Hopefully Mr. Harris won't mind me posting this, but last night I was in an audience that also included Robert Harris, Allen Daviau, and Gordon Willis himself at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY, and the occasion was a surprise screening of a 35mm answer print of the newly-restored
THE GODFATHER followed by a Q&A with the three gentlemen mentioned above, moderated by Janet Maslin. I became aware of the possibility of said screening while surfing around on-line and coming across the listing of "An evening with Gordon Willis part 1 and 2" at the Jacob Burns film center to be accompanied by a "surprise screening" of a different film each night. I couldn't help but guess that the screenings had to be the restored versions of the first two
GODFATHER films, hence it being a surprise, and seeing as how Pleasantville is only about an hour and a half drive from me, I figured it was worth it to trek up there and check it out even if it turned out to be some other Gordon Willis film being screened with him in attendance and giving a Q&A.
When I saw a man who I recognized as being Robert Harris in the lobby, I knew my instincts were correct. As the screening was introduced, the audience was informed that we were about to see a very special print of a classic film that had undergone a full 4K digital restoration. The print in question was an answer print struck from the newly outputted restored negative, and some additional tweaks would still be done before arriving at the absolute final product. By this point I had no question what we were about to see, but the majority of the audience was still in the dark, as evidenced by the audible gasp and applause from the crowd as those familiar musical notes started playing over black.
So what did the restored print look like? Well, it looked like
THE GODFATHER- that is, it looked as if back in 1972, the pristine and untouched original negative had been locked in a perfectly climate-controlled, hermetically sealed vault, and that vault was just opened and the still-pristine negative was used to strike a brand-spanking new print at the best film lab in the world. You'd never know there was ever anything wrong with the elements watching this print, but hearing of the condition of the negative during the Q&A all I can say is that the final result is a miracle. The texture and detail in the image is incredible- I literally felt like I was watching this great film for the first time ever.
That said, if some folks' issues with the current DVDs have to do with the aesthetic look of the film (i.e., "It's too dark! It's too grainy! The blacks are crushed!") as opposed to any condition issues regarding the elements, I don't know what they'll think of the restored print. It's the same stylized film, with Gordon Willis's super-deep, inky blacks and a palpable, textured grain structure alive and visible throughout. I can see the Blu-ray reviews already from certain circles- "Grain is apparent... shadow detail is wanting." This is not a film that looks like Discovery HD, it looks like
THE GODFATHER and thankfully always will from here on out thanks to this heroic restoration.
On to the Q&A. Hopefully Robert will be able to chime in and give more details, but we were told that much of the negative had damaged or even completely missing sprocket holes, rendering it unprintable by any traditional means, and in some cases the sprocket damage extended into the frame area itself. Robert said that some shots were literally torn in half, with one half of the frame gone, and in some cases they actually had to go to the trims and replace shots (under strict guidelines from Francis Ford Coppola- that any replaced shots be indistinguishable from the original takes in the film under normal viewing conditions). That said, according to Daviau that actual images themselves between those torn sprocket holes were in good shape (I assume he was talking in regards to fading and such, not physical damage), it was just an issue of "harvesting" those images from such damaged original elements. We were told that one of Francis' main directives to Robert Harris and Allen Daviau was to "make Gordon Willis happy". Daviau's role on the project was as a translator of sorts for Gordon Willis's intentions, as Mr. Willis was unable to go to California to directly involve himself in the day-to-day operations of the restoration. Daviau was actually quite a trip to watch- he honestly seemed in awe of Mr. Willis. You could really see the love from one artist to another up on that stage.
As for Mr. Willis, this was actually his first viewing of the restoration, and he seemed extremely happy with the results, commenting that the color was "dead on". Even though I knew the answer due to things Francis Ford Coppola has said in interviews, I figured the audience might want to know so I asked Robert what changed things to make this restoration happen when he'd been talking about it needing to be done for so many years. "Steven Spielberg" was his answer, going to to explain that Steven insisted and Brad Grey at Paramount agreed that the film needed to be saved and thus the project was finally green-lit. Robert also said that it couldn't have been done a few years ago, "because we needed to do it 4K, 2K wasn't good enough to get all the information out of the negatives", and that he knew back in 1997 that the negative was for all intents and purposes at that point, "dead" due to the extensive damage after being shipped a print by Zoetrope to inspect. Robert also had very high praise for Steven Spielberg's long-time post-production supervisor, whose name escapes me at the moment* but apparently was an integral part of the restoration and in Robert's words (paraphrasing a bit) "truly understands film preservation".
As for any "issues" with the print, the only thing I noted was some slight color shifting at a couple of reel changes that occurred within scenes. I'm guessing the "final tweaks" for this "work in progress" as Allen Daviau called it probably have to do with smoothing over these slight bumps. All in all, last night was simply a magical evening, and I hope Paramount does the right thing and gives this some theatrical playdates. My only regret is that I was unable to attend "An evening with Gordon Willis part 2" which is happening tonight featuring a completely different "surprise screening". I think we can all guess what film that is, and I only wish I could be there basking in its restored glory right now.
Vincent
* The man in question is Martin Cohen-
Martin Cohen (I) - and based on the praise that Robert Harris gushed towards him, he sounds like a true friend of film.
