Best Archive Restoration & Preservation Project or Title

2024 Winner

LA GRANDE PASSION

Production Company:: TransPerfect Media France / CNC

Synopsis

La grande passion is a famous French silent film directed by André Hugon released in Paris the 21 December 1928. The original production company is "Films André Hugon".

On a hunting trip in the Pyrenees, Jean d'Esproey meets Patrick Bush, who is camping with his father and sister Harriet. A friendship develops between the young men, who are passionate about sport and especially rugby. The Pyrenean is captain of the Toulouse rugby team and a member of the French national team, in love with the beautiful Countess Sonia de Blich. Sonia is determined to use all her charms to distract Jean from his passion for rugby. She takes him to Chamonix, away from his team. But on the slopes, he runs into Harriet Bush, who is preparing for the luge championships. She reminds him of his passion and encourages him to resume training...

Archival highlights

This is the first digital restoration of the film, which has remained unseen for years because of a lack of screening material. The only surviving source material used for this restoration was the original nitrate black and white negative (7 x 300 meters reels), stored at the CNC (French National archive). The technical challenges faced to make a 4K restoration from a very damaged single source material added to the complexity of the restoration.

The Complete and Utter History of Britain

Production Company:: R3store Studios Ltd

Synopsis

The Complete and Utter History of Britain was made in 1969, written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, made by ITV. There are 6 episodes in the series and for many years it was thought they had been wiped. In 2014 the first two episodes were found and released on DVD. In 2023, the remaining episodes were found in the ITV Archive after being miscatalogues in the database. The restoration by R3store Studios has for the first time made all the episodes available in 2K which subsequently streamed on Britbox and ITVX.

Archival highlights

The original elements were lost on this project and the only surviving elements were16mm telerecording reels. All 16mm reels were scanned to 2K DPX and WAV on the Scanity Scanner. Restoring telerecordings requires much more manual intervention than a standard restoration due to burnt in tape faults, as well as film faults. Therefore the amount of manual work needed on this project was far higher due to the level of damage that the automated processes couldn't fix.

Shortlisted

Dance Craze

Production Company:: R3store Studios Ltd

Synopsis

Capturing the peak of 2 Tone in the early 1980s, Dance Craze remains unique in the history of the concert film. Showcasing live performances from The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers, it’s a valuable time-capsule of the British genre that merged Jamaican ska with punk and new wave music. It also broke new ground for how to film bands on stage.

Aside from a brief VHS release in 1988 from the 35mm and the odd screening over the years, it has rarely been seen since. Restoring it for the first time and from the 70mm print has allowed a whole new audience by being able to screen it at the IMAX.

Archival highlights

The biggest challenge with this film was the grade as the 70mm film was extremally faded to red which happens with certain film stocks over time. However as you will see, the lights coming from the side of the stage were also red so it was very difficult to try to take out the red in the film but still retain the red that was coming off the lights. The film was very sparkly and had some scratches within it. Removing scratches where there is a lot of movement is very difficult also.

The Village / Unser Dorf

Production Company:: Cinémathèque suisse

Synopsis

Founded in 1924, Switzerland's oldest production company, Praesens-Film AG, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

The Village / Unser Dorf, the latest feature film directed by Swiss filmmaker Leopold Lindtberg for Praesens Films, is a drama driven by the idea of peace between nations. It tells the story of the fates of several war orphans from all over Europe, reunited in a village in the Swiss Alps at the end of the Second World War. A Swiss-British co-production, The Village / Unser Dorf is a multilingual work, like other collaborations between the filmmaker and the Zurich production company (Die letzte Chance, Die Vier im Jeep...); the performers come from ten different countries and the shooting, mainly in English and German, also includes scenes in French, Polish and Italian. Shot in Switzerland and England (Nettlefold Studios), the film was presented at Cannes in 1953, and was widely distributed on the international market, particularly in English-speaking countries. It won numerous awards, including the Bronze Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the Silver Laurel at the David O. Selznick Awards.

Archival highlights

The restoration is the result of extensive preliminary work to identify and analyse all the film elements - over a hundred reels - deposited for this title at the Cinémathèque suisse by the Praesens-Films production company. Together with a meticulous study of the production's papers archive and press cuttings from the time, also kept at the Cinémathèque, it was possible to reconstruct a large part of the film's production history and to understand that there were two original versions from the very beginning : THE VILLAGE, technically of better quality, intended for the international market and presented at Cannes in 1953; and UNSER DORF, intended for the Swiss market, very similar to the first, but slightly longer and with around 20% of shots slightly different.

This project was carried out by the Cinémathèque suisse in collaboration with SRF and with the support of Memoriav.