A Fantastic Woman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

A Fantastic Woman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 23, 2018

Winner of Oscar Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, Sebastián Lelio's "A Fantastic Woman" (2017) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon/Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and short making of featurette. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

In the United States, Sebastián Lelios' A Fantastic Woman was released on Blu-ray by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. For an in-depth analysis of the film, please see my colleague Dr. Stephen Larson's review of the release here.

A Fantastic Woman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Sebastián Lelio's A Fantastic Woman arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon/Artificial Eye.

I am sure that there is only one digital master for this film and all distributors are given access to it. I mention this because I first viewed the North American release and I can confirm now that it looks identical to the Region-B release. Depth, clarity, and delineation are excellent, while fluidity is as solid and pleasing as a recent master of a recent film should ensure. Colors are very rich but natural and very nicely balanced. Image stability is excellent. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

A Fantastic Woman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1and Spanish LPCM 2.0. A Descriptive audio track is included as well. Optional English and English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The film has a fully digital soundtrack, so the 5.1 track retains all of the native qualities of the original studio mix. Quite predictably, depth, clarity, and stability are outstanding. There are a few segments where dynamic intensity tends to fluctuate a bit, but this is an inherited organic quality. The English translation is excellent.

A Fantastic Woman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original theatrical trailer for A Fantastic Woman. In Spanish, with imposed English subtitles. (2 min).

• Making of - a very short promotional featurette for A Fantastic Woman, with raw footage from the shooting process and clips from cast and crew interviews. In Spanish, with imposed English subtitles. (3 min).

A Fantastic Woman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A Fantastic Woman was not my top pick for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. I saw it before it was released on Blu-ray and thought that it carried an important message, but I really liked Andrey Zvyagintsev's Loveless and hoped that it would win the Oscar statuette. If the subject matter of the former appeals to you, see Bertrand Bonello's Tiresia. It is not on Blu-ray yet, but it is a great film that never really had the exposure that it deserved. RECOMMENDED.