Restoring CinemaScope 55 The King and I

When the 35mm Cinemascope format became popular in the mid-1950's, 20th Century Fox film corporation decided to create a unique format that they called Cinemascope 55. This format was a 55mm wide by 8 perforations high image produced using custom made anamorphic lenses. Since the format was used on only two films, "The King and I" and "Carousel", and the 55mm format was not a successful one, preservation of these titles from the original negatives has been problematic.

This film by Simon Lund shows how the Cineric team worked from the original 55mm camera negatives to restore the film. A new 55mm wet gate optical printing system was developed. This new system had to deal with the issues of smaller than normal perforations, recombination of badly shrunken separation masters, repairing severely faded opticals, and repairing torn sections of the negative that could only be remedied with 4K scanning and digital manipulation. The film highlights common and inherent archival issues related to creation and implementation of methodologies for preservation of obsolete or unique formats.

copyright Cineric, Inc. 2004, Directed by Simon Lund, Executive Producer Balazs Nyari