Carlotta, out of France, bring us Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin, as the 98-minute Confidential Report cut, on a dual-layered Blu-ray with a max'ed out bitrate. It looks quite strong with sequences of exquisite grain texture and some pleasing detail. There are some light marks and scratches but it holds up very well in-motion. The higher resolution has advanced upon the DVDs even the slightly picture-boxed Criterion SD transfer. I was impressed with the appearance - and it looked better than I was anticipating. It has slightly more information in the frame. This is a definite thumbs up for the HD video.

Carlotta use a DTS-HD Master (24-bit) mono track in both the original English language or an optional French DUB. The score by Paul Misraki (Bunuel's Death in the Garden, Godard's Alphaville, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Doulos) certainly benefits from the uncompressed transfer with crisp guitar strings. There are fully optional French subtitles (despite the menu limitations) on the Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray disc.

"Orson Welles and the Arkadin case" is a 47-minute interview with Jean-Pierre Berthomé, film historian and co-author of the book "Orson Welles au travail" only in French with no subtitles. We also get the 25-minute "Men of Mystery: Simon Callow about Secret File" as found on the Criterion DVD as are the 19-minutes of "Rushes" from the archives of the Cinematheque of the City of Luxembourg and unpublished in France, where we see Orson Welles acting and directing several scenes of the film.

Great package for Welles and film fans in general. I waited and waited but this hasn't reached Blu-ray in North America so this is the one to get - and it's a great price. Strongly recommended!

***

ADDITION: Criterion - Region 1 (April 06') - For any serious Orson Welles fans this new Criterion DVD package must feel like a revelation. After suffering through numerous DVD Production houses taking advantage of the 'Public Domain' status of the (endless versions) of the film, this Boxset must unanimously be considered the definitive digital edition with extensive extras, a substantially cleaned image, scholarly commentary by Rosenbaum and Naremore and the actual novel itself included in the packaging!

The Corinth version of Mr. Arkadin was mastered from a 35mm composite fine-grain print discovered in France, a 35mm duplicate negative provided by Video Mercury, and a 16mm duplicate negative.

Confidential Report was mastered on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm composite fine-grain print. The soundtrack was created from an optical track from this same fine-grain.

The comprehensive version was made from all of the above elements as well as a 35mm print from the Cinémathèque municipale de Luxembourg. The soundtracks for these versions were created from optical soundtracks found on many of the above film elements.

For such a complete and detailed DVD package it seems appropriate for us to compare the image quality of the three (well 2) uniquely sourced transfers. There is not any huge difference but I found 'Confidential Report' slightly darker. As with the Forbidden Games, The Virgin Spring, La bête humaine and Kind Hearts and Coronets releases by Criterion (as well as Nanook of the North) all three version images have been 'pictureboxed' to overcome 'overscan' on commercially made tube television sets (can be up to a 15% loss of image which is significant!). Pictureboxing leaves a black border around the edge of the image and most players automatically zoom-in to fill the screen - it limits resolution making the image slightly less detailed than it might be able to achieve if it was instead tight to the frame edges. The benefit of pictureboxing is that it adds more visible viewing area so that the majority of DVD purchasers (most people own and watch through tubes) can see even more of what is on the negative - the way the film was meant to be viewed. It is a heated discussion weighing the pro's and cons of this transfer feature. DVDBeaver sides with removing the pictureboxing borders and using the full 720 pixel width for 1.33 aspect ratio films.

The sharpness is a vast improvement over all previous DVDs with the PAL Metronome being the closest, but still far inferior. Although substantially cleaner than I have ever seen there is some minimal damage including light vertical scratches but they are only impinging in the first 5 minutes of the the Corinth and comprehensive versions (see last screen captures).

Positives: Personally I was enamored with the commentary finding it the highlight of the package. I thought Rosenbaum and Naremore worked very well together and their comments are pure gold for Welles fans. I also enjoyed the 'Men of Mystery' featurette on the Confidential Report DVD.

Negatives: I had some issues with the audio sync (post dubbing?) of all three editions. It bordered on being very distracting in certain parts of my viewing. I am not knowledgeable enough to blame the transfer process but regardless I did have issues with it in my enjoyment of the film(s). I suspect others will notice it as well and it seemed to be an issue with the earlier PD discs as well!

Of course, we would be remiss again if we didn't comment again on our displeasure at the pictureboxing process - we continue to hope it will not be a part of any future Criterion transfers.

In conclusion this package should suffice many fans - those of Film Noir, respectful Welles followers, individuals keen on cinema history or simply those willing to enjoy a unique Thriller / Crime / Mystery / Drama film! With it strengths and weaknesses we still strongly recommend!