7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Separated identical twins ride an Orient Express unaware of each other: a feminist anarchist and a hedonistic courtesan, living under the powder-keg Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Separate families adopted the impoverished orphans. At the dawn of the 20th Century the double-blind experiment hits crescendo for Dora & Lili, born the evening Edison unveiled his incandescent bulb. In 1900, technology was accelerating, could women's rights and national self-determination keep pace?
Starring: Dorota Segda, Oleg Yankovsky, Gábor Máté, Péter AndoraiDrama | 100% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Hungarian: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Ildiko Enyedi's "My 20th Century" a.k.a. "Az én XX. századom" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailer for the film; audio commentary by Ildiko Enyedi and director of photography Tibor Mathe; interview with the director; and more. In Hungarian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, My 20th Century arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
I expected the technical presentation to be identical to the one that Second Run offered on this release in 2017, but it is not. The first release from Second Run was sourced from a 2K master, while this release is sourced from a brand new 4K master. Both masters were finalized in Hungary.
There are a number of notable differences. First, delineation and clarity are better on the new release, and you don't have to have a larger screen to appreciate the improvements. However, arguably the most substantial upgrades come from the superior grading job, which eliminates the light black crush that was present on the previous release. (You can compare screencapture #14 with the corresponding screencapture from our review of the previous release to see what type of improvements are present). I still think that there are a few areas where more careful optimizations/tweaks could have been made, but it is very easy to tell that there are different and superior ranges of grays and blacks on the new master, and because the overwhelming majority of the film is quite dark, these new grading settings can produce some rather big improvements. The brightness levels are adjusted as well. Image stability is excellent. Fluidity is very nice, but the overall improvement is actually small. Finally, the new master is completely free of age-related imperfections. To sum it all up, the older 2K master is quite nice, but this new 4K master is very clearly superior. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Hungarian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The audio is very healthy. I am curious to find out if any specific new work was done to optimize it because it sounds somewhat 'thicker' on my system, but I through that on the previous release the audio was already very solid. There are no transfer-specific anomalies to report in our review.
There is an almost euphoric sense of freedom in this film that can be somewhat intimidating at first, but its playfulness and appreciation of beauty and elegance are impossible to resist. I loved it. It reminded me of Federico Fellini's work as it plays with the mind a lot like the great maestro's best films do, but it does it in its own way, never pretending to be something that it was not meant to be. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a lovely new 4K restoration and also features a good commentary by Ildiko Enyedi and director of photography Tibor Mathe. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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