restoring the wrath
The Grapes of Wrath [Image: Kobal Collection]
20th Century Fox and MoMA have restored The Grapes of Wrath, and you can see the sparkling result on the big screen at ACMI this week.
It's one of the greatest films of all time, and word is that the restored print of The Grapes of Wrath (PG) looks sensational, with dense dark blacks adding to the film's drama. Unfortunately, the original camera negative for John Ford's classic adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel no longer exists - which is why 20th Century Fox and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, got together to produce a new print for the world to enjoy.
Various secondary sources were tested, including (and for the buffs out there we're about to get a little technical) an incomplete nitrate composite dupe negative from the MoMA collection and a composite fine grain master positive belonging to Fox. The MoMA negative, whilst vastly superior in overall picture quality, contained a significant amount of damage and missing footage. So, the Fox print was utilised to replace the missing and severely damaged sections.
See the results of this restoration, along with that of John Stahl's 1945 Leave Her To Heaven (PG), at ACMI Cinemas for strictly limited sessions in our First Look series.
Published Thursday, 28 August 2008
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