Recent Film Restorations

[Stefan Andersson]

Programme for the 2023 A Season of Classic Films, with several new 4K restorations:
https://ace-film.eu/wp-content/uploads/ ... e-2023.pdf
Features a new restoration of Malpertuis (Dutch version), The Outcasts (Ireland, 1982), Der Reigen (Oswald, 1920), La aldea maldita (Spain, 1930), Lucerna (Lamac, 1925), several Yugoslavian films.

[cdnchris]

Figure this fits here, but Fincher is working on a 4K restoration of Seven from the negative. If I'm reading his comments correctly, he's saying that the source and HDR expose flaws not there before, and he has to make digital alterations, though he is trying to keep them minimal.

[Stefan Andersson]

The Burmese Harp (1956) 4K resto of what seems to be a new re-edit of the film:
https://jff.jpf.go.jp/read/news/theburmeseharp/
Article also mentions older restos of Temple of the Wild Geese (1962) by Yuzo Kawashima, and Shape of the Night (1964) by Noboru Nakamura.

[beamish14]

The Burmese Harp (1956) 4K resto of what seems to be a new re-edit of the film:
https://jff.jpf.go.jp/read/news/theburmeseharp/
Article also mentions older restos of Temple of the Wild Geese (1962) by Yuzo Kawashima, and Shape of the Night (1964) by Noboru Nakamura.

I believe the original 2-part version of the film is still lost. Unless I’m reading this incorrectly, it seems like this is a restoration of the version that has been commercially available for years

[Stefan Andersson]

The Burmese Harp (1956) 4K resto of what seems to be a new re-edit of the film:
https://jff.jpf.go.jp/read/news/theburmeseharp/
Article also mentions older restos of Temple of the Wild Geese (1962) by Yuzo Kawashima, and Shape of the Night (1964) by Noboru Nakamura.

I believe the original 2-part version of the film is still lost. Unless I’m reading this incorrectly, it seems like this is a restoration of the version that has been commercially available for years

Checked the HKIFF 2023 listing for Burmese Harp. Runs 116 minutes, same as the export version released by Criterion.

[Yakushima]

A restoration of Per Aspera Ad Astra was famously botched by the director's son. That "restored" version should be avoided like a plague. There were rumors of the original version been also restored and shown in UK in 2019.

Saw this Blu-ray from Ostalgica that came out in May 2022. Even though not mentioned on the back cover and in the menu, did some research and according to this site it has Russian language soundtrack and English subtitles and seems to be the original version.

For L.A. and others interested in Ostalgica's Blu-ray of Per Aspera Ad Astra. I have received the Blu-ray yesterday and watched the film.

The good:

This is indeed the original version, complete with a brief nude scene, which has been partially deleted in Russian domestic version. It is the best version currently on any home video format (not that there are too many offerings to choose from). The resolution is higher than I've ever seen for this film on video - lots of new details are now visible. The sound is clear and the dialogue is easily discernable. It contains both the original Russian soundtrack and German language dub. It has German and English subtitles. The extras include the alternative opening credits from German version, stills and international poster images.

The not-so-good:

The image is cropped to a degree, although not as bad as in some DVD versions. The color is somewhat off - it seems to have too much red. Originally this film was released in two parts - but this version is spliced into a single film, missing credits in the second part, and the parts' titles.

The bad:

Overall the image is too dark, especially in the second part of the film. The contrast is excessive and the details in the dark areas of the image are lost entirely in many scenes. The image is rife with digital artifacts - this gets worse as the the film progresses. There are many instances of macroblocking, color banding, ghosting, shimmering - you name it. In a couple of scenes there was the weird effect I have last seen in the old Ruscico DVD of Stalker - when parts of the image are slightly shaking against the background (I forgot the proper word for it). English subtitles are of poor quality, with many instances of incorrect or partially correct translation. Here is one example. When cosmonauts are entering the dead spaceship in the beginning of the film, one of them mutters ""Кунтскамера какая-то!" The word Kunstkamera or Kunstkammer (German for "Culture Room" (literally) or "Art Chamber", typically used for a "cabinet of curiosities"). So, essentially, the cosmonaut is saying "What a freak show". The English subtitles say "It's a strange camera".

Overall: I am super-excited that this neglected masterpiece has finally made a leap into high definition media, and hope that this much welcomed but underwhelming edition will be bested by one of our favorite boutique labels before too long. The film has not lost any of its power and is still a joy to watch. One of a kind work for sure, and highly recommended.

[Stefan Andersson]

New restorations:
A Stolen Meeting, Leida Laius, Estonia 1982:
https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film ... en-meeting

Courage for Every Day, Evald Schorm, Czechoslovakia, 1964:
https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film ... -every-day

The Small Back Room, Peeping Tom, Bluebeard´s Castle:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/unveiled-ci ... ressburger

[Stefan Andersson]

Some restorations at Locarno 2023:
Si le soleil ne revenait pas, Goretta
https://www.locarnofestival.ch/festival ... &l=en&eid=
Bab El Shams (La porte du soleil):
https://www.locarnofestival.ch/festival ... &l=en&eid=
El rio y la muerte, Bunuel, in 2K:
https://www.locarnofestival.ch/program/ ... &l=en&eid=

Retrospective lineup, with some Gavaldon films in 4K or 2K:
https://www.locarnofestival.ch/festival ... ttiva.html

[Stefan Andersson]

New 4K Kadokawa restorations:
https://cinemakadokawa.jp/daiei-80/title.html
Cannot list titles since my browser translate function unfortunately can´t seem to translate this page.

[AxeYou]

They posted pictures instead of text for some reason.

Here are the titles tagged with both "4K版" and "初披露", which I believe means this will be the first time a 4K resto is screened:
- Red Angel (1966)
- Destiny's Son (1962)
- Ken (1964)
- Sword Devil / Ken Ki (1965)
- Satan's Sword (1960)
- Satan’s Sword: The Dragon God (1960)
- Satan's Sword III: The Final Chapter (1961)
- Night River (1956)

Other listed titles have already been screened or released in 4K resto previously, like Floating Weeds and Rashomon.

[Stefan Andersson]

They posted pictures instead of text for some reason.

Here are the titles tagged with both "4K版" and "初披露", which I believe means this will be the first time a 4K resto is screened:
- Red Angel (1966)
- Destiny's Son (1962)
- Ken (1964)
- Sword Devil / Ken Ki (1965)
- Satan's Sword (1960)
- Satan’s Sword: The Dragon God (1960)
- Satan's Sword III: The Final Chapter (1961)
- Night River (1956)

Other listed titles have already been screened or released in 4K resto previously, like Floating Weeds and Rashomon.

Thank you very much AxeYou!

[yoloswegmaster]

It's been announced by the Far East Festival that Johnnie To's The Mission, Zhang Yimou's To Live! and Raise the Red Lantern and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness have been restored by producer Chiu Fu-sheng and will be having world premieres next year.

[hearthesilence]

It's been announced by the Far East Festival that Johnnie To's The Mission, Zhang Yimou's To Live! and Raise the Red Lantern and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness have been restored by producer Chiu Fu-sheng and will be having world premieres next year.

Wow. I only hope these are done well and become widely available.

[Computer Raheem]

It's been announced by the Far East Festival that Johnnie To's The Mission, Zhang Yimou's To Live! and Raise the Red Lantern and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness have been restored by producer Chiu Fu-sheng and will be having world premieres next year.

Took him long enough; wonder how much real estate money went into the restorations

Joking aside, this has to be one of the biggest rescues for Hong Kong (and Hong Kong-adjacent) cinema. Hopefully, someone can convince Golden Princess (who are also in the real estate business, ironically enough) to let the films they held onto be freed as well

[Stefan Andersson]

Fox restorations in 4K: Quick Millions, Zoo in Budapest, Hello, Sister!, plus Caravan, restored from the only known nitrate print, held in MoMA’s collection:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5600

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It's been announced by the Far East Festival that Johnnie To's The Mission, Zhang Yimou's To Live! and Raise the Red Lantern and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness have been restored by producer Chiu Fu-sheng and will be having world premieres next year.

I'm a bit puzzled to see A City of Sadness in there, since a 4K remaster opened in Taiwan a few months ago and has had some festival and one-off screenings elsewhere in Asia. It's not a restoration, but then the official line is that the elements were not in such a condition to warrant one. So I'm curious if this really is a new restoration or if the FEFF is getting their wires crossed/indulging in some marketing hyperbole.

[Big Ben]

It's been announced by the Far East Festival that Johnnie To's The Mission, Zhang Yimou's To Live! and Raise the Red Lantern and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Puppetmaster and A City of Sadness have been restored by producer Chiu Fu-sheng and will be having world premieres next year.

I'm a bit puzzled to see A City of Sadness in there, since a 4K remaster opened in Taiwan a few months ago and has had some festival and one-off screenings elsewhere in Asia. It's not a restoration, but then the official line is that the elements were not in such a condition to warrant one. So I'm curious if this really is a new restoration or if the FEFF is getting their wires crossed/indulging in some marketing hyperbole.

Do you know if the status surrounding these films getting a home release has changed? You mentioned before some years ago that some of Hou's films can't be released or seen if they involved money (I hope I'm remembering some semblance of this correctly) and that prevents them from getting more widespread screenings and a commercial DVD/Blu-Ray release?

[Ribs]

Venice Classics 2023 line-up

Criterion with a new restoration of Days of Heaven...

[andyli]

ONE FROM THE HEART: REPRISE
by FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA (USA, 1982, 95’, Colour)
restored by: American Zoetrope

Coppola surely knows how to come up with fancy new names for his revisionism.

[andyli]

Fingers crossed Days of Heaven and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors are both from recent 4K scans. It also seems Andrei Rublev will be a never-before-seen reconstruction. Looks like Shochiku still hasn't run out of new Ozu restos after Cannes and Ritrovato.

[A Tempted Christ]

It also seems Andrei Rublev will be a never-before-seen reconstruction.

Yeah, it's definitely different from Mosfilm's recent restoration of The Passion According to Andrei. It's shorter than Passion as it runs only 10 minutes longer than the 3-hour cut but I'm expecting a whole new (but presumably according to Tarkovsky's notes) edit of the film. It's the project his son has overseen, right?

Also, delighted to see Visconti's Bellissima and Naderi's Saaz Dahani as part of the line-up. Between Naderi's film and the two Beyzaeis we got this year, I'm happy to see Iranian cinema and especially the pre-revolution films being explored beyond Kiarostami's filmography.

[beamish14]

ONE FROM THE HEART: REPRISE
by FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA (USA, 1982, 95’, Colour)
restored by: American Zoetrope

Coppola surely knows how to come up with fancy new names for his revisionism.

I believe this is the 4th cut of it. I think they include the original Radio City Music Hall engagement, the 1982 wide release, the 2002 reissue (which is shorter than the wide release by about ten minutes), and now this.

[senseabove]

From the StudioCanal press release:

The restoration, supervised by Francis Ford Coppola, was made in 4K by American Zoetrope and Roundabout Entertainment in the US. The 4K scans were lifted from the original camera negative, and great efforts have been made to add thirteen minutes of original camera negative, restoring opticals and dupe negative. The restoration was approved by Francis Ford Coppola himself, as six minutes of IP were added to replace the original negative that was thought to be destroyed in a flood in Rome where the negative was kept.

Seems like something's getting lost in translation... Does that mean the rerelease cut used 6 minutes of IP for footage from the OCN that was thought lost, so this is a new cut that's 7 minutes longer than the rerelease and thus 3 minutes shorter than the wide release cut?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Do you know if the status surrounding these films getting a home release has changed? You mentioned before some years ago that some of Hou's films can't be released or seen if they involved money (I hope I'm remembering some semblance of this correctly) and that prevents them from getting more widespread screenings and a commercial DVD/Blu-Ray release?

Chiu has said he wants the City of Sadness remaster to be a theatrical exclusive for three years, which does at least imply some kind of home release way down the line. Chiu has also said he's fielding offers from distributors in a number of countries including the U.S., so whatever was keeping it out of distribution doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. A City of Sadness has also been commercially re-released in Hong Kong, so it's definitely available outside of Taiwan. The Puppetmaster is the other Hou film that's been in a similar limbo, so I'm guessing anything that goes for A City of Sadness applies to it as well.

[ftsoh]

Do you know if the status surrounding these films getting a home release has changed? You mentioned before some years ago that some of Hou's films can't be released or seen if they involved money (I hope I'm remembering some semblance of this correctly) and that prevents them from getting more widespread screenings and a commercial DVD/Blu-Ray release?

Chiu has said he wants the City of Sadness remaster to be a theatrical exclusive for three years, which does at least imply some kind of home release way down the line. Chiu has also said he's fielding offers from distributors in a number of countries including the U.S., so whatever was keeping it out of distribution doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. A City of Sadness has also been commercially re-released in Hong Kong, so it's definitely available outside of Taiwan. The Puppetmaster is the other Hou film that's been in a similar limbo, so I'm guessing anything that goes for A City of Sadness applies to it as well.

This is the official trailer for A City of Sadness' April 23, 2023 re-release in Hong Kong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6m_7eleZXw

The title refers it as a "4K Digital Version" but I think it is reasonable to presume it had a 4K restoration.
Hope we will see it on BD or UHD in 2026.