NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Shout! Factory - Region 'A' Blu-ray - June 2024: Shout! Factory have also transferred Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden to Blu-ray. I have always enjoyed this film and the amazing performances so I bought this hoping to see some upgrade from the 2019 Studio Canal Blu-ray. But there is none. The image quality is, pretty much, a duplicate - also with a max'ed out bitrate. So the comments on the 1080P improvement over the DVD, below, still hold true.

NOTE: We have added 50 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

Shout! Factory's audio goes DTS-HD Master (24-bit!) in 2.0 channel in the original English language. The storm and rough sea carry some depth. Wojciech Kilar's (award winning music for this film and has done scores for Wajda's The Promised Land, as well as Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Roman Polanski's The Pianist, and The Ninth Gate - to name a few) is mostly subtle but has impacting moments. The film is bookended by Franz Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor which relates to the film (the "Death and the Maiden" Quartet.) There are optional English (SDH) subtitles on this Region 'A' Blu-ray disc.

Like the Studio Canal - the only extra is a trailer. So... "bare-bones". The film surely deserves a commentary and supplements.

Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden is based on the play in three acts by Argentine-Chilean expatriate novelist, playwright Ariel Dorfman who had served as a cultural adviser to President Salvador Allende. It is set in the present time, in an unknown country presumed to be in Latin-America, but is only specified as a nation that had recently transitioned from an extensive period of dictatorship to a democracy. The play has been performed with Glenn Close (as Paulina,) Richard Dreyfuss (as Gerardo) and Gene Hackman (as Roberto) - directed by Mike Nichols - and many other times including in London with Thandie Newton (Crash, Retreat, Westworld) in the defiant female lead. Death and the Maiden is a progressively paced film experience jolting you with bizarre behavioral surprises. It settles into a dark inquest that shifts audience preconceptions where all characters share a fragile implication from rationalization to unforgivable injustice. It's brilliantly realized by Polanski and the unrelenting performances are intense and memorable. Unfortunately the bare-bones Shout! Factory Blu-ray release is no upgrade over the Studiocanal, which I already owned. It is Region 'A' and does have optional English (SDH) subtitles. Other than that, certainly no double-dip is required. Death and the Maiden has a prominent place on my "rewatchable" shelf. 

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ADDITION: Studio Canal - Region 'B' Blu-ray - July 2019: Studio Canal have transferred one of my favorite films, Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden to Blu-ray. It is housed on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate and our captures can indicate the improvement in color and texture over the 2003 DVD. Flesh tones lose their orange-ness and return to cooler normalcy. The visuals are, appropriately, darker and free of compression artifacts or noise. It does have come blue-leaning. The overall image is not dynamic but seems a far better representation of the film than the DVD. The Blu-ray has almost 7X the bitrate of the DVD.

Audio gets linear PCM (24-bit!) in 2.0 channel in both the original English language or an untested German DUB. There are, fully, optional German subtitles on this Region 'B' Blu-ray disc.