8 Restored International Classics at KIFF
RBN Web Desk: The 24th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), all set to begin tomorrow, is slated to screen eight restored films of five major filmmakers. These also include acclaimed danseuse Uday Shankar’s 1948 film Kalpana.
This is for the first time that digitally restored international classics of leading directors will be screened at the festival under a separate section.
Film restoration is a painstaking and a hugely expensive process, particularly in the Indian context, since the negatives of most prints are often not properly archived. Films, even at the turn of the millennium, were mostly shot on raw stock. Physical preservation of films became dated with filmmaking turning digital in the past few years.
Here are the eight restored international classics set to be screened. KIFF will screen 170 films from 70 countries across 16 venues this year.
1. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
An American period drama, The Magnificent Ambersons was the second film to be produced and directed by Orson Welles. It was an adaptation of American author Booth Tarkington’s novel of the same name. The Magnificent Ambersons is often considered among the best US films ever and was included in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
