Restoring film classics

Two news items caught my eye last week. The death of legendary film maker Titus Thotawatte received widespread attention in the local media. He was a cinematic powerhouse who later had a successful television career as well. His name is associated with a large number of films as director and/or editor. He was closely involved in the films of Dr. Lester James Peries as well. The other news item was buried deep in some newspapers and most people would not have seen it. It was about a special screening of Peries' Gamperaliya at the San Francisco South Asian Film Festival next month. But the most interesting part of the news item was not the screening per se . After all, Gamperaliya has been screened in many foreign capitals and won international awards. But the interesting bit in the news item was that the film "had been restored by the UCLA Film Archives". Yes, one of Sri Lanka's best offerings to the film world has been restored to a pristine condition by a foreign film archive.

This is how the UCLA Film Archive describes Gamperaliya : "A seminal work in Sri Lankan cinema, Gamperaliya launched "a revolution, not only in the way films were made, but also in the content," according to producer Anton Wickramasinghe. Based on the novel by Martin Wickramasinghe, the film focuses on Piyal, a teacher and member of the new rising middle class, who falls in love with the daughter of his village's leading aristocratic clan. Defensive positions are assumed and the girl's parents insist upon a marriage to a stuffed shirt of her own class. For its elegant style,Gamperaliya as been compared to Satyajit Ray's "Apu Trilogy." The preservation has been funded by The Packard Humanities Institute and The Stanford Theatre.

Talking of preservation, little is known about the fate of an equally famous Sinhala film - Mike Wilson's Runmuthuduwa, the country's first colour feature, edited by Titus Thotawatte. You can see clips of the hit film (whose songs such as Galana Gangaki Jeevithe and Pipee Pipee Renu Natana are still popular) on You Tube and a friend told me once that he has a DVD of the movie, though I have not seen it myself. But it is still not clear whether a film negative copy of the movie still exists, preserved somewhere in the world in a film academy or archive. That is a matter worth investigating, for a new generation of moviegoers would love to see a fully restored copy of this groundbreaking movie which started the late Gamini Fonseka and the late Joe Abeywickrama, again on the silver screen.

It is not only Runmuthuduwa which is in this boat, but also a large number of other Sinhala movies which are virtually not playable. Two enthusiastic individuals who love the Sinhala cinema deeply are trying their best to preserve and protect a large number of films, but it is too big a task. If you have seen old and even some of the new Sinhala films on TV, you would have noticed the faded, jarring prints and the hiss and crackle in the audio tracks.

There should be a world-class film restoration and preservation facility in Sri Lanka which can do justice to our films of yesteryear and even the new ones. But the best alternative seems to be 'going digital'.

I read recently that the big three motion picture camera makers (ARRI, Panavision and Aaton) have stopped making the outrageously expensive film cameras altogether and are moving on to digital movie cameras. Fuji and Kodak are still making film stock but 10 or 20 years from now, movie film could be dead. Most new movies are shot, projected and preserved digitally.

There is a compelling case for digital preservation. Computerised film restoration techniques have been improved to the point that even a 1940s film can look brand new. Plus, digitised movies can be kept for a far longer period with minimal care. The recent restorations of Ben-Hur, Citizen Kane and Bambi, all three of them iconic movies, point the way to the future. Warner Brothers' restoration of the Biblical epic Ben-Hur cost around US$ 1 million and is worth every penny (or frame). The original negative was cleaned up and subjected to a 8K scan (yes, eight times the resolution of a 1080p high definition signal). Here's what Fraser Heston, son of Charlton Heston (who played Ben Hur) had to say: "This is unquestionably the most remarkable restoration I have ever seen. It was an extraordinary, life changing experience, like sitting next to [Director William] Wyler in his answer print screening, only better.

The picture was clear and sharp, not crisp or brittle like some HD versions. It looks like film not pixels. The colours were rich and vibrant but not overly so, muted where they should be muted, and bright where they should be bright. Blacks were astonishingly, well...black." The sound too was ramped up and engineers crafted an astounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. For Citizen Kane, they went back to the original nitrate film elements and completed a 4K restoration.

I have seen this restored version on blu-ray, which is a complete joy to watch. This brings us to the possibility of getting our films classics restored at facilities abroad, with an eye for theatrical exhibition (local screenings, festival circuit abroad and limited theatrical exhibition abroad) and blu-ray release. There will no doubt be a good demand for the works of our top directors from film and blu-ray enthusiasts abroad. Our authorities should explore the possibility of negotiating with studios and labels such as Criterion Collection, Film Movement, British Film Institute and Eureka Masters of Cinema for restoration (both sound and vision) and re-release of the best Sinhala film classics made during the last 63 years. For a film such as Gamperaliya, it should be a complete package - one or two audio commentaries, documentaries, interviews and even a (physical) booklet on the movie with stills. English subtitles are a must, and French, German, Spanish, Italian etc could be provided if possible.

This way, viewers all over the world will be able to appreciate the richness of our films. The time has come to look beyond the local box office if the Sri Lankan film industry is to thrive in the future.