PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Region 4 Winners and Losers

Region 4 Winners and Losers

Please CLICK Here
Banner Advertising, Internet Advertising & Web Marketing, and Promotion Information
Explanatory Notes
Additions or corrections (Please refer to the Explanatory Notes before emailing an addition or correction to this listing)
Title Best
Three Colours: Blue (Trois Couleurs Bleu)R2UK
(This section updated May 2003, following release in Region 1. )

    This trilogy was released in DVD in Region 2 by Artificial Eye/MkII Editions in 2001 and this was, until recently, the clear and obvious preference over Region 4, both for source and transfer quality and for the very comprehensive extras package Region 2 received. However after much ado, the trilogy has now finally been released by Miramax in Region 1, and the decision as to which is now the better release is less clear-cut. Region 1 benefits from not only (mostly) all the same extras as Region 2, but some exciting new ones including additional interviews and a commentary track. However weighed against this is differences in the quality of the transfers, plus Region 1 being in NTSC. Let's start by looking at extras, first the Region 2 release and then highlighting the new Region 1 extras.

In comparison to Region 2, the Region 4 release misses out on:

  • A decent transfer effort direct from film
  • 1.78:1 16x9 enhanced transfer (note the Region 2 aspect ratio is not 1.85:1, as some UK reviews indicate)
  • Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
  • Discrete English subtitle stream (not burned-on to the image)
  • Theatrical trailers for Blue, White and Red
  • Featurette:  "Krzysztof Kieslowski's Master class", an insightful 7 minute excerpt from an interview with the director at the editing table, discussing a few scene from the film
  • Interview segments (9): Juliette Binoche
  • Interview segments (6): editor Jacques Witta  
  • Interview segments (5): producer Marin Karmitz
  • Isolated music score extracts (3), played over the main menu screen.
In comparison to Region 1, the Region 4 release misses out on:
  • all of the above, except note that the Region 1 audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround encoded - not 5.1 - and Region 1 also misses out on the isolated music score extracts
  • Audio Commentary by Annette Insdorf (refer below)
  • Featurette: "Reflections on Blue" (17:26), an interesting analysis and discussion of the film by film critics
  • Featurette: "Discussion of K's early years" (15:01), principally Annette Insdorf discussing the context of K's development as a film-maker
  • Featurette: "A Conversation with Juliette Binoche on K" (7:58)
  • Featurette: "K's Student Film: Concert of Wishes" (16:14), a fascinating insight into the developing K style, yes, however note that this is one of the very earliest K student projects, dating all the way back to 1967 whilst he was still in film school!, and so this a very poor choice for extra indeed, when one of several other, slightly later and more polished early-period documentaries or short films would have been both more preferable and more representative. What a missed opportunity. I'm sure if K had his choice, he certainly wouldn't have chosen to include this particular student film as representative of his early work.
  • Director's filmography
  • Trailer for Heaven

    Annette Insdorf had nothing at all to do with the making of the films, but was a personal language translator for and close friend of Kieslowski for many years and so had exclusive access to the recluse director for interviews over a prolonged period of time. Insdorf is a scholar, film critic and writer, being the author of the book "Double Lives and Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski", which is highly recommended. The audio commentary is authoritative, well-planned, enlightening and is virtually non-stop. It provides some great insight into the development of the story and K's layering of imagery. But no matter how informative the commentary, do bear in mind that it is by someone completely unrelated to the film.

    OK, so Region 1 is the clear winner in terms of extras; it gets (virtually) all of the Region 2 goodies, plus much more. But what about transfer qualities? Well, I have to say that Region 2 is, in my opinion, still the preferred transfer of the film. It benefits form superior PAL video resolution, full 5.1 audio specs and, most importantly for me, more faithful colouring. There is no denying that new Region 1 print is more richly saturated and has been designed to accentuate the blue colour palette of the film. This has the clear effect of highlighting all the blue references and the result is startling. However the unintended consequence of the richness of the colours is that skin tones are not balanced and many colours are just too saturated in quite a few scenes. In comparison, the Region 2 colouring may be said to be more reserved, yes, but it remains in my opinion more faithful. Check out DVDCompare's great comparison page here, and note the screen captures. Finally, the subtitle stream on the Region 1 transfer is too big and too high up on the frame and is quite annoying in comparison to the well placed Region 2 subtitle stream (OK, call me picky).

    This is a difficult choice and the decision will be one of personal preference, but I am going to call this a Region 2 winner. Despite the additional extras it misses out on, I feel the extras package on Region 2 still provides enough of an insight into the film that the missed extras and commentary only provide incrementally greater insight, and this is outweighed by superior video and audio transfers. If you are obsessed about this film enough like me to justify investing in it more than once, then my recommendation is Region 2 for the film transfer and Region 1 for the extras. Indeed, that's the order in which these two discs now appear at the top of my top 10 DVDs list.