The Godfather - 50th Anniversary
Digitally restored version of Francis Ford Coppola's classic crime epic. Back on the big screen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this masterpiece.
Coppola’s film adaptation of the book by Mario Puzo describes the rise and fall of the Corleone family and is widely regarded as one of the most important film trilogies in the history of cinema. In the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the original release on 24 March 1972, Paramount and Coppola’s production company American Zoetrope decided to meticulously restore the films over a three-year period. Every effort was made to present the films to a contemporary audience in the best possible way. The starting point was an earlier restoration in 2007 by the prominent film historian Robert Harris. By using new technologies, that earlier restoration has been improved considerably. The statistics show what a monumental task this has been. Under Coppola’s supervision, the restoration team looked at three hundred prints of the film, going through them one by one to find the best possible resolution for each frame. More than four thousand hours were spent repairing stains, tears, and other defects in the negatives. In addition, over a thousand hours were spent on colour correction to ensure that the result would match the original vision of Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis. Back then, the film was nominated for 11 Oscars, but won only 3, including best film.