The Art of Restoring Classic Films
FollowWhy have cinephiles, from the era of Laserdiscs through that of DVDs and now Blu-rays, so consistently respected The Criterion Collection? Speaking as one such cinephile, we could point to a number of factors: their curatorial bent toward important films, their production of rich supplementary features, their always impressive pieces of cover art.
But Criterion has become increasingly known for the considerable work they put in not at the end of the process, when they package a classic or potentially classic motion picture for maximum aesthetic and intellectual appeal (and your purchase), but at the beginning, when they track down the actual celluloid film in the first place, often aged or damaged, and engage in the often painstaking task of returning it to the prime of visual and sonic life.