Foes Agree to Allow Colorized Films With Label

Disagreement over whether to allow classic films to be colorized moved a long step closer to resolution Tuesday as the principal adversaries reached an agreement to allow colorization as long as altered versions of the films are clearly labeled.

The agreement was promptly added to a broad domestic spending bill that is expected to be approved on the House floor today.

Under the agreement, the National Film Preservation Board would be created in the Interior Department to designate up to 25 “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” movies each year to be included on a registry of classic films.

National Film Registry

Once a film was on the list, which would be known as the National Film Registry, it could not be colorized or altered in any other way without prominently displayed notification on the film and its packaging.

The creation of a panel to decide which movies are classics had been a source of strong disagreement between the Directors Guild of America, the principal proponent of legislation to limit colorization, and the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which favors colorization.

MPAA President Jack Valenti, who maintained that the commission represented the intrusion of government into the film industry, said he approved the compromise only after it became clear to him that “we didn’t have the votes” in the House to overturn legislation aimed at limiting colorization.

Against Government Action

“The last thing you want to do as creative people is get the government involved, no matter how laudable or benign the commission is,” Valenti said.

Valenti characterized the agreement as a compromise, however. He noted that the Directors Guild had agreed to include the MPAA and other pro-colorization groups on the Film Preservation Board.

The Directors Guild’s original proposal for the Film Preservation Board called for only a five-member panel representing organizations largely opposed to colorization. Tuesday’s agreement expanded membership to 13, including the presidents of the MPAA and other pro-colorization groups.

Glenn Gumpel, director of the Directors Guild, disputed Valenti’s charge that the preservation board would mean more government intervention. “This is not a government commission made up of government appointees,” Gumpel said.

Gumpel called the compromise “a tremendous victory for film lovers everywhere. The creation of a national film commission is an important first step in recognizing motion pictures as works of art.”

According to Tuesday’s agreement, the Film Preservation Board would have the power to add and remove films from the national registry, establish criteria for including movies in the registry and decide what sorts of alterations must be disclosed to viewers. The board would also have the right to change the wording of labels to be displayed on altered films.

The bill would specify that colorized films be labeled with the words: “Colorized version of original work; certain creative contributors did not participate.”