My Fair Lady 4K review

Jul 05, 2021- Permalink

After a bit of a shipping delay, I finally had a chance to take a look at a review copy of the classic movie musical My Fair Lady on 4K, courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment. The movie, which stars Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, is quite simply a “must own” for film lovers.

The HEVC / H.265 2160p native 4k transfer has HDR enhancement in both Dolby Vision and HDR10. The film is presented in the theatrical release’s original 2.20:1 aspect ratio. This release is one of those releases you use to show off what 4K UHD can do. The HDR makes the colour palette sing, from crisp whites and inky blacks to all the colours of the spectrum in between. Darker scenes look fantastic. The image has as much clarity and detail as Henry Higgins’ enunciation. Whether it’s facial features, textiles, interiors or exteriors, it all dazzles, which is to be expected seeing as this 4K comes from an 8K scan of the original 65mm negative. Have I gushed enough? As Eliza would say, this transfer looks “loverly.”

This is a musical and a story about diction, so sound is equally important. There’s an English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack as well as French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese Dolby Digital Mono tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish. The audio presentation is just as lovely as the video presentation and is sourced from the original lossless recordings. The dynamic score has such clarity that each instrument shines and you may as well be sitting by the orchestra pit. The sound engineers have done a great job of expanding a 1964 soundtrack into the 7.1 surround environment of today. LFE gives a nice floor to the music and some of the effects. Lyrics and dialogue are clear and well-priortized, though there is an occasional light dialogue hiss from the source material. Your ears will thank you for listening to this movie.

The My Fair Lady 4K also comes with a digital code and a full cast of extras on a separate Blu-ray bonus disc. Some are quite lengthy, with “More Loverly Than Ever: The Making of My Fair Lady Then & Now” clocking in at 58 minutes.(1080i, 57:58). There’s a 1963 kick-off dinner, scenes from the LA and UK premieres, a radio interview with Rex Harrison, production tests, multiple trailers, the story of getting the film rights, production design info, and awards ceremony highlights. This is the type and amount of extras that a classic deserves.

Reference quality video and audio coupled with amazing extras makes the My Fair Lady 4K a highly recommended addition to your physical media library.