The Godfather | IMDB v2.1

The Godfather Jun 9, 2017 18:21:21 GMT Flynn likes this

Quote

Post by mikef6 on Jun 9, 2017 18:21:21 GMT

Jun 9, 2017 3:01:30 GMT Flynn said:

My local theater played a newly restored version of The Godfather on Wednesday, and so I jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen. I think the last time I watched it from beginning to end was sometime in the late '80s. I was overdue for a repeat.

It was great as always, though I do dislike how swift Michael's attitude changes from "It's my family, not me" to the cold-blooded, power-exuding persona he takes after his father is shot.

It was apparently a new restoration, but the restoration didn't impress me (not that I know a damn thing about film restoration). For one, I didn't see a showing of the film. I saw a digitized version of the film. There were times when I felt the actors moved in a digital way than in a film way. I don't know how to put it. I've noticed across many films that people move differently on digital and video than they do on film. It's like there are motions that happen too quickly or that are too jerky, whereas with film, everything is smooth and fluid. It's probably just my imagination, but I see it, and it always ruins the atmosphere.

Another thing is that I felt that the brightness was too low. This isn't the first time I've felt this way. LA LA LAND, another film shot on film but projected digitally, also felt too dark. I'm either imagining things, or there's an issue not being compensated for at theaters in my area.

Finally, I have a question about grain. When I've watched films projected by a real film projector in the past, I don't recall ever seeing a lot of grain in the image, but The Godfather had some instances of very noticeable grain. It got me to thinking. Is this a product of the digitization process? When you show a film film (as opposed to a digital film) naturally, does the grain look the same way as it does when digitized?

I'm not complaining about the grain, mind you. And I do have a rudimentary understanding of why films have grain in the first place, but I'm just wondering if film grain projected from film is the same as film grain produced by a digital version of the film.

Overall, it was great, and if you get a chance to see any older film in a theater, I highly recommend it.

The restoration is copyrighted 2007 even though it was not released until 2008. I saw it last Sunday - the TCM presentation - and it looked and sounded great to me. According to the Wikipedia article: "Work began in November 2008 by repairing the negatives so they could go through a digital scanner to produce high resolution 4K files. If a negative were damaged and discolored, work was done digitally to restore it to its original look. After a year and a half of working on the restoration, the project was complete. Paramount called the finished product The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration and released it to the public on September 23, 2008 on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc.Dave Kehr of the New York Times believed the restoration brought back the "golden glow of their original theatrical screenings". As a whole, the restoration of the film was well received by critics and Coppola."