remy wrote:I'm curious to how this new restoration will be handled. My guess is that it may be an update of the Eisenschitz version. A quick web search didn't return much, any input is welcome!
It's showing at Cannes Classics, and the press release says:
Presented by Gaumont, la Cinémathèque française and The Film Foundation of Martin Scorsese. First digital restoration in 4k and conversion to a 35mm print. A new discovery of the closest version of the director’s work thanks to Gaumont, Luce Vigo and historian Bernard Eisenschitz. Restoration carried out at L’Image Retrouvée laboratory in Bologna and Paris.
I found this elsewhere:
Gaumont, La Cinematheque Francaise, and Martin Scorsese’s non-profit organization, The Film Foundation, have collaborated for the first time to restore Jean Vigo’s masterpiece, « L’Atalante ». For this ambitious project, the partners enlisted scholar Bernard Eisenschitz, who had previously worked on two earlier restorations of « L’Atalante ». The director’s daughter, Luce Vigo, also provided invaluable assistance.
This is the first 4K digital restoration of the film and the goal was to stay true to the director’s original work, referencing vintage prints, earlier photochemical restorations and negatives. The restoration was carried out by L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna and Paris.
Thanks to the collaboration of numerous cinematheques (La Cinematheque Francaise, Cineteca Italiana in Milan, BFI National Film Archive, Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique) that loaned their prints, a frame-by-frame comparison from several different versions was completed to note scene variations. Using the edge codes, the film stocks were dated to choose the earliest and best version for the 4K scan.
The same workflow was utilized for the sound restoration; comparison of all the elements to obtain the best audio quality. It was especially important to respect the integrity of the original score by Maurice Jaubert.
With this restoration, Gaumont, Luce Vigo, who passed away on February 12th, and Bernard Eisenschitz, completed many years of research on the existing film material, writings, documents, and testimonies, always staying faithful to the intentions of Jean Vigo.
The restored version of « L’Atalante », will be screened as part of this year’s Cannes Classics. In addition, Gaumont and The Film Foundation are joining forces to restore three other Vigo titles (Zero de conduite, A propos de Nice, Taris).
Here's what's also been reported:
Gaumont’s main interest in this new version is to present a 4K DCP of the film, but, in partnership with Kodak,
L’Atalante will also be available as a brand new 35mm print. This 35mm print will be shown at Cannes Classics in a couple weeks, and in September at the Cinemathèque Française. To Gaumont’s surprise, the existence of a film print of this new restoration has produced considerable excitement among potential programmers, including both festivals and repertory cinemas. Although it is common practice for Gaumont to make a 35mm print at the end of a restoration process, this print is usually meant for archival purposes, and not for distribution. Considering the iconic status of
L’Atalante, they decided to also offer the possibility to show the brand new version on film.
