NEWLY RESTORED 1948 MASTERPIECE THE RED SHOES OPENS IL CINEMA RITROVATO IN BOLOGNA ON JUNE 27TH

06/23/2009

NEW YORK, NY - Following an extensive 2-year restoration, “The Red Shoes,” the 1948 masterpiece written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, will open Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy at the Piazza Maggiore on Saturday, June 27th at 10pm. 

“There's no question that ‘The Red Shoes’ is one of the most beautiful color films ever made,” said Martin Scorsese, Founder and Chair of The Film Foundation, his non-profit organization responsible for the restoration. “Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger created an incredible vision in ‘The Red Shoes,’ one that has never really been matched. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, ‘The Red Shoes’ has finally been fully restored." 

Award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker-Powell, who was married to Michael Powell, has consulted, along with Scorsese, on the restoration of this influential and beloved film and will present the film to the festival audience. 

The film was restored by Robert Gitt and the team at UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation in association with the BFI, ITV Global Entertainment Ltd., and Janus Films. Restoration funding was provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, The Film Foundation and the Louis B. Mayer Foundation. 

Working in partnership with the rightsholder, ITV Global Entertainment, UCLA and The Film Foundation began the restoration of “The Red Shoes” in the fall of 2006. In the 1980s, the film had been optically copied from flammable nitrate and acetate materials, and this new restoration built upon that effort using current state-of-the-art technology. Many additional elements were utilized, including vintage Technicolor dye transfer prints, nitrate and acetate protection master positive copies, original soundtrack elements, and - most important of all - the still extant three-strip Technicolor camera negatives. 

Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging and Prasad Corporation performed the picture restoration, including 4K scanning of the original nitrate negatives, 4K image processing, 4K digital color correct (by Ray Grabowski) and 4K output to 35mm Eastmancolor negative. Soundtrack restoration work was handled by John Polito at Audio Mechanics and included a cleanup of the film’s original variable density soundtrack. 

Joining Ms. Schoonmaker-Powell for the presentation of “The Red Shoes” restoration at Il Cinema Ritrovato will be Margaret Bodde, Executive Director The Film Foundation and Fiona Maxwell, Director of Operations ITV Global Entertainment.

The Festival will also present three additional films whose restoration was funded by The Film Foundation: 

PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951, d. Albert Lewin) on Sunday, June 28th at 11:00 am and Thursday, July 2nd at 6:00 pm at Cinema Arlecchino. This film was restored by George Eastman House, in association with The Film Foundation and The Douris Corporation. Restoration funded by the Rome Film Festival, and the Franco-American Cultural Fund, apartnership of the Directors Guild of America, Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Writers Guild of America, West. 

DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK (1939, d. John Ford) on Tuesday, June 30th at 6:15 pm and Thursday, July 2nd at 11:00 am at Cinema Arlecchino. This film was restored by the Academy Film Archive. Restoration funded by The Film Foundation, with special thanks to Twentieth Century Fox. 

SENSO (1954, d. Luchino Visconti)on Friday, July 3rd at 10:00 pm at the Piazza Maggiore. This film was restored byStudiocanal, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia/Cineteca Nazionale, Cineteca di Bologna/L'Immagine Ritrovata. Restoration funded by GUCCI, The Film Foundation and Comitato Italia 150.
The Film Foundation (www.film-foundation.org) is a nonprofit organization established in 1990 by Martin Scorsese. The foundation is dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history, and provides annual support for preservation and restoration projects at major film archives. Since its inception, the foundation has been instrumental in raising awareness of the urgent need to preserve films and has helped the archives save more than 525 motion pictures. The foundation has also created The Story of Movies (www.storyofmovies.org), an integrated curriculum that teaches middle and high school students how to “read” a film. The innovative program has reached an estimated 16 million students since its launch in 2005. Joining Scorsese on the board are: Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Curtis Hanson, Peter Jackson, Ang Lee, George Lucas, Alexander Payne, Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg. The Film Foundation is aligned with the Directors Guild of America whose President and Secretary-Treasurer serve on the board.

Image courtesy of Cineteca di Bologna.

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