4K Restoration continues

[Anderson Boyd]

Grand Illusion is being shown at the Film Forum in 4K for its 75th anniversary. It's a masterpiece. The classics keep rolling out in 4K!

"For its 75th Anniversary, Rialto Pictures presents a stunning 4K restoration of GRAND ILLUSION, Jean Renoir's powerful and eloquent anti-war film set during World War I. Aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu and his mechanic, Lieutenant Maréchal are shot down by Captain von Rauffenstein, who treats them with customary officers' hospitality. The two downed pilots are then sent to a German POW camp, where they quickly join a group of prisoners who have concocted an elaborate escape plan. Their plot is foiled, however, as they are transferred to a new camp, the formidable Wintersborn fortress, run by Rauffenstein, who is now grounded due to battle wounds. Rauffenstein, lamenting the end of an aristocratic era, tries to befriend de Boeldieu, but the French captain is already hatching a new escape plan - one in which he puts himself in danger to allow the others to escape. GRAND ILLUSION was the first foreign film to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination."

 

[Keith Putnam]

Be advised that Film Forum's digital projectors are 2K, and for their 4K events they are showing 4K DCPs downrezzed by the projector to 2K.
It's still fun to go... when I saw the 2K projection of the 4K remaster of Dr. Strangelove they spent a good amount of time A/Bing the restored to the original footage and showed us some of the restoration of Lawrence Of Arabia.

 

[Anderson Boyd]

Sounds like we need to get a REDRay/Projector in their hands ASAP!

 

[David Mullen ASC]

You can see what it looks like in 1080P here:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/grandeillusion.htm

An old 35mm b&w movie from the 1930's isn't going to resolve 4K worth of information; the reason you scan and restore it at 4K is to avoid the Nyquist limit by oversampling by 2X.

 

[Anderson Boyd]

Great link, glad it's headed to Blu. If the sample shots are any indication it's going to look and sound better than ever. Certainly scanning 4K, to whatever count it actually resolves and downsampling will still beget higher quality than 1080p, no? Either way color me excited. It's nice that the transition to digital finds a lot of classics resurfacing and finding new audiences, decades later.

Keith, I bet Strangelove was a treat. Are they exhibiting with Barco 2K projectors?

 

[Petr Dvorak]

I was surprised how good is Ch. Chaplin Modern Times looking in 1080p.

http://planetaua.net/uploads/posts/2011-05/1306703848_2.png

http://planetaua.net/uploads/posts/2011-05/1306703872_1.png

 

[paulherrin]

You can see what it looks like in 1080P here:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/grandeillusion.htm

An old 35mm b&w movie from the 1930's isn't going to resolve 4K worth of information; the reason you scan and restore it at 4K is to avoid the Nyquist limit by oversampling by 2X.

sweet new avatar, david