Films re-releases play a crucial part. They usually give to forgotten movies a new perspective and help highlight living or dead filmmakers and get some masterpieces out of the attic! Without them, many people wouldn’t have been able to discover Alfred Hitchcock’s or Fritz Lang’s movies in good conditions.

Re-releases play a part in heritage cinema management and perception. Often initiated by cinema owners and distributors, who are eager to give a second breath to films that have been weakened by tired prints, a re-release gives to the viewer the opportunity to discover or rediscover a film as it was originally shown. New prints help get a film out of a purely heritage aspect status that can mostly be aggravated by scratches, delayed colours or low contrasts. Cleaning is a way to remove an aura (which is a burden unless your name is Tarantino); re-releasing is a way to highlight an ancient film.

At some point, one could think the DVD would overshadow those re-releasing initiatives. On the contrary, the DVD is likely to have increased the re-releases frequency but it has also made the choices more complex: a new type of movie buff can discover a filmmaker’s work through DVDs and choose to see the same films then in theatres. That new type of film lover may be more demanding in technical terms than the previous generation of movie addicts. To learn more, we have interviewed with Jean-Max Causse, founder of the legendary Action theatres in Paris (Grand Action, Action Ecoles, Action Christine) and now owner of the Quartier Latin theatre located in rue Champollion. We have also interviewed with Vincent Paul-Boncour from Carlotta Films, an established French theatrical and video distribution company specialized in heritage cinema.

The landscape is now much more complex than in the fifties. The film critic is of course no more responsible for all the discoveries and choices of re-releases: on the contrary, it feeds him a lot. In his interview, Vincent Paul-Boncour depicts how Carlotta handled its first re-release in France -that of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, ten years ago. Beyond the traditional press reviews, it aroused at that time the publishing of critical apparatus and exclusive archives, giving a taste of what would be later the company’s policy in terms of DVD releases. Furthermore, DVDs have become a new place for critics, as many journalists and writers would pursue and reformulate their work with them. Far from killing each other, the different media have found a common path, allowing cinephilie, distribution and critic to begin their mutation.

Each year in France, the National Center of Cinematography (CNC) grants money to annual re-releases programs and examines their quality as much as the quality of the distributor’s work from past years. Films that are eligible must be at least twenty years old –that’s why cinema of the seventies has been specifically highlighted in France over the last fifteen years. By giving subsidies, the CNC regulates the relationship between distributors and cinema owners: it encourages theatres to back up these releases and to make the films available for educational programs.

Each country has obviously its specificity and every cinematography doesn’t have the same attitude toward its heritage. In some Asian countries for instance, where theatres don’t prevail anymore over home cinema and where illegal discs proliferate. But if France distinguishes from some countries by its constant and numerous re-releases, other countries also do, like the United Kingdom or the USA where, apart from museums initiatives, young companies like Rialto Pictures restorates, makes subtitles and relaunches ancient movies.

Francis Chérasse & Bastien Hader