In early August of 2017, a screening was conducted at Technicolor’s Hollywood digital hub on Sunset Blvd. The screening was arranged for a few select guests of director Francis Ford Coppola, and Zoetrope Studios. The audience that night was comprised mostly of actors, and most prominently actor-dancer extraordinaire Maurice Hines — everyone packed-into a small (12 seats) grading theatre on the first floor. 

The film being shown was the fully restored The Cotton Club, featuring performances from Hines and his brother, Gregory. In the film, they played competitive brothers, two dance master’s that performed at the famed nightclub in New York City, a club that was a nexus for entertainers and gangsters in equal measure. The filmed starred Richard Gere and Diane Lane – but the Hines brother’s characters were the heart and soul of the film. It was photographed by Stephen Goldblatt, BSC with production design by Richard Sylbert and costume design by Milena Canonero. Technicolor had been working feverishly on the restoration and this ‘command’ performance would mean a great deal to the attending actors and friends. It, at best, could provide a degree of redemption given how rudely the film was treated upon release in the 1980s.

Maurice Hines arrived at Technicolor for the screening with a video crew in tow – his nephew’s documentary team shooting interviews with the associated talent. Post-screening, Hines talked for about forty minutes about the making of the film in an impromptu gathering – that turned into a near lovefest that happened in the first-floor kitchen of Technicolor just outside Theatre One. There, Hines regaled his group of friends and colleagues with stories from the production, and the sincerest appreciation for the fact that the film, one of the great performance films ever handled by Technicolor, had been restored to its full glory. This was the film that the Hines brothers signed up for – not the bastardized version released by MGM and butchered by producer Robert Evans.

Upon release in 1984 the film was vilified within Hollywood, and by many of most prominent journalists in LA and New York, especially New York Magazine whose cover story seized the opportunity to egregiously savage the film along with director Francis Coppola. (The film’s marketing failed because the studio seemingly ran away from what the film was. It was further tainted by the media focus on Evans and one investor, a mobbed-up rather unsavory chap.) Before the film’s initial release, it had been recut by Evans and the studio, leaving out about 20 minutes of some of the best musical material originally shot by Coppola. Fortunately, the film restoration of The Cotton Club is spectacular, and the film is an entirely different experience from what Evans and MGM presented. 

The film can easily be considered one of the greatest dance and musical films served by Technicolor in its entire history. The performances across the board are great – from Richard Gere and Diane Lane to Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne …and especially the Hines brothers. It showcased exquisite cinematography and lighting to go along with stunning choreography. It showcased the basic joy of performance films, and especially the intrinsic ability of cinema to capture dance narrative.

One of the great honors of my career was watching the film with Mr. Coppola in that same screening room a few months before Mr. Hines’ screening. It still brings goose bumps to me remembering sitting next to Francis — him quietly singing along to Stormy Weather with Lonette McKey…me pinching myself that I was watching this remarkable film reclaimed from the scrapheap of Hollywood history.