WASHINGTON 鈥� To see a restored film is to see it for the first time.
Too many folks assume that聽watching a decades-old movie聽will mean聽a grainy聽image, poor聽sound and a dated viewing experience 鈥� recalling faded reruns of old television shows.聽But when properly restored, a classic movie looks just as vibrant 鈥� if not more vibrant 鈥� than anything in theaters today.
This Friday, get ready for聽stunning 4K restorations of classic movies at two D.C. area theaters.
First, the聽AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland is screening聽Carol Reed’s聽 (1949), following a聽pulp novelist (Joseph Cotten) who visits聽postwar Vienna聽to investigate聽the death of an old friend, black-market schemer聽Harry Lime (Orson Welles).聽Arguably the best聽British movie ever made, this shadowy聽noir聽masterpiece聽features a number of legendary scenes,聽from a聽ferris-wheel debate,聽to the sewer climax, to the final shot in the tree-lined cemetery聽(referenced in “The Departed”).聽It screens聽for聽a week starting June 26聽as聽part of聽the theater’s聽.
Meanwhile,聽the聽E Street Cinema in downtown D.C. screens Satyajit Ray’s “The Apu Trilogy” — consisting of (1955), (1957) and (1959) — following a聽free-spirited child in rural Bengal who matures into an adolescent urban student and finally a sensitive man of the world. Undoubtedly聽the most important films ever to come out of India, the trilogy聽will be shown with separate admissions from聽June 26 to July 2.
“I’m envious of the person that’s going to see these, because they’re gonna feel like they’re seeing something brand new,”聽says Lee Kline, technical director for the Criterion Collection. “We know that resolution of 4K is very close to film resolution. We estimate film resolution to be somewhere around 5K, so when you do a 4K scan, you really are getting most of the resolution out of that film.”
Kline oversaw the “Apu” restoration, a mini miracle considering the films were literally pulled from a fire.聽In 1993, a nitrate explosion in London was thought to have destroyed the original negatives.聽Turns out, the charred remains were sent to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, where they remained locked in a vault for 20 years.
In 2013, Kline was聽invited to come look inside the cans.
“We literally saw burnt pieces of film,” Kline says. “You couldn’t even pick some of the reels up because they were brittle and they were flaking off. … Most people would put the cover back on the box and say, well, we’re not going to be able to do this. But we thought these are here for a reason, so let’s at least see what’s between the sprockets and see if there’s actually a good image there.”
So, they聽gathered the聽reel that appeared to be in the best condition and聽persuaded the Sony film lab to scan 60 seconds 鈥� just as a test run.
“We had a look and said, ‘Whoa, this is pretty exciting!’ But we were probably overzealous, because that wasn’t indicative of the rest of the movie,” Kline says.
It quickly became clear that this would be quite the undertaking.
“A typical restoration is: you find the best film, you scan it at a high resolution, and then you use your digital tools to clean it up afterward,” Kline says. “In this case, we couldn’t even get to that step until we fixed the (physical) film. Because if the film wasn’t repaired, you couldn’t even get a scan out of it.”
So, the damaged film reels spent the next few months at a special lab聽in Bologna, Italy, where preservationists聽spent a thousand hours making physical repairs: removing sprockets, fixing splices, rehydrating the film and flattening out warped segments 鈥� until it was finally ready to scan.
“We had to really discard quite a bit of the movies, because we couldn’t really repair them,”聽he聽says.
The discarded聽pieces聽were replaced by duplicate prints, made over the years. Think of it as聽“Jurassic Park” technicians filling in dinosaur聽DNA sequence gaps with frog genes. Kline used as much of the original film negatives as possible, then filled in the rest with duplicate material.
In the end, original negatives were used for 40 percent of “Pather Panchali” 60 percent of “Aparajito” and, unfortunately, zero聽of “The World of Apu.” The third installment had been burnt the most, but luckily,聽it was the newest in the trilogy, so decent replicas existed for the scan.
Now, the 4K restoration is complete and ready for your enjoyment at E Street Cinema. For cinephiles, it’s a chance to rediscover a masterpiece of world cinema, now looking better than ever. For average moviegoers,聽it’s the perfect time for an introduction to the art-house glory of Ray.
“Satyajit Ray is far too little known,” says Peter Becker, president of the Criterion Collection. “These films represent the postwar flowering of a truly global, international cinema consciousness where people are seeing direct expressions by the places that are very far away. Rather than making them seem exotic, they made them seem universal and understandable. …聽The arts, and particularly cinema, became a very important way of us getting to know each other around the world.”
In many ways, Ray marks a bridge between the Eastern and Western worlds. The Calcutta native聽met French filmmaker Jean Renoir during his visit to India to make聽“The River” (1951), upon which Ray volunteered to help scout locations. Ray also visited England聽for six聽months on an advertising job, where he watched 99 films with his wife. His mind was blown by Vittorio De Sica’s “Bicycle Thieves” (1948), causing him to return聽to Bengal wanting to聽make India’s version of Italian Neorealism, shooting with an uber-naturalistic style contrasting with Hollywood production values.
“Even though the camerawork seems very understated, what it sees is really beautiful,” Becker says.聽 “His rhythms are very peculiar and interesting. They’re not like other filmmakers.”
How ironic that聽Ray’s聽career was inspired by a trip to England, decades before his masterpiece trilogy was nearly incinerated by a聽London fire. But it makes it all the more fitting that his remastered work comes to D.C. the same day that聽Britain’s crowned jewel聽“The Third Man” shows across town.
“You got some really good choices to make there,” Kline says, beaming聽at our good fortune.聽“If you’re lucky enough to see (‘Apu’) on a 4K projector, your mind is going to blown.聽When we saw it for the first time in 4K, we sat there with our mouths open. …聽Go out there and see ‘The Apu Trilogy.’ You will be moved and聽know that you’re watching a great piece of art.”
As legendary Japanese聽filmmaker聽Akira Kurosawa put it:聽“To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun.”
Imagine the sun and moon in 4K, baby.
