The Epic of Everest

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MichaelB
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The Epic of Everest

#1 Post by MichaelB » Wed Aug 28, 2013 7:23 am

From the latest BFI press release:
The Epic of Everest, the official film record of the third attempt to climb Mount Everest is one of the most remarkable films in the BFI National Archive. The BFI’s new restoration will be released in cinemas nationwide on 18 October to coincide with its world premiere Archive Gala screening at the 57th BFI London Film Festival. Its release coincides with the 60th anniversary of the final conquest of Everest in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

The 1924 Everest expedition culminated in the deaths of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, two of the finest climbers of their generation, sparking an on-going debate as to whether or not they ever actually reached the summit.

Filming in brutally harsh conditions with a specially adapted camera, Captain John Noel captured images of breathtaking beauty and considerable historic significance. The film is also among the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet and features sequences at Phari Dzong (Pagri), Shekar Dzong (Xegar) and Rongbuk monastery. But what resonates so deeply is Noel’s ability to frame the vulnerability, isolation and courage of people persevering in one of the world’s harshest landscapes.

The restoration by the BFI National Archive – undertaken in collaboration with Sandra Noel, the director’s daughter – has transformed the quality of the surviving elements of the film and reintroduced the original coloured tints and tones. Revealed by the restoration, few images in cinema are as epic – or moving – as the final shots of a blood red sunset over the Himalayas.

Captain Noel was a heroic, pioneering explorer who had reconnoitred the mountain in disguise while on leave from his Indian regiment, as early as 1913. In 1919, in the course of a paper to the Royal Geographical Society, Noel made the first public suggestion that Mount Everest should be climbed, a challenge taken up in 1920 when members of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club of Great Britain formed the Mount Everest Committee.

The first reconnaissance trip was undertaken in 1921 and no moving images are known to exist. The second Everest expedition took place in 1922 and Captain John Noel took the first ever film of the mountain, which is also the first ever film shot in Tibet. For the third Everest expedition in 1924 Noel bought the rights to all still photography and moving image material and was himself the official cameraman.

The film will have a newly commissioned score composed, orchestrated and conducted by Simon Fisher Turner (The Great White Silence) which features a haunting combination of electronic music, found sounds, western and Nepalese instruments and vocals.

The restoration is supported by The Eric Anker-Petersen Charity.
...and it's out as a dual-format release in January 2014. And here's an HD trailer.

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antnield
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#2 Post by antnield » Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:26 am

Amazon pre-order. Release date: 20th January 2014

Image

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RobertB
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#3 Post by RobertB » Wed Aug 28, 2013 4:40 pm

Wow! \:D/ I absolutely loved The Great White Silence, and this looks very much like more in the same style. I'm a bit curious how silent film purists feel about these releases. I really like Simon Fisher Turner's music, but it does risk overshadowing the actual films. And the colours are very strong. I find the experience of Great White very good, very otherworldly. But it feels like a modern film, made from old footage. Is anybody complaining about this? I guess it’s easy enough to turn down the colours and the sound...

When do we get an upgrade of Man With a Movie Camera? I find Nyman's score is a bit irritating on that one. How about two soundtracks on the old silent releases? The other one could be more conservative/traditional.

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Re: The Epic of Everest

#4 Post by MichaelB » Wed Aug 28, 2013 4:50 pm

RobertB wrote:Wow! \:D/ I absolutely loved The Great White Silence, and this looks very much like more in the same style. I'm a bit curious how silent film purists feel about these releases. I really like Simon Fisher Turner's music, but it does risk overshadowing the actual films. And the colours are very strong. I find the experience of Great White very good, very otherworldly. But it feels like a modern film, made from old footage. Is anybody complaining about this? I guess it’s easy enough to turn down the colours and the sound...
The colours reflect the original tinting and toning - the restoration team worked very hard to ensure that they replicated exactly what original 1924 audiences would have seen. So they're absolutely purist in that respect - your faked black-and-white version is actually less so!

The music, admittedly, doesn't sound anything like a 1924 accompaniment - but that was deliberate. As the Simon Fisher Turner piece on The Great White Silence disc (also viewable here) makes clear, these films simply wouldn't suit a conventional piano or orchestral score, and the composer was explicitly asked not to produce one. Going from the trailer, it seems that this is even more true of The Epic of Everest, which seems to make heavy use of local musical idioms.
How about two soundtracks on the old silent releases? The other one could be more conservative/traditional.
Soundtracks are expensive to produce and record, so that's not a realistic option if existing ones can't be pulled off the shelf (which they couldn't in both these cases).

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Re: The Epic of Everest

#5 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:35 am

RobertB wrote:When do we get an upgrade of Man With a Movie Camera? I find Nyman's score is a bit irritating on that one. How about two soundtracks on the old silent releases? The other one could be more conservative/traditional.
I would upgrade to a Blu of Man With A Movie Camera like a shot, but in the absence of that it seems that the earlier BFI release is still available on Amazon - the picture quality is apparently not as good as the later Nyman-scored reissue (which I haven't got), and it features yellow subtitles, but the earlier disc features the essential commentary by Yuri Tsivian and two different soundtracks which sounds as if they would address the issue you have. One is an Alloy Orchestra score that is following the filmmaker's original intentions and the second is a more modern one by ITN (In The Nursery).

While the issues with this early disc might be difficult to get over until it gets a re-release with these extras it still remains the essential version of the film for its unique scores and commentary.

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Tommaso
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#6 Post by Tommaso » Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:02 am

The wonderful ITN score is also available on the German arte edition/absolut medien-release. No subs, of course, but you don't need them for "Man with a Camera" anyway. Sure, you'd still be missing out on the Tsivian commentary and the Alloy Orchestra score, but the old BFI disc is so utterly bad that really no-one should buy it anymore.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#7 Post by MichaelB » Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:10 am

Or if you really want to go for broke, the Ukrainian Re-Vision DVD box produced by the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre in Kiev contains a version of The Man with a Movie Camera with three soundtrack options - In the Nursery, the Vitaly Tkachuk Quartet and DJ Derbastler. As the names alone imply, the performing styles are very different!

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Re: The Epic of Everest

#8 Post by swo17 » Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:00 am

Other scores are nice, but I don't think a release of TMWAMC can be considered definitive without at least including the Alloy Orchestra score.

Also, the only ways to acquire anything from the Dovzhenko Centre anymore seem to be either to work for an institution or to show up to the Centre in person!

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L.A.
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#9 Post by L.A. » Thu Aug 29, 2013 1:28 pm

swo17 wrote:Also, the only ways to acquire anything from the Dovzhenko Centre anymore seem to be either to work for an institution or to show up to the Centre in person!
For a private individual, I think the latter is most likely the best option.

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antnield
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#10 Post by antnield » Mon Dec 09, 2013 7:29 pm

Amazon has the special features...
- Introducing The Epic of Everest (2013, 9 mins): Sandra Noel (daughter of Captain Noel) and Bryony Dixon (BFI National Archive) discuss the background and filming process
- Scoring The Epic of Everest (2013, 8 mins): Composer Simon Fisher Turner discusses the production of the new score
- Restoring The Epic of Everest (2013, 6 mins): Bryony Dixon, Ben Thompson (BFI National Archive) and Lisa Copson (Deluxe Digital) discuss the restoration process
- Alternative score the original 1924 score recreated by Julie Brown. Performed by Cambridge University Orchestra conducted by Andrew Gourlay
- Additional music pieces that accompanied the film on it's first screening at the Scala in 1924
- Original 1924 film programme (downloadable PDF, DVD only)
- Fully illustrated booklet featuring essay from Wade Davis
The listing also confirms that this will be region-free.

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RobertB
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#11 Post by RobertB » Tue Dec 10, 2013 4:49 pm

MichaelB wrote:
RobertB wrote:How about two soundtracks on the old silent releases? The other one could be more conservative/traditional.
Soundtracks are expensive to produce and record, so that's not a realistic option if existing ones can't be pulled off the shelf (which they couldn't in both these cases).
And still they managed this time! :P This just gets better and better.

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MichaelB
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#12 Post by MichaelB » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:23 am

Full specs announced:
The Epic of Everest
A film by Captain John Noel
The official record of Mallory and Irvine’s 1924 expedition, with a new score by Simon Fisher Turner


When George Mallory and Sandy Irvine attempted to reach the summit of Everest in 1924 they came closer than any previous attempt. Captain John Noel filmed in the harshest of conditions to capture the drama of this fateful expedition. Now restored by the BFI National Archive, The Epic of Everest opened in cinemas to great critical acclaim and is released by the BFI in a Dual Format Edition (DVD/Blu-ray) on 27 January 2014.

Inspired by Herbert Ponting (The Great White Silence), Captain Noel recorded images of breathtaking beauty and considerable historic significance using specially adapted equipment. The film is also amongst the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet. But it is the brooding presence of the mountain itself that is the heart of Noel’s film, and his photography captures the magical play of light and shadow on an alien landscape which enhances the vulnerability, isolation and courage of the mountaineers.

The restoration – undertaken in collaboration with Sandra Noel, the director’s daughter – has transformed the quality of the surviving elements of the film and reintroduced the original coloured tints and tones.

The BFI commissioned a new score by Simon Fisher Turner which was released on LP/CD by Mute in October and has been voted No.1 soundtrack of the year by Mojo magazine.

Also included on the release are three documentary featurettes about the film, the restoration and the score, and an optional alternative musical accompaniment; the original 1924 score as recreated by Julie Brown, a specialist on film music and early twentieth-century concert music.

Special features
• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
Introducing The Epic of Everest (2013): Sandra Noel and Bryony Dixon (BFI National Archive) discuss the background and filming process;
• Scoring The Epic of Everest (2013): Composer Simon Fisher Turner discusses the production of the new score;
• Restoring The Epic of Everest (2013): Bryony Dixon, Ben Thompson (BFI National Archive) and Lisa Copson (Deluxe Digital) discuss the restoration process;
• Alternative score – the original 1924 score recreated by Julie Brown. Performed by Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra conducted by Andrew Gourlay;
• Additional musical pieces that accompanied the film on its first screening at the Scala, London in 1924;
• Original 1924 film programme (downloadable PDF, DVD only);
• 30 page illustrated booklet with essays/contributions from explorer and writer Wade Davis, Simon Fisher Turner, Sandra Noel, Julie Brown and the BFI National Archive’s Kieron Webb, plus notes on the musical extras and full credits.

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1154 / Cert U
UK / 1924 / black and white, and tinted / silent with music / 87 mins / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / DTS-HD Master Sound 5.1 (1536kbps) and PCM 2.0 stereo audio (48k/24-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio (448kbps) and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio (320 kbps)

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HerrSchreck
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#13 Post by HerrSchreck » Thu Dec 19, 2013 1:32 pm

Everest exerts such a pull, it's truly uncanny-- those early failed attempts' stories are as strangely haunting as the greatest ghost story. I'll certainly be wanting to see this.

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L.A.
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#14 Post by L.A. » Sun Feb 02, 2014 5:19 pm


Adamg11
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#15 Post by Adamg11 » Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:00 am


Stuart Galbraith IV
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#16 Post by Stuart Galbraith IV » Tue Feb 04, 2014 8:49 pm

Dusty Somers's review can be found here:

http://worldcinemaparadise.com/2014/02/ ... rest-1924/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: The Epic of Everest

#17 Post by The Doogster » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:29 am

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a problem with the sound on the Blu-Ray version of this title? Between 46:00 and 51:00 there is a ticking sound which occurs in the right channel every 20 to 30 seconds. It's very noticeable because it's much louder than the soundtrack. No, it's not my amplifier. It only occurs in the five minutes between the two times stated.

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Re: The Epic of Everest

#18 Post by chatterjees » Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:09 pm

The Doogster wrote:Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a problem with the sound on the Blu-Ray version of this title? Between 46:00 and 51:00 there is a ticking sound which occurs in the right channel every 20 to 30 seconds. It's very noticeable because it's much louder than the soundtrack. No, it's not my amplifier. It only occurs in the five minutes between the two times stated.
I watched the BD last week. I don't recall such an issue. I will check it again. Thanks.

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Re: The Epic of Everest

#19 Post by shaky » Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:02 am

Any news on the clicking sound situation?

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antnield
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#20 Post by antnield » Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:32 pm


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filmyfan
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Re: The Epic of Everest

#21 Post by filmyfan » Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:15 am

It's a shame that "Climbing Mt. Everest" a documentary Noel shot on the 1922 expedition is not included on this set-unless I am missing something ?

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