Tuesday's DVD release of Paramount's "Sunset Boulevard" and "Roman Holiday" come after a painstaking two-year restoration process, pricier than any previous restoration undertaken by the studio and done without an original copy of the films.
Aside from a crisper image, however, viewers shouldn't expect to find any newly uncovered details in the new editions, and that's just the way the studio prefers it. "The whole point is to preserve the films the original way they were done in theaters," said Phil Murphy, senior VP of operations for the TV division at Paramount.
The studio used copies of the films from the Library of Congress when restoring the movie. The restoration was aimed at producing not only a cleaned-up image for DVD but also a new film print. Both films were made on silver nitrate, which eventually deteriorates. Paramount had backup copies of the original internegative made some years after the initial release of the films. From that, the studio made film copies on safety stock.
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