Recent Film Restorations

[Stefan Andersson]

Pordenone 2026 titles are starting to appear:
https://www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it/en ... io-021026/

some titles:

Reigen (Oswald, 1920, DCP, 100 mins.), probably the 2022 DFF Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum restoration
https://www.stummfilm-magazin.de/aktuel ... der-reigen

Genuine (Wiene, 1920, DCP, 83 mins.), probably the 1995/96 Cineteca di Bologna/Filmarchiv des Filmmuseums München/Cinémathèque de Toulouse restoration
https://ilcinemaritrovato.it/film/genui ... en-hauses/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine#Rekonstruktion
https://removiescom.wordpress.com/2018/ ... a-vampire/

Seven Sinners (Milestone, 1925, DCP, 64 mins.), probably the 2017 restoration
https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/cinema/sc ... 2017-02-19
https://eu.dispatch.com/story/entertain ... 617836007/
https://warnerbros.fandom.com/wiki/Seve ... 1925_film)

Update:
Daily Schedule:
https://www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it/wp ... ancate.pdf
Water Magician, Mizoguchi, runs 121 mins. (benshi presentation)

[guyetgenevieve]

Nitrate Kisses, 1992, dir. Barbara Hammer - new 4K restoration premiering at New York Film Festival
https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2026/films/nitrate-kisses/

[Stefan Andersson]

Pordenone 2026 titles are starting to appear:
https://www.giornatedelcinemamuto.it/en ... io-021026/

Genuine (Wiene, 1920, DCP, 83 mins.), probably the 1995/96 Cineteca di Bologna/Filmarchiv des Filmmuseums München/Cinémathèque de Toulouse restoration
https://ilcinemaritrovato.it/film/genui ... en-hauses/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine#Rekonstruktion
https://removiescom.wordpress.com/2018/ ... a-vampire/



Update:
Stefan Drössler on restoring Genuine:
https://www.weimarcinema.org/essay/drossler3/

[Stefan Andersson]

"Never Trust a Woman (Ich glaub’ nie mehr an eine Frau, dir. Max Reichmann, 1930) /found/ in the UCLA Film & Television Archive /.../ combined with additional prints located in Belgium and Portugal /../ full 4K restoration in 2021-22."
Source:
an essay on lost and restored films:
https://www.weimarcinema.org/essay/seyfert/

[Stefan Andersson]

Wild Girl, Walsh, 1932, 4K MoMA restoration:
https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100005649/

[andyli]

Toho's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Scattered Clouds will premiere in new 4K restorations at Tokyo International Film Festival.
https://2026.tiff-jp.net/en/lineup/film/39007CLA01
https://2026.tiff-jp.net/en/lineup/film/39007CLA02

In other restoration news, Hasegawa's The Man Who Stole the Sun received a 4K restoration from IMAGICA (image) & TOHO archive (sound) and will premiere in October.
https://taiyo-wo-nusunda-otoko-4k.toho-movie.jp/

[Stefan Andersson]

The Water Magician, Mizoguchi, 122 mins.:
"4K digital restored version based on a 35mm internegative created in 1999 based on multiple 16mm prints. /.../ 20fps for a more natural projection speed"'
https://2026.tiff-jp.net/ja/lineup/film/39007CLA10

Shin Heike Monogatari, Mizoguchi:
"In 2004, the film was digitally restored through a joint project between the National Film Center (now the National Film Archive of Japan) and what was then Kadokawa Pictures."
https://www.nfaj.go.jp/program/tiff-nfaj202610-11/

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Shin Heike Monogatari, Mizoguchi:
"In 2004, the film was digitally restored through a joint project between the National Film Center (now the National Film Archive of Japan) and what was then Kadokawa Pictures."
https://www.nfaj.go.jp/program/tiff-nfaj202610-11/

There was a digital restoration of this in 2004, but there's since been a 4K restoration as well, which MoMA screened in 2018. In theory these could be the same restoration, but 2004 is improbably early for a 4K restoration of a film like this, which isn't exactly one of Mizoguchi's best-known. (Ugetsu didn't get a 4K until 2016 and Sansho the Bailiff the following year.) I suspect the 2004 restoration was either SD-only or a substandard HD job, since it didn't appear in MoC's "Late Mizoguchi" set. It's possible the NFAJ is actually screening the 4K and they just recycled their old copy about the 2004 restoration.

[Stefan Andersson]

Shin Heike Monogatari, Mizoguchi:
"In 2004, the film was digitally restored through a joint project between the National Film Center (now the National Film Archive of Japan) and what was then Kadokawa Pictures."
https://www.nfaj.go.jp/program/tiff-nfaj202610-11/

There was a digital restoration of this in 2004, but there's since been a 4K restoration as well, which MoMA screened in 2018. In theory these could be the same restoration, but 2004 is improbably early for a 4K restoration of a film like this, which isn't exactly one of Mizoguchi's best-known. (Ugetsu didn't get a 4K until 2016 and Sansho the Bailiff the following year.) I suspect the 2004 restoration was either SD-only or a substandard HD job, since it didn't appear in MoC's "Late Mizoguchi" set. It's possible the NFAJ is actually screening the 4K and they just recycled their old copy about the 2004 restoration.

Hi! Thanks for this info, good to know!

[Stefan Andersson]

Source for info about Taiwanese film restoration:
https://pavilion.taicca.tw/?s=restoration

[hearthesilence]

Shin Heike Monogatari, Mizoguchi:
"In 2004, the film was digitally restored through a joint project between the National Film Center (now the National Film Archive of Japan) and what was then Kadokawa Pictures."
https://www.nfaj.go.jp/program/tiff-nfaj202610-11/

There was a digital restoration of this in 2004, but there's since been a 4K restoration as well, which MoMA screened in 2018. In theory these could be the same restoration, but 2004 is improbably early for a 4K restoration of a film like this, which isn't exactly one of Mizoguchi's best-known. (Ugetsu didn't get a 4K until 2016 and Sansho the Bailiff the following year.) I suspect the 2004 restoration was either SD-only or a substandard HD job, since it didn't appear in MoC's "Late Mizoguchi" set. It's possible the NFAJ is actually screening the 4K and they just recycled their old copy about the 2004 restoration.

I was at that screening and I see I posted about it! Kind of sad my memory of it is very poor - without looking it up, I couldn't tell you the plot or name a single character from that movie. What I do remember is the kind of epic, lyrical moving long shots Mizoguchi is known for, packed with legions of costumed extras, and the color was indeed brilliant - the violently-flailing, bright orange flames of every torch is something I do remember vividly. A great-looking color film, I'd definitely pick up a copy if they release it on disc.

[Michael Kerpan]

I felt the women provided almost all the "heart" in that beautiful looking movie -- alas, they are pretty peripheral. Interestingly, I felt much the same way about Mizoguchi's 47 Ronin.

[hearthesilence]

47 Ronin is pretty fascinating when you consider its historical context - under government orders, Mizoguchi was supposed to create a military epic that could serve as a rousing propaganda film, and by the time the film was released, Japan was about to bomb Pearl Harbor in a matter of days.

Fred Camper addresses this when he wrote about the film for the Chicago Reader:

In 1941 and 1942 Japan was already engaged in a brutal imperialist war–before Pearl Harbor there was the small matter of its bloody invasion of China. The Japanese military authorities demanded propaganda films, and Mizoguchi readily acceded. He has been accused of opportunism by recent historians–he was a leftist when that suited, a democrat when Japan turned democratic. Certainly Genroku Chushingura served the war with its message of obedience even to death and with its formal, stately imagery depicting individual honor only in the context of a larger social order. In that sense this sublime film was made in the service of evil ends.

But our challenge, after seeing a film in its historical context, is to make something of it for ourselves. First of all, we can’t necessarily accept a film’s values merely because it moves us. At the same time, we should try to see the film in all its dimensions. As Mizoguchi’s camera constantly destabilizes the film’s images, he creates a poetics of space far more general than the specific values of the story. The issues he poses–of the balance between an individual and the social code, between emotion and tradition–are still with us, albeit in different forms. And as we watch one of his intense static compositions, focusing emotion momentarily on one character, transform into a moving shot that reframes the characters or introduces new ones, creating a new context, it becomes clear that the relationship between an individual and his culture is in part the result of the way we see space itself.