The Silent Watchdog

Silent era films are fraught with their own array of issues above and beyond those that affect the preservation and restoration of films in general. Since intermediate filmstocks had not been introduced (and even well into the sound era were used only for optical effects) all early exhibition prints were first generation. Popular films (i.e. those printed in high numbers) would accrue a fair bit of irreversible negative wear. One common strategy for overcoming this limitation, particularly when negatives had to be sent abroad, was to assemble an entirely new version of a film from alternate takes. And of course every foreign market would require new intertitles. Even worse, due to the plasticity of a silent narrative (recutting is a relatively trivial matter when no soundtrack need be accounted for and the addition of choice text here and there can provide quick continuity fixes and even grossly alter the meaning of a scene), censors and exhibitors wary of the mores and tastes of their audiences often effected their own "final" cuts of films. The checkered history of Metropolis is a notable illustration of this.

Restorationists today are often faced with versions from different territories of the "same" film with unmatching shots, rearranged plots, and inconsistent intertitles, all of which must be sorted out in addition to considerations of image quality. Compromises happen.

Charlie Chaplin's films have existed through the years in a dizzying number of versions. Chaplin himself, having taken ownership of all but the very earliest of his output, reworked his silent features to befit the sound era, adding his own scores and narration and removing the original titles and whatever scenes he deemed passé. With or without his participation, even his earlier shorts were often redacted in the decade after their creation. Says David Shepard in an interview from 5 years ago: "It took me a long time to realize that there are no authoritative versions of the films. I don't think they've changed much since the mid-1920's, but I think they changed a lot between 1916 and that time."

It's from Shepard's collection the Chaplins to be presented are drawn. They're printed, early last decade, from nitrate negatives passed down over the years from RKO, through the Commonwealth Library, to Blackhawk Films. They were intended for performances of Carl Davis's scores, but haven't seen much use since most venues are incapable of running 35mm at silent speeds. Thankfully, the Castro Theatre has this capability.

Chaplin in The Rink

On a film by film basis, David reports: "The Pawn Shop is mostly printed from original negative; The Adventurer is printed from an original negative with a lot of repair shots from dupe negative inserted; The Rink is a dupe negative made by RKO which unfortunately is cropped at the left edge because it was made on a printer that was matted for optical sound work. All of the intertitles are modern facsimiles." The previously linked interview suggests that additional footage may exist in some prints that might augment these films, but these new Shepard prints were struck from the best available negatives. Furthermore: "none of the films... have been scanned, digitally cleaned, and re-recorded to 35mm again." For which I, for one, am thankful.

Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent is a 1994 photochemical restoration by the French Film Archives from two original negatives: a German, presumably in better physical shape, and an incomplete French, from which only intertitles were drawn. Additional intertitles missing from the French version had to be created from scratch in the same style.

Filming La Bohème

Lastly, King Vidor's La Bohème, as the UCLA Film & Television Archive emphasizes, is not a restoration per se, merely a new print they've made (with the Stanford Theatre Foundation's support) from Warner Bros.' safety dupe negative. Given UCLA's involvement, we should expect to see a carefully timed and struck print, the best possible within the constraints of the negative provided.

All 35mm film, all photochemical in origin, reasonably authoritative in content. All things considered, I feel I can fully endorse the entire day's festivities.

Thanks to Anita Monga, David Shepard, Jean-Baptiste Garnero, and Todd Wiener for providing details on the prints being shown.