Lawrence of Arabia - 50th Anniversary

[Neryssa]

I am relatively new to this site; please accept my apologies in advance for asking a question that has probably been posted elsewhere. Will there be any special screenings in the UK or US of Lawrence of Arabia this year? I know that a Blu-ray of LOA will be released in the UK this summer but that is all I know (I remember the 30th year anniversary in the US very well. Special screenings were held in major cities). Thank you for any information.

[Film Man]

All a bit 'cloak and dagger stuff 'neryssa'...it seems that Columbia 'lost' the resteration material after it was restored many years ago...how that can happen is beyond me. Things have started to happen now, another 70mm print has been found from private sources and a 35mm Dye Transfer copy has also surfaced...lets hope with all the bits and pieces now falling into place, we can journey once again to Arabia in Super Panavision 70 and Blu Ray!
Film Man.

[Freddy]

A Blu Ray is coming out on June 4th according to

Lawrence of Arabia Gets UK Release Date

Hopefully cinemas will show Lawrence again, as they did to celebrate Lean's Centenary in 2008

[Neryssa]

Thank you for the information, Film Man and Freddy. They lost the restoration, seriously? I love this film beyond reason. It would be wonderful to see it in a cinema again.

[christoph404]

They lost the restoration? I've heard that story mentioned but I've yet to find one single piece of evidence or article anywhere to back that claim up. Certainly prior to the 1989 re release and restoration by Robert A Harris there are mind boggling stories of how such a precious film was used and abused,chopped up and discarded, missing scenes and dialogue etc. It took Harris two years to put the film back together again and make 70 mm prints for worldwide re release as well 35 mm prints, after such painstaking restoration he made sure to make duplicate inter positives and archives to preserve the restored work. Several DVD versions have been made including a special edition 40 year anniversary set. I've read that Columbia have been sitting on a HD blu ray ready scan of the film for 2 years and are aiming to cash in on the 50th Anniversary of the films release. I'm not convinced that the reason for the delay in a blu ray release is because Columbia lost the material, if anyone can point me to an article that supports that claim I will gladly stand corrected. There are several 70 mm prints that are still doing the rounds, there was a restoration festival in Ottowa in 2010 which screened a 70 mm print and there have been regular screenings since the 1989 re-release, I don't think prints have been scarce since the restoration.

[Marky B]

Thank you for the information, Film Man and Freddy. They lost the restoration, seriously? I love this film beyond reason. It would be wonderful to see it in a cinema again.

Me too! My favourite film of all time!
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Film Man]

You may find it hard to believe 'christoph404' but film companies are not willing to pay lab's to look after their negatives. A few years back Technicolor wrote to all the companies telling them that they weren't prepared to store nagatives for nothing! Many films were thrown out, including all material on El-Cid...luckily a technician took the many film cans home and stored them in his garage...when he heard they were going to try and bring out a restored DVD he got onto the company, who couldn't believe it was all in his garage! The Guns of Navarone has just been brought out on Blu Ray thanks to two private collectors who had 35mm Dye Transfer Technicolor prints with 4 track mag tracks...Columbia had nothing, except a faded eastman colour print. in their vaults! The last restoration of Lawrence (beautifully done I must add) was mainly due to the fact that Anne Coates (editor) remembered leaving cans of 65mm negative in certain places...luckily they were still there after over 30 years. Easy for us to blame the companies but who could have seen High Definition Blu Ray home discs coming along? They all need big money to survive and storing fragile film stock in the past was just too expensive...the digital age is at least keeping things going at a fraction of the cost.

Thank God for the private collectors who even after being fined and threatened with prison still hung onto lost (maybe stolen) treasures, that the film companies didn't want.
Film Man.

[christoph404]

Oh yes sure, I know original film negatives and material can go missing or deteriorate over time, in the case of Lawrence of Arabia the original 65 mm negative existed but it was stored in rusty cans which had been crushed by improper storage,not only that but the original negative had been cut and spliced and used hundreds of times to make prints,so it was in quite a fragile state with lots of footage and soundtrack missing.For the original restoration in 1987 which took two years to complete restorer Robert Harris had to source material from all over the world,prints, dupes,dye transfer etc.He even found reels of alternative takes of scenes in a bid to restore missing material and dialogue. What I was questioning was the suggestion that since the re release in 1989 that restored material had been lost and hence causing a delay to a blu ray release, I just don't think that is the case at all.
As for El CID,that is a film that doesn't even exist in it's original negative form any more,all previous DVD releases were of terrible quality because they were sourced from poor quality 35mm prints,I have the Blu Ray release which was taken from a reasonable 70mm print,perhaps belonging to the collector you mention who kept it in his garage! The Blu Ray version of El CID is fine,it's not brilliant but it's the best we will get from available materials, Lawrence will be a different kettle of fish,Sony are going all out with this one, new 8k scans of restored better than new material and then tweaking eve single frame,I think that's why it's taking so long! It should be spectacular.

[Freddy]

Fascinating article on the LoA restoration

"Look for the goggles"

Restoration of "Lawrence of Arabia"

[christoph404]

Thanks for that link Freddy, very informative article.

[Neryssa]

...Lawrence will be a different kettle of fish, Sony are going all out with this one, new 8k scans of restored better than new material and then tweaking eve single frame,I think that's why it's taking so long! It should be spectacular.

I am so happy to read this part. This is really something to look forward to and it is nice that Peter O'Toole is still around to enjoy the anniversary (fingers crossed).

[Steve Crook]

Sony are going all out with this one, new 8k scans of restored better than new material and then tweaking eve single frame,I think that's why it's taking so long! It should be spectacular.

I'm glad to see that other people are following the lead set by Scorsese's Film Foundation with The Red Shoes. They learnt a lot doing that restoration, they first tried to do it photochemically but had to abandon that and start again. Then they did it digitally.

It's much more difficult with the old three strip Technicolor films like The Red Shoes and Florence of Arabia. That's why it takes so long and costs so much. It took many years and cost half a million dollars to restore The Red Shoes. But the lessons learnt doing that are helping with other restoration projects and they can now be done a bit faster and a bit cheaper.

Every frame has to be digitised at a high resolution, and there are 3 times as many frames for 3 strip Technicolor as there are for the same running time on other types of films. They have to be realigned where different strips have slipped out of alignment. Clean up any scratches or other damage, on the optical soundtrack as well as on the film itself. They have to be colour balanced to restore the original colour palette which is quite different to the palette used by other film stock.

But the results are definitely worth it. Not just for the primary colours, the reds, blues & greens but also for the secondary colours like the yellows and all the shades between. Also to restore the brightness (where appropriate) of the original as well as sharpening up the image, getting rid of all the dirt & scratches on the film, all the pops and hisses on the soundtrack. It's like seeing a brand new film

Steve

[julian_craster]

three strip Technicolor films like Florence of Arabia.....

You must be referring to the 1948 version....three strip was abandoned in the early 1950s....

[christoph404]

"Florence of Arabia" ...ha ha, yes that is an apt name, a quip by Noel Coward to Peter O'Toole after the premier, " if you had looked any prettier dear boy it would have been called Florence of Arabia" Classic.
Lawrence of Arabia was shot on 65mm Eastman Kodak film but technicolor made many prints using their dye transfer process and while it's true to say filming in three strip went out in the 1950s ,technicolor was still using it's distinctive dye transfer process to make prints right up until 1980, the last lab to use the process was in Italy but it was still being used in the USA up until 1977. A dye transfer print is very stable and offers sharper and more " meaty" colours than a traditional chromogenic print, that's why the technicolor prints are like gold dust to a film restorer

[Neryssa]

I'm glad to see that other people are following the lead set by Scorsese's Film Foundation with The Red Shoes. They learnt a lot doing that restoration, they first tried to do it photochemically but had to abandon that and start again. Then they did it digitally.

Another one of my top five favorite films.