Grover Crisp checks out A Matter of Life & Death digital resoration, Blu-ray in the works? (1 Viewer)

From the TCM Film Festival:

http://filmfestival.tcm.com/a-matter-of-life-and-death/

I note:

"Sony Pictures’ Grover Crisp was on hand to see his company’s splendid digital restoration of A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, which may not have been original Technicolor but gave a very close approximation, with saturated colors and rich contrasts."

Surely. I mean surely. It must be Blu-ray Disc time soon.

Steve W

A Matter Of Life & Death was on TV in HD last year, but it was no Red Shoes or Colonel Blimp, some of it looked a bit fuzzy where the colours weren't quite lined up. This sounds like the real thing.

If Sony's Grover Crisp has indeed restored this Powell & Pressburger classic, which I first saw on television 40 years ago, I'll be all over their blu-ray, whether it comes out from their direct distribution outlets or via Criterion or Twilight Time...this was a totally sublime experience and I'd watch it over and over again!!!

Sign me up for A Matter of Life and Death. Other great films with David Niven which are overdue on blu-ray - Around the World in 80 Days and The Sea Wolves.

This would be at the top of my list of films wanted on Blu-ray.

This was the first P-P film I saw, on television in B&W!

The film was startling to me, I had never seen anything that combined drama and fantasy like that. A strange, compelling, dream-like movie.

It was years before I learned it was in color!

I was lucky enough to have a color TV in 1974 to differentiate the dream sequences from the reality via b/w and Technicolor cinematography when I saw this...now that Sony's Grover Crisp has refurbished the image for this in 4k ultra-HD, I'm chomping at the bit to see this on blu-ray!!!

And I was lucky enough to see a 35mm Technicolor print that showed at MoMA during their Powell/Pressburger retrospective. I think it came from the BFI, but I'm not sure; it was so long ago.
Stunningly beautiful.

I hope the new restoration has restored the sepia tint to the heaven sequences.

Keith Cobby said:

Sign me up for A Matter of Life and Death. Other great films with David Niven which are overdue on blu-ray - Around the World in 80 Days and The Sea Wolves.

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Thanks for mentioning Around the World in 80 Days! One of my last "must haves".

So are several Powell-Pressburgers like this one.

lukejosephchung said:

I was lucky enough to have a color TV in 1974 to differentiate the dream sequences from the reality via b/w and Technicolor cinematography when I saw this...now that Sony's Grover Crisp has refurbished the image for this in 4k ultra-HD, I'm chomping at the bit to see this on blu-ray!!!

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Okay, just for clarity...

- GC did a photochemical restoration about a decade ago (give or take).
- That article (which may or may not be correct) says he was there to have a look at a digital restoration of the film performed by Sony.
- It was projected in 2K (as it has been recently in France)

I have no idea if they've gone back to the original elements to start from scratch, scanned GC's restoration and are doing further work on that, or have simply scanned in it 2K, and the term 'restoration' has been tossed in by someone.

Steve Crook who runs the P&P appreciation society doesn't know anything about any digital restoration - he's usually pretty clued up, and I believe talks to Thelma S and Martin S from time to time.

As RAH is a fan it'd be nice to know if he's heard anything, though if he has he may not be allowed to say.

But the fact that what is clearly a new 2K scan has been shown in both France and the US since the start of the year gives me great hope that a Blu-ray Disc is on the way.

My favourite film, and the only one of my Top 10 (and one of only three in my Top 50 - the others being I Know Where I'm Going and Gun Crazy *) not yet on Blu-ray Disc.

Steve W

* I know, but I'm not paying that.

SW

bujaki said:

And I was lucky enough to see a 35mm Technicolor print that showed at MoMA during their Powell/Pressburger retrospective. I think it came from the BFI, but I'm not sure; it was so long ago.
Stunningly beautiful.

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I saw it at the NFT (I'm pretty sure it was NFT1) back in the early '90s before the restoration, and it was absolutely superb. To date, the only time I've seen it in the big screen.

If this 2K version comes to Bradford I'm all over it - with the whole family if possible.

Steve W

Can anyone definitively explain to me what "dye transfer monochrome" actually was? Was it the only time Technicolor ever used the dye transfer process to print monochrome material?

I've heard theories over the years but never anything definitive. Reading the Crowther review (and boy, he must have been in a rare good mood that day!) is the first mention I've heard of sepia and it makes much more sense if they were using a single "color" that it would be something OTHER than black.

Anybody know? Thanks in advance!

The contemporary Sight & Sound review references the Heaven scenes as being in a "pinkish monochrome".

Tinting and toning was used far more than people realize in the sound era. This is a good article on the process: http://www.northwestchicagofilmsociety.org/2013/09/03/the-true-story-of-tinted-talkies-an-interview-with-anthony-labbate/

I'm not sure if the Technicolor system was similar to the MGM "Sepia Platinum" developed in 1937.

In the late 1940's, a very effective combination was used on the fire scenes in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. I once saw a 35mm nitrate print and it was stunning. Other sepia titles include Torrid Zone, Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Panhandle, Jungle Moon Men, Man in the Dark, Deep Waters, lots of westerns (including most of the Columbia Gene Autry's) etc.

I get the impression that this was something very specific and distinctly different than tinting or toning.

It has SOMETHING to do with rephotographing a black and white negative with the Technicolor camera (or generating three matrices from the negative in some way) and then running the black and white image through the dye transfer line. The incredible and seamless black and white to color transitions were achieved by treating the transitions as long dissolves from the b&w image to the color image that were planned to the frame, but the logic of the specifics I can't quite seem to grasp.

Yorkshire said:

But the fact that what is clearly a new 2K scan has been shown in both France and the US since the start of the year gives me great hope that a Blu-ray Disc is on the way.

Steve W

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I thought Sony were scanning all future releases in 4K, maybe that 2K you talk about was a downrezzed digital intermediate for cinema distribution.

Technicolor was experimenting with different techniques at the time so anything is possible. Surely, some of the Technicolor experts would have some information.

Jack Theakston posted these comments in 2008 about the intricate combination of effects utilized for the last reel of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG:

The effect neither tint nor tone, but a special process that Technicolor's laboratories had been experimenting with for some years prior to MIGHTY JOE YOUNG's release. In fact, one of the films they did some tests with was (I think) CHANG, and that's what had led Coop and Schoedsack to use the process for the first big-city release prints. In the final reel, as printed by Technicolor in a dye-transfer format, shadows, midtones and highlights were printed in distinct color combinations (dark red, orange and yellow). But also colored was the end sequence in Robert Armstrong's office, which was sepia-toned except for the home movies, which were matted and printed on their own matrix in black and white.Apparently, RKO was none too thrilled with the effects (or the cost entailed) and opted for the general release run to be done on normal pre-tinted red stock. So, in fact, there are two variants on what was seen in 1949.Re-issue prints, by the way, did not have the tinting.

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Other sepia-toned films I've seen are: The Great Garrick, Swamp Water, The Ox-Bow Incident, Across the Pacific, the aforementioned Torrid Zone, Wee Willie Winkie, Let Freedom Ring, One Hour with You (with all the tones). These are off the top of my head. Unfortunately, I never saw an original print of The Good Earth or of Maytime.
I don't understand why these films are released to home video without the full experience of the tinting process. If it can be done for The Wizard of Oz, why not the others?
I forgot about Zoo in Budapest, another gorgeously toned film.

Seems like I read somewhere that Cabin in the Sky was filmed in sepia.