‘Restoring’ DeMille
Regarding the “newly restored version” of “The Ten Commandments,” which I saw recently at the Cinerama Dome: By what standard has this film been restored? Unlike “Lawrence of Arabia,” no scenes had been lost and the negative had not deteriorated.
“The Ten Commandments” was filmed in VistaVision, the best of the wide-screen processes, in which each frame of the negative had an unusually large area, even larger than 70 millimeters.
It was also aesthetically pleasing, with an aspect ratio of 1.88 to 1 instead of the ultra-wide 2.676 to 1 used in CinemaScope.
The new 70-millimeter version was severely cropped to yield a very wide image, which eliminated some of the titles and damaged major sequences such as the turning of the Nile to blood. Whatever one may think of the film’s director, Cecil B. DeMille, he was a master at framing and composing his scenes, and the Old Master quality of “The Ten Commandments” was destroyed.
MATT RICHEY
Los Angeles
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