Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

L’article décrit les multiples choix qui
ont marqué la restauration de Il était
une fois (1922) et les découvertes par
rapport à ce film de Carl Dreyer
rendues possibles par ce travail.
Deux éléments ont été utilisés pour la
restauration : un fragment conservé
depuis de nombreuses années par le
Danish Film Museum et une copie
incomplète retrouvée dans l’entrepôt
du cinéma Palads de Copenhague en
1958. Ont également servis : le
programme-souvenir publié à
l’occasion de la première danoise du
film, la copie du scénario original
annotée par le cinéaste, le texte de la
pièce dont le film est l’adaptation et
les photos de plateau (notamment
celles correspondant aux parties
disparues).
Un outil important pour les
restaurateurs a été la liste des titres
de la censure suédoise qui partage le
film en 7 sections, une structure qui
correspond d’assez près à la pièce
d’origine (5 actes, 8 scènes). Les
éléments disponibles contenaient à
peu près intégralement les sections 1,
2, 4 et 5, deux courts fragments de la
section 3 et un de la section 6; la
section 7 manquait intégralement.
L’article décrit avec beaucoup de
précision les différentes phases de la
restauration en soulignant l’effort
particulier apporté à la reconstitution
des intertitres (complétés au besoin
par des textes explicatifs permettant
au spectateur de mieux comprendre
la structure et le déroulement du
film) et l’usage des techniques de
montage numérique (AVID) et des
techniques digitales pour la
restauration des images.
Le texte se divise en six grandes
sections riches en informations
multiples et qui constituent une
véritable histoire de cette
restauration. Les six chapitres se
présentent ainsi : le film (sa
structure), les matériaux retrouvés, les
intertitres (le texte), les intertitres
(localisation et design), la restauration
(le montage), la copie (le processus
digital).
P.S. La copie dvd de Il était une fois est
disponible au Danish Film Institute
http://eshop.dfi.dk
other section 3 fragment shows the Prince’s companion Kasper
Smokehat in the King’s chambers, demanding that he cooperate in the
Prince’s plan to tame the Princess; this also has no intertitle indications,
its continuity is somewhat odd, and an insert shot is missing from it. It
is difficult to say whether this material is finished or not.
The fragment from section 6 is definitely not finished material; the
shots are completely out of order, there are no title indications, and the
fragment contains several takes of the same shot, including one where
Svend Methling stops in the middle of a movement and shrugs his
shoulders - obviously a failed take. Indeed, the whole fragment may
consist of outtakes, but since no other material survives from the reel
in question, as much as possible of the fragment was used for the
restoration.
A number of stills survive, especially the stills from the final wedding
sequence were instrumental in the restoration, since they are the only
image elements surviving from this section of the film.
The Intertitles: Text
The main purpose of the restoration has been to reestablish the film’s
intertitles, supplemented with explanatory titles that would give the
spectator at least some idea of the structure and storyline of Dreyer’s
film. The main source for the intertitles was a title list from the archives
of Statens biografbyrå, the Swedish film censorship office. The Swedish
censors would keep complete title lists for all films they passed. The
titles in the list are numbered from 2 to 147; further, there are six
additional titles numbered 2a, 3a, 3b, 3c, etc. Quite a few of the title
numbers (thirty-three in all) have no corresponding text, however, only
the indication “(Omitted)”, giving a total of 119 titles. These have all
been translated into Danish, and all but two of them have been used in
the restoration (one of them credits the Swedish distributor of the film;
the other, a dialogue title, will be discussed below). In a number of
cases, however, the precise wording has been adjusted in accordance
with other sources.
The other sources used for the intertitles are the German flash titles in
the print, the program booklet for the Danish premiere, Dreyer’s
screenplay, and Drachmann’s play. The intertitles in the print that the
Danish Film Museum, now the Danish Film Institute / Archive &
Cinematheque, has distributed until now, have all been printed up from
the German flash titles in the fine-grain. The wording of the German
flash titles is in all cases very similar to that found in the Swedish title
list, and where the German wording has seemed more felicitous, it has
been preferred to the Swedish. However, only in about half the places
where the master contains title markers does it also contain flash titles.
The Swedish list has thus supplied a large number of additional titles,
which make the narrative much more comprehensible and the rhythm
of the film more appreciable.
For the exact wording of the Danish translation of some of the titles,
the program booklet has been used. It is illustrated with stills; the
captions for most (but not all) of the illustrations are given in quotation
marks and clearly follow the wording of intertitles from the film. The
title introducing the Prince, for instance, is given in the Swedish title list
33 Journal of Film Preservation / 67 / 2004