Recent Film Restorations

[LPM0317]

https://pakobserver.net/afghanistans-70 ... o-digital/

7000 Afghanistan films hidden from the Taliban are being preserved and restored.

[tenia]

Lyons Lumière Festival 2017 will have In The Mood for Love in a new restored version "thanks to the restoration work from Jet Tone Films, The Criterion Collection & Bologna Cinemathèque".

[Lowry_Sam]

When La Notte screened here a few months ago, it was advertised as "a brand new 4k Restoration." I just recently rewatched my Criterion blu-ray which ended w/ a 2013 copyright (from "Pretty Pictures"), so I'm guessing it wasn't used in the blu-ray (which has noticeable scratches in the last reel). I've also noticed a number of other screenings which seem to be new restorations done after the blu-ray came out (fortunately BFI will be releasing The Battle Of Algiers). Has anyone compiled a guide to all the restorations which have been completed after the (Criterion) blu-rays came out & how much of an improvement they are? It seems that some in fact are newer than that available on disc & some are not (the disc just came out very early). It's not clear to me which restoration screenings are in fact advancements over what has been available on disc.

[andyli]

If you check the product page of Criterion's La Notte it says new digital restoration from a 4K film transfer. So I guess it is indeed the same restoration.

[tenia]

The obvious one would be The Leopard.

Then, at current time :
Amarcord
Beauty and the Beast
High and Low
Diabolique
The Wages of Fear
Yojimbo / Sanjuro
The Third Man
8 1/2 (it's more a different restoration than really an upgrade)
In the Mood for Love (new 4K restoration just announced, I have no idea how it looks)
3 Women (with a debatable new color scheme)
The Battle of Algiers
Harakiri (though I believe in this case, the restoration was already available but Criterion chose to re-use their own HD master instead)
The Man Who Fell To Earth (sadly not really an upgrade)
Au revoir les enfants
Late Spring
The Earrings of Madame de (the backlash on the Criterion release was so bad Gaumont had to postpone their own release to have the restoration re-done - and the BFI then managed to top it again by having the non-degrained master)
The Last Metro (it's more a different restoration than really an upgrade)
In the Realm of the Senses
Howards End
Vivre sa vie
Zazie dans le métro
Black Moon
Léon Morin priest
Belle de jour
Purple Noon (but SC's later 4K restoration is an absolute dud to the point that despite being 2K-only, Criterion's restoration is just so much better)


Some of these are now "old" (within the technological time frame) so it's only logical the movies might have been revisited since, especially since the Criterion restorations often are exclusive, thus leaving the local right holders doing its own restoration (for instance in Japan).

If you check the product page of Criterion's La Notte it says new digital restoration from a 4K film transfer. So I guess it is indeed the same restoration.

That's what Criterion wrote in the booklet :
This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from a 35mm fine-grain; the original 35mm camera negative has been lost. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, noise management, jitter, and flicker.
Colorist: Russell Smith/Criterion.

[dwk]

Purple Noon, but in that case Criterion's 2K master is better than StudioCanal's 4K master.

With the Monterey Pop double dip, I wonder which, if any, of the titles listed by tenia Criterion will bother to re-release. Obviously it will not be the StudioCanal titles or Howards End, but In the Mood for Love seems like a given, since Criterion did the new 4K remaster themselves.

[Drucker]

Curious what you mean by The Third Man isn't really a full upgrade?

[Never Cursed]

From what I understand, the 4k restoration's audio is extremely bad. There's excessive filtering, compounded with some severe sync issues. Lines are cut off or missing, and a good part (2 minutes or so) of the chase sequence at the end is several second out of sync with its respective sound.

[Drucker]

Hm, I saw the restoration in theaters and didn't notice anything of the sort, though I know I can miss details. I'll have to take a look at the blu-ray.

[tenia]

Curious what you mean by The Third Man isn't really a full upgrade?

I mixed this one up : it's the older SC disc that wasn't much of an upgrade. The new one is visually OK. I'll edit my post.

Purple Noon, but in that case Criterion's 2K master is better than StudioCanal's 4K master.

I didn't include it since the SC 4K resto is such a dud but will add it with a disclaimer.

[hearthesilence]

Curious what you mean by The Third Man isn't really a full upgrade?

I mixed this one up : it's the older SC disc that wasn't much of an upgrade. The new one is visually OK. I'll edit my post.

Bear in the mind the new SC disc may look slightly better than Criterion's BD (thanks to a new 4k scan), but the sound is messed up, moreso than the compressed mess that was used for Criterion's BD. If Criterion could combine the soundtrack (without any further processing or compression) from their first DVD release with the picture on SC's new BD release, they'd have the definitive home video release for that title.

[Moshrom]

8 1/2 (it's more a different restoration than really an upgrade)

The 2013 restoration of 8½ is visually a pretty significant improvement over the Criterion, Gaumont, and StudioCanal blu-rays. It's the first version to really nail the intended high-contrast look (especially in the fantasy scenes) without blowing out the whites. The old Criterion master (DVD/blu-ray) doesn't even have any true highlights and looks very flat and grey.

The Mustang blu-ray of it, while 1.78:1 and with horrible sound, looks great.

I made a bunch of comparisons over a year ago:
Criterion -> Gaumont -> StudioCanal -> Mustang (full-size comparisons)
Criterion -> Mustang (720p)

I'm surprised no other distributor has picked up this restoration yet.

[DeprongMori]

The restoration that I'm most excited about is Gaumont's recent work on Vigo's L'Atalante (the fourth restoration). It screened at Cannes recently and may be touring with a new 35mm print.

[tenia]

8 1/2 (it's more a different restoration than really an upgrade)

The 2013 restoration of 8½ is visually a pretty significant improvement over the Criterion, Gaumont, and StudioCanal blu-rays. It's the first version to really nail the intended high-contrast look (especially in the fantasy scenes) without blowing out the whites. The old Criterion master (DVD/blu-ray) doesn't even have any true highlights and looks very flat and grey.

The Gaumont probably is clipped on both blacks and whites levels, as if encoded in the wrong RGB level.
I took your 7g cap, which seems obviously clipped, with no pure blacks at all. Looking at the RGB value of the black area below Anouk Aimée's chin : it's clipped at 16 17 14.
I wouldn't be surprised if the whites are clipped too around 235 instead of 255, hence why you feel it's better at conveying the high-contrast scenes without blowing out the whites.

It also look like it has a very slight green bias. The 10g cap shows this.

However, I tend to find the Gaumont slightly more defined, so to me, it's more of a tradeoff than a clear cut upgrade, hence my remark.

[Moshrom]

hence why you feel it's better at conveying the high-contrast scenes without blowing out the whites.

I don't feel the Gaumont is better at conveying anything. I feel the Italian Mustang blu-ray is the superior disc.

The Mustang blu-ray (denoted in those images with the suffix 'x') is the only disc to use the 2013 restoration of the film done by Italy's National Film Archive. The Gaumont restoration (later level-adjusted and blown out by StudioCanal) was done sometime between 2010 and 2013.

[tenia]

Misread your sentence, my bad.

[Calvin]

Even in Argentina they have restored several films but not the impressive ones Leopoldo Torre Nilsson made in the 50-60s.

http://www.recuperar.org/es/noticia-sal ... or_titulos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The GOTIKA restoration lab list 12 Nilsson films as having been restored between 2011 and 2013.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Amongst the restorations being undertaken by the same lab that did Wages of fear are Chabrol's Oeuil de Malin and Rivette's Jean la Pucelle. Tommasso can now sleep soundly for the first time in years.

[rohmerin]

a Czech film, The sins of Love, restored, UK premiere at Barbican Sunday 19

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/20 ... EwMzg0NwS2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rohmerin]

La ronde, 4K re-release in France by Carlotta.

[FrauBlucher]

The skinny on the new restoration for A Matter of Life and Death

[diamonds]

Throughout the re-mastering process, Crisp and Eisenberg strove to maintain a consistent and authentic approach to color. As reference, they had the previous photo-chemical restoration, which had been prepared in consultation with Jack Cardiff, the film’s cinematographer. They also consulted with Academy Award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who had been married to Powell, and remains actively involved in the preservation and restoration of her late husband’s work.

“Because the new restoration is from the original camera negative, there’s tremendous detail that we’ve never seen before,” notes Schoonmaker. “The very beautiful color, which was always strong, has gotten even richer. The color breathing and other problems have all been fixed. It’s a great gift.”

“We weren’t trying to match exactly the earlier restoration, since this time we had the benefit of working in P3 color space with the original negative, as opposed to the inter-positive we primarily used before,” explains Crisp.

Hopefully this bodes well for the restoration looking better than the trailer represented? Schoonmaker's comments are encouraging. I want so badly for this film to finally see a decent physical release. Any reason why it seems more problematic than all the other color Archers films that look spectacular on Blu?

[Drucker]

I mean until someone's actually seen the restoration we don't know that it's going to look any less strong than Blimp, Red Shoes, or Tales of Hoffman. For all we know the trailer could be sourced from an older master (the theatrical trailer of Ran I saw at Film Forum definitely did NOT have the color timing of the Studio Canal disc).

[david hare]

THe stills look great in the link. THe trailer looks like the shitty old photochemical resto based DVD. Too bad if the new restoration flunks the test. At least Thelma was involved.

[david hare]

Italian subbed trailer for the new 2K of Sans Lendemain, with a peculiarly Italian sourced greenish tinge. Otherwise it looks superb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqV-0KFwnUQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Ophuls 2K will open Geoff Gardner's premier season of Cinema Reborn in Sydney from May 3 to 7. Geoff has kindly asked me to introduce the film. The lineup of 14 features is still being finalized but more details will be available in the New Year. I can assure anyone considering it the event will be well worth a trip interstate or even trans Tasman. These are all titles that are unlikely to make even the NZIFF or Melbourne FFs next year.

https://filmalert101.blogspot.co.nz/201 ... l?spref=fb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;