Hilary & Jackie Rescued from Non-Anamorphic Hell

1998's Hilary and Jackie is based on the true story of classical cellist Jacqueline du Pré and her sister Hilary du Pré, or more specifically the memoir written by Hilary and their brother Piers.  After Breaking the Waves, this solidified Emma Watson's breakthrough to stardom (both her and co-star Rachel Griffiths were nominated for Oscars for this).  And their are some notable British actors in supporting roles including Charles Dance, Celia Imrie, Bill Patterson and The Walking Dead's Governor David Morrissey.

This film's a little romanticized, and might feel a bit corny early on (the BD commentary goes so far as to suggest this film injects magical realism into the story, but I think that's a misread of just some expressionistic flourishes being added to its true story), but what makes this film so powerful is that it keeps adding layers to its characters, in part thanks to its surprisingly effective split structure.  And the fact that it's not afraid to get dark and explore moments a lot of biographical films would just as soon gloss over.  In fact, it generated some controversy, when friends of du Pre objected to some of the events depicted... though I read the book back when this film was first released, and that's pretty much just how Jackie and her brother claim it went down.  If anything, I think the film is a bit fair and even-keeled. 

This was released as a new release flipper disc by Polygram Video in 1999 DVD: fullscreen on one side, widescreen on the other.  Unfortunately, widescreen discs as old as 1999 were often non-anamorphic, as was the case here, so this DVD has really not aged so well.  And while there were DVDs issued in other regions, none of those were anamorphic either.  And despite this film's critical success, it was never issued in HD anywhere in the world.  It hasn't been until now, in 2026, that we can finally replace out ancient 4:3 discs, with a new special edition blu-ray, restored in 2k, by the BFI.  Halle-frikken'-lujah.

1999 Polygram DVD top; 2026 BFI BD bottom.

So I left the negative space around the first set of shots so you can see how each would actually look on your TV; non-anamorphic really doesn't fly in the age of widescreen displays.  The fullscreen version is 1.33:1, and largely open-matte, but given how wide the OAR is, it couldn't avoid cutting off some of the sides.  Most of that is restored on the widescreen side, which is 2.30:1, but the BFI's new transfer restores even more at 2.35:1 (it also adds a bit more along the bottom, but nothing compared to how much the fullscreen version showed vertically).  So that's nice, but the huge difference you'll see, if your eyes even glanced over the comparison shots above, is the natural color time and restored detail.  The DVD almost looks like it was colored in by crayons compared to the naturalistic, photo-realistic BD.  Look at the skin tones, which are in turns blue and orange on the DVDs above, but genuinely authentic for the first time on the blu.  I mean, the screenshots really speak for themselves.

Polygram's DVD gives you a choice between the original stereo and a 5.1 remix, with optional English and French subtitles.  BFI strips it down to just the stereo track in LPCM and English subs.

Polygram's DVD wasn't exactly a special edition, but at least they threw on a 10-minute making of featurette, comprised of the usual soundbites from the cast and crew, film clips and B-roll footage.  They also include the trailer, widescreen but equally nonanamorphic.  It also includes a 4-page insert with chapter tiles and some brief notes.

Now, BFI goes for a far more loaded special edition, but they make some unusual choices.  For starters, they add a bunch of stuff, the best of which is an expert commentary by composer Neil Brand.  To be clear, he's a composer, not the composer of Hilary and Jackie.  But he's knowledgeable, and it's pretty worthwhile track, with some good info about the book and the real people.  He doesn't just talk about the score, although he does get into that, too.  So that's cool.  And they also have the trailer, which is still looking pretty rough, but at least it's anamorphic now.  They also top the insert with a new, 32-page booklet featuring notes and an essay by Rachel Pronger.

But all the other new extras are a bit weird.  There are three cartoons, which have no connection to Hilary and Jackie or the filmmakers apart from a loose musical theme.  Then there's a roughly 50-minute vintage documentary about a female cellist.  Not Jacqueline du Pre, just another woman who played the cello.  And there's a short 1946 documentary about the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as a 1952 newsreel about a primary school band.  In other words, it looks like the BFI just took this opportunity to stuff whatever random music-related video they had onto this disc.  And hey, I'll take it for free, but it's not exactly enhancing my Hilary and Jackie experience.  In fact, it's a bit of a step backwards, because they drop Universal's featurette - the only extra to feature anyone involved with this movie.  Oh, and interestingly, the 2001 UK DVD from Film Four has a deleted scene not included on any other release.  I was really hoping BFI would've included that.

This release of Hilary and Jackie crosses off one of my few remaining wanted titles still stuck with nothing but non-anamorphic discs.  Now, I'm just holding out for The Wife (seriously, Tom Noonan just passed - somebody get on this!), The House Of Yes and I don't know... The Imposters maybe?  But this now is a real victory, finally, even if they got a little goofy with the special features.