Cremaster 3 AI-Upscale and Re-grade

Cremaster 3 is about 1000x more obscure than most movies that are usually talked about on here (here’s a Letterboxd link: https://letterboxd.com/film/cremaster-3/), but I thought I’d share anyway.

Recently I saw Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle at Metrograph in NYC and loved it. It was an extremely rare screening of all five films on 35mm. The movie series is infamous for its rarity of screenings and never being available in any at-home capacity–a little bit of artificial scarcity at play (although I completely understand Barney’s desire for audiences to see his work in a theater).

All of the Cremaster films have been available through torrenting (their origin being, I believe, the very rare, very expensive DVDs Barney sold many years ago). However, the torrents don’t do the cinematography justice. Since 99% of people who see these films these days are watching the torrents rather than the superb print, I’ve decided to AI-upscale the only known digital transfer of Cremaster 3 (which is the most ambitious and famous film from the cycle) to 4K. Then I’m going to grade the movie to the best of my memory of the print (with some added grain).

Obviously, there isn’t a lot of wiggle room when it comes to grading something that originated on DVD. But I’ve brought a chunk of the film into Resolve, and there is a lot of info in the shadows that people are missing out on. The crushing of shadows and the clipping of highlights is the biggest difference between the print and the digital transfer that I’ve noticed, other than the resolution difference. Not much I can do about the clipping, but the shadows can be addressed.

I am using Gaia through Topaz Video AI. The results are similar to Inland Empire’s recent official 4K “restoration.” It is definitely an increase in resolution, especially in close-ups, but it certainly isn’t reaching actual 4K’s resolving power. I’d say it is closer to 1080p or a nice 720p.

I’ll probably take my time doing this considering I’m probably the only one who cares, but I’ll update when it is finished.

original (easy shot)

AI-Upscale with some color work

original (difficult shot)

AI-Upscale with some color work

Interesting project.
I’d be interested in checking it out when it’s done

I would love to see this, I found your post because I was planning to do the same thing once I can find my copy of cremaster 3. I recently grabbed it was a torrent and it wasnt even half complete! I know I have the version in two parts somewhere on disk.

I would love to see this when you’re finished, and thank you for making the effort. How do I keep track of your progress?

In the early 2000s I was working nights at a hotel in Birmingham, England - and regularly doing 70-hour weeks. On my day off I saw the MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) was showing the Cycle in one day, FOR one day (the following day), all on 35 of course. I’d never heard of them but did some research and this was right up my street.

I called in the afternoon to pre-book tickets and the woman seemed confused and refused to sell me one. Eventually she said the showings were happening that day, and were already halfway through. In my working-nights-and-long-weeks haze I’d lost a day. So gutted, and I’ve been trying to track it down ever since.

Two years ago I finally started delving into a Google Drive link a friend had sent me of his friend’s massive archive of amazing films of all stripes. When I realised how obscure and out-there some of these films were I immediately looked for the Cremaster Cycle and they were there! Immediately saved to three hard drives.

Just watch this thread for updates. I’ll make sure to post about it when I’m finished. Been very busy recently.

Glad to see there are some interested parties besides myself though! Considering the obscurity of the movie. It’ll make me get back to it a little faster 😃

And maybe I’ll do Cremaster 2 also.

Hahaha, well at that point it’d be rude not to do them all…

I’m joking. However many you do and however long it takes, it’s very welcome. It may be years before I even see them. I’ve actually so far only seen the first one (chronological, not numerical) and enjoyed the experience. I thought I’d try and do them all in a week but obviously you have to be in a very specific type of mood.

It would be a dream to watch this in glorious HD format, thank you so much for your effort, I’ll be another one that will keep looking forward to watch.

Fantastic to see this happening. Your work is appreciated! Definitely going to be following this project.

Appreciate the interest from everyone (and surprised). I was very busy second half of ‘23, but things are in progress!

This is an epic project! Barney’s work is some of my favorite ever. Are You reworking the entire 182m feature? I would so love to see this when it’s done.

Yep, I’ll be doing the full feature. The version I have is almost exactly three hours.

would also love to see this one! was bummed to miss the 35mm screenings last summer. his more recent films have been fantastic too, River of Fundament and Redoubt

Just another commenter coming along to say that you are a saint, I’m on my hands and knees begging for this

Still working on it. It’s a slow process for sure! Thankfully I got a Blackmagic 4K Decklink within the last few months, so now I’m grading it on my calibrated LG OLED rather than my MacBook.

This might be selfish to ask, but do you perchance have a percentage you could give us of how close you are? Just really excited, lol

PunchItBaby said:

I would love to see this when you’re finished, and thank you for making the effort. How do I keep track of your progress?

In the early 2000s I was working nights at a hotel in Birmingham, England - and regularly doing 70-hour weeks. On my day off I saw the MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) was showing the Cycle in one day, FOR one day (the following day), all on 35 of course. I’d never heard of them but did some research and this was right up my street.

I called in the afternoon to pre-book tickets and the woman seemed confused and refused to sell me one. Eventually she said the showings were happening that day, and were already halfway through. In my working-nights-and-long-weeks haze I’d lost a day. So gutted, and I’ve been trying to track it down ever since.

Two years ago I finally started delving into a Google Drive link a friend had sent me of his friend’s massive archive of amazing films of all stripes. When I realised how obscure and out-there some of these films were I immediately looked for the Cremaster Cycle and they were there! Immediately saved to three hard drives.

Hi, I learned about this movie online and have been looking everywhere for it. I didn’t have any luck. I had seen bits of the movie mostly stills. The stills alone gravitated me to want to know so much more. I have had this post saved on the home screen of my phone ever since I discovered the movie after trying to find it online in hopes that the creator of it would eventually finish his project and I could finally be able to see it. The person I’ve been seeing the past couple of months just got me a DVD of it as a gift. I’ve yet to watch, but I’m very excited. I really enjoy reading your story each time I visit this post. I always wondered if it would be possible to see that Google Drive. I love movies, and I would love to see what else is in there.

I’m still planning on finishing this project at some point; just been very busy with work the last couple years. I’ve learned a lot more about Topaz in that time, though, so I’ll apply it to this. Also have some new tools in Resolve that will help (and better grain).