Home Theater Forum recently had the opportunity to chat with Leonard Maltin and Andrea Kalas the SVP Asset Management at Paramount Pictures to discuss Roman Holiday and the restoration work done in preparation for the upcoming Paramount Presents: Blu-ray release on September 15th.
The limited-edition Paramount Presents Blu-ray Disc™ is presented in collectible packaging that includes a foldout image of the film’s theatrical re-release poster, and an interior spread with
key movie moments. Newly remastered from a 4K film transfer, the ROMAN HOLIDAY Blu-ray also includes a new Filmmaker Focus with film historian Leonard Maltin, access to a Digital copy of the film, as well as previously released featurettes on Academy Award®-winner Audrey Hepburn, Edith Head’s Oscar®-winning* costumes, the blacklisting of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and much more.
Bonus Features:
– Filmmaker Focus: Leonard Maltin on Roman Holiday
– Behind the Gates: Costumes
– Rome with a Princess
– Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years
– Dalton Trumbo: From A-List to Blacklist
– Paramount in the ’50s: Remembering Audrey
– Theatrical Trailers
– Four Photo Galleries: Production, The Movie, Publicity, The Premiere
Paramount had to rely on a 35mm fine grain print as well as a dupe negative for their new 4K scan as the original negative was damaged by the original lab in Rome. Here are some examples of the original restoration showing the condition of the original source material and the final result of the restoration (left to right on each clip).
Leonard Maltin talks about the history of the film and Andrea Kalas goes into more depth about the restoration in the video below:
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Thoroughly enjoyed this informative primer towards a Day-One purchase.
filmnoirguy
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Angelo Colombus
Hud would be on the top of my list and overdue for a new release.
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Actually, several of us HTFers were part of the chat with Paramount and Leonard Maltin.
AlexNH
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Surprised this needs to be spelled out, but Adam is sharing some of what we learned from the chat in his write up - he isn’t sharing the whole chat.
noel aguirre
noel aguirre
iTunes has the second revision with Dalton Trumbo getting both Screenwriting and Story credits, so that should be the latest restoration.
GerardoHP
Supporting Actor
I have the 4K stream on iTunes and think it looks terrific.
Also here’s a quote from RAH’s updated comments on the 4K disc:
“Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, has received a 4k make-over from the OCN, and with the help of Dolby Vision, it all seems to work for the best.
We gain a far more stable image, that's also more highly resolved, with gorgeous grain structure.”
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To be clear, there were inconsistencies on my OLED between HDR and DV, which after a less than wonderful image in projection, compounded the confusion on the OLED until I segregated the two HDR variants. Also Paramount was kind enough to screen a portion of their 4k master for me.
This led to my re-writing the review.
Bottom line is, that if one has DV formatted properly on a panel, all is well with Wonderful Life.
Is it a 4k necessity?
I don’t believe so.
