The Servant 4K UHD StudioCanal (1 Viewer)

[titch]

StudioCanal's UK release of The Servant in a 4K UHD box is probably the best-looking UHD I've seen projected so far. Even better than their UHDs of black and white classics Breathless, The Elephant Man and La Haine. The black and white deep-focus photography by Douglas Slocombe is absolutely stunning. The detail revealed by the 4K picture projected onto a 130 inch screen is so good, fine facial hairs are visible on the actors and actresses. An enormous improvement on the blu-ray released in 2013 - which didn't look bad then, but now looks washed-out and blurry in comparison.

The Servant • UK Vintage Classics Ultra HD Blu-ray vs. UK Blu-ray

caps-a-holic.com

StudioCanal hasn't provided a single sentence on the booklet or disc, as to who did the restoration, but it looks like it was performed by Silver Salt - who did last year's stellar The Ladykillers restoration. The film itself is a classic - one of the key inspirations for the Oscar winner for best picture in 2020: Bong Joon Ho's Parasite.

StudioCanal has provided both the 1.66:1 and 1:75:1 aspect ratio versions - the difference is minimal and the 1:75:1 didn't seem distractingly cropped. I've uploaded a couple of screenshots from a scene for comparison.

Absolutely a must-buy for connoisseurs of classic films!

 

[dmac]

You are correct, the restoration work was done at Silver Salt. Compression and authoring done at Fidelity in Motion.

 

[titch]

You are correct, the restoration work was done at Silver Salt. Compression and authoring done at Fidelity in Motion.

This was my choice for the best UHD of 2021. A reference-quality example of what 4K UHD can achieve. Excellent work (again), David!