Which is to say, the version I watched, which despite contradictory evidence appears to be the 1983 Channel 4 UK cut, didn't have the triple-screen finale. I gather that Brownlow only had rights to the center panel when he did that restoration. (Contradictions are the running time -- 5:15 on mine vs. the listed running time of 4:50 -- and the fact that my copy was tinted, which Wikipedia says it wasn't. I wonder if the time difference was a result of conversion from PAL to NTSC.)
However, I also had access to the Francis Ford Coppola restoration, which does have the finale in triple-screen, and I watched only the triple-screen portion of that version. I have a large television, as such things go (52 inches? don't remember for sure), and it barely worked. I'd love to see that on a large theatre screen as it was intended, mostly for historical purposes. I'd have to say Gance's ambition outran the technology in that regard.
no subject
Which is to say, the version I watched, which despite contradictory evidence appears to be the 1983 Channel 4 UK cut, didn't have the triple-screen finale. I gather that Brownlow only had rights to the center panel when he did that restoration. (Contradictions are the running time -- 5:15 on mine vs. the listed running time of 4:50 -- and the fact that my copy was tinted, which Wikipedia says it wasn't. I wonder if the time difference was a result of conversion from PAL to NTSC.)
However, I also had access to the Francis Ford Coppola restoration, which does have the finale in triple-screen, and I watched only the triple-screen portion of that version. I have a large television, as such things go (52 inches? don't remember for sure), and it barely worked. I'd love to see that on a large theatre screen as it was intended, mostly for historical purposes. I'd have to say Gance's ambition outran the technology in that regard.