Recent Film Restorations

[ryannichols7]

Storaro seems to have dropped his insistence on 2.00:1 awhile ago, or else everyone just started ignoring him. The previous 4K remaster (done for the 3D conversion) was also 2.39:1. Hopefully Criterion or someone (I know Cohen owns HanWay now, but who knows how long Criterion will have their licenses) finally reissues it in the U.S., especially now that UHD is a thing.

I was reading into this new relationship tonight a bit. the Wim Wenders films are now credited to Janus, so it appears The Last Emperor is definitely the biggest holding for Hanway/Cohen now. I don't think Cohen is equipped at all to do UHDs (you'd have to assume The Last Emperor is a big enough title for it), so they'd either have to rely on their big sibling Kino, or of course license it out to Criterion for them to do so. Cohen has worked with them only on Faces Places but notably not City of Women. so I'm really curious to see what will happen with this title, if Criterion do release it on UHD it'll easily be their biggest upgrade over a previous BD - between the revisionist aspect ratio and dated master. would also be really interesting to see Cohen leap into UHD if they handle it themselves, lots of possibilities..

[hearthesilence]

Sony's new 4K restoration of Orlando had its NY premiere at Metrograph and it looks great - would be perfect for a UHD.

Potter gave a wonderfully generous Q&A and most (if not all) of her films are also playing at Metrograph this weekend, including some rarely screened gems. (If I could make it, I'd catch The Gold Diggers even though it's a DCP.)

[senseabove]

Sony's new 4K restoration of Orlando had its NY premiere at Metrograph and it looks great - would be perfect for a UHD.

It’s getting one, in the forthcoming Sony Picture Classic UHD box set.

[Stefan Andersson]

For the record --
for info about the sound restoration/5.1 mix, made in 2000, on Bridge on the River Kwai, see p. 29-31 here:
https://amianet.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... 3-2011.pdf

[Stefan Andersson]

Upcoming restorations:
Tales from the Gimli Hospital
Archangel
Careful
The Doom Generation
SLAM

Sources:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/london-film-fest ... nted-hotel
https://www.ifccenter.com/films/tales-f ... tal-redux/
https://festival.sundance.org/blogs/the ... screenings

Argentine films noirs by Fregonese and others; world rights: Film Noir Foundation. These are probably new or newish restorations:
https://www.viennale.at/en/calendar?fil ... 58&search=

[Stefan Andersson]

A 66 min. print of The Unknown (Tod Browning, 1927) has been found and restored by The George Eastman Museum. Here are notes from a recent showing, part of an Italian silent movie festival:
http://www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it/en/theunknown/

More info in this podcast (ep. 91):
https://nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=33640

[yoloswegmaster]

Rodan has received a 4K restoration from Toho that will be premiering in Japanese cinemas later this year.

[Stefan Andersson]

Time to Love (Metin Erksan, 1965), restored by MUBI:
https://mubi.com/films/time-to-love
https://m.facebook.com/ITRFILMNET/photo ... 778920403/
https://turkey.postsen.com/movies/15246 ... e-air.html

[Stefan Andersson]

Some new restorations, showing at the Academy´s first festival of restorations:

Harlem on the Prairie, 1937, Sam Newfield
Call it Murder, 1934, Chester Erskine
Peggy, 1916, Thomas Ince
Come On, Cowboy, 1949, uncredited
Regrouping, 1976, Lizzie Borden
Forbidden Paradise, 1924, Lubitsch, new MoMA resto
The World´s Greatest Sinner, 1962
Death of a Bureaucrat, 1966
It, 1927, new Paramount resto
Aventurera, 1950, new resto
Nostalghia, 1983, 2022 4k resto
The Stronger, 1976 + Tell Me a Riddle, 1980, Lee Grant, 2022 restos

Source:
https://www.academymuseum.org/en/progra ... eservation

[beamish14]

Some new restorations, showing at the Academy´s first festival of restorations:

Harlem on the Prairie, 1937, Sam Newfield
Call it Murder, 1934, Chester Erskine
Peggy, 1916, Thomas Ince
Come On, Cowboy, 1949, uncredited
Regrouping, 1976, Lizzie Borden
Forbidden Paradise, 1924, Lubitsch, new MoMA resto
The World´s Greatest Sinner, 1962
Death of a Bureaucrat, 1966
It, 1927, new Paramount resto
Aventurera, 1950, new resto
Nostalghia, 1983, 2022 4k resto
The Stronger, 1976 + Tell Me a Riddle, 1980, Lee Grant, 2022 restos

Source:
https://www.academymuseum.org/en/progra ... eservation

Joe Dante and Jon Davison’s The Movie Orgy bring restored has been a longtime dream. I’m so happy that document can be preserved forever

[FrauBlucher]

Janus gets a credit for Aventurera

[ianthemovie]

Also of note, at least to fans of underground queer cinema: restorations of the short films of Curt McDowell.

[yoloswegmaster]

Rio Bravo and East of Eden have new 4K restorations that will be playing at the TCM Classic Film Festival next year. Hopefully we see some 4K UHDs as well.

[M-A]

Rio Bravo and East of Eden have new 4K restorations that will be playing at the TCM Classic Film Festival next year. Hopefully we see some 4K UHDs as well.

Rio bravo \:D/ I hope the wild bunch is next

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Joe Dante and Jon Davison’s The Movie Orgy bring restored has been a longtime dream. I’m so happy that document can be preserved forever

This is actually the third digital restoration! Dante did one in 1999 for a retrospective of his work at Locarno (subsequently deposited at the Academy Film Archive, which lost it), and another for a New Beverly screening in 2008 that went on to play Venice and a number of other venues. But both of those were done in SD, which is presumably not the case for the latest iteration. Dante's also continued to make alterations as he did during the original 16mm run, and this new restoration seems to follow the trend of progressive shortening—the 16mm version went from around seven hours to five, and the 2008 restoration was more than half an hour longer than the 222-minute runtime of the new version. (Interestingly an analog video transfer, likely of the five-hour "final" 16mm cut, was made and circulated to campuses in the '70s, but no known copy exists.)

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Didn’t the estate of Timothy Carey say Criterion was releasing The World’s Greatest Sinner a decade ago? Maybe it will happen finally with the new restoration. I remember seeing a bootleg DVD of it when I was seventeen and am excited to see it looking fresh and crisp.

Some true gems in that Academy restoration series. At their Sally Cruikshank/Vince Collins screening a few weeks ago, they mentioned the Curt McDowell restorations were coming and on 16mm no less. Lady Windermere’s Fan is, along with So This is Paris, the best of Lubitsch’s American silents. I’m excited to see the new 4K of O Sangue as it’s a real taste of Costa’s work to come.

[dwk]

Didn’t the estate of Timothy Carey say Criterion was releasing The World’s Greatest Sinner a decade ago? Maybe it will happen finally with the new restoration. I remember seeing a bootleg DVD of it when I was seventeen and am excited to see it looking fresh and crisp.

Not his estate, but during an introduction at a 2015 screening it was said that Criterion was working on restoring the film.

Since Criterion/Janus are not mentioned, I assume they ultimately has nothing to do with the restoration.

[beamish14]

Joe Dante and Jon Davison’s The Movie Orgy bring restored has been a longtime dream. I’m so happy that document can be preserved forever

This is actually the third digital restoration! Dante did one in 1999 for a retrospective of his work at Locarno (subsequently deposited at the Academy Film Archive, which lost it), and another for a New Beverly screening in 2008 that went on to play Venice and a number of other venues. But both of those were done in SD, which is presumably not the case for the latest iteration. Dante's also continued to make alterations as he did during the original 16mm run, and this new restoration seems to follow the trend of progressive shortening—the 16mm version went from around seven hours to five, and the 2008 restoration was more than half an hour longer than the 222-minute runtime of the new version. (Interestingly an analog video transfer, likely of the five-hour "final" 16mm cut, was made and circulated to campuses in the '70s, but no known copy exists.)

I remember that New Beverly screening! Like this, it was gratis, as they cannot make a profit from it. I actually sat right behind Jon Davison and his wife Sally Cruikshank at the Academy screening that The Elegant Dandy Fop attended as well

[Stefan Andersson]

New restorations screening at the 2022 Cinefest in Germany:
Die goldene Stadt, Veit Harlan, incl. alternative ending, Murnau Stiftung resto
Orpheus in der Unterwelt, DDR 1973, Offenbach operetta
Robber Symphony, Friedrich Fehér, 1935, Lobster resto

Sources:
https://cinefest.de/programm/filme/
https://www.murnau-stiftung.de/stiftung
https://www.murnau-stiftung.de/node/6565

Restoration from the 2021 Cinefest:
Christine, Slatan Dudow, DDR 1963
https://cinefest.de/events/christine/

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I remember that New Beverly screening! Like this, it was gratis, as they cannot make a profit from it. I actually sat right behind Jon Davison and his wife Sally Cruikshank at the Academy screening that The Elegant Dandy Fop attended as well

Coincidentally, I saw Davidson/Cruikshank again a week later at a screening of Truck Turner. It seems like you and I have been to a lot of the same screenings!

[beamish14]

I remember that New Beverly screening! Like this, it was gratis, as they cannot make a profit from it. I actually sat right behind Jon Davison and his wife Sally Cruikshank at the Academy screening that The Elegant Dandy Fop attended as well

Coincidentally, I saw Davidson/Cruikshank again a week later at a screening of Truck Turner. It seems like you and I have been to a lot of the same screenings!

Haha! Yes, I was ALSO at that Truck Turner screening with the great Jonathan Kaplan

[Stefan Andersson]

Two Tom Mix titles, restored by MoMA:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5542

[hearthesilence]

I don't know where else to put this, but back in 2020, a batch of nitrate films belonging to Serge Bromberg (Lobster Films) caught fire, and two people who were in the same building died as a result. He is now on trial for "involuntary homicide" and "endangering the life of others." (Link's in French, but you can try translating it in Google Chrome.)

[Stefan Andersson]

The 2021 Film Foundation report is now online. Restorations mentioned include:
Apache Drums
Best Years of Our Lives
Back and Forth, Michael Snow
Topkapi
Bluebeard´s Castle, Powell
The Letter, 1929, Jeanne Eagels
I Married a Witch, from OCN
Hallelujah, 1929
Flowers of St Francis
six Stan Brakhage titles
I Know Where I´m Going!
Frenchman´s Creek
Force of Evil
Redskin, 1929, Schertzinger

Source:
https://www.film-foundation.org/content ... 1/2021.pdf

[Ribs]

The full program isn't yet available, but MoMA has added their listing for this coming year's To Save and Project program, revealing the two opening/closing night world restoration premiere films are Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927) and Ernst Lubitsch’s The Marriage Circle (1924).