70MM FILMS -HOW MANY HAVE YOU SEEN? (1 Viewer)

[trajan]

I really have to disagree with you on Dolittle. I saw this in its first run in TODD-AO at the United Artists theater in Detroit.and I can tell you it would be one of the best looking blurays ever. I think this is a wonderful film. Great score-Rex Harrison to boot and it just looks great . The money spend shows. Just enjoy it for what it is .- a great musical fantasy..

 

[bujaki]

I also saw Dolittle during its first TODD-AO run. I was a freshman in college. I am one of the few here who has never understood the love lavished on this film. I thought it was dreadful. Maybe one had to be younger to fall under its spell?

 

[Doug Bull]

DOCTOR DOLITTLE did nothing for me or anyone else. Not worth being released on bluray.

A couple of points, I amongst many others do enjoy "Doctor Dolittle" and it was worth releasing on Blu-ray as it already has been in Australia, Asia and Europe.
I would think that a US blu-ray release is quite imminent.

Doug.

 

[OliverK]

They have already been released on DVD.I suppose you mean them being released on Bluray? STAR is brilliant and one of the most underrated films of all time.Stunning in 70mm. it was also a massive flop. Ryan's Daughter was overlong but watchable .DOCTOR DOLITTLE did nothing for me or anyone else. Not worth being released on bluray. I would love to see CAN - CAN released on bluray.

Ryan's Daughter has the potential to look fantastic on Blu-ray, it's photography is one of its biggest assets.

 

[OliverK]

A couple of points, I amongst many others do enjoy "Doctor Dolittle" and it was worth releasing on Blu-ray as it already has been in Australia, Asia and Europe.I would think that a US blu-ray release is quite imminent. Doug.

Doug, maybe your sympathy for Dolittle is clouding your judgement a bit but the Blu-ray is a clear sign that it is not worth that much to the studio as this is by far the worst release of a 70mm movie from Fox (not counting Patton that has gotten a second proper release).So I really hope they will do better when they bring out Dolittle in the US. I do also happen to have a bit of sympathy for it and in no way does that dingy Blu-ray release give a proper impression of what Dolittle looks like in 70mm.

 

[DP 70]

Ryan's Daughter has the potential to look fantastic on Blu-ray, it's photography is one of its biggest assets.

The blu should look fantasic if taken from the 65mm neg.

The photography is its best asset , I saw this in 70mm with a 35mm sep mag sound a few years ago but the PQ was not as good as a print
I saw from the 65mm neg in the late 70s.

 

[DP 70]

I only have the UK dvd of Doctor Dolittle which is 2.20:1 but does not have the Todd AO credit, I also hadthe USA dvd but it was only 2.35:1.Does the German Blu have the Todd AO credit ?thanks.

 

[OliverK]

I only have the UK dvd of Doctor Dolittle which is 2.20:1 but does not have the Todd AO credit, I also hadthe USA dvd but it was only 2.35:1.Does the German Blu have the Todd AO credit ?thanks.

No Todd-AO credit on that one.

 

[Robert Harris]

The blu should look fantasic if taken from the 65mm neg.

The photography is its best asset , I saw this in 70mm with a 35mm sep mag sound a few years ago but the PQ was not as good as a print
I saw from the 65mm neg in the late 70s.

As with any film, one cannot simply make a print.

One must make a proper print.

RAH

 

[cinerama10]

The Coliseum in London was the best Cinerama I ever saw. Bradford's screen is too small but the sheer emotion of seeing HTWWW and Brothers Grimm in three-strip outweighed all the technical weaknesses of both cinema and print condition. The Royalty in London was always a rather poor Cinerama venue. I also saw My Fair Lady on the Cinerama screen in Birmingham and Ben-Hur in Bristol. Neither looked any good on the curve.

But were they shown on the full size cinerama screen? The Cinerama screen was copyright at the time and they would have had to pay a fee in order to use the full screen. Most cinemas used a slightly smaller screen for showing non Cinerama films.Few people even noticed this..Some 70mm films were shown in London and other European cities with the Cinerama logo as they paid a copyright fee in order to us the full size Cinerama screen.These films were not shown elsewhere in the world in Cinerama. (correct me if I am wrong).. In New Zealand they got around this . by advertising 70mm films as being projected onto the giant ' Cinerama theatre' screen..They had 3 Cinerama screens and called the cinemas CINERAMA theatres. It was still illegal to show non Cinerama films on the full Cinerama screen but they did and got away with it.When I saw GONE WITHE WIND in 70mm,they did use the full Cinerama screen.When I saw THE DIRTY DOZEN in 70mm at the New York Capitol it was shown on a very slightly reduced Cinerama screen..You would not have noticed this unless you had seen 3 strip in the same venue. In Melbourne Hoyts installed several (4 to 5) Cinerama size deeply curved screens (125 degreees curvature) in their new cinema complexes.. They looked magnificent.They were never called Cinerama but there was nol much difference except for a smaller curve. Hoyts did get into trouble at the time from the Cinerama company but still managed to get away with it a s they were not doing anything illegal.

 

[cinerama10]

There must be hundreds of 70mm films in storage around the world- all obtained by private collectors. Maybe these people could lend their films for restoration and eventually they could emanate on bluray. One collector in New Zealand saved about 20 feature 70mm films from being sent to the tip. None of them have been seen in a cinema since they were saved back in the sixties or seventies?. It was the same for 3 strip. Cinerama films at the time.Cinerama were bankrupt and could not afford to have old prints returned to the U.S.A. So where are they all? Surely not all were scrapped.Some were used for putting together excerpts for THE BEST OF CINERAMA film.I understand that only one print of that film still exists. (In Australia).

 

[cinerama10]

As with any film, one cannot simply make a print.

One must make a proper print.

RAH

Proper print- I agree. But what happened to the so called 70mm restoration of MY FAIR LADY for cinema release back in the eighties (I seem to recall that it was in the eighties). Never had I seen a restoration of a 70mm film that was so grainy .It was indeed an abomination that completey ruined the film for me. I seem to recall that neither did it have directional sound as it had on its original release. (Ie the sound came from where ever the actor was and not from the center like the restoration).

 

[lukejosephchung]

Proper print- I agree. But what happened to the so called 70mm restoration of MY FAIR LADY for cinema release back in the eighties (I seem to recall that it was in the eighties). Never had I seen a restoration of a 70mm film that was so grainy .It was indeed an abomination that completey ruined the film for me. I seem to recall that neither did it have directional sound as it had on its original release. (Ie the sound came from where ever the actor was and not from the center like the restoration).

If you're referring to Mr. Harris' own work, that was done in 1994 for the 30th Anniversary...I saw it theatrically 20 years ago and it looked splendid to my eyes...

 

[Roger Grodsky]

I am so jealous of those of you who saw RYAN'S DAUGHTER. By the time the Martin Cinerama in St. Louis got it, it was 35mm mono and looked rather lost on that huge screen! The theater closed a few years later (the last movie shown there was MCQ with John Wayne). A real come-down from their presentations of PATTON, FIDDLER, and all the post-1950s CInerama features.
In the 1980s, the Coolidge Corner outside of Boston booked BEN-HUR and when they complained about the quality of the 35mm print, MGM sent a pristine 70mm one that was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen and heard (although it screwed up their schedule because of the overture, entr'acte and exit music).
Another great memory: DAYS OF HEAVEN at the Charles in Boston. A blow-up, but really gorgeous.

 

[Robert Harris]

Proper print- I agree. But what happened to the so called 70mm restoration of MY FAIR LADY for cinema release back in the eighties (I seem to recall that it was in the eighties). Never had I seen a restoration of a 70mm film that was so grainy .It was indeed an abomination that completey ruined the film for me. I seem to recall that neither did it have directional sound as it had on its original release. (Ie the sound came from where ever the actor was and not from the center like the restoration).

You would have been seeing rejuvenated 1970-71 prints, along with a handful of '64s.

 

[John Stockton]

Anyone know what happened with Far and Away? Although a handsome production, which received very good quality presentation in one of our best THX venues of the day, it never quite looked like large format to me...or at least as I remembered it...especially in terms of screen transparency*.

* I actually asked the theatre manager if they had been given a 35mm print by mistake.

Far And Away looked extraordinary the few times I saw it during its initial release.

Has anyone ever seen the Russian film Dersu Uzala projected in 70 MM??

 

[nara]

Has anyone ever seen the Russian film Dersu Uzala projected in 70 MM??

Yes, it was shown at Bradford a few years ago. English subs, old print but no colour fading as I recall.Superb movie.

 

[Douglas R]

Has anyone ever seen the Russian film Dersu Uzala projected in 70 MM??

I saw it when it opened in London although, for a 70mm film, I didn't think it looked very good.

 

[OliverK]

I saw it when it opened in London although, for a 70mm film, I didn't think it looked very good.

I agree and to put things in perspective one has to say that for a 70mm movie from the USSR it looks really good, I have seen much worse.Shame about the many Russian productions that at best looked to be about on paar with Blow-Ups of Western productions but on the upside the prints do not have the catastrophic color fading of the Eastman prints from that time which today are all different shades of red and pink.Great movie by the way, I enjoyed seeing it in 70mm a few years ago.

 

[cinerama10]

I am so jealous of those of you who saw RYAN'S DAUGHTER. By the time the Martin Cinerama in St. Louis got it, it was 35mm mono and looked rather lost on that huge screen! The theater closed a few years later (the last movie shown there was MCQ with John Wayne). A real come-down from their presentations of PATTON, FIDDLER, and all the post-1950s CInerama features.
In the 1980s, the Coolidge Corner outside of Boston booked BEN-HUR and when they complained about the quality of the 35mm print, MGM sent a pristine 70mm one that was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen and heard (although it screwed up their schedule because of the overture, entr'acte and exit music).
Another great memory: DAYS OF HEAVEN at the Charles in Boston. A blow-up, but really gorgeous.

RYAN'S DAUGHTER looked absolutely stunning on the huge 70mm screen. Superb acting and unforgettable music.The photography was amongst the best ever seen at the time. John Mills truly deserved the Oscar that he won..I saw it many times in 70mm.It is not a film to see on bluray as one needs the vastness of the 70mm screen to really appreciate it.