I saw the wonderful City Lights tonight in a "new 35mm print." But -- horrors! The amazing last sequence, the most important part of the film (and some say of film history), seems to be damaged. From the start of the last reel, there was distorted fluttering at the top and bottom of the image, and it appeared to be in the negative. Can anybody shed light on this?
shareDefinatley not in the negative otherwise all prints would have the same damage
I caught a 35mm screening 3 days ago and there was no damage or flutter in the final reel at all. I watched specifically because of your post.
Not sure where you are from... but I know that there are only 3 prints currently in existence in North America.
Either the print you viewed was damaged or the projectionist didn't know what he/she was doing.
The print shown by TCM (provided by Janus film and restored by MK2) had the same last reel damage - looks like the element was shrunk and the problem couldn't be corrected - it was very annoying. Also, the image was very soft throughout, looked like several generations removed from the original.
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