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Following a past discussion about the restorations graded by those 2 labs and that bear their recognizable color-signatures (respectively dull yellow and steely blue), this topic will try to centralise all the known restorations concerned by these. Of course, it's unlikely to be exhaustive (especially since some restorations might have only been screened once or twice in festivals and nobody reported on them and there are no BD releases of them), and I'm also likely to have forgotten some, so don't hesitate to post your findings here, I'll check them and update this post.

Notes :
- I'm not doing this to negatively depict these labs' work, but only to try and build a list for people to know which movies are concerned. It's a matter of raising awareness, not pointing fingers.
- There will be debatable cases. I'm amongst those who find Legend of the Mountain to be visibly Ritrovata'd, but I know some don't share this vision. There are also cases where the signatures are visible but light or limited to a few challenging shots. For instance, The Specialists has a few shots in which the signature is recognizable, but everything else is more "neutral".
- These 2 labs are "singled out" here but they're not the only ones leaving color signatures, and some other labs have also graded their restorations in ways reminding of Ritrovata or Eclair's signatures : some Digimages (now Hiventy) restorations for instance are dull yellow like what Ritrovata is doing, while others are steely blue like Eclair, and La religieuse looks like an Eclair job but actually is a Ritrovata one. Also, Paramount's have been recently grading some of their movies is ostensibly recognizable ways to the point it's become also feasible to recognize it's a Paramount restoration. Amongst those : Top Gun, Pretty in Pink, Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2, Fatal Attraction, Airplane, Ghost, Flashdance. We could also talk about the Blue Madness from Fox.
- Ritrovata's B&W gradings are also often recognizable by their silvery velvety aspects, while Eclair tend to place black levels a tad high but the contrast is handled in a different way than Ritrovata. They're thus different-looking overall despite sharing weak black levels. I won't talk about those, because despite these signatures, they're not considered as problematically harmonising all those movies together.
- Some of the Eclair restorations released by Gaumont on BD suffer from what seems likely to be a wrong RGB output coming from the encode. This makes them duller than they most likely should but this might thus not be coming from the restoration itself.

Edit : I've written this (French) article to sum up the reasoning behind my guesses that these cannot be linked in such a close fashion without institutional intrusive color signatures.


Ritrovata'd restorations (current total April 16th 2023 : 107 + 6 Varda) :
Les 3 Mousquetaires (1953)
100 Years of Olympic Games : White Vertigo, Cortina d'Ampezzo 56 and Rome 60
1900
Alla ricerca del piacere
Amarcord (2015 4K restoration)
Beau-père (though it's quite light)
A Better Tomorrow (4K remaster)
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (as released in France by Les films du Camélia, so it looks like what Arrow released is a different internally-performed grading)
The Big Boss (corrected by Shout and differently corrected by Criterion)
Big Guns
The Black Cat
The Bloodstained Butterfly
Calmos
Camille Claudel (though interestingly, many shots look like an Eclair job)
Cartouche
Cat O Nine Tails (as released in France by Les films du Camélia, so it looks like what Arrow released is a different internally-performed grading)
Center Stage
C'eravamo tanto amati
The Chess Game of the Wind
City of Joy
The Climber
The Color of Pomegranates (Paradjanov cut)
The Cotton Club Encore
Coup de torchon
The Damned
Death in Venice
Death Walks on High Heels / Death Walks at Midnight
La decima vittima
Deep Red (corrected by Arrow) (there currently is no BD release AFAIK using the non-corrected restoration, but I know how it looked like because this is the version that was shown in theaters at Lyon Film Festival 2015)
The Designated Victim
Django, Prepare a Coffin
Dragon Inn (will be color-corrected by Diskino for their video release)
Driving Miss Daisy (new 4K restoration)
Duck, You Sucker (Italian and Eureka Blu-ray)
Erik The Conqueror
Fantozzi
A Fistful of Dollars (see Kino 2018 BD)
Fist of Fury (corrected by Shout and differently corrected by Criterion)
Flic Story
The Flowers of Shanghai
Il futuro è donna (I haven't been able to confirm formally, but it def looks like a Ritrovata grading)
Game of Death (corrected by Shout and differently corrected by Criterion)
Les grandes manoeuvres
Il giardino dei Finzi Contini
Giorni d'amore
Gli Specialisti (though only in a few shots)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (4K remaster)
Hotel des Amériques (to be confirmed)
Le hussard sur le toit (quite light)
Illustrious Corpses
India Matri Bhumi (Italian Version)
Indochine
Insiang
In The Heat Of The Sun
Jabberwocky
Kiarostami's movies for Kanoon
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
Legend of the Mountain
Lo chiamavano Trinità...
Vittorio de Seta's Lost World
The Lover
Lucky Luciano
Madame Claude
Made in Hong Kong (though it's quite light)
Le magnifique
Le mâle du siècle
Manila in the Claws of Light
Mariage Italian Style
The Mattei Affair (as streaming on The Criterion Channel)
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave
The Night Porter
Once Upon a Time in America (DC)
Once Upon a Time in China 3 (though it's only in a few shots)
Pane e cioccolata
A Pistol for Ringo
Le pistonné
Pixote
Police Story 1 & 2
Police Story 3 : Supercop (new 4K remaster)
La poudre d'escampette
La première fois
La prima notte di quiete
The Producers
Property Is No Longer a Theft
Que la fête commence
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
La religieuse (though it at times looks like an Eclair grading)
The Return of Ringo
Revenge (Yermek Shinarbayev)
Fellini's Roma
Serpico
Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye
The Suspicious Death of a Minor
Taipei Story (though it's light)
Teorema
A Touch of Zen
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Criterion)
L'uomo senza memoria (which looks like a crap release overall anyway)
Most of the Varda movies and shorts in the Criterion set that were graded by Ritrovata : Du côté de la côte, Les dites cariatides, Oncle Yanco, Black Panther, Lions Love and Lies, Mur Murs
Violent City
The Way of the Dragon (corrected by Shout and differently corrected by Criterion)
What Have You Done to Solange ? (corrected by Arrow)
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key


Eclair'd restorations (current total March 26th 2024 : 124 + 16 Lelouch + 10 Varda) :
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle
La 7e cible
7 hommes en or
Agent trouble
L'albatros
Alberto Express
L'amour en douce
A mort l’arbitre
L'appât
L'argent
Atlantic City (Gaumont BD)
L'aveu
Betty
Black Moon
La bohème
Boris Godounov
Borsalino & co
Les caprices de Marie
Céline
La cérémonie
C'est pas moi c'est lui
La chair de l’orchidée
Clair de femme
Clara et les chics types
Conseil de famille
Conversation Piece
Coup de tête
Deux hommes dans la ville
Le distrait
La drôlesse
L’enfance nue
Eaux profondes
Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas
L'enfance nue
L'enfer
État de siège
L'état sauvage
Europa Europa
La femme de mon pote
La femme qui pleure
La fille prodigue
Le fils du requin
Le gang
Garçon !
Le garçu
Germinal
La gifle
La gueule ouverte
Hanna K.
Hurlements en faveur de Sade
Hyènes (though it's light)
Il était une fois... un flic
Il faut tuer Birgit Haas
Inspecteur Lavardin
Irma Vep
Je t'aime je t'aime
Le jumeau
Kamikaze
Katia
Lacombe Lucien
Laisse aller c’est une valse
At least 16 Claude Lelouch movies
Le lieu du crime
Litan
Lucie Aubrac
Le maitre nageur
Marie Antoinette, reine de France
Mélo
Les mille et une recettes du cuisinier amoureux (though it's slight)
Mort d’un pourri
Muriel
On peut toujours rêver
Pas de problème !
Passe ton bac d'abord (though only in some shots)
Les patriotes
Le pays bleu
Peau d'espion
Peaux de vaches
Péril en la demeure
Le petit prince a dit
La planète sauvage
Le plein de super
Plein Sud
Poulet au vinaigre
Pour la peau d'un flic
Préparez vos mouchoirs
Le procès des doges (most likely)
La raison du plus fou
Rambo 1 : First Blood
Rambo 2
Rambo 3
La reine Margot
Rendez-vous
Rien ne va plus
The Sacrifice
Section spéciale
Le silencieux
Solo
Tchao pantin
Le témoin
Thérèse
Le toubib
Tout feu tout flamme
La triche
Trois hommes à abattre
Les truffes
Une affaire de femmes
L'une chante, l'autre pas, Daguerréotypes, Le bonheur, Réponse de femmes, Vagabond, 7p cuis s de b à saisir, Jane B by Agnès V, Kung Fu Master, Les cent et une nuits, Ulysse (Agnès Varda set)
Un chien dans un jeu de quilles
Un étrange voyage
Une histoire immortelle
Une histoire simple
Un homme à abattre
Un homme amoureux
Un homme de trop
Une journée bien remplie
Un nuage entre les dents
Une saison en enfer
Uranus
La valise
Va voir maman, papa travaille
Most of the Varda movies and shorts in the Criterion set that were graded by Eclair : L'une chante l'autre pas, Daguerréotypes, Le bonheur, Réponse de femmes, Vagabond, 7p cuis s de b à saisir, Jane B by Agnès V, Kung Fu Master, Les cent et une nuits, Ulysse
La vie dissolue de Gérard Floque
Vie privée
Le voleur
Z


Chances that this Eclair / Ritrovata split isn't just pure luck but that movies with a Ritrovata-style photo just happened to restored and graded by Ritrovata and movies with a Eclair-style photo just happened to be restored and graded by Eclair : 0,000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000054%.


Red Heat (though this one is from Hiventy)


Paramount :
Airplane
Beverly Hills Cop 1
Borsalino
Fatal Attraction
Flashdance
Ghost
Pretty in Pink
Top Gun (very light)

Tenia, this is a genuinely useful concept. Maybe the list could be sorted by title first and could eventually link out to reviews/comparisons?

I also like the idea of tracking other studio/lab restorations for recurring color signatures, as suggested by your comments about Paramount and Fox. It shouldn't be limited to just Ritrovata and Eclair, even if they are the most obvious and widespread examples these days. Ideally, it could raise awareness in general about color grading in film restoration.

I've been randomly adding them to the list as I was remembering them. I'll sort them out somehow of course, to allow for a better reading (with the caveat I need to settle on which title to use). I've reviewed most of them or have telling screenshots of those and have planned to add this too but it all is, as you can guess, a tad time-consuming which is why I wanted to first put the list out and then flesh it out as a 2nd step.

My issue with Paramount is how they're grading their movies in terms of white balance and skin tones. Their gradings can have a generally slightly brownish tone, but their flesh tones are creamy pink in a recognizable fashion. As for Fox, my limitation will be on not having fully followed all the movies concerned by this, especially since many have been released by Twilight Time and that's it, and I own pretty much none of them.

Edit : the lists are now pretty much sorted out alphabetically and I added the few Paramount titles I'm bothered with.

I think the Tati color films probably fall into one of the categories, though I maintain that the color on the blu-ray of Trafic looks more accurate than the old DVD based on the 35mm print I saw.

Aren't some of the Rivette restorations problematic, like La Religieuse (Ritrovata I believe)?

Thanks for this thread!

Thank you so much for tackling this Tenia. I want to add Django, Prepare a Coffin which has some of the most egregious Ritrovata-yellow on the Arrow release.

For what it's worth, I recently watched Chantel Akerman's Golden Eighties on the Criterion Channel, and its restoration, done by Cinematek, also had that heavy teal bias––except in one shot near the end! It was almost unwatchable, how the yellow/teal spoiled an otherwise lovely color pattern.

Diane Kurys's Entre Nous also has a slight teal bias, although much more moderate.

I recall some quite awful snaps of Gaumont's Atlantic City blu-ray.

I don't remember which labs did what, but these films definitely had those issues:

Je t'aime, je t'aime
La belle noiseuse
L'argent

I'm sure this has been addressed elsewhere, but has anyone from these facilities
actually offered a clear explanation for why this kind of blue/teal color timing is
being applied in the first place?

Would the Ringo double-feature from Arrow fit in here? I recall there being a heavy-yellow blanket over it.

We have been talking about this issue for a long time. The discussion has proven futile in correcting the issue.
I am only a movie fan waiting to buy and see restorations of great films that reasonably recreate the experience of the original. There seems to be a systematic distortion of the color palette in all/most restorations done by certain outfits. This clearly needs to be fixed.There are several possibilities.
(1) There is no acknowledgment that there is any issue. The problem will persist, and a large number of films of great importance will only be available with inaccurate color representation. This will happen if no one protests.
(2) Who is in a position to protest, and how? This is the central question. It is obvious that verbal protests are not producing any change. Answer to this question is welcome from forum members.
(3) One form of protest could be that several prestige labels refuse to issue the discs of restorations clearly affected by this issue (Yellow/teal-leaning color palette).
(4) The other form of protest is that buyers refuse to buy these discs.
(5) The third form of protest is that the owners of the original material refuse to let these outfits restore their films.
(6) Another form of the protest is that people with great leverage in the industry (such as Martin Scorsese) talk about it, giving the discussion the weight it deserves.
Perhaps all these options are quite unrealistic. But unless there is some tangible consequence there seems to be no incentive for these outfits to change their behavior. In that case threads such as this are merely a sign of impotent complaining of the victims (the consumers).

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'll double check them to make sure which need to be included. I need to check if other Cohen releases sourced from Eclair restorations are concerned too (Preparez vos mouchoirs and Martin Guerre especially). Also, I'll probably add the upcoming Pialat from Gaumont, recently restored by Eclair (this includes L'enfance nue, which will probably reminds some members of some old controversies).


Kekid, I visited Ritrovata myself. To them, and I guess to other labs as well, it's not an issue but simply the touch of the colorist they're using, with the philosophy that every colorist has a touch, even Lee Kline, even Sheri Eisenberg. So they're aware of this signature, but for them, it's the experience of the colorist speaking. They told me they most likely have applied too intensely their LUT on some past projects and would do things differently today, and that they're structurally dialing this down, but I don't think they're understanding why this seems to go past their colorist's "eye". I don't think there has been a public aknowledgment of this, but don't believe there will ever be.

I don't know what we can do about it. Hopefully, I'll be able to get in touch with Eclair too someday to at least talk to them about their own harmonisation, but until then, I do think such threads are useful at least to raise the point of how widespread this is, in terms of movies but also in terms of labs. It's a cartography of the issues in some way, and I think it's important to build this database first to show how there doesn't seem to be any technical pattern explaining all these movies looking like this except the labs who graded them (I was told originally that it wasn't just a question of lab and that there were movies-related explanations to all these movies looking so similar to each other now, except I was never detailed what they were and I doubt they're holding on nowadays).

It also answers to your 5th point : I don't think many moviemakers are bothered by this. God knows if they've seen the final result with the LUT applied and if they'd still be happy with that anyway, but several of those restorations are coming with a "supervised by" or "approved by" claim, and I'm quite sure that actually, many moviemakers would still be OK with the final result (for various reasons).

It might look futile for now, but I think that without such a list, there's no way to start any educated discussion with anyone from the industry. Once it's fleshed out and refined however, it might prove a useful tool to demonstrate the issues and possibly communicate more largely about it. Remember that while the labs are aware of it, the labels are aware of it, and we're aware of it, some still believe there is no problem and the people ranting about those are just wanting the neutralized DVD-era gradings back.

To get everyone on board, we need to build the figures, the database, the map, first and foremost. Hopefully, this will be it and hopefully, it might be be communicated to people with leverage, especially since it also concerns studios like Fox and Paramount, and I doubt there'll be a way for non-insider to get in touch with them directly like I did with Ritrovata.


But I'm exactly as frustated as you are by this. First, because it means giving the same movie to grade to those labs would yield 4 different gradings, and good luck finding which one is the faithful one conveying the feelings the movie team wanted originally. But also because it's been going on for years, that it's been estasblished there is a known structural lab-related non-movie-related explanation, but some are still defending those choices and making those discussing them looking like they're crazy ignorants, which is honestly discourageing.


On a side note, Eclair's restoration branch has been recently acquired by... Ritrovata. It'll be interesting to see if this changes anything (I doubt it, since Eclair's colorists will still be working for Eclair), but the new entity will be represented next week at Lyon Film Festival. Hopefully, I'll be able to discuss with some of the concerned persons (though it doesn't look like a technical Eclair person will be present).


All this mostly answers to your 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th points. About the 3rd and 4th : obviously, people can vote with their wallets. I'd advise though, when feasible, to email the label to explain why they're doing so. There are many reasons that can make someone skip a release. I don't think labels are expecting color-gradings from world leading labs to be one of them, so it's probably best to tell them explicitly.
Also, some labels have been actively avoiding or even correcting (or trying to) Ritrovata's LUT. This is the case for Arrow and Camera Obscura at least, but I seem to remember a few other labels are doing this too. In some cases, only the scanning and/or the restoration work is given to Ritrovata and the grading is done elsewhere (though I can't say for these if it's a typical structural choice or to actively avoid Ritrovata's grading).

kekid wrote: Mon Oct 05, 2020 4:09 am (6) Another form of the protest is that people with great leverage in the industry (such as Martin Scorsese) talk about it, giving the discussion the weight it deserves.

I've often thought about this one, which I assume would have some impact. I wonder if somebody like Scorsese is aware of these issues (it's hard to think he isn't at all, unless he spends his time watching original film prints and not blu-rays, which yes is a possibility!) but choosing not to talk about it for some reason.

There are so many possibilities about the answer to this one...

The WCP and The Film Foundation have heavily gone through Ritrovata for restoring movies and it included at times grading the restorations. Is Scorsese aware of the issue in some form ? Did he realise all those movies were sharing such a heavy most likely incorrect color signature in the first place ? Is he OK with that and simply trust the lab ? Is he not OK with that but can't say anything about it or has but it hasn't changed a thing ? Is he involved in any form in the technical aspect of these projects in the first place ?

I haven't checked it myself yet, but some of his movies have even gone through Ritrovata, and it seems that they also did the grading for Italianamerican and it seems to bear their signature too. And this would be something Scorsese probably supervised or approved somehow.


Something that absolutely needs to be remembered is that the people approving or supervising stuff often aren't present 100% of the time and when they're not, we the public can't know for sure exactly what they were present for, what they were shown, what was done after they left.
For instance, Second Sight's new Dawn of the Dead TC restoration claims it's been supervised and approved by Gormick, but it seems he actually didn't supervise (as in "sitting through the whole process with the lab techs and colorist") the framing, though he did supervise the grading. What was already done when he showed up and what work exactly remained when he left ? Did he approve the framing at some point later, and if so, was he shown a reference (and then which one) so that he could be sure of what he was signing off ? I don't think this has been explicited publicly yet.

It's also a possibility that individual filmmakers (who are less concerned with replicating the exact look of the original prints) would be okay with the "house" grading if they thought it gave their film a unique look, but would be more troubled to realize the same look was being applied to every other filmmakers' works as well!

Roger Ryan wrote: Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:32 pm It's also a possibility that individual filmmakers (who are less concerned with replicating the exact look of the original prints) would be okay with the "house" grading if they thought it gave their film a unique look, but would be more troubled to realize the same look was being applied to every other filmmakers' works as well!

Absolutely. It might also be that the past incarnations were so biased in other directions than in comparison, the new gradings look much better.

Again I think the music and film comparisons are useful. Think about every terrible remastering job that has supposedly been overseen by the band. Wire's first three albums were all reissued on their own PinkFlag label. The Rolling Stones' Virgin reissues are compressed. An artist's memory or understanding of the production of their art may not match what they just happen to like/think sounds good now.

And color is incredibly fluid and finicky. They used to grade Hollywood movies on the lot on screens stained yellow from all the cigarette smoke (doubtful theatre screens were much different).

Everything effects color: screen, projection bulb color temperature, projection bulb brightness, projection bulb age, negative exposure, color temperature of the printing light, age of the lab chemicals, release print stock, inter negative stock, inter positive stocks, print generation.

And on and on and on. Getting accurate color reproduced to all venues and deliverables has never been especially easy, and people of film based generations tend to be flexible about perfect reproduction.

I saw fellowship of the ring on film in three different cities over the years and the color was different every time and the original release color was easily the worst (probably a seventh generation release print Vs a much higher quality earlier generation element kept for rep screenings)

Most filmmakers could probably tell stories about how bad/good the color was at test screenings in La Canada or Encino. And if you’ve ever screened quick printed dailies its a little harrowing expecting an amazing image and getting something much lower quality. And low quality dailies were what they lived with for months upon months until a few magical days of final grade a couple weeks before the premiere. What is going to set in a filmmakers long term memory is the rough look they lived with for fourteen hours a day for six months, not the final look they got to feel slightly awestruck by for a week or two. So nowadays expecting them to quibble over details when all they can see is the stunning whole is asking a lot. Cinematographers are different because they only watch the dailies once the next day and don’t see it again or in detail until they sit down at the final grade to spend a few weeks with the material. They will generally have a very good sense of what the final product should look like.

Lucas tells contemptuous stories of how appalled he was at the incredible variance in sound and image quality when he would spot check or have his movies spot checked around the country. He considered release prints to be no better than outright garbage. But Lucas is also one of the only major filmmakers to really care deeply about technical details and technical specs and is the kind to obsess over a detail and not see the whole as a result. It bothered him so much by the 90s he has founded an entire company/industry with THX to both quantify, measure and reproduce good presentation; it was an attempt to rectify low quality theatrical presentation in America and largely helped.

but reproduction has become digitally perfect now both with dcps and also with home video, and that has changed audiences and filmmakers minds about what level of variance is acceptable. But that said what’s not acceptable is going beyond “variance” and winding up with the green skies and yellow snow you can see on some of the ritrovita restored olympics films, for example. I mean come on!

Color indeed has infinite possibilities, within a frame itself but within a whole movie too. It could have the right color in this part of the frame but not this one, in this shot but not this one, etc etc.
Which makes it all the more difficult, from a pattern point of view, to understand why all the movies above would be brought so close to each other. Again, if someone knowledgeable within the industry can point out to me what original element, person, material all these movies are sharing that would explain such patterns, I'm all ears. I'd love to know and stop worrying about these probably hundreds of movies not seeming right and put the matter (and my mind) at rest.

Anyway, I've added links to various websites offering sceenshots or comparisons confirming how the concerned movie indeed bears the color signatures I've been mentioning. I didn't want to link directly to A CERTAIN screenshot, and have mostly instead linked to the more general reviews or comparisons so that people can scroll around, check multiple caps, and see for themselves if they can spot easily or not the color patterns.

The interesting things on BD using new restorations are the tech details panels that some have at the beginning or the end of the main feature. They're interesting because they're almost pretty much white text over a black background.
Well, the opening tech details text for L'enfance nue has the black background at 0 7 9 (RGB values) instead of what should be 0 0 0 (pure black), while the white text is 254 254 220 (instead of 255 255 255 - pure white). Of course, the movie is Eclair-ified, and of course, trying to use the bias of the black background as a guide kind of de-Eclair-ified the movie.

Interestingly, Passe ton bac d'abord has most likely also been restored and graded recently by Eclair, and while some shots are definitive tell-tales, a good chunk of the movie doesn't show at all the usual cold-blue leaning from the lab and even the blacks are not tinted in blue (unlike L'enfance nue).

Also interestingly, La gueule ouverte is quite Eclair-ified too, but its opening Gaumont logo has a pure black background.

Edit : I've added these 3 Pialat + Le garçu to the list.

Three recent restorations from the Sinosphere where Ritrovata had a hand in:

Flowers of Shanghai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAm0OjKKJi4
Debated here:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=327188

In the Mood for Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJj9-t2A-_o

Xiao Wu (Pickpocket)
https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2020/films/xiao-wu/

Screenshots from a French Blu of Flowers from Shanghai (Ritrovata resto):
http://retro-hd.com/tests/blu-ray/3032- ... nghai.html

Debate about Studio Canal´s upcoming 4K Le Cercle Rouge:
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=27557

Interesting quote from the above debate:
"I just watched Cohen's disc of King of Hearts (Le Roi de Coeur) tonight. One of the extras is an interview with the cinematographer Pierre Lhomme. He talks about his work grading the digital transfer, and how the modern colorists he's working with have no idea what the movie should look like (and he also says they don't care). He specifically says that modern technology is so good that it allows the operator to make horrible mistakes since they have no concept of the original look of the movies."

I'll need to have a look at this extra with Lhomme because I've been told the exact opposite story about his care-free work with restoration labs.

As for Flowers of Shanghai, I honestly can't tell if it bears Ritrovata's signature since it's so heavily yellow anyway but it didn't look to have the usual markers of their grading so there's that.

On his podcast, Roger Deakins mentions something to the effect that Lhomme didn’t like Melville’s original timing for Army of Shadows, so he (Lhomme) changed it for the blu-ray. I believe this was in the Lee Kline episode.

I was told he did the same with Le samourai, but the lab's colorist changed many shots afterwards. Lhomme never realised the modifications when shown the final result and approved it anyway.