I think I have mentioned this before on another thread, but I think another crack should be taken at a restoration.
When the restoration happened in 1991-2 (I remember reading about it in 1991) you did not have the tools that exist now.
You did not have the type of digital tools that exist now
Look at tools like Avid technologies Pro-Tools audio software. I have seen audio editors do amazing things with this software. Think Photoshop for audio. I bet a decent engineer could pull good elements, including the music tracks, without having to re-record it. You can also re-sync elements.
You have digital editing tools from Avid, Adobe, Decreet and Apple, that could correct the white and black levels. Think Photoshop for films. I have a bit of experience in this field as well and I would love a crack at this. All I would need is a digi-beta of the print, pre "restoration" and a good editing suite and lots of good strong coffee!
Re-master and authoring of the DVD. From my persoanl persepctive, that technology has gotten better. I would love to see a Super-bit disk. Also better compression hardware exists now.
The best means would be to get a negative, scan each frame using an oil film gate (like what was used in the 'Metropolis' restoration) and then going to town with the work.
Oh, if only I had truck loads of money!
Marc
othellos
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marcoshark
- Member
- Posts: 30
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It was over two years ago I posted my question somewhere higher on this thread, but i've finally aquired a copy of the french othello and I like the opening that is in the french version but not other versions, kind of reminds me of some of the shots from the beginning of Kane.
Anyway, the great guy I got this from mentioned that this might have been the version that premiered at Cannes. i thought it possible but thought nothing of it after that. So I'm browsing around and for no particular reason, decide to look up a few names of the people that dubbed the french othello. And while most of them died in the 90's, there were two who died in the late fifties. So i guess my question would be, has anybody found evidence that this and NOT the criterion LD version was the one that premiered at Cannes?
Anyway, the great guy I got this from mentioned that this might have been the version that premiered at Cannes. i thought it possible but thought nothing of it after that. So I'm browsing around and for no particular reason, decide to look up a few names of the people that dubbed the french othello. And while most of them died in the 90's, there were two who died in the late fifties. So i guess my question would be, has anybody found evidence that this and NOT the criterion LD version was the one that premiered at Cannes?
-
ToddBaesen
- Wellesnet Advanced
- Posts: 647
- Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2001 12:00 am
- Location: San Francisco
Thanks to Glenn, I just had the chance to see the 1952 European cut of OTHELLO on DVD for the very first time and was quite startled by how different, (and to my mind, superior), this version is to the 1955 American version.
The 1955 U.S. version was released by United Artists (and in 1993 on Criterion laserdisc), and was the version that was re-scored and re-edited for the 1992 Beatrice Welles approved "mutilation" which made far more mistakes then corrections.
Here's how the opening reel of the the 1952 version plays out... If you look at the 1955 version while scanning the text below, you'll see that almost every scene contains additional lines from Shakespeare's play which Welles eliminated from his 1955 U.S. cut.
In place of the lines and scenes he cut, Welles added two sections of voice-over narration.
*************
The long opening scene of the Funeral procession of Othello and Desdemona, along with the caging of Iago...
THE TITLES ARE SPOKEN BY ORSON WELLES
Over the spoken titles, we see a series of beautiful lap-dissolves of ship masts in Venice harbor, reflections in canals, scenes of the city, cats walking in alleyways, etc...
ORSON WELLES
The Tragedy of OTHELLO.
This is a motion picture based on the play by William Shakespeare. The cast of characters in order of their appearance:
(Here Welles reads the entire cast and credits, ending with):
Orson Welles directed and produced. This is a Mercury production.
Dissolve from rippling water of a canal to Othello and Desdemona before the Church altar, viewed by Iago and Roderigo.
RODERIGO
Desdemona and Othello…
IAGO
I have told thee often and I retell thee again and again:
I hate the Moor. It is thought abroad that twixt my sheets he
Hath done me offence. I know it be true.
RODERIGO
What a full fortune does the thick lips owe!
If he can carry’t thus!
IAGO
II'll poison his delight.
RODERIGO
But how, Iago?
(pause)
How, Iago?
IAGO
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
plague him with flies.
RODERIGO
Now they come. What should I do think’st thou?
IAGO
Why, go to bed, and sleep.
RODERIGO
I will incontinently drown myself.
IAGO
Oh, villainous!
RODERIGO
What should I do?
IAGO
Do, put money in thy purse. Ere I would say,
I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen,
I would change my humanity with a baboon.
Roderigo and Iago follow Othello and Desdemonda in a gondola while Iago talks:
IAGO
I say put money in thy purse. Come, be a man.
Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies!
It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor, nor he his to her. This was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration. Fill thy purse with money.
When she is sated with his body,
she will find the error of her choice:
she must have change, she must.
Therefore make money. If thou needs damn thyself,
do it a more delicate way than drowning.
*******
Iago and Roderigo in a gondola in front of Brabantio's house.
IAGO and RODERIGO
Awake! Thieves! Thieves! Look to your house! Look to your house! Your daughter! Your daughter!
IAGO
Signor, is all you family within?
BRABANTIO
Why, wherefore ask you this?
IAGO
If't be your pleasure... that your fair daughter be
Transported, with no worse nor better guard
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor.
BRABANTIO
This thou shalt answer!
IAGO
Straight satisfy yourself:
If she be in her chamber or your house.
RODERIGO
Iago, can I depend on the issue?
IAGO
Thou art sure of me: go, make money.
BRABANTIO
It is too true an evil: gone she is…
IAGO
Is there not charms
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused? Have you not read Roderigo
Of some such thing?
RODERIGO
Yes sir, I have indeed.
BRABANTIO
Call up all my people, raise my kindred!
*******
BRABANTIO
Where is the Moor? Out with him. Speak!
OTHELLO
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining, and the rest:
Where it my cue to fight, I should have know it
Without a prompter.
BRABANTIO
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
OTHELLO
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Good signor, where would you that I go
To answer this your charge?
BRABANTIO
To prison, till fit time
Of law and course of direct session
Call thee to answer.
OFFICER
Pray you lead on.
OTHELLO
Iago, bring Desdemona after us, and let your wife attend on her.
IAGO
Emilia
EMILIA
Yes my lord?
IAGO
Bring Desdemona after us.
*******
Senators and officials on the steps and balcony of the Doge's Palace.
SAILOR
Signor’s, signor’s…
SENATOR
My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE
And mine, a hundred and forty.
SENATOR
And there’s two hundred:
LODOVICO
Yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up towards Cyprus.
SAILOR
Signor’s, Signor’s… The Turkish preparation makes
for Rhodes!
SENATOR
To Rhodes? How many do you guess?
DUKE
Of thirty sail…
LODOVICO
(reading letter from Montano)
…and now they do re-stem
Their back ward course, bearing with frank appearance
their purposes toward Cyprus.
PAGE
Here comes the Moor.
BRABANTIO
Your Grace, your Grace…
(falls down on stairs)
LODOVICO
My Lord Brabantio!
BRABANTIO
My daughter… oh my daughter.
LODOVICO
What’s the matter?
BRABANTIO
She is abused, stol'n from me, ay, corrupted
By magic spells.
DUKE
I'm very sorry.
Interior of the Senate chamber
BRABANTIO
She in chains of magic were not bound, made to tender,
fair and happy, whatever have to incur a general mock
run from her father to the sooty bosom of such a thing as that.
BRABANTIO
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!
SENATOR
Othello, what in your own part can you say to this?
BRABANTIO
Nothing, but this is so.
LODOVICO
Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
OTHELLO
Most potent, grave, and reverend signors,
My very noble and approved good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her:
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic,
For such proceeding I am charged withal,
I won his daughter... Brabantio loved me, oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak...This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: I ... found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,...
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. ...
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
The 1955 U.S. version was released by United Artists (and in 1993 on Criterion laserdisc), and was the version that was re-scored and re-edited for the 1992 Beatrice Welles approved "mutilation" which made far more mistakes then corrections.
Here's how the opening reel of the the 1952 version plays out... If you look at the 1955 version while scanning the text below, you'll see that almost every scene contains additional lines from Shakespeare's play which Welles eliminated from his 1955 U.S. cut.
In place of the lines and scenes he cut, Welles added two sections of voice-over narration.
*************
The long opening scene of the Funeral procession of Othello and Desdemona, along with the caging of Iago...
THE TITLES ARE SPOKEN BY ORSON WELLES
Over the spoken titles, we see a series of beautiful lap-dissolves of ship masts in Venice harbor, reflections in canals, scenes of the city, cats walking in alleyways, etc...
ORSON WELLES
The Tragedy of OTHELLO.
This is a motion picture based on the play by William Shakespeare. The cast of characters in order of their appearance:
(Here Welles reads the entire cast and credits, ending with):
Orson Welles directed and produced. This is a Mercury production.
Dissolve from rippling water of a canal to Othello and Desdemona before the Church altar, viewed by Iago and Roderigo.
RODERIGO
Desdemona and Othello…
IAGO
I have told thee often and I retell thee again and again:
I hate the Moor. It is thought abroad that twixt my sheets he
Hath done me offence. I know it be true.
RODERIGO
What a full fortune does the thick lips owe!
If he can carry’t thus!
IAGO
II'll poison his delight.
RODERIGO
But how, Iago?
(pause)
How, Iago?
IAGO
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kinsmen,
And, though he in a fertile climate dwell,
plague him with flies.
RODERIGO
Now they come. What should I do think’st thou?
IAGO
Why, go to bed, and sleep.
RODERIGO
I will incontinently drown myself.
IAGO
Oh, villainous!
RODERIGO
What should I do?
IAGO
Do, put money in thy purse. Ere I would say,
I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen,
I would change my humanity with a baboon.
Roderigo and Iago follow Othello and Desdemonda in a gondola while Iago talks:
IAGO
I say put money in thy purse. Come, be a man.
Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies!
It cannot be that Desdemona should long continue her love to the Moor, nor he his to her. This was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration. Fill thy purse with money.
When she is sated with his body,
she will find the error of her choice:
she must have change, she must.
Therefore make money. If thou needs damn thyself,
do it a more delicate way than drowning.
*******
Iago and Roderigo in a gondola in front of Brabantio's house.
IAGO and RODERIGO
Awake! Thieves! Thieves! Look to your house! Look to your house! Your daughter! Your daughter!
IAGO
Signor, is all you family within?
BRABANTIO
Why, wherefore ask you this?
IAGO
If't be your pleasure... that your fair daughter be
Transported, with no worse nor better guard
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor.
BRABANTIO
This thou shalt answer!
IAGO
Straight satisfy yourself:
If she be in her chamber or your house.
RODERIGO
Iago, can I depend on the issue?
IAGO
Thou art sure of me: go, make money.
BRABANTIO
It is too true an evil: gone she is…
IAGO
Is there not charms
By which the property of youth and maidhood
May be abused? Have you not read Roderigo
Of some such thing?
RODERIGO
Yes sir, I have indeed.
BRABANTIO
Call up all my people, raise my kindred!
*******
BRABANTIO
Where is the Moor? Out with him. Speak!
OTHELLO
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining, and the rest:
Where it my cue to fight, I should have know it
Without a prompter.
BRABANTIO
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter?
OTHELLO
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Good signor, where would you that I go
To answer this your charge?
BRABANTIO
To prison, till fit time
Of law and course of direct session
Call thee to answer.
OFFICER
Pray you lead on.
OTHELLO
Iago, bring Desdemona after us, and let your wife attend on her.
IAGO
Emilia
EMILIA
Yes my lord?
IAGO
Bring Desdemona after us.
*******
Senators and officials on the steps and balcony of the Doge's Palace.
SAILOR
Signor’s, signor’s…
SENATOR
My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE
And mine, a hundred and forty.
SENATOR
And there’s two hundred:
LODOVICO
Yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up towards Cyprus.
SAILOR
Signor’s, Signor’s… The Turkish preparation makes
for Rhodes!
SENATOR
To Rhodes? How many do you guess?
DUKE
Of thirty sail…
LODOVICO
(reading letter from Montano)
…and now they do re-stem
Their back ward course, bearing with frank appearance
their purposes toward Cyprus.
PAGE
Here comes the Moor.
BRABANTIO
Your Grace, your Grace…
(falls down on stairs)
LODOVICO
My Lord Brabantio!
BRABANTIO
My daughter… oh my daughter.
LODOVICO
What’s the matter?
BRABANTIO
She is abused, stol'n from me, ay, corrupted
By magic spells.
DUKE
I'm very sorry.
Interior of the Senate chamber
BRABANTIO
She in chains of magic were not bound, made to tender,
fair and happy, whatever have to incur a general mock
run from her father to the sooty bosom of such a thing as that.
BRABANTIO
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!
SENATOR
Othello, what in your own part can you say to this?
BRABANTIO
Nothing, but this is so.
LODOVICO
Did you by indirect and forced courses
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections?
OTHELLO
Most potent, grave, and reverend signors,
My very noble and approved good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her:
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic,
For such proceeding I am charged withal,
I won his daughter... Brabantio loved me, oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak...This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: I ... found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,...
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. ...
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
Todd
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Glenn Anders
- Wellesnet Legend
- Posts: 1906
- Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2003 12:50 pm
- Location: San Francisco
- Contact:
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