The Wages of Fear 4K UHD (1953) (Criterion Collection)

[MifuneFan]

Clouzot's The Wage of Fear (1953) coming to 4K from Criterion in March!

The Wages of Fear 4K UHD

https://www.criterion.com/films/370-the-wages-of-fear

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff and Marc Godin, biographer of director Henri-Georges Clouzot
• Interview with actor Yves Montand from 1988
• Henri-Georges Clouzot: The Enlightened Tyrant, a 2004 documentary on the director’s career
• Censored, an analysis of cuts made to the film for its 1955 U.S. release
• Program on the film’s 4K restoration
• Trailers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by novelist Dennis Lehane and a compilation of interviews with the cast and crew of the film

New cover by Juan Esteban Rodríguez

[koberulz]

Cool, another 1700-page BFI vs Criterion debate.

[trip66]

God yes! And I love that art!

[Driver78]

I have the BFI but will also grab this one.

[lilboyblu]

Originally Posted by Driver78

I have the BFI but will also grab this one.

Was the BFI 4K encoded by Fidelity in Motion too, or was that only their Blu-ray?

[backwater]

No HDR. Anyone know why Criterion does this? Does someone in charge hate the way black and white looks in HDR?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by backwater

No HDR. Anyone know why Criterion does this? Does someone in charge hate the way black and white looks in HDR?

The original restoration didn't have an HDR pass. Fidelity applied HDR to an SDR master for the BFI release, like they did with Seventh Seal and Seven Samurai.

[ko8ebryant24]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

Was the BFI 4K encoded by Fidelity in Motion too, or was that only their Blu-ray?

You can search this thread https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=331672

The OP hasn't been updated in a while but people still post confirmed FiM encodes.

[lilboyblu]

Found it. Nicwood posted in the BFI 4K thread. Actually like his post those ten months ago, but forgot.

Originally Posted by nicwood

I’ve received my UHD today. FiM-encode, BD-100, DV. Masterpiece release. It’s surreal how sharp and detailed the film looks. Truly a magnificent upgrade even when compared to their most recent BD, which was and is still very good on its own. In my opinion, a must for every collection. Nothing more to be said, it’s that phenomenal in every regard.

What struck me here was how beautiful optical shots can look like if studios and labels protect them from DNR, bitrate drops in the encode or other distorting things we see way too often. The opticals in this film blend in as seamlessly as it can get for the era. Looking at this UHD shows us what the format can and should do - preservation and perfect presentation. BFI did everything right.

[ko8ebryant24]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

Found it. Nicwood posted in the BFI 4K thread.

Also in the thread to which I linked

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=483

[Adam_ME]

Already have the UK release with Dolby Vision. I'll stick with that.

[Snicket]

One of my top 10 of all time and I absolutely love that cover.

[traths]

I've heard nothing but great things about this film and haven't pulled the trigger on it during the sales but I might grab it now. That cover art looks better than the current blu-ray.

[thomasomalley]

Nice art but i’m good with the incredible BFI 4K.

[KrugerIndustrial]

I'm probably in the minority, but I much prefer the old cover art.

[ij72]

I just got my BFI UHD in from Orbit this week (upgrading my BFI Blu), so Criterion had the "all-clear" to officially announce this.

We all know that's how this works.

[huskersports]

The item page at criterion.com lists French, Spanish, English, Italian, German. Those are the audio tracks, correct?

[ko8ebryant24]

Originally Posted by huskersports

The item page at criterion.com lists French, Spanish, English, Italian, German. Those are the audio tracks, correct?

Those are all the languages spoken by the characters. French making up the majority. There will most likely only be one audio track for the feature.

[SpacemanDoug]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The original restoration didn't have an HDR pass. Fidelity applied HDR to an SDR master for the BFI release, like they did with Seventh Seal and Seven Samurai.

Is it confirmed yet if this release is gonna have the uncut French version or will it be the shorter international cut again that Criterion previously released?

[BXR 1138]

Originally Posted by SpacemanDoug

Is it confirmed yet if this release is gonna have the uncut French version or will it be the shorter international cut again that Criterion previously released?

It's the original French version. It's from the same 4K restoration that debuted in 2017 and Criterion updated the runtime to 152 minutes on their webpage. That's why they're releasing a new standalone BD.

Edit: for anyone who might point out that Criterion's webpage still lists the BD as being in 1.33:1 rather than the 4K restoration's 1.37:1, either they haven't updated it yet or they really are just going to re-release the old disc in the new packaging. The latter would be really dumb.