Film series: Restorations & Rediscoveries
This fall, Cornell Cinema continues its long tradition of showcasing recent film restoration projects and rediscovered masterpieces.
For much of cinema history, movies were made on 16mm and 35mm film stocks, which are susceptible to damage from heat, moisture, light, general use, and neglect and exist in a finite number of copies. This material reality leaves many films at risk of being lost and makes film restoration an important part of collections care and cultural preservation.
Film archives and preservation institutions around the world work to identify and preserve at-risk films, collaborating with filmmakers, surviving film materials, and the latest digital technologies to restore the vibrancy, clarity, and depth of an original film print.
Our ongoing Cornell Cinema series serves as a reminder of the complex, technological history of cinema and the degree to which preservation is an important and political act.
Our fall series features 4K restorations of Wim Wender’s Paris, Texas, Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, Eleanor Coppola’s Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, and Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract, as well as a 2K restoration of Cheryl Duyne’s The Watermelon Woman and a special 35mm print restoration of Richard Kelly’s enigmatic Donnie Darko, which will screen during our opening weekend.
