ByCraig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Caroline Frick of the National Film Registry
tours with 15 film treasures.
This February what's old is new at the Hawaii Theatre.
The American Classic Film Series - a traveling show of 15 preserved film treasures coordinated through the Library of Congress National Film Registry - is coming to Honolulu Feb. 20 through 23. The films include:
Feb. 20 - "Letters from an Unknown Woman" (1948), 5:30 p.m.; "On the Waterfront" (1954), 8 p.m.;
Feb. 21 - 5:30 p.m., Hawaii Film Treasures including silent films of the 1890s never before seen on the big screen, followed by "What's Opera, Doc?" (1957), then "Chinatown" (1974);
Feb. 22 - "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), 10 a.m.; "I was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932), 1 p.m.; "Gigi" (1932), 4 p.m.; "Raging Bull" (1980), 7 p.m.;
Feb. 23 - "Eaux D'Artifice" (1953) followed by "Dr. Strangelove (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)" (1964), 10 a.m.; "Ninotchka" (1939), 1 p.m.; "The Great Train Robbery" and "Big Business" (1929), 4 p.m.; "Touch of Evil" (1958), 7 p.m.
"Film, once it's preserved, must not be locked away in some remote vault or only be available on videotape or on television," she said.
"A living room and a television screen is no substitute for a darkened movie theater, a projected image from the actual film, or the interaction of an audience."
Yet, many films have been lost to age and lack of care. According to Frick, more than half of the 21,000 shorts and full-length features made on nitrate stock before 1950 are gone. Three-quarters of the films from the Silent Era, roughly 1893-1930, have also been destroyed. And every color film made on Eastmancolor stock between 1950 and 1975 is in danger of fading away.
Film preservation means leng-thening a film's life, often by transferring it from nitrate stock to longer-lasting acetate or polyester film, Frick said. Restoration involves the enhancement of an inferior or incomplete original print so a copy can be made.
Until 1951, all films were made on cellulose nitrate-based stock, which was preferred because of the beautiful, shimmering images it yielded. As impressive as the aesthetic results were, nitrate stock was a time-bomb since it reacts chemically with the air to produce nitric acid - a corrosive chemical which "eats" film. "And it's highly flammable," Frick said.
"Once ignited, it burns very hot and is impossible to extinguish, even if it's submersed in water."
Classics already lost include the 1926 D.W. Griffith silent, "The Royale Girl," with W.C. Fields; "The Rogue Song" (1930), an early color film directed by Lionel Barrymore that features Laurel and Hardy (only a trailer and fragments have been preserved); the 1927 version of "Camille" starring Norma Talmadge; "Remodeling Her Husband" (1920), the only film directed by Lillian Gish; and "Cleopatra," Theda Bara's 1917 portrayal of the Nile queen.
What's more, the original negatives of a number of acknowledged classics are no longer in existence, requiring preservationists to make completely new prints of such films, Frick said. These include "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943); and all of the features of Shirley Temple, Will Rogers and Betty Grable. Even the original negative of John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939) is gone, as is the negative for Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (1960), she said.
The most common way to preserve older films is to transfer them to slow-fading, safety film on an acetate base, then store them in climate-controlled environments. "But even safety film has problems," Frick said.
"When it's subjected to extreme fluctuations in temperature and humidity, acetate safety film is susceptible to a damaging chemical process called 'vinegar syndrome,' in which the film base becomes unstable to the point where it can no longer be run."
Preservation and restoration are labor intensive and costly. Vinyl-gloved technicians remove all dirt and grime on the film with razor blades - frame-by-frame - and scratched portions with scissors. Film sprockets often need to be replaced and rippled edits re-glued. Shrinkage, brittleness, tears and fading are other problems often encountered.
The International Federation of Film Archives estimates it costs $1 to $2 a foot. The Library of Congress says it costs $10,000-$30,000 to preserve and restore a black-and-white film, $30,000-$300,000 for a color one.
In January the Librarian of Congress selected 25 U.S. Films for the registry, a list that now includes 175 titles chosen for aesthetic, historical or cultural significance, Frick said.