Bowling for Columbine Enters the Criterion Collection + The Big One (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Here's a new Criterion release that seems to've come out of left field, in more than one sense.  I'm not even sure why it struck me as odd, to be honest.  It's a very famous documentary, won the Academy Award, broke box office records for documentaries... and of course, if Criterion has important and political docs like Hearts and Minds, The Kennedy Films and The War Room in their collection, why wouldn't they have Bowling for Columbine?  I guess Bowling just sat in my mind as a very particular artifact of an exact moment in time, and it felt strange to see it out of its element fifteen years later.  But of course, revisiting this new restoration, it speaks even more to 2018 than it did to 2003.  Just replace Bush's name with Trump's and add a couple digits to the number of school shootings we've had across the country.  If anything, Michael Moore's mission to discover the root cause of this horrifying trend is more important than ever.

And if you haven't visited Bowling, or any of Moore's work, in a long time; it really holds up.  For me, at least, the quality of his recent work cast a bit of a shadow over his early triumphs.  I mean, I'd never lose sight that he's the guy who practically reinvented documentary filmmaking with Roger & Me.  That while he's not the first documentarian to invite audiences into the filmmaker's situation and make the story of creating the doc the subject, I think it's safe to say he's the one who perfected it to the point that it became a reliable tool in the documentarian's arsenal.  But, you look at his last film and it's just a lecture that he happened to film.  And even if you say Trumpland doesn't "count," Where To Invade Next is just barely opened up any further.  It's like he enlisted a bunch of fans from different countries to say what he wanted to say so he could present his lecture in an interview format.  You could see it when he shifted from TV Nation to The Awful Truth.  Now, instead of being entirely a collection of envelope pushing, man on the street documentary segments, it's a segment or two sandwiched between talks he gives to an in-studio audience or directly to the camera.  Some of the humor and ideas are still there, but the exploratory thrill is dead.

Contrarily, this might be Moore's ultimate masterpiece.  Sure Moore obviously has his political opinions and agendas like anybody who sets out to make a movie ever.  But in Bowling, you really get the feeling he's filming to ask questions and seek answers, not just use the silver screen to pontificate.  In Criterion's new feature, which we'll look at more a bit later, he talks about how they set out with an overall message about control in mind when they started filming, and how that changed as he talked to everybody he met in the filming process.  Just on a more simple, basic level, I think you can see that when he talks to people, from his man-on-the-street and run-and-gun ambush interviews to his scheduled sit downs with celebrities and politicians, he doesn't really know what they're going to say to him in this.  When Charlton Heston stands up and walks out on him during his interview - to go and hide in his own guest house - that's at least as much of a surprising and crazy moment to him as it is to us.  Revisiting Columbine in 2018, I feel like I learned that it's not the times that've changed, or that we've gotten too used to his bag of tricks; it's his material that had the power to surprise, and it's damned effective.

So, I've wound up buying this film a couple times now.  MGM originally released this as a 2-disc special edition DVD in 2003, which I copped right away.  They later substituted it in the marketplace with a cheaper single disc edition, which I never had cause to bother with.  But in 2004, MGM put out another one of his movies, an older one called The Big One, on DVD.  You could get it just by itself, or in a little boxed set where it was packaged with Columbine (the 2-disc version, happily) and an exclusive bonus disc.  So I bought the the same Columbine release twice, so I could get that bonus disc.  And then of course, just now in 2018, I picked up Criterion's new special edition blu-ray, if only for curiosity's sake.

2003 US MGM DVD on top; 2018 US Criterion blu bottom.

So, this isn't exactly a fancy, new 4k restoration.  You don't need to read Criterion's booklet to gather that they just got this HD master from MGM; it looks just like they used for their original DVD.  But that's not terribly disappointing, because at least half of this film is made up of old, vintage footage taken from various, lower quality sources.  Mind you, that's not to say that there's no benefit to be gained in taking this film to HD.  The DVD has all the usual fuzzy compression issues of a 2003 DVD, that the blu-ray smartly clears away in the crisper, original footage.  Take the comparison shots above - the first pair is of some news footage taken at a press conference.  Comparing the DVD to the blu, yes technically the compression's still better, but because it's inherently SD footage, there's basically no appreciable difference.  The level of detail is baked into the source material.  But the second pair shows their original footage that genuinely does clean up nicely.  You can see how much sharper and finer it gets in 1080p.  So it's there.  But I'm not sure how much of an effect it will have on your viewing experience when most of the movie, you're going to be watching shaky, underlit or flat-out duped video footage.  Just something to bear in mind.

Of course, getting the audio bumped up to lossless DTS-HD might be a more concrete reason for some people to upgrade.  Interestingly, the DVD had a 5.1 mix.  So, I did go turn to Criterion's booklet with questions here, and apparently theirs is "the original 2.0 surround soundtrack... remastered from the 35 mm magnetic printmaster."  Both versions also include optional English subtitles, and the DVD also had Spanish.

So, now let's get into the extras.  As you might imagine, the 2-disc DVD set had a bunch of stuff... only about half of which was preserved on the Criterion release.  But, with that said, maybe it's not such a terrible loss.  The first and most obvious MIA extra is the audio commentary.  But as Moore explains elsewhere, he felt like most of what he had to say was already in the film, so he let his "receptionists and interns" do it.  I've seen extras like this get a lot of slack or just treated like jokes - "ha ha the lady who answers the phone is going to do a commentary?!" - but I don't think it's a bad idea on its face.  All these people worked on the film and have plenty of boots on the ground experiences and anecdotes they could share about working on the film you'd never hear otherwise.  What was it like being the actual person trying to convince the survivalists to let you film them out in the woods?  Unfortunately, this is only a little bit like that, and a lot more like a big room full of young people giggling, talking over each other, and talking about things that only amuse each other ("remember when we stayed up all night in your apartment?").  It's not completely without value; there are fun and interesting bits to glean; but for the most part, I think most everyone on both sides of the fence considers it a failed experiment, which is why we don't see any more of these being created.

DVD-only special feature.

So, okay, that's out.  Also missing is Moore's introduction, and it's obvious why Criterion dropped that one.  He talks about the DVD itself, including the special features Criterion didn't include.  How much would it suck to hear Moore say, "watch this great interview" only to have that interview not be there?  So fair enough.  Then there's an interview, followed by an audience Q&A, with Moore and former press secretary Joe Lockhart at a comedy festival.  I'm not sure why they dropped this one, but apparently it was an HBO event, so possibly a rights/ licensing thing.  I'm sure that's why the music video for Marilyn Manson's song from the film was also dropped.  That's basically about all that was entirely cut, apart from like a photo gallery, text and DVD-Rom only features like a "teacher's guide," and a pair of inserts.

I say entirely cut, because there's also one featurette that was shortened.  The "Film Festival Scrapbook" features a collection of moments from Moore at film festivals, including portions of three different press interviews, a speech from David Lynch, Moore on the red carpet and accepting his award from Naomi Watts at Cannes.  Criterion cuts it down to just the three interview segments, removing Lynch and the rest of the bits.  And the rest of what has been carried over is Michael Moore's Academy Award acceptance speech, complete with an intro/ defense filmed in his backyard, an interview with Charlie Rose, a segment from The Awful Truth that we saw glimpses of in Bowling, the trailer, and finally a feature called Return To Denver/ Littleton.  Unfortunately, this sounds like a Pets Or Meat-style follow-up to the doc, where Moore returns to the scene of his documentary to see where the people have progressed or remain the same.  But really it's just a pre-screening speech he gave... not terrible, but kind of a let down.

And speaking of DVD-only let downs, let's get into The Big One.  It's been just as long since I revisited that movie as Columbine, and as much as that one holds up, this one doesn't.  It's explained (eventually) that the title is a reference to a joke Moore made on the radio that America's nickname, given its collective attitude, should be "the big one."  But really, we all know the title, like the entirety of the film, is just hyping up Michael Moore's first book.  This film is a documentary of the book tour he goes on across the country for Random House after writing Downsize This.  And yeah, there are some interesting moments in here, like when the employees of a Borders bookstore he's signing autographs at ask to meet him in secret because they're attempting to unionize.  In another city, he stops by to talk to strikers at a Payday (as in the candy bar) factory.  But really, mostly, it's just about him marketing his book.  Think of comedian's road movies like David Cross's Let America Laugh.  It's one of those, right down to him playing pranks on his security detail and hugging fans.

The only real substantive element comes right at the end, where the CEO of Nike, apparently pressured by his wife who's a big Moore fan, offers to meet with Moore, and winds up looking terrible trying to explain his child labor policies.  That's peak Moore, but it's like ten minutes at the tail end of a feature length film, and would've been better placed in an episode of TV Nation or Awful Truth.  Or he could've just released it as its own, short film.  I think it would've won awards and gotten a lot of praise on its own.  But instead it's a mildly entertaining (it's overall light-hearted and occasionally addresses some genuine, serious issues with a degree of wit) ego wank.  I mean, I get it.  If you're a serious Moore fan, hearing him speak could be its own reward, like An Evening With Kevin Smith.  And there are moments that work like that, including where he basically performs the first chapter of his book, showing prank checks he wrote to various presidential campaigns.  But overall, this is much more Let America Laugh than An Evening With Kevin Smith, with a few highlights spread out across a lot of filler.

2004 US MGM DVD.

As disappointing as the film itself might've been, the DVD presentation was worse.  It's fullscreen, seems to be taken from a tape source, and and badly interlaced.  And you might think it's supposed to be fullscreen, like it's just shot on cheap video cameras while on tour.  But no, this film was released theatrically with a proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio and only looks like it was shot on cheap video cameras because of the way it's been preserved on disc.  The compression is poor, even by DVD standards.  It's just a cheap, no care given disc.  It's also completely barebones apart from the trailer (which you should watch, since it's all original footage created just for the trailer) and some bonus trailers.  The Dolby Stereo track is standard stuff, but at least it has subtitles, in English, French and Spanish.

Oh, and what about that bonus disc?  Ugh.  We're just sliding further and further downhill.  It's an eleven minute featurette of little snippets from one of his later book tours.  It's like a mini-The Big One, except he never talks to any strikers or CEOs; he just promotes his book.  It's basically clips from the talks he give, most cut so short, you never sink your teeth into whatever he's got to say anyway.  You've really got to have your head shoved awfully far up Moore's rear to care much about this.

But after coming down pretty hard on some of this stuff, I'm happy to do a complete 180.  Because, going back to the new Criterion blu-ray, there's one new feature they created that far outshines any of the other specials created for Bowling on any edition.  It's a 35-minute documentary called Michael Moore Makes a Movie, which interviews Moore, his producers and other collaborators on the making of Bowling for Columbine in a much more compelling, candid fashion.  They go through the documentary, basically scene for scene, explaining what each interview and experience was really like.  Why they talked to who they did, changes they made mid-filming, from what really happened when that conspiracy theorist put a gun to Moore's head to how Charlton Heston tried to physically trap them on his property after the interview.  Some of the other features were decent.  Moore and Rose had a smart discussion, and it was interesting to hear him address his little controversy with his Academy Awards speech.  But none of it holds a candle to this; I'd happily throw it all away and just keep Michael Moore Makes a Movie.  Oh, and it also comes with a long fold-out booklet with notes by critic Eric Hynes.

So if you're questioning whether it's worth upgrading your old DVD when maybe you've lost interest in the film, and the PQ gains aren't so impressive... I had my doubts, too.  I had pangs of buyer's remorse before I even completed by purchase.  But now that I've been reminded of just how strong the film is, and how pleased I was with the new feature, I have to say I'm really happy to have it now.  If you're on the fence about this one, I think I can safely say you won't regret it.

Discover the Hidden Secrets Of the Church

Say, speaking of 90s horror classics that should've had special editions since the early days of DVD but are only just getting them now, how about Michele Soavi's The Church?  Scorpion Releasing's two disc set that's been pending for so long I was seriously beginning to doubt it would ever arrive has finally arrived.  If you're thinking, wait a minute, hasn't it already been out half a year or something, you're thinking of the single disc edition.  Just like with The Sect, Scorpion released a single disc edition first, with a two disc special edition to arrive months later, not just with more extras and better packaging, but both the English and Italian audio tracks (the single disc version only has the English).

Update 7/16/18 - 4/27/26: It's Update Megaweek and we're finally adding Severin's 2023 4k Ultra HD release of The Church to this page.  And, at the same time, we're doing The Sect, too - big Soavi day!

If you're looking for something stylish and cool, The Church is it.  There's a bit of a weird schism to it, but depending on your attitude, that can be as much a part of its charm as a critical fault.  You've got the original intention for this film: to be Lamberto Bava's Demons 3, and then you've got Soavi's re-imagining.  And for the first hour or so, while there may be material from the original script active in it, it feels like Soavi's vision.  A historical opening in the 12th century or so, with the Templar Knights committing and then burying their sins.  We then move forward to modern times, where a great gothic church has been built upon the site, and several characters get caught up trying to unlock its mysteries.  Dramatic camerawork of them fetishistically translating cryptic messages, unlocking secret panels, discovering hidden passageways, ultimately leading to a face off with mankind's dark past in a fantastical way.

Then in the last half hour, a whole bunch of extra characters plow into the church and suddenly we're in Bava and Sacchetti's Demons.  A bickering elderly couple, a teacher with an entire class of students, fashion photographers, one of Dario Argento's daughters and a romantic pair of bikers all find themselves trapped inside and desperate to escape as they get killed and possessed one by one.  So ultimately, The Sect is probably the better film; but The Church could be more fun, even upping the giant rubber monster quota of Bava's previous efforts.  The story's maybe a little inconsequential, but hey, who's counting?

So, The Church's story on disc is pretty similar to The Sect's, too, except that The Church at least had a proper US DVD.  Anchor Bay put it out in 2002 as part of their "Dario Argento Collection" (he produced and co-wrote the film), a barebones but anamorphic widescreen release that was later reissued by Blue Underground in 2007.  But on blu, the story is almost exactly the same.  There was a questionable barebones Japanese disc in 2016, and then Shameless released a remastered version later that year, featuring a new interview with Soavi (The Church's first proper special feature).  Oh, and there's an Italian blu, but it's not English friendly.  Anyway, Scorpion eventually released their single disc edition in the US in early 2018, and months later, their limited (1500 copies) 2-disc special edition came out.  And most recently, Severin released their limited edition 2-disc BD/UHD combopack in 2023, followed by the standard edition (same discs, less swag) in 2024.

1) 2002 US Anchor Bay DVD; 2) 2018 US Scorpion BD;
3) 2024 US Severin BD; 4) 2024 US Severin UHD.

The first thing that stood out to be is that sickly yellowish/ greenish hue that seems to hang over the DVD has been scrubbed from the blus, giving it a much more vibrant energy.  Scorpion's packaging tells us this is a "brand new 2017 2k scan with over 45 hours of color correction," and that certainly paid off.  Being in HD, of course, the detail is a lot clearer - grain appears natural here where before it was utterly invisible.  But really the second biggest thing after the colors is the framing.  The DVD is slightly vertically matted to 1.85:1, while Scorpion's blu-ray switches it to the filmmakers' possibly preferred ratio(? it would be nice to get a definitive answer on this) of 1.67:1.  Did they trade horizontal information for vertical?  No, the blu reveals considerably more picture on all four sides.  But then Severin goes back to 1.85:1, revealing slivers more along the sides, but shaving a bit vertically.  Soavi has approved this transfer, so we can guess this is the preferred AR, but we all know how inconsistent director approval can be.

Regardless, Severin has gone back to the original camera negative for an all new 4k scan, so it's going to win in the end regardless.  Honestly, just comparing the 1080p BDs, the color timing looks very similar, but it's definitely more vibrant and attractive with its Dolby Vision HDR.  Even converted to SD for the screenshots, you can see how much more vibrant the UHD is.  And all three encodes are great, but the UHD obviously takes the trophy for how it captures and renders detail and film grain.  Because Scorpion did such a good job, Severin's boost may not be so striking in comparison, but it is the best looking edition, no question.

Now, Anchor Bay just gave us the English dub, in our choice of Dolby stereo or 5.1, with no subs.  Scorpion's new blu (again, as opposed to their first single disc release) provides both the English and Italian stereo mixes in DTS-HD, without any of the light hiss we heard on The Sect, and with optional English subtitles "translated from the Italian track."  Now, on The Sect, I preferred the Italian audio, but here, I think the English dub is actually a little more natural.  Neither wins in every department - I'm not a fan of the voice they dub star Barbara Cupisti with in English - but overall, I'd say the English track is the preferable one here.  Severin also gives us both audio tracks in DTS-HD, plus that 5.1 mix in DTS-HD as well.  And it also has English subtitles for both language tracks.

2018 Arana

Now, like I already mentioned, the US DVD is barebones.  All they gave it was the trailer.  Ironically, that's all the Scorpion blu is missing (they list the trailer on the packaging, and it was on their single disc edition, but it seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle.  But you won't care once you see all the great stuff they've got.  First of all, there's a pretty great audio commentary by Nathaniel Thompson and Cupisti.  They list him as a moderator, but it's more of an even mix, with Thompson speaking as an expert and Cupisti providing the personal, first hand knowledge.  After that, there's a whole slew of smartly edited, on-camera interviews, averaging 15-20 minutes apiece, with Soavi, Dario Argento, Asia Argento, Cupisti, Tomas Arana, Giovanni Radice, set designer Massimo Geleng, screenwriter Franco Ferrini and makeup artist Franco Casagni.  Between all of them, they pretty much cover everything you could want to know about this film.  Most are in Italian with burnt-in yellow subtitles (as shown above), but a couple are in English.  Scorpion's 2-disc set also features reversible artwork, a slipcover and a poster.

2023 Arana.

And Severin?  It's interesting.  They port over most, but not all of the Scorpion stuff.  But they make up for the loss by adding some new stuff.  Specifically, they lose the commentary, the Cupisti interview and the Arana interview.  One of the new interviews is their own with Tomas Arana, so that one's fine, but it's a shame to lose Cupisti.  But we gain additional interviews with Sergio Stivaletti, Antonella Vitale, Dardano Sacchetti (who's got some tea to spill!), assistant director Claudio Lattanzi and expert Alan Jones.  Plus there's a funky video trailer in addition to the regular theatrical one.  The limited edition also included a soundtrack CD, a slipcover and a booklet.  They also had a T-shirt and a pendant of "the stone with the seven eyes" you could order in a bundle, which you have to admit is pretty cool.

Scorpion's limited release was a little pricey, but they nailed it.  Severin eventually came around and topped it now that we're in the age of 4k Ultra HD, though.  But if you've got the Scorpion, it wasn't a waste, because it's still got some sweet exclusives.  And honestly, it still looks good enough that this might be a lower priority upgrade.

The Piano Teacher, R and Unrated Cuts

So, we've looked at Michael Haneke's first French film, and even his third... it was only a matter of time until we hit on his second, The Piano Teacher. It was released on DVD in the UK and the USA, respectively, in 2002, with two rather different releases. Or three, strictly speaking, as Kino released it in the states as both an "R Rated Version" and an "Unrated Director's Cut."  I was curious exactly what the differences between those two cuts were, and was surprisingly unable to find the answers online. So I've worked it out for myself, and I'm putting them onto the 'net now. 😎 

Update 3/16/16 - 7/8/18: This post has been begging for an update since last year, when we finally got this film on blu-ray, and from the Criterion Collection no less.  Well, it goes without saying that this should be a serious PQ update (though of course we'll delve into that more seriously below); but their special features selection is a little curious and maybe a little disappointing?  Let's have a look.

Update 11/10/20: I've added the French TF1 blu-ray to the mix, too.  It's from their 2013 'Le Cinéma de Michael Haneke' boxed set.

Isabelle Huppert stars as a music instructor (I won't spoil which instrument!) who couldn't be more dissatisfied with her life and secretly lashes out at everyone around her, especially herself. She lives with her very controlling mother and psychologically tortures her star pupil, a young girl who's made the unfortunate mistake of reminding her teacher of herself. She soon seeks refuge in a sexual relationship with another of her students, who she encourages to be violent and abusive. Yeah, this is dark stuff; but it's intense and very authentic.

The Piano Teacher was the first of several collaborations between the Haneke and Huppert (they're currently preparing #4, Happy End, as of this writing). And you only have to watch this film to see why they keep working together. This is one seriously powerful character study. It's based on the autobiographical, and somewhat shocking, novel by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, and as it's from Haneke, you know he's not going to shy away from the dangerous bits. And because of this, it's a little bit more conventional in its structure than most of Haneke's films. But from the locked frames and completely unsentimental deliveries, there's no mistaking whose work this is. This is a Haneke film all the way, and more than that, one of his best.

A scene only included in the unrated cut.

Now there's a moment in The Piano Teacher, where Huppert goes to a porno shop and watches some hardcore pornography in a private booth. What we get a glimpse of is explicitly hardcore, so I was pretty sure this was the difference between the R and unrated cuts. But I'm glad I checked, because it's actually the first of many cuts.

25:55) The hardcore pornography Huppert watches in the booth. First she's shown a split-screen image of four graphic images to choose from. She then selects one: an upside-down blowjob and we see a few seconds of that. In the R-rated version, we only see her reaction shots and hear the sounds of what she's watching.

33:43) The entire three-minute scene in the bathroom [shown above] is cut. The US version jumps right from the shot of the acceptance sheet to Huppert arguing with her mother. So not only do we not see the admittedly shocking thing she does to herself with a handheld mirror and a razor; but we don't hear her mother calling her and then the trouble she goes through to hide the evidence. It seems odd the MPAA would object to her cleaning her bath. More importantly, not seeing this scene totally destroys the next talk with her mother, which you interpret in a totally different way without knowing what Huppert's just done. The decision to cut this whole scene, rather than just trim it like the previous edit, is really destructive.

50:05) The scene of Huppert peeing outside of the lovers' car at the drive-in is heavily shortened.

1:05:20) The handjob scene in the bathroom is shortened. In fact, it's only a handjob scene in the unrated version, because the R-rated version goes right from them starting to get physical to the guy saying "I love you." In the complete version she begins to masturbate him and only says "I love you" after stopping her.

1:06:13) The r-rated cut also snips out the moment where she goes down on him, cutting right from the handjob rejection to Huppert's threats to leave. The guy goes from loving to hostile on a dime in the r-rated cut; but we see the motivations in this longer version with lines like, "I've no desire to touch that now." Even worse, we lose her whole speech about "I'll write down what you can do to me," which is a critical story point.

1:18:51) When Huppert tells the boy "stop being such a leech," the R-rated cuts to them practicing at the piano again, but the unrated version continues with him replying, "you cough because you're uptight." And they have a lengthy argument, where she tells him she has no feelings and forbids him from reading her note or doing anything that doesn't relate to music in that room. It's entirely sex-free, so I'm baffled as to why this has been cut.

1:26:14) Most of the note being read aloud is cut out. Apparently even talking about BDSM sex is too much for an R-rating.

1:43:48) It makes more sense that the sex scene at the hockey rink was cut short. The r-rated version has an awkward fade to black and then fade back to the same scene, while it plays naturally all the way through in the uncut version.  They only wind up losing a few seconds of non-nudity, though.

The trimmed scene from 50:05.

Meanwhile, the entire ending scene, which is perhaps the most extreme of the film, is left uncut. It really is puzzling how they could leave that in, but cut out dialogue in the piano room? These cuts must not have been only MPAA-based. It's a little mystery. Honestly though, it's not terribly important, since Kino did also release an unrated version. And yes, the discs from Artificial Eye and Criterion are also uncut. So there's no reason to bother with the R except as a curiosity piece, which I suppose it does live up to.

But even if you were clever enough to make sure you got the unrated Kino DVD rather than the R-rated one, you'd still have wanted to think about replacing it with Artificial Eye's, as you'll soon see.  Though of course now all the DVDs have been rendered obsolete by the blu-rays, released first by TF1 in France in 2013 and more recently in the US by Criterion in 2017.

1) Kino's 2002 R Rated US DVD; 2) Kino's 2002 Unrated US DVD;
3) Artificial Eye's 2002 UK DVD; 4) TF1's 2013 FR BD;
5) Criterion's 2017 US BD.

Wow, now there's a strong progression from edition to edition if I ever saw one. right off the bat, the Kino discs are non-anamorphic and interlaced. Otherwise, the transfers between the DVDs look fairly similar - presumably they're using the same root master - but those are two pretty major sticking points. The framing is also slightly different, with the AE disc minimally letterboxed to 1.80-1.81:1, and the Kino is window-boxed to about 1.70:1. Basically, this gives the AE disc a sliver of extra picture on the sides, and the Kino a sliver on the top and bottom.

Admittedly, though, the question of which DVD is preferable becomes fairly academic in the wake of the blu-rays.  I refer to them jointly, because they are virtually identical, obviously using the same master.  They've made a new scan of the original camera negative, and it's a massive improvement in detail just overall picture quality.  The film is slightly matted to 1.85:1, shaving not just a little off the top and bottom, but even narrow slivers along the sides.  The color scheme is more muted, too, with a lower contrast, flatter look - for example, compare the whites of the orchestra's sheet music.  Haneke is credited in Criterion's booklet as supervising the color correction, though, so this is the presumably correct look.  It's certainly more natural compared to the DVDs.  And anyway, the real story is in the fine detail and photo realistic clarity; it feels absurd to even spell it all out underneath the screenshots, since it's a night and day improvement.

Another mark against the Kino DVDs, by the way: every disc's subtitles are removable, except Kino's, which are burnt in. And AE's disc has a 5.1 mix in addition to its 2.0 stereo track, while Kino just has the 2.0. TF1 and Criterion both have the 5.1 mix remastered in lossless DTS-HD, though curiously they've chucked the stereo mix all together.  More curiously, TF1 has kept the lossy 5.1 mix as a secondary option.  But the bad news about TF1, and the most important thing to know about that their whole disc, is that it doesn't have any subtitles or English language options at all.  Other discs in the TF1 do have English subs, but not all, and this is one that doesn't.

The extras is where things really further complicated. Now, Kino isn't barebones. It has the theatrical trailer, and a quite good, 20 minute on-camera interview with Isabelle Huppert. And it includes a basic insert with chapter titles. Oh, and all this is the same across both the R and unrated discs, by the way.  But that's it. Artificial Eye has a whole lot more.

AE actually doesn't have the Huppert interview, so score 1 point for Kino. But they do have an audio commentary by her. It's scene specific, and only on seven scenes (totaling up to maybe fifty-ish minutes) rather than the whole movie. But I'd much rather have that than have her stretching to fill the rest of the running time if she didn't have more to say. The commentary, even partial as it is, winds up being more informative than the interview. Then, AE also has a really good interview with Haneke, helped by the fact that whoever's asking the questions seems to have a solid insight into the film. And there's an interesting behind-the-scenes look at an ADR session from the post-production of this movie. AE also has the trailer, plus reversible cover art., and finally, there's an interview with the author, which sounds great; but unfortunately, she just talks about her childhood, parents, and a bit about her novel Lust at the end. She doesn't mention The Piano Teacher - the book or the film - at all, which is a let down. Still, it's better than no interview at all.

TF1 has some stuff, but like their presentation of the film, it isn't English-friendly at all.  For the record - if, say, you're fluent in French - they have a 25-minute interview with Haneke and a short featurette with a French critic.  But it's no use to us English speakers.

And now we come to Criterion.  And to start with, no they don't have the Huppert interview from the Kino disc either.  They did carry over a bunch of the AE extras, though, including the commentary and dubbing session.  But they don't have the Haneke or Jelinek interviews.  Now, the absent Haneke and Huppert interviews are made up for, because Criterion has recorded new on-camera interviews with them both.  But there's no equivalent of the Jelinek interview, and it's just a shame to be losing as many special features as we're gaining with this new edition.  Nothing new is really being brought to the table, so much as a couple of lost features are being replaced.  Like Criterion's set of features, taken on their own, are good and rewarding; but if you already had the DVDs, it's a bit of a strange compromise rather than a boon of new content.  Oh, and Criterion's disc also includes the trailer, and a nice fold-out booklet with an essay by Moira Weigel, by the way.

So, yes, the Criterion is definitely and obviously the way to go at this stage.  Both blus offer a huge boost in picture quality, but only Criterion couples that with a nice set of features.  Owners of the past DVDs may feel compelled to hang onto those as well, though, since they both retain exclusive extras.  It would've been nice to clear those off the shelves with this new edition, but oh well.  I wouldn't go so far as to recommend going back and buying the DVDs in addition to the blu, however, since most of those Haneke and Huppert interviews are fairly redundant, and the Jelinek interview never got around to The Piano Teacher anyway.  Haneke does say some different things across the two interviews, but unless you're a die-hard collector, any one is probably enough.  Something different, like an interview with any other cast or crew member - to feel like we're getting some new content with our purchase - would've been nice.  But this is still a killer upgrade, especially essential if you've only got that non-anamorphic, interlaced mess from Kino.