Nitrateville: Two complimentary Threads

[Richard M Roberts]

Ya know, over at that sorry little site right now are two threads that are mutually complimentary, the former is "When Death Appears Wonderful" and the latter is the announcement of the new seven-hour restoration of NAPOLEON.

Yep, at the end of viewing a seven-hour version of NAPOLEON, death would seem very wonderful indeed.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[William Ferry]

The only saving grace is, if you run it at sound speed, it should only be around 5:25. Still not, to coin an old phrase, the most effective use of my time. I could watch a good triple feature (to say the least) during that time. But, to each his own.

Not to get off on a tangent, but someone's running a Kickstarter for yet another restoration of the 1925 version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I'm at the stage of my life where I don't really need another upgrade of anything.

[Richard M Roberts]

The only saving grace is, if you run it at sound speed, it should only be around 5:25. Still not, to coin an old phrase, the most effective use of my time. I could watch a good triple feature (to say the least) during that time. But, to each his own.

Not to get off on a tangent, but someone's running a Kickstarter for yet another restoration of the 1925 version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I'm at the stage of my life where I don't really need another upgrade of anything.

Yes, and I'm still waiting for David Shepard, who on Nitwitville years ago exclaimed that there was piles of proof that the intended frame rate for NAPOLEON was 20 frames a second, to show me the proof when I called him on it. I'll have to check in with him on the Ouija Board one of these days and see how it's comin'.

Thanks William, you're going to get me started on that silly Kickstarter project currently on for POTO (or the other Facebook poster screaming not to support it because then their own POTO restoration won't get financed). To begin with, the current Kickstarterer kinda hemmed and hawed about exactly what materials he is using for his "restoration", but kept bandying about having a copy of "The Hampton Print"(and I set you all right on the nonsense of calling the circulating 16mm prints of the 1925 version, which actually came from Vintage Cine Service/later Niles Film Products and had nothing whatsoever to do with John Hampton's actual material in any way several years ago:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2824

)and then clarified that what he has is a 16mm collectors print of the 1925 version to which he will add the Eye Institute's color footage all with the magic of 4K!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I checked with Jere Guilden of the Packard Stanford Theater Collection at UCLA and he tells me they have not given this guy any remnant of the actual "Hampton Print" which they had in their collection and now essentially does not exist----nothing-----they have given him no footage at all.

The other potential Kickstarterer whining internetically to make us stop giving money to the other guy says his little group of restorationists have "an original 16mm Blackhawk print" to work from! Wow! To begin with, the concept of the terms "Blackhawk" and "original", especially in this case, is tenuous at the extreme best, they're perfectly good prints, taken from Paul Killiam's copying of the Eastman House 35mm, but as far as being the main material for a restoration, even with the magic of 4K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, is really not even a step-up from Grapevine Video level. Kevin Brownlow's Photoplay Productions started with the 35mm material from Eastman House, added the only actual footage from the genuine "Hampton Print" that we're ever likely to see, and recreated the Handschliegeling and had a Carl Davis score to boot-------so that's kinda the bare minimum starting point for the bar anyone else "restoring" the film one more damn time has to hit in order for it not be another big waste of time attempting to create a "definitive" restoration of a film that never had a "definitive" version to begin with. There are enough damn copies of POTO for the world to look at, lets spend that time and money and effort on one of the other silent films that hasn't had one one-millionth of the attention paid to them.

There's plenty of silent films that only survive in 16mm collector prints never restored by anybody that could be fairly cleaned up with that 4K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! magic and made to look nicely watchable, even by the home restorationist on his laptop, and it could give fans an opportunity to see something new, not just another shot at buffing and dusting an old warhorse that only survives in somewhat compromised materials that have already been restored to the best of their ability by the experts, if you can't watch it because it's not in 4K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, well, years from now you'll convince yourself that you can't watch it unless its UHD, then you won't be able to watch it because it's not super-sharpness-holographic uberK transmitted directly into your cerebral cortex........whatever! The screaming voices in your head will continue to scream until you turn to dust. Me, I basically have all the mentioned materials on POTO sitting on various shelves in my house, if I want to see POTO again (not a screaming urge screamed much in my head these days) I take my "original" Blackhawk print with the Gaylord Carter score and put it on the projector. I do not plan to send money to ANY Kickstarterer for this film.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

[William Ferry]

Points well taken, Richard. At some stage in my collecting life, I realized there's a saturation level where you just say, that's it. I just turned 65, and my feeling is, I'll concentrate on purchasing stuff I don't already own. I bought the Milestone POTO after holding out for many years; I didn't care how "definitive" it was (or wasn't). I just wanted A copy to watch. Having lived through 8mm, RCA CED discs, VHS, DVDs, and BluRay, my motto is "one and done".