Watchmaker takes time to restore film classics

A scene from the restored Two Stage Sisters.Provided to Shanghai Star

Lights! Camera! Action!

Nicole Kidman promotes 'Grace of Monaco' in SIFF

Shanghai film festival embraces Japanese line-up

"We are dedicated to paying tribute to the classics of Chinese cinema, and giving back to the market," says Daniel Riedo, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

"We want to be present at the film festival not only on the red carpet, but also for causes that benefit future generations."

Stage Sisters was resurrected mainly in the Cineteca di Bologna's film restoration laboratory in Italy, billed as "the high temple of film restoration". Two teams of 80 specialists based in Shanghai and Bologna spent six months restoring the iconic picture in full color.

According to Davide Pozzi, one of the specialists, the first step was to repair every single frame, splice and perforation of the film before it was scanned. The film scan was performed at the 4K resolution - the first time this has been used to restore a Chinese film - at the lowest speed, in order to keep every detail.

While old negatives of films often suffer from scratches, dust, liquefying and shrinking, the 4K technology restored the images in high definition and at the same time preserved the film's original look.

Next came digital restoration. Experts had to remove every single scratch, fix dirt and dust, stabilize the picture and adjust for light flickering. The sound underwent similar rehabilitation. At the very end, experts turned to color correction, referring to a vintage color print of the film to be sure they were faithful to the original look of the film.

The next Chinese film to be restored by the laboratory in cooperation with Jaeger-LeCoultre and Shanghai film festival will be A Better Tomorrow, a 1986 action flick by Hong Kong director John Woo.