Paris, Texas - 1980s Colour Timing Revival - An Approximation

Couple years back in 2022, I had a chance to see a 35mm print of Paris, Texas at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image here in Melbourne. Paris, Texas had at that point been an all-time favourite for a very long time, and I was shocked to see the movie that I loved didn’t look at all like it did back when it was first released (does this sound familiar?).

Turns out, a lot of the overly green scenes that were, up until then, something I thought to be pretty iconically Paris, Texas weren’t even green back on the 35mm prints. Instead, more natural.

It’s taken two years, another 35mm screening with my partner in tow (both of us taking notes on the timing as they occured), a Japanese Laserdisc (fitted with a Mono Mix) gifted by a friend, a BetaMax from the US of A, an ex-rental VHS from Tasmania, dozens of promotional flyers and mini-posters, a German film stills and screenplay book from the 80s, and finally an Australian DVD from 2001 to get me close to the finish line and to having a not-perfect-but-close-enough restoration of the 1980s colour timing of Paris, Texas.

It was the last acquisition, bought because it advertised a Dolby Stereo mix (the theatrical mix, I’m almost certain), that really sealed the deal. Turns out, the colour timing was exactly what I remembered from the film screenings, and matches the far inferior BetaMax, VHS and LD.

I’m going to attach some screenshots showing some comparisons between the 2014 Restoration, the 2001 DVD and my WIP.

By no means is the DVD a perfect 1:1, in fact it features fading that is suspiciously similar to the prints I’ve seen…

I’ll post some more info on my sources in the replies.

If anybody has any materials that could be of help in this project, please let me know! … especially if anyone has any idea where I can get my filthy mitts on a 35mm print…

Thanks for reading!

P.S. the 2001 DVD still has some reel change markers intact!

And here are some of my reference materials…

WXM said:

Wow just wow to that recent “thing.” Doesn’t need saying thanks to your compare images but, yeah, a million times better with your even-just-WIP results so far. Thumbs up, sir! Don’t lose this work in a HD crash or something after getting this far!

Thanks! Looking forward to starting all of this work almost from scratch when the 4K UHD drops in November haha. I’ll have more to share soon.

If there are any particular parts of the movie you’d like to see comparisons of, let me know.

WXM said:

You’re new here it seems, so do you maybe want to tell people generally what you use? DaVinci R, or Avisynth, or ???, ???, ??? (If you want to keep that kind of thing your secret, totally fine of course 😃)

Happy to! Didn’t want my initial post to be too waffley, so tried to keep it short.

I don’t use any tools that are all that exciting, really. All my colour correction and restoration efforts are done in Davinci Resolve Studio (with Dehancer) and Audacity. Davinci Resolve is just incredible. I’m at a stage now with my colour corrections that what I would once have accomplished with a dozen nodes and power windows, I can accomplish with a much smaller, simpler and more stable node tree.

Dehancer I used to touch up very small things, and to cut corners with some colour timing on some of the more extreme shots. Its grain algorithm, while yes not desirable, has been a good tool to help hide some ugly compression artifacts (something I hopefully won’t need when I have the 4K!) which even the best blu-ray release has plenty of.

Audacity has been used to adjust and clean up (lightly) the Dolby Stereo theatrical mixes so that the 25fps PAL audio can sync to the 24fps Blu-Ray.

I’ve attempted to use DrDre’s Color Matching tool to absolutely zero success. I just don’t have the patience or the know-how on how to properly crop and align the source images.

I do see a future re-grade with the 4K UHD as a source to be a future definitive version to this project. However, if I were to have the chance to scan any film prints, and archive as many different releases of this movie as possible, I’d take it.

Great work so far, I really like this film. Looking forward to a release.

There’s a 4K restoration coming out soon. Played in theaters in NYC I think last year. There’s a couple 4K releases outside of the US already, and I think Criterion will likely release it in the US within the year. I’m pretty sure these stills are the 4K: https://www.janusfilms.com/films/1301

So the color timing of the 4K could be closer to the print, or if not, then you might want to adapt your grade to that scan once it becomes accessible. The Curzon release in November will probably be the easiest to grab.

rwzmjl said:

There’s a 4K restoration coming out soon. Played in theaters in NYC I think last year. There’s a couple 4K releases outside of the US already, and I think Criterion will likely release it in the US within the year. I’m pretty sure these stills are the 4K: https://www.janusfilms.com/films/1301

So the color timing of the 4K could be closer to the print, or if not, then you might want to adapt your grade to that scan once it becomes accessible. The Curzon release in November will probably be the easiest to grab.

The new 4K restoration premiered at Cannes this year. Screenings have started around the world here and there, but yes I have my eyes on the Curzon release. Will hopefully make for a much better base for my restoration because there are some very annoying compression issues in the blu.

Confusingly, there was a “4K re-release” of PT in 2022/2023. This was actually just a 4K DCP of the 2014 2K restoration.

The differences between this new 4K and the older 2K in colour mostly comes down to a more balanced grade. The truly revisionist aspects (the green wash scenes) are by my detective work still there.

zzzonkers said:

I recently saw a 35mm screening myself and this immediately jumped out at me. Would love to see the finished project of this restoration. I’m always so fascinated by the original colour timing of films, especially my favourites.

I can definitely make sure I can get a copy to you once 1.0 is finished.

Can I ask whereabouts in the world you saw the 35mm print and what your impressions were?

Thanks