I finally saw The Big Country on the big screen last night--at the Rafael. I was wrong to give this sprawling, 1958, pacifistic western a B. This is A material. This was the second of the Rafael’s three-part, weekend-long Academy Color Restorations series. Part 3, Jean Renoir's The River, starts tonight at 7:00. The restoration … Continue reading The Big Country on the Big Screen
Category: Film Preservation
Good News on Universal Fire
You may remember my post from last month, Precious Prints Lost to Fire. Universal Studios lost almost its entire collection of archival 35mm prints in the fire that also damaged parts of the amusement park. While new prints could be struck from the unharmed negatives (stored in Philidelphia), economic realities suggested at that time that … Continue reading Good News on Universal Fire
Precious Prints Lost to Fire
You've probably heard about the big fire at Universal Studios, and about how nothing irreplaceable was destroyed. While that's true in the technical sense, economic realities control what does and does not get replaced. Thus, thanks to that fire, many an old Universal and Paramount movie will probably never be properly screened again (Universal owns … Continue reading Precious Prints Lost to Fire
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