Restoration

Janus Thorn

  • Reading time:3 mins read

I’m really into film and TV restoration. I don’t know if this comes out of my childhood love of archaeology. It would be hard to overstate the influence of Tintin and Uncle Scrooge… Yet I’m maybe a bit spoiled. I pay attention to massive projects like Rear Window and My Fair Lady, to revolutionary ones like the Murnau Foundation Metropolis job, and to compulsive, continually-improving efforts from guys like the Doctor Who Restoration Team. I’m used both to employing every available tool to repair material and present it in the best possible light, and extensive features geared to contextualize the work both contemporarily and retrospectively, examine its production, and illustrate its place in any relevant oeuvre. The point is to put a work back on its feet again, and send it back into mainsteam culture.

The Universal and Warner Hitchcock discs, though relatively unhailed, do a decent job at all of this. Kino is a mixed bag — even their meticulously restored Nosferatu has some amazing undergraduate blunders — yet they clearly try hard under a limited budget to present something significant.

Thing about Criterion — they strike me as sort of a lowest common denominator of film preservation. They’re not into preservation, really; into keeping works healthy and relevant and in circulation. They pander to film fetishists and collectors. They kind of do a half-assed job at both restoration and extras. For reasons I cannot understand, they don’t stabilize film weave. They don’t paint out dust and scratches, or even socket holes. They rarely clean up the sound. Most of their extras, though certainly well-researched, are off-the-shelf and dry as hell. Their DVDs strike me as academic, snooty, overpriced, and not particularly ambitious in the very areas where they claim superiority.

They do good presentation, though. And they do a good job of raising awareness of less obvious films (at least, to a point). And then they put them out in limited editions, and number them so their fans can buy ’em all (at prices around double of other publishers). They’re like the Working Designs of film preservation. (According to that article, Vic Ireland is starting a company called Gaijinworks. Oh my dear Lord Numpty…)

Criterion’s relationship with Janus also weirds me out a little. I realize that it’s basically the commercial arm of Janus, and I understand that Janus is to be credited with a certain amount of US exposure of independent and foreign films, before the boom of indie cinema. In retrospect I always find it a little weird to see their logo plastered in front of so many important movies that they didn’t have anything directly to do with. It’s almost like a corporate collector-fetishism, if maybe for the ultimate cultural good, sort of? This isn’t something I’ve put a lot of thought into; it’s just been scampering around my subconscious. It may be based on nothing but my own prejudices.

Anyway. People keep asking me what I think of Criterion. My answer: phooey!

Though the packaging to their Yojimbo/Sanjuro set is just devine.

(Full disclosure: I have about half a dozen Criterion DVDs, from Hitchcock to Wong Kar-Wai. I’m more impressed with their “new” movies than their classic library. Mostly because they don’t require restoration or much context; all they need is nice packaging and presentation. And yes, In the Mood for Love is classy as hell.)

The Invasion

  • Reading time:2 mins read

There have been rumors for a while; now it’s been publicized. A teaser trailer‘s even out.






Yes, the legendary and long-incomplete 1968 Patrick Troughton serial The Invasion has been completed — through modern flash-based animation, set to the original off-air soundtrack. It’s been done by Cosgrove Hall (Danger Mouse, Count Duckula) — the same people also behind the Scream of the Shalka webcast from a few years ago. This is supposed to be a good deal more sophisticated, though.

It’ll be out this November, in the UK; we’ll probably have to wait until next spring for the DVD. The remaining six episodes are getting the typical Restoration Team cleanup — which is welcome, considering the condition all existing consumer prints are in.

As it is, I find the story hard to take, as it’s drawn out and padded to a ludicrous degree. (It was conceived as six episodes, then cut down to four because there wasn’t enough story to sustain a six parter, then expanded to eight because another serial fell through at the last minute.) The whole middle part of the serial consists of the characters repeatedly breaking into the enemy compound, getting caught, escaping, then breaking back in again. And again and again and again. It’s impressive, on a certain level.

Even so: wow. The cleanup on its own should make the story far easier to watch. Interspersed with animation of this detail, this release perhaps wins out over The Beginning as the most ambitious and appealing classic series release to date.

Odd that there have been so few truly great Cyberman stories, considering how much potential the Cybermen hold.

Western Deconstruction

  • Reading time:2 mins read

Structure of the first half of Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

  1. Title sequence
  2. Showdown #1; The Ugly identified
  3. Showdown #2 (and aftermath); The Bad identified
  4. Showdown #3 (and aftermath); The Good (such as he is) identified
  5. Back to The Bad; he beats a woman, showing how bad he is
  6. Back to The Ugly; the strange gunshop scene, where he displays his strange character traits
  7. (in the restored version) Added scene setting up the logic for the following scene; helps to space things out and show a little more of Tuco’s character
  8. Back to the Good, via Tuco; Blondie shows how sensitive he is, with the gun-cleaning scene; the outside world interferes for the first time, saving Blondie and setting the rest of the movie in motion
  9. (in the restored version) Back to The Bad; Angel Eyes’ eye-opening scene, where he is exposed to the effect of the war; some logic, to help explain why Angel Eyes returns when he does
  10. Back to the Ugly, then the Good; the squabble resolves. Blondie is again saved when the outside world (the stagecoach) again interferes, thus giving a greater goal for the movie and setting the third leg in motion.
  11. (in the restored version) Added scene setting up the logic for the following scene; helps to space things out and show a little more of Tuco’s character
  12. Tuco and Blondie at the mission; Tuco’s eye-opening scene, where he is exposed to the effect of the war; Tuco’s character is fully established, making Blondie more sympathetic to him
  13. Tuco and Blondie get caught up in the prison camp, to finally intersect with Angel Eyes
  14. etc.

I’ll fill the rest in later. It’s all downhill from here. Very… clean.

The removed scenes mostly help with the plot. Only one (aside from the boot thing, which is lovely) strikes me as important to the tone of the movie; that’s the early scene with Angel Eyes. The others are all nice to have, and make the movie feel fuller. More complete. I can see why they were cut, though, if cuts had to be made.

Who?

  • Reading time:1 mins read

Through what means I cannot immediately recollect, I — this last day — became far too involved in poring over the ongoing restoration process that Doctor Who has been going through.

Mark Ayers is even involved. You know, the composer for the last several seasons of of the series. (You do, don’t you?)

This is exactly the kind of anal, painstaking process which lights my bulbs of brightness. The more I read, the more curious I become. I really should bother to eat, or just… do something other than stare at the screen. I’m beginning to feel a little strange. But it’s hard to pull myself away.

Now I want to run out and grab all of the available Doctor Who DVDs, to examine the restoration jobs these guys have performed. I am severely inclined to do so. But… no.