ADDITION: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray (January 2021): Kino has essentially released a Region 'A' Blu-ray of BFI's transfer unrestored, 'dupe' print of "Man With a Movie Camera". It has a Michael Nyman score, like the BFI, first performed on May 17, 2002 at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The image is slightly darker, with a tad better contrast than the BFI counterpart. This Blu-ray disc features the same, essential commentary from Adrian Martin, as well as the "Life and Times of Dziga Vertov" interview with Ian Christie. Also here is David Cairns' 20-minute "Dziga Vertov: Non-Fiction Film Thing" video essay. We would still recommend the Masters of Cinema transfer, especially to those with a Region 'B' capable player. This Kino (via BFI) transfer does have the look of increased texture that Gary mentioned below, and the quality matches the film's age. It doesn't look as 'cleaned-up' not being restored - as the Flicker Alley or MoC releases, but will still appeal to some.

- Colin Zavitz

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ADDITION: Masters of Cinema - Region 'B' - Blu-ray (April 2016): Firstly, I only seem to have the first Blu-ray of this set described as a "Four disc Limited Edition set, with all content on Blu-ray and DVD" - The first BD houses "Man with a Movie Camera", the Ian Christie and David Cairns extras. We presume the second Blu-ray to have the shorts. In fact, it is described as "Presented in a definitive new restoration from EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam and Lobster Films, the film is also presented with other works by Vertov both before and after his masterpiece - Kino-Eye (1924), Kino-Pravda #21 (1925), Enthusiasm: Symphony of the Donbass (1931) and Three Songs About Lenin (1934) - in this limited-edition Dual-Format edition."

The MoC transfer is the superior one - more robust than the Flicker Alley (10 Gig more for the feature and almost double the bitrate) with a max'ed out bitrate and via the source restored during the spring of 2014 by Lobster Films with the participation of the Eye Film Institute. It looks very similar to the Flicker Alley but I believe the black levels may be marginally inkier.  This page was becoming unstable so I've compared only 8 of the images below.

Audio is linear PCM for all the films and The Man with the Movie Camera is presented with music by The Alloy Orchestra following the musical instruction written by Dziga Vertov and as it was produced for the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. It's notable that the Kino-Eye Score is by Robert Israel. Masters of Cinema include optional English subtitles on the original Russian inter-titles.

Moc also include a new audio commentary on Man with a Movie Camera by film scholar Adrian Martin revealing plenty of interesting factoids, an exclusive, 46-minute video interview with film scholar Ian Christie on Vertov's career and the films in this set entitled The Life and Times of Dziga Vertov and a new 20-minute video essay by David Cairns - it's called Dziga Vertov: Non-Fiction Film Thing and is wonderful. The package contains a real gem - a 100-page limited edition book featuring new notes on all five films, a selection of writings by Vertov, two contemporary articles, an essay on the restoration, and archival imagery.

Trust Masters of Cinema do do this to the max. This 4-disc set is the best, IMO and a must own. Our absolute highest recommendation!

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ADDITION: BFI - Region 'B' Blu-ray - July 2015 - As you can see for yourself - the BFI has not had the extensive cleaning that the Flicker Alley has (or is not from the same restoration). The UK disc has plenty of marks and scratches. It does not show the rounded-corners that the US Blu-ray does (many feel they should not be seen) is substantially cropped, and the BFI starts with the Russian title card while the Flicker Alley had the French one. Personally, I am not so 'against' the BFI appearance - I appreciate the increased texture and the quality matches the film's age. It has almost 50% higher the bitrate and the integrity of the film benefits. Admittedly, it is darker and we lose some detail. It doesn't have the 'Wow' factor that watching the Flicker Alley's smoothness does, but it offered other things like the, previously used, wonderful Michael Nyman score uncompressed (in linear PCM) and an optional audio commentary by Russian film scholar Yuri Tsivian. Plus the supplements include the Kino-Pravda No. 21 (Dziga Vertov, 1925, 35:16): newsreel devoted on Lenin on the anniversary of his death, with a new Mordant Music, electronic, score, who also do a new score for Dziga Vertov's 1926 One-Sixth of the Globe - ETV version (1:24:08): ideologically charged documentary, presented in its specially prepared UK distribution version. Also included are the hour long Three Songs of Lenin - Vertov's film from 1935 - a poetic propaganda film based on three songs of the Soviet East dedicated to the revolutionary leader and David Collard, from 2009, discussing Three Songs of Lenin and W H Auden for about 6-minutes. Simon Callow, also from 2009, Reads W H Auden's Versus from Three Songs of Lenin for a brief 3-minutes. The package contains a fully illustrated booklet with essays and full credits and is region 'B'-locked. Bottom line - the image discrepancy is not a deal-breaker for me although I would say it is inferior, I like the alternate, and lossless, scores (Nyman's on "Man with a Movie Camera" reminding e of the older BFI DVD, and the electronic experimentalists 'Mordant Music' on other features), plus the extras that aren't on the Flicker Alley - i.e. commentary, readings, booklet. I will watch this again even though I own the Flicker Alley!

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 - Stan Czarnecki