Maltin on Warner's Kane DVD

[Noel Shane]

There's an article in the LA Times today about the tricky "intersection between aesthetics and technology" (as one commentator puts it, with the latter camp prevailing) in digital restoration of movies for DVD production. In particular, it seems many purists dislike the elimination of film grain in the scanning and cleaning up processes of restoration/transfers.

Among those quoted is Leonard Maltin, who "singles out Citizen Kane as a case in which the film grain assisted the visual effect." Says Maltin: "Kane is so full of set shots, most of them generated on an optical printer, that they counted on a certain amount of graininess to help camouflage the illusion. You remove all of the grain, as they can do miraculously well, and you also expose some of the illusion."

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies....hannels

I wondered if anyone has observed this on the WB DVD as opposed to other formats. Having only just recently tottered out of the stone age myself and owning but a single lonely DVD at present, I'll have to reserve opinion.

[Welles Fan]

That's an interesting article. I daresay, I come down on the "best picture possible" side. i cannot think "grain" is intentional in a movie. It sort of reminds me of the debate over whether to "clean" the frescoes on the Sistine ceiling. Did Michelangelo use a lot of washes on the paintings, or were those "washes" merely the results of centuries of dirt and soot?

However, the WB Kane represents the best and worst that is possible in the same restoration. Best, in that the movie looks as new as Raging Bull at least. Worst, in the example of the famous "missing rain on the window" faux pas. It makes on wonder if the people who did the digital restoration were familiar with the film in the first place?

I loved the Singin' in the Rain restoration, and am salivating over the prospect of a similar one for The Adventures of Robin Hood.

[Fredric]

Casablanca comes out next month with the clean-up. And a Roger Ebert commentary. No Peter Bogdanovich one though . I look forward to that one.

Also, The Treasure of Sierra Madre will be out at the end of September, one of the first in a line of WB titles that include newsreels, cartoons, and trailers. You can watch the movie alone or replicate a theatre experience from the "olden days". Sounds nifty.

Rain or no rain, put me on the "clean up a good thing" side. I love the crispness of those chain links as the camera moves up the fence.

[Jaime N. Christley]

That's an interesting article. I daresay, I come down on the "best picture possible" side. i cannot think "grain" is intentional in a movie.

Why not? It could only be unintentional if it's accumulated during projection.

It sort of reminds me of the debate over whether to "clean" the frescoes on the Sistine ceiling. Did Michelangelo use a lot of washes on the paintings, or were those "washes" merely the results of centuries of dirt and soot?

It's easier to make these inquiries with works of art as young as motion pictures, when the artists, technicians, or first-hand witnesses are often still around to tell the tale. And if that's not the case, records and recorded anecdotes and interviews are going to be a lot more detailed and thorough for a movie like Kane than for paintings like those of Michelangelo.