Here in Berlin, the British Film Institute (BFI) has revealed further details of its major Alfred Hitchcock restoration project, which is being mounted for the London 2012 Festival (part of the Cultural Olympiad to tie in with the Olympic Games.)
The initiative - Rescue The Hitchcock 9 - will restore The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Lodger: a Tale of the London Fog (1926), The Ring (1927), Downhill (1927), Easy Virtue (1928), Champagne (1928), The Farmer’s Wife (1928), The Manxman (1929) and Blackmail (1929)
All nine films will show as part of a complete retrospective The Genius of Hitchcock (June - October 2012).
A number of the restorations are also likely to surface at international festivals in 2012. New scores have been commissioned for the films, including Nitin Sawhney’s orchestral presentation of The Lodger.
Work on the restorations was done at the BFI National Archive and digital facilities supplied by Deluxe Soho. The work has taken almost two years to complete and has been supported by a wide range of industry and individual patrons. Backers include The Film Foundation (chaired by Martin Scorsese) and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
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