Will we ever see FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in 4K (1 Viewer)

[trajan007]

This classic deserves it and way overdue. Any takers?

 

[lukejosephchung]

MGM owns the film and has just been bought by Amazon and Jeff Bezos. I'm sure they can afford it...

 

[Mark-P]

The entire film was shot through a nylon stocking. I seriously doubt 4K would make a lick of difference.

 

[Allansfirebird]

I saw soundtrack producer Mike Matessino post this on another forum when talking about La La Land's new 50th anniversary soundtrack release of Fiddler:

Those discussions go back to a full year pre-Covid because I assumed that the 50th anniversary would be the perfect opportunity for 4K UHD, and MGM has notes of mine about certain small things to make sure are correct when a remaster happens. (I actually had the music elements since 2019 but would not start the work until UMG responded - but that's a separate story.)

I thought such a release would be the train leaving the station that both the soundtrack release AND Daniel Raim's upcoming documentary "Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen" could jump on, but it turned out that we ARE the train.

MGM was starting to do a lot of element inventory work, but things started moving very slowly once the "MGMazon" news hit and then Covid. I'd been pushing the Mirisches and Jewison to reach out, and telling MGM that these guys deserve to see this restoration while they are with us (Walter just turned 100, Norman 95), but it seems that all that's happened is a lot of inventory management.

We were at least able to search worldwide for music elements as part of this activity and I was hopeful we'd find something beyond the 1-inch album masters, but nothing turned up. The elements are all over the place because this was UA originally and a lot of their material suffered due to what happened with the company starting around that time and then all through the '70s. A lot of work was done with Fiddler elements for the 1979 reissue as well, when the sound was converted to Dolby but 30 minutes were chopped out of the movie, so it's been a lot to sort through. I expect the 4K will happen in due course, when things get back up to speed.

You may also recall that a remake was announced, but I suspect we won't hear anything further about that until they see how West Side Story does for 20th.

 

[usrunnr]

One of my favorite movies. We saw Topol play Tevye on the stage as well.
I too was wondering what a 4K of "Fiddler" might look like. Problematic?
How was this actually filmed? Film stock? Cameras? Lens? etc. It is not the best looking cinematography.

 

[JohnRice]

I seriously doubt it can produce any real improvement without heavy-handed processing. The original image just doesn’t support it, as far as I understand.

 

[usrunnr]

I seriously doubt it can produce any real improvement without heavy-handed processing. The original image just doesn’t support it, as far as I understand.

Do you think a new scan and Blu-ray could improve it?

 

[JohnRice]

Do you think a new scan and Blu-ray could improve it?

No doubt RAH could contribute more, but I suspect the last BR release is about as good as it can get, for the most part. As I recall, it was not shot anamorphically so it has a very small image area. Plus, as has been mentioned, methods were used to reduce the resolution of the camera negative. There are probably things which can be done to improve it a bit, but not much. I don’t know what type of source material there is available either.

 

[PMF]

The entire film was shot through a nylon stocking. I seriously doubt 4K would make a lick of difference.

Not true. With a 4K, we’ll have a greater clarity which will allow us to finally see exactly what brand and manufacturer had produced this now famous legging.

BTW, one could easily argue that this very stocking was the reason behind Fiddler’s successful “run”.

Okay, okay, in all seriousness, a 4K/UHD of Fiddler on the Roof would be a Day One for me.

P.S. Fiddler on the Roof won the Oscar for Best Cinematography: Oswald Morris.