A restoration supervised by the filmmaker
The main objective of the project to restore Pierre Etaix’ entire cinematic oeuvre was to make his films newly available for viewing, after twenty years of absence from the cinema screen. It involved restoring both image and sound, both damaged over time and because of poor storage conditions, then producing not only new supports intended for screening and suitable for new projection conditions, but also preservation material for long term conservation of the filmmaker’s oeuvre.
Overall, the material (original negatives, reference prints...) available for the restoration work was in poor physical condition. The material examined for the restoration project had the typical problems found with films from this period: dust, numerous scratches on the film stock on both sides (emulsion and base, stains, defects and instability around joins)
For all the films in black and white in the Retrospective, the plan was to create an inter-positive by immersion, from original negatives.
This intermediary material also serves as a crucial element for conservation, before digital restoration.
Work on the visuals began with both photochemical and digital treatment to restore the colours, formats and version of the films according to the wishes of the filmmaker Pierre Etaix, who supervised all the restoration work. Digitisation of the material enabled each film to be restored frame by frame, after which work could begin on grading, a key stage in this part of the process. Being able to carry out this work alongside the filmmaker is an enormous advantage in the restoration process as it ensures fidelity to the original work.
The films in the retrospective were originally made on 35mm, apart from Pays de Cocagne which was initally shot on 16mm reversal film but for which we needed a better quality negative, taken from a 35mm blow-up.
Two of the films in the retrospective were clearly more badly deteriorated and required special work: Le Grand Amour and Tant qu’on a la Santé.
For Le Grand Amour, Pierre Etaix’s first colour film, the negative was in very poor condition, with torn images, some sprocket damages had damaged the negative. Work on the visuals used a combination of elements from the interpos and the original interneg with particular attention to restoring the original colour. The soundtrack was able to be restored by rescuing the magnetic sound which was in an advanced state of decomposition (“vinegar syndrome”), one of the main forms of degradation acetate film suffers from when stored in sites where temperature varies and poor hygrometric conditions). The sound recordings from the original production were tracked down so that the film can now be shown to an audience in all its original glory. For Tant qu’on a la Santé we had to take the best elements from two different versions and then create a virtual edit for the restoration. There are in fact two different versions of the edit, that of 1966 and that of 1971. The version restored for 2010 uses the second, at the request of Pierre Etaix. The restoration work on this film was complicated for several reasons: the film is composed of four short films, elements of which came from different generations; shots in colour alternate with shots in black and white, and two screen formats were used to shoot the film, 1,66 and 1.85. Prints of the restored version will be made in 1.85. Finally, given the impossibility of using the original elements, the film will be shown with a new title sequence recently created by the filmmaker.
The final special case was Yo Yo, which had previously been restored in 2007. That entirely photochemical restoration was completed in 2010 though additional digital restoration work. At the end of this process, the restoration produces two types of elements. On the one hand, restored elements intended for making film prints; these were used in the first instance for making “prestige” prints of the restored versions (on 35mm and in digital format) for non-commercial use in festivals and on the international cinémathèque circuit, and then for making prints intended for commercial theatrical distribution of the film (due to be re-released in France, from July 7, 2010).
On the other hand, a “preservation” interneg will be produced for each film and will not be used under any circumstances for making prints. It will be the key element required for long-term preservation and for this purpose will be stored in an institution charged with preserving the heritage.
At the request of the filmmaker, “prestige” prints as well as the preservation negatives will be deposited at the Cinémathèque française, for long term conservation of the filmmaker’s work.
Séverine Wemaere