UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Blue White Red - Three Colors -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

This is a simple trilogy to review.

Three films created by Krzysztof Kieslowsi in 1993-94 are all about story-telling via cinema.

They should be viewed as a trilogy, and are not to be missed by anyone who considers themselves a lover of the cinema.

Best to go in with zero knowledge up front, and enjoy.

Criterion's new 4k UHD set, which supplants their earlier Blu-ray is now fully from OCNs, and gets the content down to the grain level.

Beautiful in every respect, as seen by one of the DPs, children of another, and the restoration facility. Accurate? Another re-imagining? Not fighting this one.

Image – 5 (Dolby Vision)

Audio – 5 (DTS-HD MA 5.1)

Pass / Fail – Pass

Plays nicely with projectors - Yes

Makes use of and works well in 4k - 4

Upgrade from Blu-ray - Yes

Very Highly Recommended

RAH


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[titch]

This set has been one of my most anticipated revisits for a long time. I'm very much looking forward to next week. I've already invited three of my French friends around - champagne will be served!

 

[bujaki]

A set to sit alongside Pagnol's and S. Ray's Trilogies. A monumental artistic achievement that I savored in the theater as each Color was released.

 

[Ahab]

Couldn't agree more. Really impressed with Blue when I watched it last night. Quite beautiful. Am looking forward to White and Red.

Viewed with Oppo UDP-205 & LG - 83" Class C2 Series OLED evo 4K UHD

 

[JoshZ]

RAH, you're not going to address the yellow stain all three movies have been given?

 

[Robert Harris]

RAH, you're not going to address the yellow stain all three movies have been given?

Nope. I’m down with enjoying the film on this. Many fingers touching it and I’m not seeking perfection without referencing elements.

I believe White used an orig print as reference. Can’t get further involved.

Lee Kline was involved in this on behalf of criterion and I trust him.

Not fighting this Eastman Color battle.

 

[Richard Kaufman]

Beautiful transformative films. No other director has Kieslowski's touch. Waiting for "Double Life of Veronique" in hopefully glorious 4k.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Three Colors was my entrance to Kieslowski and seeing the three in sequence was utterly magical. There's cinema and then there's cinema after you've seen work by the Polish master. These are three immensely beautiful films, not just in form, but in how they capture the human condition. There's nothing false or slight about his films, especially this trilogy. Most filmmakers probably wish they could have ended their career with something like Three Colors.

I'm going to keep an open mind on the color, if just because his equally brilliant Dekalog and The Double Life of Veronique also use unconventional color. The Blu-ray edition has been one of my most prized Criterion editions for the past decade, so I'm happily picking up the 4K upgrade in the expected next flash sale. Hopefully, Veronique is next and I wouldn't mind Criterion finally getting the rest of his work out like Camera Buff, The Scar, and No End.

 

[lark144]

I wouldn't mind Criterion finally getting the rest of his work out like Camera Buff, The Scar, and No End.

Absolutely. I've been waiting impatiently for all three to show up Blu.

 

[Michel_Hafner]

Blue is in my top 20, red top 100, White I have not really warmed up to so far.

 

[Robert Harris]

Blue is in my top 20, red top 100, White I have not really warmed up to so far.

And you don’t need sub-titles. I presume you’d have a more cohesive understanding than those of us in the Colonies.

 

[JoshZ]

Nope. I’m down with enjoying the film on this. Many fingers touching it and I’m not seeking perfection without referencing elements.

I believe White used an orig print as reference. Can’t get further involved.

Lee Kline was involved in this on behalf of criterion and I trust him.

Not fighting this Eastman Color battle.

Was Kline not involved with the prior Criterion Blu-rays that weren't tinted yellow?

Forgive my skepticism, but I'm growing incredibly tired of being gaslit by studios completely changing the colors of famous movies and insisting, "This is the way it was always supposed to be and anything you ever saw before was wrong."

When a movie is called "Blue," and it's famous for being photographed with blue in every shot, is it wrong to expect the supposedly definitive home video edition of the movie to maybe look more blue than yellow? That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

 

[Blu_rayfan66]

Beautiful transformative films. No other director has Kieslowski's touch. Waiting for "Double Life of Veronique" in hopefully glorious 4k.

Getting a UK release by Curzon early April.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Forgive my skepticism, but I'm growing incredibly tired of being gaslit by studios completely changing the colors of famous movies and insisting, "This is the way it was always supposed to be and anything you ever saw before was wrong."

Agreed. Plus this yellow (and/or green) wash thing isn't new either... especially coming from those quarters re: "restorations" it seems, which adds to the suspicion here.

When a movie is called "Blue," and it's famous for being photographed with blue in every shot, is it wrong to expect the supposedly definitive home video edition of the movie to maybe look more blue than yellow? That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Yeah, this too. That's certainly mystifying and deserves a good explanation me thinks. Dull blue skies now look very green, if not yellow, because of the yellow wash for instance -- that's what I'm seeing at caps-a-holics for the French Potemkine 4K release anyway.

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Getting a UK release by Curzon early April.

I may wait for that as well and hope all this get sorted out one way or another by then...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Thing is... I'm also hearing the included BDs on this set are actually the same old ones, so 2 completely different gradings/looks for the different formats in the same set from Criterion. That too is mystifying considering this is a Criterion release -- we all know most of the major studios often don't bother to remaster included BDs to match the 4K discs and have sorta grudgingly accepted that, but now, Criterion's doing it as well... and they're apparently not even remotely close, if these 4K discs do look just like those French Potemkine releases.

_Man_

 

[david hare]

I haven’t watched these yet but I understand the posthouse grading etc work was done at Hiventy, not at Eclair or Ritrovato These folks are totally reliable and are in no way another party in the cyan/yellow soak it in LUTmafia. The new masters could not have been in better hands, and I really wish prople would not jump to the instant conclusion that all Euro based grading is tainted because only two organizations are actually the culprits here. Everything I see and know about these restorations confirms they should be very well handled indeed. If as Mr H. Says Lee Kline is the disc producer they’re in the very best hands. I’m sure the people at Criterion are very wary of the yellow/cyan issues with grading from the two named facilities, as they’ve already been burnt by two recent awful Ritrovato Yellow stain specials in the form of Visconti’s Death in Venice and The Damned, whose 4K restorations they were contractually bound to take. The Kieslowski set is another plate of fish altogether..

 

[Konstantinos]

Well, as I continue to check screenshots, maybe I could live with Bleu and Rouge, since they still exhibit the colors blue and red, but that Blanc...is a creamy yellow, and not white as it should (?) be.

caps-a-holic.com

caps-a-holic.com

 

[Konstantinos]

I may wait for that as well and hope all this get sorted out one way or another by then...

_Man_

What do you mean "get sorted out"?
I don't think those 4K blu-rays would be any different color wise.
The new 4k restoration is with the yellow cast baked in, and couldn't change.
Unless a company did a color regrade correction, as did Arrow with The Tree of wooden Clogs, or Camera Obscura with Fantastic Planet.

 

[Michel_Hafner]

Three Colors: Blue 4K Blu-ray (DigiPack)

Three Colors: Blue 4K Blu-ray (Trois couleurs: Bleu). Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

Three Colors: Red 4K Blu-ray (DigiPack)

Three Colors: Red 4K Blu-ray (Trois couleurs: Rouge). Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com

Three Colors: White 4K Blu-ray (DigiPack)

Three Colors: White 4K Blu-ray Release Date February 7, 2023 (Trois couleurs: Blanc). Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.

www.blu-ray.com