Recent Film Restorations

[tenia]

And as I wrote above, The End of Summer got a release in France in 2020.

[andyli]

And as I wrote above, The End of Summer got a release in France in 2020.

But that one was from a rather dated master, no? This time it seems to be a (new) 4K restoration...

[Michael Kerpan]

A 4K restoration of End of Summer would hopefully be really gorgeous (one of Ozu's loveliest looking color films -- with a unique color palette for Ozu).

[Peacock]

It’s also the only colour Ozu without an English-friendly Blu so it’s very high up in my most wanted list! How does it compare as a film to the rest of his incredible late period?

[tenia]

And as I wrote above, The End of Summer got a release in France in 2020.

But that one was from a rather dated master, no? This time it seems to be a (new) 4K restoration...

Hum, I thought it already was a 4k restoration but it was actually only a 2k/HD one !
So it's indeed a new 4k one, not what what rereleased in France in 2020. Sorry for the mistake.

[Michael Kerpan]

Peacock -- In some ways End of Summer is rather like some of Naruse's Toho films from that same era (except for not being widescreen format). A more sprawling cast -- with a lot of quirky characters. Some moments of outrageous humor (especially some involving a fancy new cigarette lighter). A sort of hopeful (but a little bittersweet) female-centric end.

[Stefan Andersson]

Fire at a film archive in Tbilisi, Georgia:
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34983

Ballad of Tara (Bahram Beyzaie, Iran 1979), restored and shown at the 2023 Il Cinema Ritrovato, will be a part of MoMA´s season of Iranian films from 1925-1979 in Nov. 2023:
https://notesoncinematograph.blogspot.c ... /Tara.html
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5632

[Stefan Andersson]

Flash Gordon (1936) restored by UCLA:
https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2023 ... ash-gordon

[Stefan Andersson]

Lumiere Classics 2023 (no restoration specs posted yet):
https://www.festival-lumiere.org/progra ... -prog.html

Denys de la Patelliere films, restored:
https://www.festival-lumiere.org/progra ... liere.html

[beamish14]

The Name of the Rose is certainly an incredible film to look at, and Christian Slater’s performance is one of my favorites from a child actor

[Stefan Andersson]

Cause for Alarm! (1951) restored by ClassicFlix:

"NOTES ON THE RESTORATION: Previously only available in less than stellar presentations, Alarm has been carefully restored by ClassicFlix. The 35mm dupe negative scanned for the film was sharp and generally in very good condition, however, it did suffer from severe warping and damage in some sections which was largely mitigated. The dupe neg was also missing several extended sections for which 35mm and 16mm prints were substituted to make a complete film.
- David
ClassicFlix Founder, Producer"

Source:
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/commun ... 96/page-31 - post 609

[hearthesilence]

Essential reading on the restoration of Stop Making Sense.

It really highlights how much of it is luck. Just in case there's any trouble accessing it, here's the most relevant part:

James Mockoski has been the restoration supervisor at Zoetrope Studios for more than 20 years, having overseen a number of reworkings and rereleases of Francis Ford Coppola’s work. (The incredible “final cut” of Apocalypse Now from a few years ago? That was his doing.) This past March, the archivist got a phone call from his friend Lauren Elmer, who happened to be running postproduction over at A24. The company just acquired a library title, she told him. Would he be interested in helping out with a 4K upgrade? The minute he found out it was Stop Making Sense, he jumped at the chance.

“It aligned so well with what I was doing with Francis’ work, in a way,” Mockoski says. “I wanted to know what they were working with, and she told me that the Talking Heads’ manager [Tomas Cookman] had got everything in from the previous distributor. They sent me a list, and there were almost no film elements included. There might have been, like, one screening print, and that was it. I asked, ‘So, where’s the negative?’ And the answer was, ‘Well, it should all be there.’ Which was … not quite the case. Not at all.”

“Keep in mind,” he adds, “this was back in March. A24 had already set a date for September; they had a trailer with David in the big suit, they had a deadline that needed to be met. And it was just like, we didn’t have enough to get this done.”

The first thing Mockoski did was call the Demme family, which had turned everything over from the estate to Wesleyan University. He began sorting through the archive, and found the materials that Palm had been using to make DVDs and Blu-Rays of the film for the past 20 years. The problem was, it was basically a second- or third-generation copy of the film. “It was like, we have a few copies now,” he says, “but where was the print that made those prints? The band wasn’t going to be in charge of the film elements; that was not their thing. I kept asking [producer] Gary Goetzman, ‘Are you sure it’s not sitting somewhere in your garage?’”

After going down a few dead ends, Mockoski finally ordered a “scan” of the best print they had and assumed he’d do the best he could with that. Time was running out. Then he decided to make one last-ditch effort to locate the original negative. On a whim, he called up Scott Grossman, who oversaw the library of titles owned by MGM. “I just said, ‘Look, I know you have no connection to Stop Making Sense; there’s no controlling interest, it’s not an MGM movie, and I can’t think of a single reason it should be there. But please, I’m begging you, can you just look and see?’ He told me, ‘You have no idea how many hundreds of ridiculous requests I get every day, there’s no way I can go chasing after every one of these.’ But I think I caught him on a good day, and he told me he’d check around and if he found anything, he’d reach out. I was like, that didn’t work.”

“Then 10 minutes later, my phone rings,” he continues, “and Scott has sent me a picture, with the caption: ‘Is this what you’re looking for?’ And there was the original negative for Stop Making Sense. It had been sitting on a shelf in Burbank and no one had checked it for almost 30 years. It wasn’t even used for the version they put out in 1999; that copy they struck from prints that were several generations removed.” When Mockoski finally laid eyes on it, the negative was practically pristine. “It looked brand new. There was zero wear and tear. Being lost was the best thing to possibly happen to that negative.”

A similar thing had happened to the original audio for the movie as well. Todd-AO, the postproduction company that specialized in sound work for theatrical distribution, had gone out of business, and the property owners in L.A. were going to tear the building down. But there was a vault filled with various projects that had not been picked up, or remained in limbo thanks to unpaid bills, and the word went out that any unclaimed item would be destroyed as well. Thankfully, according to Mockoski, someone — “I think it was Sony” — stepped up, rented a semitruck, and drove the inventory to a warehouse in Kansas in order to store it. When he began making phone calls, he inquired about any materials they might have on hand. And once again, he was lucky enough to strike gold: The original audio tracks had been sitting in a vault for years, untouched.

This discovery ended up being a huge help to Harrison and Thorgren, who had already begun a Dolby Atmos remix on the songs featured in the movie. They had been using a combination of materials they’d gathered from Rhino Records (which had planned to rerelease the soundtrack this August) and Palm. “It helped that he and I had mixed the original Stop Making Sense back in 1984 — not the movie, but the album,” Harrison notes. “We already had the reference points.”

But they, too, had found there were gaps that were slowing them down and slightly hindering their work. “I’d get an email from E.T., and he’d say, ‘We can’t find any of the audience tracks. How do we bridge the songs to stitch all of this together?’ And thankfully, once we found the original audio tracks, they had all of that. The only thing missing from the original audio were the overdubs that Demme did when he was editing and sound-mixing the film, to fix some mistakes that were made at the concerts — but then Rhino happened to have the mix that did have the overdubs on hand. It was just a matter of combining all of these elements like jigsaw pieces and getting the puzzle put together.”

...

The fact that the band had the recordings transferred to digital tape — an unusual and quite prescient thing to do in 1984, especially for a live show — ended up being a huge help when it came to the restoration as well. It was a decision that the band made early on, Harrison says, “because we knew we were recording for film, and there are always reasons to rerecord when it comes to film. And we also knew that the more we did that, the more we’d wear down the tapes and lose fidelity, so the idea to do it digitally and not risk losing generations was the way to avoid that.” The only issue was that, when it came to using the DASH [Digital Audio Stationary Head] tapes for the restoration, it was near-impossible to find the vintage technology to play them, or find anyone who knew how to work the machines. “Luckily, our sound guy knows everything inside and out,” Mockoski says, laughing.

[Roger Ryan]

Essential reading on the restoration of Stop Making Sense.

It really highlights how much of it is luck...

That is an extraordinary lucky break to find the original negative and audio files. Having seen the new restoration last weekend in IMAX, I can safely say it looks and sounds way better than when I saw it first run in 1984.

[AxeYou]

I saw it on IMAX as well but thought the IMAX DCP looked grain-managed on a pretty large screen. I didn’t see much grain and close-ups of David Byrne appeared a bit waxy to my eyes. Maybe that was how it was shot? Overall though, the image still looked very good. It just lacked that final bit of high-frequency detail.

I think IMAX still applies their proprietary DMR process by default to film-to-digital transfers, which involves degraining, denoising, and sharpening.

[jazzo]

What an incredible tale.

A small, selfish part of me wishes that the negative to Swing Shift could have been found, untouched over the forty years, and a Demme cut struck from that.

[beamish14]

What an incredible tale.

A small, selfish part of me wishes that the negative to Swing Shift could have been found, untouched over the forty years, and a Demme cut struck from that.

At this point, we can probably augment the VHS copy of the workprint with AI.

I do hold out hope that a preview print was mislabeled and still left in WB’s archives. Similar things have happened with other films, so you never know. Still, it’s tragic that they didn’t send a print to MOMA or another institution

[hearthesilence]

I upgraded my own copy using the picture from the HD download from iTunes - surprisingly not difficult, just takes a few hours of repetitive work to do. At least most of it looks pristine now.

[Stefan Andersson]

Feuillade´s Vendémiaire, from original nitrate, Lobster´s resto of Merry-Go-Round (1923), Le Vertige (L´Herbier) at Pordenone:
http://www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it/en/ ... nema-muto/
http://www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it/en/ ... obre-2023/

Restoring The Black Pirate:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/london-film-fest ... estoration

[FrauBlucher]

On The Black Pirate restoration I wonder who will end up with the home release here in the states and the UK?

[hearthesilence]

Andrew Davis has been working on a 30th-anniversary restoration of The Fugitive that will hit theaters this fall in a limited release.

This must be based on the 30th anniversary restoration. Available on Nov. 21.

[furbicide]

Oops, major caveat to the above – the disc has a German dub and no original soundtrack option!

From the company's Facebook page, in response to the following customer query (auto-translated into English):

https://www.facebook.com/ostalgica/post ... HUm47KCvPl

Without the original Russian version and without an explanation???

unfortunately there are legal issues. That’s why we can’t publish the Russian soundtrack.

Unfortunately that's pretty decisive for me. How disappointing!

So I've now heard from someone who's bought the Dead Man's Letters Blu-ray that it does, in fact, have a Russian audio option. Have ordered the disc and will report back!

[Yakushima]

Oops, major caveat to the above – the disc has a German dub and no original soundtrack option!

From the company's Facebook page, in response to the following customer query (auto-translated into English):

https://www.facebook.com/ostalgica/post ... HUm47KCvPl

Without the original Russian version and without an explanation???

unfortunately there are legal issues. That’s why we can’t publish the Russian soundtrack.

Unfortunately that's pretty decisive for me. How disappointing!

So I've now heard from someone who's bought the Dead Man's Letters Blu-ray that it does, in fact, have a Russian audio option. Have ordered the disc and will report back!

Thank you, furbicide! Looking forward to your report!

[Stefan Andersson]

Holt videk (Istvan Gaal), In der Fremde (Saless), Die Nacht Gehört Uns (Froelich, 1929), Pojat (Niskanen, 1962) restored:
https://www.deutsche-kinemathek.de/site ... gramme.pdf

[tenia]

Sorry if some have already been posted here, but here are the details for some recent restorations that will play next week at Lyon Film Festival (I won't mention the Wim Wenders ones as I think all those already have public details following the Curzon boxset, and the Ozus have already been discussed too) :

Retour de manivelle : 4K resto by VDM for TF1 Studio (support by Coin de mire)
Kansas City : 4K resto by Hiventy for MK2

Ana Mariscal :
Segundo Lopez : 4K resto by VivaVision for Filmoteca Espanola
Con la vida hicieron fuego : 2K resto by VivaVision for Filmoteca Espanola
La quiniela : 2K resto by VivaVision for Filmoteca Espanola
El camino : 4K resto by VivaVision for Filmoteca Espanola

Le Nabab (Albert Capellani) : 4K resto by Ritrovata for Pathé
Tire au flanc (Jean Renoir) : 4K resto by Hiventy for les Films du Panthéon & Les Films du Jeudi
Adieu, Mascotte (Wilhelm Thiele) : 2K resto by 2K Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung

Il grido : ?? resto by Ritrovata for The Film Foundation & Compass Film
Muerte de un ciclista : 4K resto by Cherry Towers for Video Mercury Films
Bellissima : 4K resto by CSC-Cineteca Nazionale di Roma
White Nights (not sure if it was detailed before) : 4K resto for Sony
Le nom de la Rose : 4K resto (don't know yet by who)
Lune froide : 4K resto for Gaumont
Tange Sazen yowa : Hyakuman ryo no tsubo : 4K resto for Japan Foundation & The Nikkatsu Corporation (this already got a BD release in Japan)
Charles mort ou vif and Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000 got new restoration for Filmo & Cinémathèque Suisse but it's not detailed
Maine-Océan : 4K resto for 4K A17 & Cinémathèque française (I think I read Hiventy did it but am unsure). Du Côté d’Orouët is also planned to be restored.
Marée noire et colère rouge (René Vautier) : 2K resto by Eclair for Ciaofim (there's ONE screencap on the festival's webpage and it absolutely looks Eclair'd to death)

A House Divided : 4K resto for Universal Pictures & Film Foundation
Adieu chérie : 4K resto by Hiventy for TF1 Studio
Senza pietà : 4K resto by Ritrovata for Cristaldi Film
Boulevard (Duvivier) : 4K resto by Ritrovata for Pathé
Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (Tsui Hark) : 2K resto by Lumiris for Spectrum (it might be only the censored cut, as the uncensored one seemingly still only exists in part through VHS inserts)
Vivement dimanche ! : 2K resto by Hiventy for MK2
Let’s Get Lost : 4K resto by Cineric

Bushman (David Schickele) : 4K by (I think) UCLA
Cinq tulipes rouges (Jean Stelli) : 4K by Ritrovata for Pathé
Le Jardin qui bascule (Guy Gilles) : 4K by CDM for TF1
Hombre de la esquina rosada : 4K by Cubic
Majd holnap : 4K by National Film Institute Hungary-Film Archive
Naine kütab sauna : ??
Le Village près du ciel (Leopold Lindtberg) : 4K by Cinegrell for Cinémathèque Suisse
Ma-eum-ui go-hyang :4K by The Korean Film Archive & Image Power Station
As ilhas encantadas : 4K by Cineric for Cinemateca Portuguesa
Tabataba : ?? by Hiventy for La cinémathèque française, la cinémathèque Afrique de l’institut français & Raymond Rajaonarivelo
Përralle nga e kaluara : 2K by Hungarian Filmlab for Albanian Film Archive

[jmj713]

Kin-Dza-Dza is coming, huge:

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=33403