New DCP restoration of "Chimes at Midnight"

[Roger Ryan]

Just to clarify, the TCM showing of OTHELLO last night wasn't stretched to fill a 1.78:1 widescreen image but was cropped at the top and bottom to meet that ratio. This was extremely surprising given that there is no question that Welles shot the film in Academy ratio of 1.33:1 and all of the theatrical screenings of this new restoration observed that ratio. All the same, the result wasn't quite as compromising as one would fear; I can only put this down to Welles framing his shots fairly wide throughout. Still, Criterion will never hear the end of it if their upcoming Blu-ray/DVD release is issued in this altered ratio!

Regarding the CHIMES negative: a short "restoration demo" which screened after the film at the recent Indiana University symposium made it sound like the original negative was not properly preserved and the restoration producers needed to utilize different prints and/or inter-positives to create the current DCP that is making the rounds. I found this info rather distressing, but hope a potential U.S. release will have more luck in finding the best materials available.

[mido505]

Regarding the CHIMES negative: a short "restoration demo" which screened after the film at the recent Indiana University symposium made it sound like the original negative was not properly preserved and the restoration producers needed to utilize different prints and/or inter-positives to create the current DCP that is making the rounds.

I'm going to try to parse this out based on information gleaned from the Michael Dawson interview that Mike Teal conducted and posted here at Wellesnet.

The rights to CHIMES were originally divided between the initial producer, Spaniard Emiliano Piedra, and Harry Saltzman, who was brought in to provide completion funds. Originally,

copyright would be shared 50-50 between Saltzman and Emiliano Piedra, but Saltzman would get distribution rights throughout the world, except for Spain, Portugal, and all the Spanish-speaking territories, and those distribution rights would be in perpetuity.

At one point Beatrice Welles thought she had some control/ownership over CHIMES, based on Welles's "authorship" rights, but the discovery in France of a letter in which Welles abrogates all rights to CHIMES, including authorship, in perpetuity, put her out of the picture in a strictly legal sense. Despite stories and rumors to the contrary, Beatrice has not been an obstacle to the proper restoration and release of CHIMES.

Much legal wrangling between the Piedra Estate and the Saltzman estate occurred over the years, but the short version of the end result is that the Saltzman estate retained the North American distribution rights and, more importantly, the original negative elements.

Through a series of complicated maneuvers, a group of investors including Dawson obtained control of those elements:

So we obtained those elements from Arthur Cantor ourselves, by making a better offer. Three new 35mm release prints had already been made from those elements, and one of them was shown at the 1989 NYU symposium on Welles, which Oja Kodar attended. That print was extraordinary, and I'm still in possession of it.

Arthur Cantor was an American distributor to whom Harry Saltzman entrusted the CHIMES negative, along with a print, in the early 80's.

There's also this:

That was actually a fundraiser for the Prop Theatre. We had done some preliminary work on the print. One of the things that we had to do was to come up with a restoration budget, so in the process we did some work on it in terms of timing and shifting some sync, and also removing a lot of noise from the soundtrack. We showed it on four consecutive nights, and all four nights were completely sold out. Afterwards I had people tell me it was the best they had ever seen the film look or sound. We were using elements copied straight from film’s 1st generation master dupe negative.

My guess is that the DCP restoration, having been carried out by Filmoteca Espanola, used elements controlled by the Piedra Estate that, while good, did not derive directly from the original negative, which is controlled by Dawson's group. Note that the original Mr. Bongo DVD release of CHIMES from 2011 bears the credit "An Emiliano Piedra Production Licensed for the estate of Emiliano Piedra, Thanks to Delores Piedra". This article from the independent http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/orson-welles-rarely-seen-masterpiece-is-restored-and-rereleased-2313302.html states that the Piedra Estate holds the French rights (I'm not sure if this was part of the original arrangement, or was the result of a 2002 French court settlement), so the StudioCanal restoration probably derived from similar elements.

Indiana University screened the DCP restoration, so Roger Ryan's above comments make sense in regards to this particular restoration, but may not pertain to the upcoming U.S. release.

Dawson's group probably still controls the negative elements, so if he is involved in the upcoming U.S. restoration and release the original elements will come into play.

Someone should ask Dawson about this.

[atcolomb]

Just to clarify, the TCM showing of OTHELLO last night wasn't stretched to fill a 1.78:1 widescreen image but was cropped at the top and bottom to meet that ratio. This was extremely surprising given that there is no question that Welles shot the film in Academy ratio of 1.33:1 and all of the theatrical screenings of this new restoration observed that ratio. All the same, the result wasn't quite as compromising as one would fear; I can only put this down to Welles framing his shots fairly wide throughout. Still, Criterion will never hear the end of it if their upcoming Blu-ray/DVD release is issued in this altered ratio!

Regarding the CHIMES negative: a short "restoration demo" which screened after the film at the recent Indiana University symposium made it sound like the original negative was not properly preserved and the restoration producers needed to utilize different prints and/or inter-positives to create the current DCP that is making the rounds. I found this info rather distressing, but hope a potential U.S. release will have more luck in finding the best materials available.

Bad choice of words in my last post and Roger you are correct about TCM showing of Othello being cropped but still seeing Othello and Chimes in better shape then the old laserdisc, tapes, and dvd versions is a great step foward.

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks for your post "mido505"; this makes a lot of sense regarding different rights holders having access to different elements. It would also help explain why the U.S. screenings I saw of CHIMES in 1993 and 2006 looked and sounded better than the current DCP restoration which, somewhat ironically, is now making the rounds throughout the U.S.

[Le Chiffre]

Hard to imagine why TCM would screw up like that with OTHELLO. I should have noticed, but I only checked out about 15 or 20 minutes of it.

Mido, I asked Michael Dawson your question at his Woodstock lecture yesterday, and he said he has not been contacted by anyone at Criterion regarding CHIMES. He says he is in possession of the Chimes negative (or at least A Chimes negative), although he does not own it. He had nothing to do with the DCP restoration from Spain.

[mido505]

Thank you!

[jbrooks]

I watched most of "Chimes" on TCM. The print was not nearly as good as the Youtube (Studio Canal) version. The studio canal version has much deeper blacks and more contrast. The darkest elements in the TCM version seemed just dark gray. Also, the TCM had more film artifacts -- as if it were from a later generation print. Still, the TCM print was not terrible by any means. As for "Othello" on TCM, the quality of the print was stunning. It was the best I've ever seen it -- at least as good as the film print I saw in the 1992 release and better than any video release I've seen. Of course, the cropping to 1:1.85 was awful and an outrage. But I'm hopeful that a 1:1.37 blue ray will be amazing.

[Wellesnet]

Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... olumn.html

[A Sled in Flames]

Has anyone done a direct comparison between Bongo's new BD and the Studio Canal DVD (source- not YouTube re-encode or DVDrip)?

The Bongo, despite its awful encoding, can look somewhat presentable when one (radically) adjusts the brightness of their TV manually. That being said, even a cursory glance will show how dirty the source is. Some restoration! It's the most film-like transfer all right in both a positive and negative sense. I don't think a lot of critics know what they're talking about when it comes to video quality. Try comparing that to The Third Man's superb restoration.

The Studio Canal disc, on the other hand, looks more like video than film with low contrast and a 1:78 aspect ratio. However, the Bongo's aspect ratio doesn't work all the time with production details (edges of backdrops?) that were clearly meant to be matted out.

My main question is which one has more detail. The Bongo, despite almost certainly being a newer transfer, doesn't seem to contain a lot. It wasn't a revelation in the vein of Othello or even Arkadin. An encoding problem? Or perhaps the "restoration" was culled from higher-generation elements than Studio Canal's transfer. With the rights as confused as they are, this is a distinct possibility.

The idea that a restoration would not seek out the highest quality 35mm versions (lowest-generation elements) is absolutely deplorable. Part of me is curious whether Criterion is biding its time for a better source to be discovered.

[Roger Ryan]

...Part of me is curious whether Criterion is biding its time for a better source to be discovered.

I know first hand that the elements Michael Dawson was working with in the 90s look better than the DCP that has been widely screened this year, which I believe is the source for the Mr. Bongo release (I've not viewed the disc, but the screen-grabs show the same weak black levels as the DCP). I don't know if Dawson still has access to the Saltzman "master dupe negative" or just a print taken from that, but he informed Criterion producer Issa Clubb via Skype back in June that he had material that could be used. In addition, there is that (first generation?) print discovered in a New York vault earlier this year which looks very good as well. Criterion should have no problem bettering the Mr. Bongo release, starting with an improved HD image.

[duke_mccloud]

My main question is which one has more detail. The Bongo, despite almost certainly being a newer transfer, doesn't seem to contain a lot. It wasn't a revelation in the vein of Othello or even Arkadin. An encoding problem? Or perhaps the "restoration" was culled from higher-generation elements than Studio Canal's transfer. With the rights as confused as they are, this is a distinct possibility.

Part of me is curious whether Criterion is biding its time for a better source to be discovered.

Good points. I agree and perhaps by releasing the bongo dvd, relying heavily on the online purchases, then milking it with a worse blu ray release, they are squeezing the juice out of this late masterpiece.
I almost think Criterion is waiting for a green light before they release this, definitely not until next year.

[A Sled in Flames]

As someone mentioned in another thread, there is also a Japanese BD coming out.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Falstaff- ... ay/141867/

I suspect it'll be the same transfer, but hopefully with the black levels corrected. It's an easy brightness adjustment that any self respecting encoder would do. (I have no idea why Mr. Bongo didn't have the sense to do this, though even the trailer for the restoration on YouTube looks a bit too bright.)

Also, Film Forum in NY is screening Chimes at Midnight early 2016:

http://filmforum.org/film/chimes-at-midnight-film

Interestingly enough, it's a Janus Films Release! Were the previous DCPs labeled as such? If not, we can certainly hope it's a superior new restoration.

[Roger Ryan]

...Also, Film Forum in NY is screening Chimes at Midnight early 2016:

http://filmforum.org/film/chimes-at-midnight-film

Interestingly enough, it's a Janus Films Release! Were the previous DCPs labeled as such? If not, we can certainly hope it's a superior new restoration.

I believe Bruce Goldstein of the Film Forum has confirmed that the January, 2016 screening of Chimes is from a newer restoration than the Filmoteca Espanola one screened this year. Until we hear differently, I would assume it's the version Criterion will eventually release on Blu-ray.

[A Sled in Flames]

Fantastic news! The Filmoteca Espanola restoration seemed pretty flawed. As I mentioned, even before the Bongo, the TCM broadcast and YouTube video looked far too bright. The aspect ratio was strangely variable with hard mattes occasionally visible. I believe I even heard that they unnecessarily resorted to higher generational film materials.

Hopefully, then this Criterion restoration will be sourced from the original camera negative itself! I'm quite confident in an eventual Blu-Ray release (maybe with Merchant of Venice as an extra) if they're behind or at least funding the restoration.

F for Fake was upgraded to Blu. Arkadin and Othello might be being held up by the need to gather multiple versions in high quality.

[RayKelly]

Criterion president Peter Becker talks with Wellesnet about the restoration of Chimes at Midnight.
http://www.wellesnet.com/criterion-president-peter-becker-talks-about-newly-restored-chimes-at-midnight/