A Fistful of Dollars RE-RESTORED ?

[Saimo]

A Fistful of Dollars film will be screened at Cannes 67, but the new so-called "restoration" has given rise to some controversy, since this masterpiece had already been properly restored in 2007. Here a press release by Ripley's Film:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/ripleys-home-video/a-fistful-of-dollars-re-restored/10152425272305056


It’s not enough to present a masterpiece from the past -- not in the society of the “event.” Some piece of news has to be built around it. A film, at least, needs to have been just restored. What if it didn’t need to be restored? If it has already been restored? That’s no big thing. The frenzy of the scoop has no memory. As often happens, A Fistful of Dollars has now been “re-restored” by the CINETECA DI BOLOGNA for a presentation at the Festival de Cannes.

There are some obvious second thoughts about the use of public funds to “save” films whose safety has been already guaranteed for a long time rather than to save others that would arouse less media attention. Beyond these thoughts, it remains to be said that Sergio Leone’s masterpiece, restored years ago by RIPLEY’S FILM and CENTRO SPERIMENTALE DI CINEMATOGRAFIA - CINETECA NAZIONALE, was already presented at the opening of the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007, playing to broad media coverage. The difference is that then the restoration was done on the film philologically – i.e. respecting not only the content of the work but also the support that it was put on originally, as must be done for a work of art.

[Sepiatone]

Are they implying the first restoration "didn't take"? 

 

Did something happen to it that required another restoration?  What could that possibly be?

 

Now, I could see something like that in the case of suddenly finding the "lost" footage of some movie, like LOST HORIZON, or A STAR IS BORN, where missing footage was replaced with still shots with the soundtrack playing over them.  But I doubt that's the case with FISTFUL OF DOLLARS.

 

Or, it could be a marketing ploy.  Like some "new and improved" product that really isn't new and improved, but just the box it comes in.

 

Sepiatone

[MovieMadness]

This is an odd choice to restore, I hope they don't add parts like they did with the Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

[Saimo]

it could be a marketing ploy.  Like some "new and improved" product that really isn't new and improved

 

That is my guess too...

[cigarjoe]

http://www.slashfilm.com/fistful-of-dollars-outtakes/

The Cannes Film Festival will close this year with a presentation of a restoration of Sergio Leone’s 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars. (Released in the US in early 1967.)  The movie, an uncredited remake of Yojimbo, turned Clint Eastwood into a movie star and made the spaghetti western the hottest genre going. Quentin Tarantino will present the film at Cannes, but even if you can’t attend that show we’ve got a good treat, in the form of some newly discovered and restored A Fistful of Dollars outtakes.

The Cineteca di Bologna and Unidis Jolly Film (the original producers and distributors of the movie) were behind the restoration. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation also helped out. As part of the process of restoration, some outtakes from the film were discovered and restored.

 

There’s not a lot of material here, but finding anything from a 50-year old film is pretty significant. Most outtakes of this type would have been destroyed or dumped decades ago. So a four-minute window into Sergio Leone’s working process may seem slight, but it’s an opportunity we’re happy to have. 

And it’s fun to see this stuff, as when Clint Eastwood, who is meant to be playing seriously stoic and implacable, just can’t manage his poncho thanks to some wind. And we also see the camera slates bearing the film’s original title: El Magnifico Straniero, aka The Magnificent Stranger.

[Saimo]

 

http://www.slashfilm.com/fistful-of-dollars-outtakes/

As part of the process of restoration, some outtakes from the film were discovered and restored.

Colossal hoax: those outtakes were already "discovered" in 2007, and they were even released on DVD in 2009...

 

 

http://forum.spaghetti-western.net/index.php?topic=2075.5

The second disc also has a couple of little gems worth talking about. (Frat)tagli(e) doppi. Dal pugno di dollari [...] is an interesting overview of faces from the set, of looks that change according to focus and more or less candid outtakes.