The Trial
DVD Comparison
Milestone vs. FocusFilm
With the release of the French edition of The Trial on DVD, we have three main contenders for best available version; the French disc by Studio Canal, the Milestone U.S. edition, and the "Citizen Welles" edition, which claims a "completely restored" version of The Trial, in addition to The Stranger. Here is a comparison of some selected images from the three discs. I have tried to get the images to match as closely as possible, but the timecodes did not match between the discs, so this proved very difficult. The shots chosen are no more than a second or two apart in all cases.
The verdict? As you can see in the images below, the French disc must be considered the hands-down winner; the clarity and detail is superior to the Milestone, and both of those discs are much better than the Focusfilm transfer. Given the extras on the French set, it's the easy choice.
| Milestone |  |
| Studio Canal |  |
| Focusfilm | |
| Milestone |  |
| Studio Canal |  |
| Focusfilm |  |
| Milestone |  |
| Studio Canal |  |
| Focusfilm |  |
| Milestone |  |
| Studio Canal |  |
| Focusfilm |  |
As you can see in each set of images, the Studio Canal disc features a noticeably sharper picture with better detail and picture quality. The image quality in the FocusFilm disc is worst, with a muddy and dark image.