Is it possible that a complete Magnificent Ambersons has been found? (1 Viewer)

[Jon Lidolt]

I just heard that a complete 131 minute print of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons has been found in Brazil and that Warner Brothers will do a 4K restoration for release later this year or early in 2009. Has anyone else heard about this? Is it true? If so, I'll be one of the first in line to buy a copy.

 

[Steve...O]

Source? I am very skeptical.

 

[BillyFeldman]

April 1 was two months ago.

 

[Sergio A]

If only it were true though...

 

[Scott D S]

Now that you mention it, I was on TCM's website the other night for whatever reason and one of the user comments read as follows:
NOTE: I obviously can't vouch for accuracy here but it's interesting nonetheless.
roberto
Date: 05/13/2008
DVD in 2008/09.
Warner will be releasing the 131 minute restored version of Ambersons in late 2008 or early 2009. A complete print was located in a Brazilian film archive. The print is undergoing the 4k restoration process.
roberto
Date: 05/24/2008
Ameberson film
Ambersons film sent to Welles at his hotel the Copacabana Palace. Film did not leave Brazil after that due to customs problems. Adhemar Gonzaga did not destroy fil as directed, unclear why. So film ends up back at the Palace. Hotel finds film cans after the war and for whatever reason sends film to the Cinemateca. Sometime between 1946 and 1976(?) film probably in unauthorized private hands beacause if still at Cinemateca it would have burned in 1957 fires. It ends up at the São Paulo Cinemateque in 1976(?), cans labeled correctly but ignored by over-worked local perservation staff which assumed it was regular print of film. In 2006 their archivist contacted Warner about film cans which turned out ot be complete print in poor but salvagable condition. Film flown to US once Warner gets o.k. from Brazilan court.

 

[JohnRice]

Sounds like a question for Robert Harris.

 

[Robert Harris]

Robert Harris doesn't go for it.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

They found a pristine copy of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT in the same vault, I heard. And that four-hour cut of DUNE.

 

[Richard M S]

When the majority of the cut footage of Judy Garland from A STAR IS BORN was found, it was a New York Times story months before the premiere at Radio City. The same with the re-discovered Gloria Swanson - Rudolph Valentino film. I would expect this to be treated with similar, if not greater press coverage.

I hope I am wrong, but until I read it in the beleagured but still reliable New York Times, I have my doubts.

 

[Jrf2]

If the holy grail of classic cinema had been found, I can imagine there would much more press coverage, but out of sheer hope, I'll remain optimistically skeptical.

 

[RafaelPires]

Ok, I don't know anything about this but I am Brazilian (I live in Rio de Janeiro) and if this information is not true, at least the one that made this up knew a lot of information about Brazilian culture.

Orson Welles was in Brazil in the early forties to film It all came true. Adhemar Gonzaga was one of the most famous fillmmakers in Brazilian History. He owned Cinedia, the studio the made most of Carmen Miranda's brazilian pictures. And I don't doubt think he collected movie pictures.

Orson Welles indeed stayed in Copacabana Palace during his permanency in Rio.

The Cinemateca of São Paulo owns a lot of rare movies and develops a program of preservation of these picures. So this information could be true.

Since a lot of people (including American) think Brazilian people live in jungles, I am really surprised about so many consistent informations. Therefore I am inclined to think they might be true. Who would have all the trouble to make up a tale naming existent brazilian filmakers and cinematecas that really preserves and restore hard to find movies?

 

[BillyFeldman]

I'm with Robert Harris. First of all, from all I've read here since joining this fun forum, he seems to know what's happening at the various studios - it is pretty likely that he'd have heard about it. The Urban Legends surrounding the film are plentiful and have been going on for years. I don't think this latest has any basis in reality, and it sounds like a hoax, and one that's just a little too well thought out - a few too many details that seem far-fetched. One could almost buy that they sent him a print, but since his version was finished before he left, why would they have? Just for fun?

 

[Robert Harris]

I would love this to be true. A number of years ago I worked through continuities and found the longer cut quite incredible, inclusive of the opening sequence which if memory permits had constantly moving camera and ran over four minutes.
One of the major factors against is the Brazilian heat and humidity, and its affect on nitrate.

 

[Dan1]

I started that thread over at Wellsnet when I stumbled onto the Amazon page for the Ambersons DVD. It turns out that Amazon has a number of 'boilerplate' pages like that set up. In any event I registered to be notified when Ambersons is officially released on DVD.

In last year's Warner chat the phrase "good elements have been found" for Maginificent Ambersons is what has lead to all this speculation. Nothing is impossible but after 66 years I think the lost footage is lost forever. "Good elements" means that we will eventually see a quality restoration of the 89 minute Ambersons that we are all familiar with.

BTW has anyone running this board contacted Warner for an Ambersons DVD release date, they did say last year that it would be out in 2008.

 

[Robert Harris]

"Good elements" on the re-cut version and "good elements" on the Welles cut are two different things.

 

[Dan1]

From the 2007 Warner chat:
[PeterNichols] All's well that ends Welles... My subject is Orson Welles. When will WB release The Magnificent Ambersons and/or Journey Into Fear? Or heck, any other Orson Welles related stuff? Including HD.
[WARNER] We have finally found good elements on AMBERSONS, and plan to release both AMBERSONS and JOURNEY in 2008.
A pretty clear statement, nothing extraordinary. I agree with those who believe that if the lost footage were found Warner would be making a very huge deal about it.

 

[David_B_K]

I would love for it to be true, but do not believe it is. As to its being found in Brazil: it has long been hoped that if it did exist, it would be somewhere in South America, due to Welles being down there for It's all True. So, looking for it in Brazil is nothing new.

I'd so like to be proven wrong on this one.

 

[Robert Harris]

Everyone and anyone that have ever researched this came to the same conclusion.
That the print was never returned to Culver City.

 

[BillyFeldman]

Everyone would like it to be true, but only the gullible would believe this, IMHO. Especially when people quote William Friedkin and then people say he never said it - it's what always happens. And everyone gets their hopes up and that is what the creator of the Urban Legend or hoax lives for. As a few people have said, if it were true this would not be a secret.

 

[David_B_K]

I read the thread over @ Wellesnet. Two guys from Wellesnet were there when Friedkin made the alleged remark, and one of them does not remember Friedkin saying anything about the rest of Ambersons being found. So, there is not even agreement among the two guys who were there.
Sometimes, one hears only part of something, and it may be the opposite of what one thinks. He may have said something like "I wish I could say that the rest of Ambersons has been discovered, along with It's All True", and only the second part of it was heard. My wife does that all the time-half listens to something and misses the part that negates the whole thing. The weather man will say "not a chance for rain today", and she'll say "did he just say "chance for rain today?!"