If you saw The Empire against attack in cinema in 1980 in Australia, the UK and Scandinavia and you arrive on time, you saw Black Angel, a short film of 25 minutes just before the session.
Those who saw him remember an extraordinary work in esthetics. But since 1980, this film has never been released, he was lost. No image on the web, a scenario that changes from one site to another, all the components were present for this short film becomes the Holy Grail fans of the Star Wars saga. A copy was found and will be available soon!
Black Angel was directed by Roger Christian, the artistic director of Star Wars and Alien.Filmed in Scotland in 1979, with a budget of £ 25,000 (a gift from George Lucas), the film was screened just before the meeting of the Empire against attack only in certain countries. It has never been recorded on VHS or DVD and negatives were considered lost.
The film tells the story of Sir Maddox, a knight returning from a crusade and trying to get home. Then he crosses his kingdom ravaged by disease, he falls into the water. About to drown, a mysterious girl appears to him. She is trapped in a black knight. To release it, he must face his captor, the Black Angel.
In the history of cinema, this film is important because it influenced many masterpiece Heroic fantasy or reference to the myth of the Knights of the Round Table as Excalibur or Legend. And the action scenes, Roger Christian has slowed and the elongated with step-printing, a technique of his own invention, visible for the first time in this short film and the scene of lightsaber combat between Luke and Darth Vader in Empire against attack.The moments where the characters seem to glide are step-printing.
In December 2011, bombshell! An archivist Universal Studios puts his hand on the 35mm negative. Today, Christian has his copy of the film remastered. And it will be screened for the first time in 33 years, October 13th Mill Valley Film Festival .
Roger Christian is still wondering how it will distribute the film. Ideally, he would like fans to discover the cinema before a special session of the Empire against attack, since that is how it was designed. But he also knows that after October 13, Black Angel enters a new story. And then he should propose to download for everyone to see and make your own opinion.
Photo: Roger Christian
No comments:
Post a Comment