Does anyone else here know which interview I’m remembering where GL says “the original film/negative/interpositive” was cut up for 97ANH? And the the “original” no longer exists. I’m pretty sure he made it clear but he may have been referring to existing media of that time degrading.
He re-cut the negative, yes. But the trims were saved, not tossed in the trash.
So, he was being honest, on a technicality, that the original negative didn’t exist. But all of its components still existed, just in pieces.
Yes technically their own negative was changed. But in any real sense there’s not “one original reel” since they exist all over the world and have been restored by fans and the BFI etc. Again it’s all somewhere in the big “revisionist” thread pinned above here.