How modern technology helped restore 'Doctor Zhivago'

JAKARTA (JP): Turner Broadcasting System Inc. (TBS), which bought the rites to many classics in the MGM library some years ago including Doctor Zhivago, found the film's negative worn and scratched. Some segments had become so severely damaged that they had been replaced with duplicate footage, including the reel which contains the famous scenes in which Zhivago and Lara spend their last days together in an abandoned, snow-filled country mansion.

Although later prints of the film suffered from multiple scratches and a loss of clarity, a test print made from the original negative recaptured all the film's original sharpness, according to Lisa Prestwich, spokesperson to the TNT network, which is owned by TBS.

The negative's color quality also remained strong, with no evidence of fading dyes that have threatened so many other films from the 1950s and 1960s, she added. A second test print, using a wet-gate method to fill in the scratches, eliminated almost all damage to the original.

The next step was the creation of new printing elements. Using the wet-gate process again, along with careful retiming of the print's color, technicians created a new interpositive -- a print of the film from which all future negatives would be struck. This interpositive turned out every bit as clear as the original negative with none of the damage generated by 30 years of constant reprinting. From this an internegative was created from which all future 35mm prints will be struck.

Sound was another important element of the film's restoration. At the time Doctor Zhivago premiered, six-track stereo could only be used with 70mm prints. Since 70mm is a prohibitively expensive format for filming, the film's director David Lean had the picture shot in 35mm and then blown up to 70mm. In blowing up the film, however, some definition was lost. This created a serious problem for exhibitors in the 1960s. They could show the film in 70mm with a slightly distorted image but the best sound possible. Or they could show a 35mm print with a sharper image, but only four-track stereo.

Recent technology has solved the problem. Starting with Jurassic Park in 1994, filmmakers have been able to use DTS Digital Stereo -- a system using CD-ROM discs to play back a film's sound -- to combine the clarity of a 35mm film image with the depth and vibrancy of six-track stereo.

For Doctor Zhivago, technicians returned to the original sound elements to create a new soundtrack for the restored picture. This resulted in a much cleaner soundtrack than existed on some prints of the film, with clearer speech from the actors and a careful balance so that sound effects would enhance the dialog and music rather than overpower it. (jsk)