'The Deluge' - before and after the reconstruction [COMPARISON OF THE MATERIAL]

‘Deluge Redivivus’ is a project of the National Film Archive but a different from the previous ones. It is different not only within the activities of the National Film Archive, but it would also be difficult to find a similar venture amongst other, international film archives. Filmoteka Narodowa (the National Film Archive) has intensified its efforts in two directions: preservation and access. The first task was to digitize, to restore and to prepare both digital and analogue archival master copies of ‘The Deluge’ (1974) by Jerzy Hoffman. The next step was to reintroduce the film to the cinemas. It was made possible thanks to the making of the newly edited version of the film, under the artistic supervision of the director – ‘The Deluge Redivivus’ (2014).
The repeated exploitation of both the film negative and a copy of the audio source have contributed to their high damage. This meant serious losses, even of few frames in a row, but most of all – extensive scratches and attached dust, which was then visible on the screen.
The preforation required a thorough maintenece, the original splicings and their subsequent repairs, so that the film could safely go through the scanning machine. The main problem, however, turned out to be losses of the material: sometimes of few frames, another time a missing part or even the whole scene…