posted 06-12-2006 01:04 PM                       

quote: John Koutsoumis

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Just out of interest there was a new print of High Society struck for Chapel Distribution some years back.
But it's just Eastman Colour and going by the terribe colour, contrast and over grainy results many of the other re-issues have, this one may suffer the same.

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posted 06-12-2006 10:55 PM                    

Hi John.

I have not seen the print of High Society so I really can't comment on that one. I'm sure your right about 2383 stock but...
Chapel also had a new 35mm (announced as printed on 2393 stock) print of "Ryan's Daughter" in 1999 (filmed in Panavaion 70) and a new 70mm print of "Ben-Hur" in 1996. Both prints are awful and should have never left the lab. The Ryan's Daughter print is soft, lacks detail and poor contrast (i've seen 'Techniscope' films look better than this) and the optical mono track is completely un-intelligible and the Ben-Hur print has poor colour/contrast and excessive grain and is missing the highlights. One patron at a screening called it "almost black & white".

I have both these titles on DVD and they come up stunning with images superior to modern films, in my opinion.

Other titles which they have had bad luck with are: "Meet me in St.Louis", "North by Northwest" terrble grain and dull, "The Apartment" and number of others. Also they apparently had to junk a new print of "Sunset Boulevard" (well it's no longer on their list) due to it having excessive football size grain and lacking definition and basically not showable to the public.
A 16mm print is now screened in it's place.

I think the probelm is that they order these "new prints"
without any one actually checking the source elements and lab work and they arrive here in Melbourne thousands (sometimes in the ten's) of dollars later looking like

The High Society print is labeled as "Technicolor". I'll make some enquires the next time i'm at the Astor Theatre.

Chapel Films

quote:

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G) (Charles Walters, 1956. 107m) New 35mm Technicolor Print 1.85 (with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra) Glittering musical version of "The Philadelphia Story" featuring Louis Armstrong and Cole Porter's songs and music. Great songs, great singers. 16mm print also available

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quote:

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But the results justfied the expense and the superb, full-frame image combined with the digitally-remastered sound means that "Gone With The Wind" will be more stunning and closer to the original "Glorious Technicolor" in Australia than anywhere else in the world.

Indeed, the results were so good that Chapel Distribution decided to use Kodak Vision Premier where appropriate for other re-releases.

One of these is "Ryan's Daughter". It was filmed using the 70mm system (actually 65mm in the camera) but there are no 70mm prints still in a good-enough condition to be projected. Producing a new 70mm print from the old elements, which had faded and shrunk, would have required a full-scale restoration and certainly could not have been done in time for the 30th-anniversary screenings.

Chapel Distribution arranged for good-quality 35mm elements to be used to make a print using the new Kodak stock.

The new print is probably the best one of "Ryan's Daughter" available anywhere in the world.

We think you will agree that it was worth the effort when you see "Ryan's Daughter" and "Gone With The Wind" when they screen in Melbourne and Sydney.

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Sadly the above is all lies when you look at the final result.