The Pianist

The Pianist

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Movie Reviews of The Pianist

Movie Review: 5 star film, flawed DVD
Summary: 5 Stars

I bought the 2 Disc version because the extra features seemed to be more extensive than the American disc. This is not the case. The American release simply has one two-sided disc instead of the Camnadian's two one-sided ones. There is an additional trailer or two on the Canadian release, that's it.

However, the negatives are much more important. First, the main bonus feature on both the TVA and Universal DVDs is a 40 minute documentary about the making of the film. It's informative and intelligently made.

However, the TVA disc has French subtitles which cannot be removed. I understand the market for this in Quebec, but for English speakers this is infuriating as you try to watch.

Worse, the transfer of the film is markedly less sharp than the Universal disc. I rented the Universal disc and compared them side by side. I took captures on my computer and compared them frame for frame. There's no contest -- the Universal disc has a much sharper, clearer transfer.

Also, the TVA transfer has a noticable flicker to it, which seems to have been caused by using a European PAL transfer from which to make the discs. Since PAL uses a different frame rate, the frames don't match up to this NTSC disc and cause frames that are half one image and half the image from the next shot.

Avoid at all costs. I ended up wasting money on a Canadian set only to sell it used and finally pick up the American disc.

Summary of The Pianist