- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,392
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, generally considered to be the master's greatest chase / thriller finds its heritage in his mid to late 1930s UK productions such as The 39 Steps and Young and Innocent. The basis of these films concern someone wrongly accused of a crime, who must survive those who want him dead while staying away from the long arm of the law that is constantly moving in on him.
For its 50th Anniversary Blu-ray release WB has gone back to the basics and totally restored the film, beginning with its problematic original negative.
But this is where things get interesting.
I had once spoken with someone who was purportedly Ned Price, and apparently responsible for the work on The Searchers. Now when I reached out once again, I was told that he was unknown at the studio, and "had never worked there." Not giving up, I made a call to the Warner entity called MPI, and was strangely connected to someone in props. Going through a full search of the studio divisions, I finally found someone who suggested that I was possibly seeking MTI, the developer of digital repair tools, also in California.
Late yesterday I was finally able to get some information which at least tends to separate the sizzle of high end digital restoration from the truth of the matter. Here are the facts as I've now learned them, and they lead me to disbelieve that there is any digital restoration work that has occurred. Through sources both here, and in Europe, I've been able to put together what seem to be the actual facts of the matter.
The original VistaVision negative was shipped to Germany in the fall of 2007. Reports from those who received it, confirm that the film stock was too faded to be representative of the film. The elements were delivered to a group of nuns living somewhere nearby Mummelsee in the Black Forest. Here the delicate film elements were carefully unwound and treated with a secret formula created specifically for the purpose by Benedictine monks.
It was this elixir that was used to regenerate the faded color layers, scene by scene, and in different proportions of chemicals. By the spring of 2009, the material was ready to be returned, and before going to the studio, spent several weeks at a monastery in an undisclosed location somewhere in Northern California, before making its way back to WB.
Once returned to the studio, the film was handled as new. Color correction was handled normally, as it would be for a new production. To bring things full circle, not an hour after screening the new Blu-ray, I received a call from a Ted Rice, who also strangely purportedly works in restoration at WB, but who denied that the film elements ever left Los Angeles, and averred that the studio brought in new and special equipment to scan the film elements at 16k resolution.
The bottom line is simple, be it Ned Price or Ted Rice -- it's all part of the same alphabet soup -- the final product looks and sounds superb on Blu-ray. There is minimal grain, as befits not only VistaVision, but negative that has spend some time in Benedictine DOM. Sharpness varies, as it did in 1959, as quite a bit of diffusion was used in production, yielding a beautifully rendered, fully velvety image. Audio is uncompressed.
With thanks to our friends in Germany, North by Northwest is once again available for prime viewing here back in the States.
North by Northwest from WB is Very Highly Recommended, and a film not to be missed.
RAH
For its 50th Anniversary Blu-ray release WB has gone back to the basics and totally restored the film, beginning with its problematic original negative.
But this is where things get interesting.
I had once spoken with someone who was purportedly Ned Price, and apparently responsible for the work on The Searchers. Now when I reached out once again, I was told that he was unknown at the studio, and "had never worked there." Not giving up, I made a call to the Warner entity called MPI, and was strangely connected to someone in props. Going through a full search of the studio divisions, I finally found someone who suggested that I was possibly seeking MTI, the developer of digital repair tools, also in California.
Late yesterday I was finally able to get some information which at least tends to separate the sizzle of high end digital restoration from the truth of the matter. Here are the facts as I've now learned them, and they lead me to disbelieve that there is any digital restoration work that has occurred. Through sources both here, and in Europe, I've been able to put together what seem to be the actual facts of the matter.
The original VistaVision negative was shipped to Germany in the fall of 2007. Reports from those who received it, confirm that the film stock was too faded to be representative of the film. The elements were delivered to a group of nuns living somewhere nearby Mummelsee in the Black Forest. Here the delicate film elements were carefully unwound and treated with a secret formula created specifically for the purpose by Benedictine monks.
It was this elixir that was used to regenerate the faded color layers, scene by scene, and in different proportions of chemicals. By the spring of 2009, the material was ready to be returned, and before going to the studio, spent several weeks at a monastery in an undisclosed location somewhere in Northern California, before making its way back to WB.
Once returned to the studio, the film was handled as new. Color correction was handled normally, as it would be for a new production. To bring things full circle, not an hour after screening the new Blu-ray, I received a call from a Ted Rice, who also strangely purportedly works in restoration at WB, but who denied that the film elements ever left Los Angeles, and averred that the studio brought in new and special equipment to scan the film elements at 16k resolution.
The bottom line is simple, be it Ned Price or Ted Rice -- it's all part of the same alphabet soup -- the final product looks and sounds superb on Blu-ray. There is minimal grain, as befits not only VistaVision, but negative that has spend some time in Benedictine DOM. Sharpness varies, as it did in 1959, as quite a bit of diffusion was used in production, yielding a beautifully rendered, fully velvety image. Audio is uncompressed.
With thanks to our friends in Germany, North by Northwest is once again available for prime viewing here back in the States.
North by Northwest from WB is Very Highly Recommended, and a film not to be missed.
RAH
