7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In 1851, Ada, a mute Scotswoman, travels to colonial New Zealand to wed a man she does not know, with her precocious daughter Flora and beloved piano in tow. When her cold and practical husband, the landowner Stewart, refuses to transport the piano to their rural home, Ada hesitantly agrees to a sexual relationship with a neighbor, the intense George, in order to retrieve and gain access to the instrument.
Starring: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin, Geneviève LemonDrama | 100% |
Romance | 24% |
Period | 19% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
4K Ultra HD
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Jane Campion's "The Piano" (1993) arrives on 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include new program with the director; new program with cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh; archival interviews with costumer designer Janet Patterson, production designer Andrew McAlpine, and composer Michael Nyman; short film; vintage trailer; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
Criterion's release of The Piano is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray offer presentations of the recent 4K restoration of the film.
The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this release:
"This new 4K digital transfer was created in Dolby Vision HDR (high dynamic range) 16-bit 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 35mm A/B negatives at Fixafilm in Canbera, Australia. The color grading was supervised and approved by director Jane Campion and director of photography Stuart Dryburgh. A 35mm print from the collection of the Academy Film Archive was used as a color-grading reference. On the 4K Blu-ray disc, the feature is presented in Dolby Vision HDR. On the Blu-ray, it is presented in high-definition SDR (standard dynamic range). The original soundtrack was remastered from the two-inch 24-track magnetic track.
Transfer supervisors: Jane Campion, Stuart Dryburgh.
Colorists: Roman Hankewycz, Joe Gawler/Harbor Picture Company, New York.
Scanning: Peter Richards/Fixafilm."
I viewed the new restoration with with Dolby Vision enabled. The entire film looks very healthy now and boasts an all-around balanced visual appearance that can be quite striking on a larger screen. The outdoor daylight footage, in particular, looks simply terrific. Delineation, clarity, and depth are predictably excellent, fluidity is very strong, too. Some of the biggest improvements, however, are in the color scheme, where there are new and expanded ranges of primaries and supporting nuances. The current color scheme is clearly better than what has been seen on previous home video releases of The Piano. However, I feel that there are a few areas where saturation levels become a tad too strong. One example can be seen around the 0:16:00 mark. (Oddly, in 1080p the same footage actually looks better balanced). Also, there are a few other areas where light cyan-ish hues, which are part of the film's native appearance, become a tad too prominent as well. (See screencapture #11). But the overall technical presentation of the film is still very strong and convincing, so the 4K Blu-ray release clearly represents a massive upgrade in quality. (Note: The 4K Blu-ray disc is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray disc is Region-A "locked").
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The 5.1 track is outstanding. There are quite a few sequences where the crashing waves, random nature sounds, and Michael Nyman's soundtrack produces some pretty impressive contrasts. I don't know how this 5.1 track compares to the ones that were present on the more recent releases of The Paino from StudioCanal, but I think that its quality is excellent. There are no technical anomalies to report.
4K BLU-RAY DISC
I find the visual appearance and some of the ambience of The Piano a lot more attractive than its story, which is probably the main reason why I don't have a very good relationship with it. To be entirely honest, it is just one of those acclaimed films that I find awfully difficult to revisit. This upcoming 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo release introduces an exclusive new 4K restoration of The Piano that was supervised and approved by director Jane Campion and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh. It is the best presentation of the film to emerge on the home video market to date. RECOMMENDED.
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