Recent Film Restorations

[dda1996a]

As part of my job in a film festival, I am in contact with Lopushansky (he is still alive and well), and can say all of his films have been restored and looks wonderful, I just don't know if there are any plans to release them on any physical formats.
They do have English subtitles.
I've only watched Russian Symphony and Solo so far from the restorations, but both looked great!

jmj713, I very enthusiastically second more exposure to the titles you mentioned - City Zero, Dead Man's Letters, Kin-Dza-Dza and Per Aspera Ad Astra.

I was happy to hear about the upcoming Blu-ray of City Zero. Kin-Dza-Dza already has stellar Blu-ray editions in Japan and Germany (although not English-friendly). A restoration of Per Aspera Ad Astra was famously botched by the director's son. That "restored" version should be avoided like a plague. There were rumors of the original version been also restored and shown in UK in 2019.

The other dystopian Russian films I can recommend (although from a slightly later period) are Barabaniada (Drumroll) (1993) by Sergei Ovcharov, Okno v Parizh (Window to Paris) (1993) and Bakenbardy (Sideburns) (1990) by Yuri Mamin, and Okraina (Outskirts) (1998) by Pyotr Lutsik.

Apparently there is an HD version of Dead Man's Letters? https://kion.ru/video/movie/637578391

Was this actually restored?

[Calvin]

As part of my job in a film festival, I am in contact with Lopushansky (he is still alive and well), and can say all of his films have been restored and looks wonderful, I just don't know if there are any plans to release them on any physical formats.
They do have English subtitles.
I've only watched Russian Symphony and Solo so far from the restorations, but both looked great!

Dead Man's Letters is getting a German Blu-Ray release in October. English subtitles are listed.

[jmj713]

Amazing news!

[Yakushima]

As part of my job in a film festival, I am in contact with Lopushansky (he is still alive and well), and can say all of his films have been restored and looks wonderful, I just don't know if there are any plans to release them on any physical formats.
They do have English subtitles.
I've only watched Russian Symphony and Solo so far from the restorations, but both looked great!

Dead Man's Letters is getting a German Blu-Ray release in October. English subtitles are listed.

This is fantastic news! However, this Blu-ray will be released by the same Ostalgica that was responsible for many subpar Blu-ray editions, including the "To the Stars by Hard Ways" disc. Fingers crossed it's good, and if not, I hope this film will be done justice by a better company before too long.

[jmj713]

Any chance Criterion acquires it?

[yoloswegmaster]

In this current political climate, I doubt it.

[furbicide]

That's incredibly exciting, and long overdue.

Had a look at a few different site listings, and these are the cheapest options I could find posting to Australia:

wicked-shop.com: €22.67 plus €9.00 shipping
ofdb.de: €26.98 plus €7 shipping

Amazon, by contrast, currently has it up for €32.74 plus €9.23 shipping.

[furbicide]

Oops, major caveat to the above – the disc has a German dub and no original soundtrack option!

From the company's Facebook page, in response to the following customer query (auto-translated into English):

https://www.facebook.com/ostalgica/post ... HUm47KCvPl

Without the original Russian version and without an explanation???

unfortunately there are legal issues. That’s why we can’t publish the Russian soundtrack.

Unfortunately that's pretty decisive for me. How disappointing!

[Stefan Andersson]

Restorations of I Even Met Happy Gypsies and Holy Sand, in a season of Yugoslav films:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5607

[MichaelB]

Oh, wonderful news! Happy Gypsies is an insanely important film in the history of Eastern European cinema (Emir Kusturica and Tony Gatlif owe it a huge amount), and thus far I’ve only been able to see it in a truly Godawful copy on a Serbian DVD, whose only saving grace was that it had English subtitles.

[Stefan Andersson]

For the record -- on the restoration of Spione:
https://www.berlinale.de/external/progr ... 053719.pdf
https://www.filmportal.de/nachrichten/b ... erschienen
http://filmhistoriker.de/magazine/wilkening_spione.htm
https://www.filmblatt.de/2010/10/01/__trashed/

Color analysis for the resto of Cabinet of Dr Caligari:
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/11748 ... ckiger.pdf

I Never Believe in a Woman (1930), starring Richard Tauber, rediscovered and restored; see Filmblatt, no. 81, Spring 2023:
https://www.filmblatt.de/2023/05/15/fil ... jahr-2023/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_glaub ... _eine_Frau

[djvaso]

Restorations of I Even Met Happy Gypsies and Holy Sand, in a season of Yugoslav films:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5607

I Even Met Happy Gypsies at Cannes Classics 2017
https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/pres ... sics-2017/

Presented by Jugoslovenska Kinoteka/The Yugoslav Film Archive and Malavida.
New 35mm print from the original negative in perfect shape then scanned in 2K and cleaned up.

Holy Sand at Nitrate Film Festival 2022
https://www.kinoteka.org.rs/nitrat-24-d ... ke-antica/ (in Serbian)

I'm quite curious about the screening of Kadijević's film 'Praznik' (The Feast) and Živanović's film 'Čudna devojka' (Strange Girl). Will it be a film reel projection or a digital screening?

[Stefan Andersson]

Restorations of I Even Met Happy Gypsies and Holy Sand, in a season of Yugoslav films:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5607

I Even Met Happy Gypsies at Cannes Classics 2017
https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/pres ... sics-2017/

Presented by Jugoslovenska Kinoteka/The Yugoslav Film Archive and Malavida.
New 35mm print from the original negative in perfect shape then scanned in 2K and cleaned up.

Holy Sand at Nitrate Film Festival 2022
https://www.kinoteka.org.rs/nitrat-24-d ... ke-antica/ (in Serbian)

I'm quite curious about the screening of Kadijević's film 'Praznik' (The Feast) and Živanović's film 'Čudna devojka' (Strange Girl). Will it be a film reel projection or a digital screening?

Hi djvaso!
Many thanks for the above updates!
Sadly, no info posted on the MoMA site about whether The Feast and Strange Girl is screening digitally or from film reels.

[djvaso]

Hello Stefan,
Not at all.

The third phase of "A1 Kinoteka" (formerly VIP Kinoteka) project of digitization and restoration of Serbian cinema heritage started with Sezona mira u Parizu (1981). This phase will include 10 titles as previous ones and has span of two years.
http://www.kinoteka.org.rs/restaurisana ... -u-parizu/

Restored movies in the third phase:
- Sezona mira u Parizu (Une saison de paix à Paris) (1981) Predrag Golubović
- Buđenje pacova (The Rats Woke Up) (1967) Živojin Pavlović
- Pop Ćira i pop Spira (1957) Soja Jovanović
- Čuvar plaže u zimskom periodu (Beach Guard in Winter) (1976) Goran Paskaljević
- Neka druga žena (Some Other Woman) (1981) Miomir Miki Stamenković
- Tajvanska kanasta (Taiwan Canasta) (1985) Goran Marković
- Pas koji je voleo vozove (The Dog Who Loved Trains) (1977) Goran Paskaljević
- Belo odelo (The White Suit) (1999) Lazar Ristovski
- Za sada bez dobrog naslova (A Film with No Name) (1988) Srđan Karanović
- Pusti snovi (1968) Soja Jovanović

[Stefan Andersson]

TV version of Kusturica´s Underground seems to have gotten a new 4k restoration; limited theatrical showings planned for France:
http://www.malavidafilms.com/cinema/underground

[beamish14]

TV version of Kusturica´s Underground seems to have gotten a new 4k restoration; limited theatrical showings planned for France:
http://www.malavidafilms.com/cinema/underground

I keep hoping that his cut of Arizona Dream will get a restoration, but I guess that’s up to WB, and they’re completely indifferent to it

[Stefan Andersson]

Restored Patricio Guzman films:
The First Year
http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_s ... wing-56515
The Battle of Chile:
https://www.bam.org/film/2023/the-battl ... e-parts1-2
https://www.bam.org/film/2023/the-battle-of-chile-part3

El Realismo Socialista (1973), Raul Ruiz/Valeria Sarmiento:
https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/20 ... 1/20842/in

[A Tempted Christ]

The Battle of Chile:
https://www.bam.org/film/2023/the-battl ... e-parts1-2
https://www.bam.org/film/2023/the-battle-of-chile-part3

Fantastic news! There is a trailer too and it looks great.

[hearthesilence]

TV version of Kusturica´s Underground seems to have gotten a new 4k restoration; limited theatrical showings planned for France:
http://www.malavidafilms.com/cinema/underground

Wow, never thought this would happen! I hope it reaches the U.S. - I have the BFI Blu-ray, which at least has the SD master (broadcast master?) of the TV version.

[Stefan Andersson]

Siodmak´s The Suspect "restored in 4K by Universal Pictures from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm fine grain nitrate composite"; showing Oct. 17 at BFI Southbank, in their new Restored programming strand:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/programme-l ... k-bfi-imax

[tenia]

Lyon Lumiere Film Festival has started detailing the restored movies it will program, including 6 Ozu movies (the five newly restored ones plus The End of Summer, that Carlotta already re-released in 2020).

It will have a Wenders retrospective (since he's 2023's Grand Prize), but also a Robert Altman one.
Alexander Payne and Wes Anderson will be there as Special Guests. Both should also get retrospective, but both will also present their new movies (The Holdovers for Payne, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar for Anderson).
JA Bayona will present his new movie La sociedad de la nieve.

The complete program is expected somewhere within the next 10 days (if it drops around the same time than past years).

[ryannichols7]

and that's the first confirmation that Toho restored The Munekata Sisters and The End of Summer. roll on a massive boxset, Criterion!

[beamish14]

Oh, wow, Tsui Hark’s Dangerous Encounters-1st Kind.

I’d get a Blu-Ray in a heartbeat if it gave you the option of watching it without the unconscionable animal cruelty at the beginning. The rest of it is stellar stuff

[Mr Sausage]

Oh, wow, Tsui Hark’s Dangerous Encounters-1st Kind.

I’d get a Blu-Ray in a heartbeat if it gave you the option of watching it without the unconscionable animal cruelty at the beginning. The rest of it is stellar stuff

Totally seconded. It’s a strong, vital movie, but one I very much wish came in an animal cruelty free version like Grindhouse use to offer with their Cannibal Holocaust DVD. Tsui made a brilliant movie that’s kinda hard to recommend.

[zedz]

and that's the first confirmation that Toho restored The Munekata Sisters and The End of Summer. roll on a massive boxset, Criterion!

Not exactly. I saw the Munekata Sisters restoration a couple of months ago: it’s been on the festival circuit.