’s Angels (Criterion) - my take.

[Fus1on]

Agreed, but the BR forum still has posts like these:

I can't see the image on my browser, but I'm going to assume you're referring to that one user who said "Pretty sure Kubrick’s intended aspect ratio tops your ideas of what it’s correct aspect ratio is" in response to nicwood being happy that the film was finally released in its 1.85 AR.

[MichaelB]

The intended aspect ratio of course being 1.85:1. I'm so confident that that's what's being said that I'm sure I don't need to look it up, as the idea that a non-anamorphic major studio release from 1999 would be anything else is clearly absurd.

As Kubrick would have been fully aware; few other filmmakers took such a keen ongoing interest in the presentation of their films. And I speak as someone who was twice rung up by Leon Vitali in the 1990s to make sure that one-off rep screenings were being shown correctly; I assume one of his many jobs was to trawl listings magazines for screenings of Kubrick films and directly ensure that the projectionists knew what they were doing.

[Fus1on]

The intended aspect ratio of course being 1.85:1. I'm so confident that that's what's being said that I'm sure I don't need to look it up, as the idea that a non-anamorphic major studio release from 1999 would be anything else is clearly absurd.

As Kubrick would have been fully aware; few other filmmakers took such a keen ongoing interest in the presentation of their films. And I speak as someone who was twice rung up by Leon Vitali in the 1990s to make sure that one-off rep screenings were being shown correctly; I assume one of his many jobs was to trawl listings magazines for screenings of Kubrick films and directly ensure that the projectionists knew what they were doing.

Exactly.

[nicolas]

@Finch:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Warner)
Out of Africa (Universal) - excellent new transfer. Except for periodic blocking in highlights, which isn’t too obvious in motion, this is a strong disc. I’d suggest blue as there’s only Atmos sound and the most recent BD from 2013 was also from a new master and isn’t too bad.
U-571 (Universal) - burnt-in English subs for German dialogue, slightly different HDR and color grading to the SC.

@Fus1on:

Spotlight (Shout)
Snowden (Shout)
Caught Stealing (Sony)
The Naked Gun (2025) (Paramount) - this one got an Analogue Intermediate and didn’t get any noticeable filtering from Paramount! It looks quite good but the encode struggles with some of the highlights and there’s some chroma noise in DV. Still much better than what they usually do with their catalogue titles.

[rrenault]

Where would you place Eureka's La Notte UHD? It seems it's a much bigger upgrade over Eureka's original blu-ray than over Criterion's. I suppose the Criterion(4K-sourced) was already quite strong, and the OCN for the film is lost, so there's only so much room for improvement.

That said, I have the new Eureka disc but haven't watched it yet.

So Reference compared to the OG Eureka blu-ray and Solid compared to Criterion's blu-ray...?

[nicolas]

Where would you place Eureka's La Notte UHD?

I haven’t received it yet. I don’t have the old Eureka BD, only the Criterion and it’s definitely possible that the 4K is a red tier upgrade even to their disc for reasons like detail, encoding, mediocre scanning, filtered audio etc. Looking forward to comparing soon!

[nicolas]

Eleven Days, Eleven Nights 2 (88 Films) - poor encoding

[EddieLarkin]

It's annoying when a boutique label that has engaged David M in the past still accepts junk encodes from other outfits. Label heads and QC staff need to be far more discerning, learn to spot this crap and send it back, demanding better.

[nicolas]

Exactly. And it’s not that they don’t know about it. They read the BR threads and occasionally reply when there are questions or issues. Why not release less titles and spend more time QC’ing them so that stuff like the essay omission doesn’t happen and their authoring house doesn’t have to encode the films with the fastest preset. Even Arrow did that when they had major QC issues a few years back.

[MichaelB]

Fewer titles.

(Grammar QC inspection concluded.)

[nicolas]

Central Station (Curzon) - my impressions
The Crimson Rivers (Curzon)

[rberrios15]

@Finch

SCENT OF A WOMAN (Shout)

5/27/25: caps, audio impressions and disc stats

Verdict (so far): Great restoration and grade, strong encode, 2.0 audio is better compared to the 5.1 mix

Tentative rating suggestion: Red category

Finally got around to watching this one and wholly agree it should be in red category. This is great all around.

[Maltic]

Nothing to say but hooah.

[nicolas]

Abel Gance’s Napoleon (Potemkine France) - tenia’s first impressions. Added to the international list.

[tenia]

I wouldn't call that a review ! It's just very early few words, at best.

[nicolas]

I wouldn't call that a review ! It's just very early few words, at best.

You're right, just corrected it. As always, looking forward to your eventual in-depth review!

[Finch]

Geoff on the Steve Zissou 4K and Tenenbaums 4K

[nicolas]

Where would you place Eureka's La Notte UHD? It seems it's a much bigger upgrade over Eureka's original blu-ray than over Criterion's. I suppose the Criterion(4K-sourced) was already quite strong, and the OCN for the film is lost, so there's only so much room for improvement.

That said, I have the new Eureka disc but haven't watched it yet.

So Reference compared to the OG Eureka blu-ray and Solid compared to Criterion's blu-ray...?

Got my copy today from Eureka (correct item!). This is a favorite film of mine, so naturally expectations were high. Have to say I’m a bit disappointed. I don’t have major issues with the HDR grade, which is fine although I’d have still kept the master in SDR, but I dislike that the film was grain-managed. Not by a lot and not in a way that’s in your face (except for the opening credits scene), hence everybody being happy with the release but it’s there and the most eagle-eyed viewers will probably see it.

The last restoration I’ve seen from the Centro Sperimentale that was supervised by Giuseppe Lanci was Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia, which looks great. However that film was restored from the negative and La Notte was not.

I briefly compared with Criterion’s disc, which was presumably sourced from the same fine-grain and has the grain intact but is poorly encoded and the grading a bit too contrasty as it swallowed shadow detail even though this is precisely what the DP (the fantastic Gianni di Venanzo) was after with this film and many others he shot. It’s just that the balance in the digital master isn’t 100% right and not as film-like as Criterion’s newest masters. If I had to choose, I’d go with the Eureka.

I hope that this isn’t the last 4K release of the film and that Criterion gets a chance to put in more cosmetic work to make this masterpiece look as good as it should but I’d recommend the Eureka release for the extras alone.

I’d suggest the blue category but understand if others who aren’t as picky would place it in red, so feel encouraged to share your opinions!

[therewillbeblus]

That's disappointing to hear, though I did buy it primarily for the exclusive Rayns commentary, so as long as that's good..

[nicolas]

That's disappointing to hear, though I did buy it primarily for the exclusive Rayns commentary, so as long as that's good..

Won’t be disappointing to you if you don’t see anything out of order, so definitely keep your order and check for yourself. I haven’t read any negative reactions about the restoration so far, which is understandable as they thankfully didn’t overdo the tinkering. I’d have only preferred it if they left the grain not just 85% alone, so to speak.

[nicolas]

Murder on the Orient Express (1974, Studiocanal) - caps