· Catamount Arts
Catamount Arts will offer a special free Wednesday night screening of iconic film noir masterpiece Criss Cross, by director Robert Siodmak. This luminous 4K restoration will screen one night only, September 16th, at 6pm.
“Film noir aficionados are sure to rejoice,” raves Daniel Hartley for Den of Cinema, “once they see this gorgeous 4K digital restoration of the…[a]rtful, highly atmospheric cinematography by Franz Planer.”
A fatalistic and stylish tour de force with one of the most revered closing shots in noir history, Criss Cross stars Burt Lancaster as a frustrated, beleaguered armored car driver whose desire for his ex-wife lands him on the wrong side of the law. Passion, greed, and deception lead to a violent robbery as desperate characters are double- and triple-crossed in this brooding, tense tale of obsession and betrayal.
Taut, thrilling, and whip-smart, Criss Cross is easily among the most influential of the seedy urban underbelly films popular in the 1940s, and the 4K restoration allows viewers to experience the film with rich, saturated immediacy and a crystalline soundscape.
4K restoration, which includes audio as well as visual enhancement, is a complex technical process involving hands-on archival work and digital manipulation to restore and enrich a film’s clarity, color, and dynamic range. Preservationists must inspect, clean, and repair the original negatives, scan the original film through a digital scanner, and clean scratches, stains, and mold frame by frame.
Where the picture is damaged or faded, digital artists and colorists analyze historical references to clone adjacent pixels, and technicians expand the dynamic range to better showcase existing shadows, highlights, and contrast. Original audio tracks are painstakingly repaired to eliminate static, hissing, clicks, and pops, and remixed for a pristine listening experience via modern surround sound technology.
The result is a startlingly vivid, almost immersive experience for viewers, eliminating many of the optical and acoustic compromises filmgoers have simply come to expect when watching old classics. The movies are not simply glossed up but restored to their original lush integrity, closing the distance between viewer and story for a dramatically heightened experience.
For casual film fans and devoted cinephiles alike, 4K restoration revives the original magic of old movies. For one night only, enjoy the moody film noir magic of Criss Cross, on the big screen, at Catamount Arts. Learn more about this and additional film programming, including the original Broadway production of Hadestown and a special presentation of A Cell Phone Movie, at www.catamountarts.org.