The Piano – Criterion Collection 4K Blu-ray

Posted By yonghow on March 4th, 2024

Some pictures of Criterion Collection’s 4K release for New Zealand director Jane Campion’s highly acclaimed The Piano (1993), starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and a then very very young Anna Paquin ( who plays Rogue from the X-Men movies ).

I saw this movie for the first time many years back while I was still a film student studying in Tokyo and haven’t re-visited it since, but after picking up Campion’s The Power Of The Dog I was quickly reminded of the utter brilliance of this film and had to pick this up as well.

The 2 disc set comes with a 4K UHD presentation on one disc and the regular blu-ray + supplementary materials on the 2nd. Here are some pictures of the set, with the cover art done by the ever amazing Greg Ruth who has also illustrated many other stunning covers for Criterion titles, including Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others, which I will be posting soon as well. I very highly recommend following the artist on X.

The Piano - Criterion Collection 4K Blu-ray

Now about the 4K presentation – this is hands down one of the most stunning re-masters of *fairly old* films that I’ve seen come out of Criterion. I wish I wrote this post right after I watched the film because I remember been very impressed with the fidelity of the 4K transfer, which looked as if it was just shot last year when the film itself is more than 3 decades old. Seriously, a very, very solid presentation.

But that isn’t all. The bonus features are excellent as well, especially the newly recorded interviews with the filmmakers, which permitted me a deeper understanding of the film through Jane Campion’s conversations with film critic Amy Taubin.

One particular highlight from the bonus features was the interview with composer Michael Nyman, where he talked about the genius musical abilities of the lead actress Holly Hunter, who performed all the highly challenging piano pieces herself, something which Nyman noted were beyond the feats of professional pianists.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

– New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Stuart Dryburgh and approved by director Jane Campion, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
– One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
– New conversation between Campion and film critic Amy Taubin
– New interviews with Dryburgh and production designer Andrew McAlpine
– Interview with actor Holly Hunter on working with Campion
– “The Piano” at 25, a program featuring a conversation between Campion and producer Jan Chapman
– Excerpts from an interview with costume designer Janet Patterson
– Interview with composer Michael Nyman
– Water Diary, a 2006 short film by Campion
– Trailer
– New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– PLUS: An essay by critic Carmen Gray

This release by Criterion gets top marks for both the spectacular 4K presentation of the film as well as the bountiful collection of bonus materials, which really helped me immerse and appreciate the actual movie even more. I give it my highest recommendations.