Jane Fonda, Thierry Fremaux, Alexander Payne and Illustrious Others at the Film Restoration Summit
by Peter Belsito
On Saturday The Hollywood Foreign Press Association held a sold-out panel of film world dignitaries Saturday at the Ace Hotel’s incredibly gorgeous United Artists theater in downtown Los Angeles for the organization’s first Film Restoration Summit devoted to celebrating classic films and the urgent need to put more resources into saving them.
Introduced by HFPA president Meher Tatna, the panel was moderated by Sandra Schulberg, whose IndieCollect organization works to preserve independent films.
The panel was made up of
- Jane Fonda
- Alexander Payne, Director
- Grover Crisp, EVP, Sony Asset Management, Film Restoration & Digital Mastering
- Thierry Frémaux, Director, Institut Lumière, Cannes Film Festival
- Jan-Christopher Horak, Director, UCLA Film and Television Archive
- Sandra Schulberg, moderater and President of the film preservation organization IndieCollect, called this “a crisis that is engulfing us.”
To set the discussion and begin, HFPA president Meher Tatna introduced the panel by warning that “More than 50 percent of films made before 1950 are lost to us forever,”, explaining that the HFPA’s commitment to preserving cinema history through support of film restoration is one of its most important initiatives. She added that the HFPA’s “decades long” support of this mission has already seen more than $6.5 million invested in 125 film restoration projects.
Tatna recalled that the organization has supported restorations such as Ida Lupino’s The Bigamist and Satjayit Ray’s Apu Trilogy.
While the importance of preserving the big-screen experience was a major theme, the event was also dedicated to celebrating films that have been brought back to life through the efforts of organizations such as Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, the UCLA Film Archive, and Institut Lumiere.
The panelists came together to discuss the necessity of stepping up preservation efforts, particularly for silent, independent and international films.
Fremaux took the stage saying it felt bizarre for him to talk about the history of cinema at this moment because he’s in the middle of selecting films for Cannes. “I hope I won’t get confused and give you the Cannes opening night film,” he joked, “which by the way we don’t have, which is a problem.”
The Cannes director also heads Lyon’s Institut Lumiere, devoted to preserving and screening historic films.
He gave audiences a quick refresher on the beginnings of cinema, throwing a bit of shade at Thomas Edison, whose early works were viewed on the small Kinetoscope viewer, as opposed to Louis Lumiere, who was the first to champion projection on a big screen.
“It’s still what we love, being together to watch images on a big screen. Maybe the revenge of Thomas Edison is called Netflix,” he quipped.
Fremaux screened a number of fascinating location-shot films from the Lumiere brothers, shot in the late 1800s and early 1900s, some restored with help from the HFPA.
Fonda, who was honored at the Lumiere film festival last year, admitted that she’s no expert on the issue of preservation. She joked that being asked to be on the panel might be “to punish me because my favorite ex-husband colorized much of MGM’s film library.” Ted Turner was a pariah for the colorization debacle, she recalled, yet she pointed out that he actually preserved the MGM library, which led to the creation of Turner Classic Movies.
“We can’t know where we’re going if we don’t know where we’ve been,” she proclaimed. “Perhaps we ought to put as much into saving film as we do into making it.” Later, as panelists called out the need for her Oscar-winning “Coming Home” to be restored, she almost looked like she was on the verge of pulling out her checkbook.
Fonda noted that this isn’t just about preserving Hollywood classics, but also newsreels and documentary material. “Films were made because filmmakers wanted to make sure what happened would never be forgotten,” she said. “If we allow documents of our past to disappear we end up [without the whole picture]. We can’t know where we are going if we don’t know where we have been.”
“I’m overwhelmed by the amount of material that needs to be restored and preserved and the lack of funding,” Fonda continued. “Most studios are cutting back on archiving … The challenge of indie filmmakers is far greater.”
Emphasizing that the resources available to preserve Hollywood’s film history are “woefully inadequate,” Jane Fonda urged the Hollywood community to “invest as much in saving [films] as making them.”
Crisp, who is executive VP of asset management, film restoration and digital mastery at Sony, explained how the advent of increasingly sophisticated digital techniques means that some films are restored repeatedly — “Easy Rider,” for example, is on its third restoration.
Fonda joked that the filmmakers may have been “too stoned” to properly care for the original film elements.
Crisp also touched on one of the unintended consequences of Hollywood’s move to digital cinema. There are now movies that are shot and displayed in the digital realm — never touching film. But celluloid is still very much a part of archival efforts.
“We always make multiple, photochemical [film] copies and store them in different places around the world,” he said of his archival practices. “We do the same with our digital data, which is like [the digital equivalent of] the camera negative. We duplicate it, separate it.”
He added that they also migrate the digital data to new formats periodically “and check it every few years to make sure it’s still there.” This is because new digital storage formats are being introduced, rendering some of the earlier formats obsolete. (Think, for instance, if you have material stored on a VHS tape while players are no longer available). Additionally, there have already been some reports of digital formats that have lost data after being stored. “This has been going on for almost 20 years now … You have to be careful,” he said.
Underscoring this message to stay alert, Payne admitted that he had already struggled with preserving his first film, 1996’s Citizen Ruth, when he found a sound problem in his archival film prints.
The director was recently invited to select a film whose restoration will be funded by HFPA; he chose 1926 silent film The Black Pirate starring Douglas Fairbanks. Crisp meanwhile is starting a new 4K restoration of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hooper’s Easy Rider, which this year marks its 50th anniversary.
To provide a visual example of the huge difference restoration can make, UCLA’s Horak screened faded, murky scenes from old Westerns side by side with stunning new images that were brought back to vibrant color in the restoration process.
Payne described himself as a regular at Bologna, the Italian preservation-oriented fest, which he encouraged everyone to attend.
The HFPA asked Payne to select a film he wanted to see restored, and he recalled a mentor’s words, “Always save the silents.” So he chose the 1926 Douglas Fairbanks movie “The Black Pirate” as the organization’s next restoration project.
Fremaux said it’s also important to save cinemas, not just films. “We are here in this wonderful theater,” he said, gesturing at the gilded detail of the 1927 auditorium. “Cinemas are in danger — in Rome, there are no theaters in the city anymore.”
Fremaux said later that it’s his generation’s responsibility to preserve the culture, and then teach it to younger people, the way filmmakers like Scorsese and Tarantino are doing. “Then it will be their role to pay attention.”
The event concluded with a screening of the 2014 restoration of Sergio Leone’s 1964 Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars starring a young Clint Eastwood. The restoration was funded by the HFPA and The Film Foundation.
We can also recommend reading — Variety, March 10 article on this by Pat Saperstein, Deputy Editor
and
Hollywood Reporter, March 10 Jane Fonda Calls for Hollywood to “Invest as Much in Saving Films as Making Them” by Carolyn Giardina
PHOTO CREDITS: HFPA/MAGNUS SUNDHOLM and PETER BELSITO, SYDNEYSBUZZ
