Autumn Events Movie Times

One silver lining with daylight savings drawing to a close is the arrival of the NZ International Film Festival’s mighty Autumn Events programme of classic films hitting the big screen around the country. Launching this weekend in Auckland, Napier, Wellington and Dunedin, then continuing on to Christchurch next month, this year’s Autumn Events is full of must-see classics.

Aguirre, the Wrath of God: We’re delighted to be presenting screenings of Werner Herzog’s minimalist, hallucinatory adventure and cult classic. Decades after the destruction of the Inca empire, a Spanish expedition leaves the mountains of Peru and travels the Amazon river in search of gold. Their quest, led by led by Gonzalo Pizarro and his second in command, the ruthless megalomaniac Don Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), will lead to “the golden city” or to destruction.

Dr. Strangelove: Stanley Kubrick’s Peter Sellers-starring comedy about the bomb. Through a series of military and political accidents, a psychotic general – U.S. Air Force Commander Jack D Ripper (Sterling Hayden) – triggers an ingenious, irrevocable scheme to attack Russia’s strategic targets with nukes.

Funny Face: Film version of the George Gershwin broadway musical, with the star of the original stage production Fred Astaire and the charming Audrey Hepburn

On the Waterfront: Marlon Brando gives one of movie’s most electrifying performances as ex-boxer, who “could’ve been a contender” Terry Malloy. Instead he toils away for boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) on the gang-ridden waterfront.

The Third Man: Considered one of film’s greatest thrillers, and named the best British film of the 20th Century by the British Film Institute this mystery follows an American pulp novelist (Joseph Cotton) who travels to shadowy post-WWII Vienna and becomes embroiled in an investigation into the murder of his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles).

The Wind Rises: This animated drama from Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away), playing in dubbed and subtitled versions, is the ‘farewell masterpiece’ from Japanese filmmaking legend Hayao Miyazaki. Set in Japan during World War II, The Wind Rises explores the life of fighter plane designer Jiro Horikoshi.

Lawrence of Arabia: Winner of seven Academy Awards and regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, David Lean’s 1962 epic was digitally restored to mark its 50th Anniversary. Based on the life of eccentric British Officer T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), who succeeded in uniting the Arab tribes and going to war against the occupying Turkish army in World War I. (Plays Napier, Christchurch and Dunedin only).

Sony Pictures’ Grover Crisp is a world expert in film preservation and restoration, responsible for the work done on the new 4K versions of Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Strangelove and On the Waterfront. He has also worked on many other classics from Sony Columbia’s back catalogue, and his experience spans both traditional film (photo-chemical) restoration and current digital technology. He answered a few questions for us about restoration.

FLICKS: You’ve seen and been a part of the evolution of film restoration. What do you predict the process will be like in 5-10 years time?

GROVER CRISP: While I think photo-chemical preservation work still has its place in the workflow, all restoration will be digital in the near future. We are already experiencing the major closing of film labs and film stocks going away. In five years the only scanning of film will be for archival and restoration purposes. Probably sooner than that. What I embrace in all this is the ability to restore films in a much more thorough and non-compromising way than we ever could in the past. As long as we maintain the standards and sensibilities that relate to the inherent qualities of the films we are working to restore, and respect those qualities, then I think we will see magnificent work.

Do you have a fanboy film restoration, a pet project, that you dream of one day completing? Or have completed?

This is a bit difficult to answer as many of the restorations we have done over the last twenty-five years have been important milestones for us. I suppose one really important early digital restoration was the Frank Capra silent film The Matinee Idol, a restoration in collaboration with the AMPAS Film Archive and the Cinematheque Francaise in the mid-1990’s. It was the first all digital restoration of a live-action film. It was groundbreaking for its time, though the quality of the work would not likely hold up today. Of course, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, The Last Picture Show, Funny Girl, Olivier’s Richard III, among many others, are titles that come to mind for projects that were challenging that I think were successful restorations.

The viewing experience can now take place on any sized screen. What would you say to people who may still need convincing about heading out to the cinema (versus watching a film at home). What makes the giant screen experience unbeatable?

There is still nothing like seeing a film on a big screen for the sheer power that is there in the experience. I think Blu-ray and 4K are great leaps forward in the home theatre viewing capabilities, however.