Director
Bernardo Bertolucci
Producer
Jeremy Thomas
Production Companies
Hemdale, Recorded Picture Company, Yanco Films Limited, TAO Film
Studio
Columbia Pictures
Stereo Supervisor
Richard W. Baker
Stereo Producer
Matt Bristowe
Original Release Date
15th April 1988
Release Date 3D Conversion
12th March 2014
It made me feel like I was inside the story. The 3D is very discreet. And you quickly forget the glasses. People think everything has to be fixed in the past. I do not. I am not one of these purists. I would like to do all of my movies in 3D. I am very satisfied.Bernardo Bertolucci
The Last Emperor was shot with super-wide anamorphic lenses and mostly natural light (due to no lights being allowed in the Forbidden City) and presented some challenges during the conversion. The stereo team’s approach was to avoid heavy clean-plating to preserve the integrity of the photography, introducing a subtle depth and dimension to the movie.
A further challenge of the 3D conversion was the size and scale of the scenes captured including armies of thousands, 19,000 extras were used over the course of the film and the Chinese army was drafted in to accommodate. These scenes required lots of attention to detail and heavy rotoscoping in order to allow the stereo team artists to create the necessary depth.