The Restoration of a Masterpiece, as Narrated by Martin Scorsese

This week, some of the world’s greatest thinkers (and biggest spenders) are gathered in Palm Springs and Long Beach, California for TED’s annual conference. In case your invitation to TED2011 got lost in the mail along with ours, you can still keep up with the conference through TED’s homepage. Some highlights so far include an opening address beamed in from outer space, physicist Janna Levin’s discussion of what she calls the soundtrack of the universe, and finally, a stunning video documenting the restoration of Luchino Visconti’s 1963 classic film, The Leopard. Even better, the video is narrated by Martin Scorsese, uber-director, cinema historian, and founder of The Film Foundation, one of the many organizations involved with the restoration.

By the way, Scorcese gave a fascinating talk about film restoration last year at LACMA. You can watch it here. For a complete list of films his foundation has been involved in restoring or preserving, click here.