_City Lights_ and Panchromatic film

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Elliot Hearst
Cugine
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 7:28 am

_City Lights_ and Panchromatic film

Postby Elliot Hearst » Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:30 pm

So what's the deal with the poor contrast of this film? I know this was CC's first picture that was shot in the new Pan film. Every print I have ever seen is dark, and has very muddy blacks, and I was always disappointed that this film never looked as good to me as The Gold Rush or The Circus. The next feature, Modern Times, looks much better, and yes I do realize that it was released five years later.

My questions are these: was this simply a function of panchromatic film being new, and was it subsequently improved upon? Did Chaplin dump Pan film for his later features? What exactly was the difference between Pan film and what was being used before? The prior films look beautiful and crisp when seen in a good print. Have the contrast issues been addressed in the recent MK2 reissue of City Lights?

Thanks!

Richard M Roberts
Godfather
Posts: 2895
Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Re: _City Lights_ and Panchromatic film

Postby Richard M Roberts » Wed Jun 17, 2009 3:30 pm

Elliot Hearst wrote:So what's the deal with the poor contrast of this film? I know this was CC's first picture that was shot in the new Pan film. Every print I have ever seen is dark, and has very muddy blacks, and I was always disappointed that this film never looked as good to me as The Gold Rush or The Circus. The next feature, Modern Times, looks much better, and yes I do realize that it was released five years later.

My questions are these: was this simply a function of panchromatic film being new, and was it subsequently improved upon? Did Chaplin dump Pan film for his later features? What exactly was the difference between Pan film and what was being used before? The prior films look beautiful and crisp when seen in a good print. Have the contrast issues been addressed in the recent MK2 reissue of City Lights?

Thanks!


Yes, a lot of existing prints of CITY LIGHTS seems to have poor contrast, but I don't think Pan film had anything to do with it. it may had something to do with the soundtrack (a lot of early talkies are very low contrast due to the variable density tracks sound quality being affected by high contrast), or it may have had something to do with the dupe neg that was prepared for the 1950 reissue that seemed to be what was used to make new prints for quite awhile after it was made. I've never seen the MK2 DVD, but David Shepard's old Image DVD of CITY LIGHTS was beautiful, and I've seen several really beautiful 35mm prints struck in the last few decades from original neg material. Unfortunately, good contrast prints of CITY LIGHTS also bring out some of the more glaring technical flaws in the picture, like the way Chaplin's pants keep changing from white to grey in the street cleaner sequence.

RICHARD M ROBERTS


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