The Piano (Special Edition) [DVD] [1993]

By the artwork I believe this Blu-ray to be an import from Australia and the bad news is that it is a terrible transfer.

Having purchase this disk I offer the following review based on the assumption that it is the same product.

The Blu-ray is All Regions; A/B/C

The back cover states that this disk has been mastered to 1080i Standard. Why on earth 1080i???????

Why was the film not re-mastered from film stock and to 1080p Standard?

The interlacing is apparent from the very start. The title sequence background has very obvious horizontal streaking. An ominous beginning.

This Blu-ray suffers from too much green and too much grain. Most of the red seems to have been filtered out thereby making the film darker than it should be. As a result the flesh tones are unnatural. Having seen the film in the theatre, to me this print has been made unusually dark for no apparent reason. The opening sequence where Ada McGrath is looking at the light between her fingers is strange because her fingers appear to be black, when in reality as anyone who has done this themselves know that the light through your fingers appear flesh coloured or red. This sets the darkness for the rest of the film. My Region 2 DVD has colours that are lighter, more red and natural looking (as I remember them from the theatre).

Viewed on a small screen (i.e. my PC) the picture generally looked OK, however on a large LCD TV all the shortcomings were accentuated and became unacceptable.

Another annoying feature of this disk is the omission of automatic subtitles for translations where required;
(i) When Ada and Flora McGrath are both conversing in Sign Language.
(ii) When George Baines or any of the Natives are speaking Maori.

Automatic translation subtitles were included in the theatre and also on my Region 2 DVD, however, on this Blu-ray; nothing.

There are only selectable subtitles for the Hearing Impaired, but these have no translations for the Maori dialogue either.

The only thing that is an improvement over the DVD is the addition of a DTS-HD 5.1 Audio track. Everything else, I consider to be sub-standard for a Blu-ray.

What the manufacturers of this Blu-ray have done to this wonderful film is nothing short of a disgrace. A DVD up-scaled to 1080i would have been quite OK if the source material had been better. At £18 or more, I would expect a bit more effort should have gone into the making of this Blu-ray.

Being more than a little disappointed with my purchase, the next day I returned the disk and obtained a refund.

The 3 stars are for the Disk not the movie. The film deserves 5 stars.

The Piano is an amazing tale of lust, envy, jealousy, betrayal and female identity and independence. Set in the mid nineteenth century, Ada McGrath is shipped off with her daughter Flora and their scant belongings to New Zealand, the reason being her arranged marriage to a somewhat successful land owner. Ada's beloved piano makes the journey with her.

The visually haunting opening scene of her arrival on the beach is perhaps one of the most haunting movie openings I think I've ever seen. From the beginning you sense her suffocating sense of misplacement and isolation, her sense of being out of place in the rain drenched, mud soaked South Island is overpowering (you have to remember this was way back when the area was hardly populated except by natives and there were few roads etc).

Holly Hunter excells, as usual, in her role, deservedly winning an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of a woman who chooses to be mute and has not spoken since she was six years old. Ada's true love, is her piano, which is her emotional and symbolic voice, being her most powerful expression of emotion and spirit. Ada takes an instant dislike of her new husband (Sam Neil) when he refuses to bring her piano up from the beach, and when an illiterate neighbour George Baines (played by Harvey Keitel) decides to bring her piano to his home, he strikes up a deal with her, formulating a way for her to earn it back. He proposes that for every lesson she gives, he gets to perform one sexual act. In the beginning, Ada despises George for his immoral, lustful blackmailing, however slowly, tacitly, their relationship transforms into a strong emotional and intellectual bond, and their lives spiral down into a frenzy of lust, deadly jealousy, envy and tragedy. The movie is full of symbolism and should be read metaphorically rather than literally. Passion is abundant, and as a pianist, I felt her intense passion for playing, which offered not only a voice for her to express herself with, but formed a part integral to her identity.

It is long, and quite slow to get into but very rewarding, and the haunting climax, and ending will leave you breathless but with a feeling of fullfilment.

I watch it again and again, and realise each time more and more symbolism within the movie. Amazing, Jane Campion deserved her praise and awards, while Anna Paquin became the youngest actress ever to win an Academy Award, whilst Holly Hunter excels in the peformance of a lifetime.

Tagged as one of the best movies of the last 30 years of the twentieth century?... I certainly think so.

'The Piano' is a classic and a masterpiece. This iconic film put art house back in the mainstream after years in the doldrums.
This Blue Ray transfer is dreadful I totally concur with Harry f Korbl all his assertions are correct. I took a refund and went back to my DVD version.