Lumières numériques, The gourmet grocer of Lyon

PostED ON 23 OCTOBER, 2016 AT 11:36AM

With a mere dozen films restored per year, it's "the fine food grocer compared to the mass supermarkets," Pierre-Loïc Precausta comments about Lumières numériques, a young restoration and post-production company he founded in Lyon in late 2011. More specifically, founded "in October," he smiles. "So it's our anniversary every festival!"

The Sleeping Car Murder by Costa-Gavras

Lumières numériques, the "Little Engine that Could" with just seven employees, has captured 9% of the French market in number of restorations, according to the heritage films scanning project assigned by the CNC. It thus comes in behind giants Ymagis, which bought the laboratories Eclair and Hiventy, formerly Digimage. A partner of the Classic Film Market (MFC) this year, the company takes advantage of the exceptional visibility offered by the event, to meet its customers and canvass for others. It emphasizes its "strong local presence" and meticulous artisan work, synonymous with outstanding quality.

"We treat the films with optimum care. We spend the time necessary to achieve the best result. We want the image to be fully controlled by men and women, not by machines," says Pierre-Loïc Precausta.

Presented to Lumière 2016 ahead of its release on DVD and Blu-ray by Arte Video, The Sleeping Car Murders, Costa-Gavras' début film from 1965 starring Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, required four months of work.

"A computer would not have been able to tell the difference between the white dust and the chrome reflections... it would have wiped out both, damaging the image," reports Mr. Precausta.

Lumières numériques also restored the second film by Costa-Gavras, Shock Troops (1967), also presented at this year's festival.

"We received 1.2 tons of film that had been stored at MGM Studios in Burbank, California. We had to sort it all out - some elements were in very poor condition."

My Night at Maud's by Eric Rohmer

Damaged, the film was treated with a scanner by immersion, sophisticated technology that few laboratories have. This scanner bathes the film in a liquid that fills the scratches of the film while the images are digitized. "This saves a lot of time in digital restoration, while correcting very complicated defects." Lumières numériques has performed work for Films du Losange, among others, recently restoring My Night at Maud's and Summer by Eric Rohmer. It was also entrusted with the documentaries of Jean Rouch, who would have been 100 years old next year. "Their original splendor will be restored," promises Pierre-Loïc Precausta. The company is also developing a small post-production activity. It will include post-production for filmmaker Luc Jacquet's March of the Penguins 2: The Call, after working on Ice and the Sky, released in 2015. "He too lives around here," said Mr. Precausta, proud of a team with certain members who gave up their Parisian haunts to "live our passion… in Lyon." Lumières numériques moves forward without missing a beat.

"We are thrilled: we have a small wall that we have people who come here sign... and we would never have imagined working with Costa-Gavras, Barbet Schroeder, Francois Ozon, Christian Carion..."

Rebecca Frasquet