Film restoration: Saving our cinema heritage

director Martin scorsese's illustrious  career includes some of the greatest   movies of the last half century  and he has an Oscar to prove that   but he has another Legacy that's almost  equally important as Ben Tracy explains Martin scorsese's meticulous and unsparing  approach to filmmaking if we wanted something   we just took it has made him one of the most  acclaimed directors of all time you can see   the difference clearly here and in his New York  screening room it was quite clear that he's not   just passionate about movie making but also movie  caretaking here you see it that now it suddenly   comes to life it's like having a cataract removed  exactly which I've had done and it's a restored   version of 1955's East of Eden starring James  Dean the actors come to life when their faces   can be really perceived properly and if you  look like James Dean you want to see your face this is just one of the more than 950 films  restored with the support of the film Foundation   which has been essential to preserving cinematic  history it partners with Studios and archives to   ensure that everything from classic foreign films  to Marilyn Monroe's final performance once again   look like they did when they were first shot  the foundation was started by Scorsese in 1990   With a Little Help from his friends Spielberg  Francis Coppola we got Stanley Kubrick but the   key figure was George Lucas like the plot of  many a Tinseltown Thriller Scorsese and his   fellow directors realized the threat to the film  industry was coming from inside the house it was   film itself the earliest stock nitrate film was  highly flammable and could decompose with age   that's a big reason why up to 75 percent of all  silent films have been lost its successor acetate   film was safer but had its own issues and like  many a career in Hollywood it lacked Staying Power   by the early 70s it was decreed that every film  had to be made in color and just at that point in   which color became so important the negative stock  became weaker and within six years whatever prints   we could find were faded and it just seemed crazy  I have to do everything in color and now the color   doesn't doesn't last not not only doesn't last up  to 20 years six years oh come on scorsese's fear   of fading color was partly why he shot his now  classic 1980 film Raging Bull in black and white that same year he fired off an urgent letter  to filmmakers saying everything we're doing   right now means absolutely nothing it was  an angry letter uh it was kind of I guess uh   overly enthusiastic and but I wanted to get the  attention you were basically putting folks on   notice we got a problem yeah we got a real  problem here and what we should do is force   them to deal with this Scorsese led a campaign to  convince Eastman Kodak to develop a more stable   film stock and then focused on the studios  worried Hollywood's history was Vanishing the   most important thing was being overlooked  and those were the films and their vaults   saving them wasn't necessarily the biggest  priority Andrea Kalas oversees the archive   at Paramount Pictures our sister company in  the early 80s Scorsese presented the major   Studios with detailed lists of the films they  should preserve his encyclopedic knowledge of   film is literally unparalleled have you seen the  Paramount list I have yeah it's amazing that he   was able to do that right to just sit down with  the incredible output of every studio and just go   yep no yep no yep no it's an important list and  it's one that's shared with us that helps guide   our preservation program among other things Kalas  was brought on to expand Paramount's preservation   effort they've now restored more than 1500 films  stored at 28 degrees in this state-of-the-art   Vault these films are the source material for each  new technology that's come along from DVDs to 4K   streaming that's nice you're seeing a lot  more detail in that even movies you might   not consider that old such as 1986's Ferris  Bueller's Day Off already need some work   Central Park and fall ing Paramount recently  partnered with the film Foundation to present   some of the restored films from its Library Kalas  says the foundation has been essential in making   sure Hollywood preserves its film past we always  have before and afters in Restorations you know it   looked like crap and now it looks great same thing  with film preservation before the film foundation   and after is really dramatic it's been that  impactful it's that impactful absolutely Footloose   Saving Private Ryan the film Foundation also works  with institutions like the film archive at the   Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences the  folks that hand out the Oscars the academy wanted   to put its skin into the game to be a part of that  movement to start taking care of films in need of   restoration Mike pogorzelski is director of the  archive the image is literally just melted away   even though he says film preservation is not just  about caring for Oscar winners but lesser known   films to you including the 1943 film the life and  death of Colonel blimp a Technicolor Marvel and   Scorsese favorite then Mr candy you are Livingston  I presume restoring it was a labor of love   extremely complicated because of the fact that  there was actually mold spores growing on the   film itself an absolutely Monumental task that  no archive could have taken on by itself without   the film foundation's support one of the academy  archives longest running projects was a digital   restoration with a Criterion Collection of  acclaimed Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray's   Apu Trilogy its negatives were severely damaged  in a nitrate fire the preservation effort moved   from taking care of these deteriorating  Originals to suddenly scouring the world   looking for any surviving film elements so that  they could basically be pieced together almost   like a jigsaw puzzle in a lot of ways the Apu  Trilogy looks better in the 2000s than it did   in the 1950s when the films were brand new what  is it like when you sit in a screening room and   you see one of the is fully restored it is uh an  amazing experience being able to carry movies like   this into the future is one of the greatest and  most meaningful parts of what we do here this is   an Italian poster of the the first movie I can  remember seeing by title and Martin Scorsese   who has been called the patron saint of film  preservation is likely to be remembered not only   for the films he's made but also for the many he's  helped save how important is this part of your   legacy to you I always thought is more important  I guess I was more of a teacher than a filmmaker   I particularly enjoy younger people seeing these  films and whether their reaction is I I reject   it completely I hate it or they become inspired  and make some beautiful works of art that enrich   the lives of the whole world this is what we're  here for to enrich each other's lives through art

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 157,485

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, film restoration, cinema, film, martin scorsese, ben tracy, archive

Id: ixPBhkmBHKw

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 12 2023