Monday, 6/2/97 A piece of history Increasing difficulties in
film restoration have not hindered UCLA Film and Television
Archives’ dedication to preserving important works.
By Aimee Phan Daily Bruin Staff Imagine watching a scene from
the classic film "The Big Sleep" with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren
Bacall exchanging clever repartee as they slyly steal glances at
each other. A classic scene from the golden age of film, right? Now
imagine the same scene with the sound faded and scratchy and Bogart
and Bacall’s images blurring as the screen begins to show holes and
discoloration. This is the problem that most older films face and
what the UCLA Film and Television Archive hopes to remedy with its
film preservation program. For the last seven years, the UCLA Film
and Television Archive has held an annual festival showcasing its
most recently preserved films. While the Archive is taking a break
this summer by changing the festival into a bi-annual event, the
goal to preserve and restore classic films is still its top
priority. Robert Gitt, the film preservation officer at the UCLA
Film and Television Archive, has been working hard to preserve and
restore old films, television programs and newsreels for almost 20
years. He and his colleagues have helped to restore and preserve
these valuable records of history through new film technologies.
"We preserve a lot of interesting films," Gitt says. "A lot of
older, obscure films are left to deteriorate in vaults. We try to
restore the best quality into these older films and restore any
missing scenes so that people today can see what the directors back
then had intended for audiences to see." According to the Gitt, 50
percent of all films produced in the United States before 1950 have
disappeared and can no longer be enjoyed by moviegoers today. And
90 percent of all classic film prints made in the United States are
in danger of deterioration due to the poor tape formats they were
recorded on. Before the 1950s, movies were filmed on nitrate
cellulose film stock which were chemically unstable and highly
flammable. When stored in high heat and humidity, they produce
acidic gas. "It causes the films to deteriorate and crumble into
brown powder," Gitt explains. "Also, since these films were highly
flammable, there were a lot of very bad fires that destroyed many
of the early silent films made in the ’40s and ’50s." Film
preservation companies work to transfer old film and television
programs onto more stable film tape, such as the new polyester film
stock, which will not deteriorate and can last for many years. The
time required to restore and preserve a film can range from one
week to several months. "It varies a lot, depending on the
condition of the film when we find it," Gitt says. "If a film is
old but it still has a negative that hasn’t been excessively
scratched or shrunken, the time may not be too great. But most of
the older films are very shrunken and have been ripped and cracked
and require more time." Another part of preservation includes
restoring any lost footage from older films that may have been cut
by the studio due to censorship or time constraints. This requires
extensive research and contacts with other film preservation
archives. "It’s sometimes necessary to search in private
collections and other archives to restore a film," Gitt says. "We
belong to the International Federation of Film Archive so we
contact colleagues in archives in other countries to try to find
alternate copies of films that have been cut, so we can put back
together the original version." The UCLA Film and Television
Archive began its efforts in the late ’70s with the help of
generous grants from the National Endowment of the Arts. But due to
financial cutbacks, the Archive must now depend on private
donations. Some of the donations have come from Hollywood studios
such as Turner Pictures, Sony Pictures, the David and Lucile
Packard Foundation, and the Mary Pickford Foundation. While Gitt
does appreciate the contributions from these organizations, he
admits he misses the general grants from the National Endowment of
the Arts that gave the Archive more flexibility on what to
preserve. "We are very fortunate to have these private foundations
step in and help out," Gitt says. "The only concern I have is that
the money we receive from the private organizations generally are
given for specific projects. So a lot of obscure, but interesting
films are left to rot away. These films may have not been
commercial, but they are well worth trying to preserve."
Nevertheless nearly 300 films and over 100 television programs have
been rescued through UCLA’s program. In the past, the Festival of
Preservation has showcased in the James Bridges Theater such newly
restored classics as "The Big Sleep" (1945), "Macbeth" (1948),
"Double Indemnity" (1944) and "His Girl Friday" (1940). Gitt sees
the new dates of the festival as an opportunity for the Archive to
catch up on restoring some films that were neglected due to the
rush of trying to finish a film before the annual festival
deadline. "Each year, we strained a bit to get all the films ready
for the festival," Gitt says. "But the preservation is much more
important and we shouldn’t be pressured just to get ready for a
deadline. With this bi-annual festival, we hope to have a better
showcase with a broader selection of films to choose from. It’s
nice to have a better mix of silent and sound and black and white
and color." Gitt says simply, "These are records of history that
we’re saving." UCLA FILM & TV ARCHIVE Humphrey Bogart and
Lauren Bacall in "The Big Sleep." Glen Ford and Rita Hayworth in
"Gilda." Marlon Brando in "The Wild One."